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CHAPTER XIX.

 

PROGRESS OF THE OJIBWAYS ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI.

 

Ojibways of Sandy Lake send a war party into the Dakota country—They attack a village on the banks of the Minnesota River—Origin of the Ojibway name of this river—Ke-che-waub-ish-ash leads a party of 120 warriors against the Dakotas—Accidental meeting with a party of the enemy of equal strength at Elk River—Indian fight—The retreating Dakotas are reinforced—Retreat of the Ojibways—They make a firm stand—The Dakotas set the prairie on fire—Final flight of the Ojibways, who take refuge on an island—A second fight on Elk River, "Battle Ground"—Death of the war chief Ke-che-waub-ish-ash—Brief sketch of his life.

 

In order to retaliate on the Dakotas the invasion which they had made on the Upper Mississippi, which resulted in the battle of Crow Wing, and the capturing of their women at Sandy Lake, the Ojibways, early the following spring, collected a war party nearly two hundred strong, who, embarking in their birch canoes, paddled down the current of the Mississippi into the country of their enemies. They discovered no signs of the Dakotas in the course of their journey as far down as the mouth of Crow River, within thirty miles of St. Anthony Falls. Here they left their canoes, and proceeding across the country to the Minnesota River, they discovered a village of their enemies situated a short distance from its confluence with the Mississippi. The attack on this village, though severely contested by the Dakotas, was perfectly successful, and the war party returned home with a large number of scalps. The incidents of this fight were told to me by Waub-o-jeeg (White Fisher), a present living sub-chief of the Mississippi Ojibways, whose grandfather No-ka acted as one of the leaders of this party; but as his accounts are somewhat obscure,