from the bleak cold winds which at this season of the year blew over the vast western prairies where they were accustomed to feed in summer; and here, the Dakotas, in concentrated camps of over a hundred lodges, followed them to their haunts, and while they preyed on them towards the west, the guns of the Ojibways were often heard doing likewise towards the east. The hunters of the two hostile camps prowled after their game in "fear and trembling," and it often happened that a scalp lock adorned the belt of the hunter, on his return at evening from his day's chase.
The chiefs of the two camps, and the older warriors deeply deprecated this state of affairs, as it resulted only in the perpetual "fear and trembling" of their wives and children, and caused hunger and want often to prevail in camp, even when living in the midst of plenty. Efforts were made to bring about a peaceable meeting between the two camps, which were at least crowned with success, and it soon became customary, let the war rage ever so furiously during all other seasons. The pipe of peace was smoked each winter at the meeting of the two grand hostile hunting camps, and for weeks they would interchange friendly visits, and pursue the chase in one another's vicinity, without fear of harm or molestation.
The Ojibways assert, that when the two camps first neared each other in the fore part of winter, and the guns of the enemy whom they had fought all summer, and whose scalps probably still graced their lodge poles, were heard booming in the distance, towards Long Prairie, they were generally the first to make advances for a temporary peace, or as they term it in their euphonious language, to create pin-dig-o-daud-e-win (signifying, "to enter one another's lodges"). Their grudge against the Dakotas was never so deep seated and strong as that which this tribe indulged against them, probably from the fact that their
