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CHAPTER XXVIII.

 

AFFAIRS OF THE OJIBWAYS ON THE ST. CROIX.

 

State of affairs between the Ojibways and Dakotas on the St. Croix River—Two Ojibways, carrying a peace message, are killed by the Dakotas—Revenge of the Ojibways—Battle on "Sunrise Prairie"—Dakotas attack a camp of Ojibway hunters during a term of peace—Ojibways raise a war party—They make a midnight attack on a Dakota village at the mouth of Willow River—A slight sketch of Waub-ash-aw, a noted Ojibway warrior—Bi-aj-ig, "the lone warrior"—Anecdote of his hardihood and bravery—Slight sketch of Shosh-e-man—Be-she-ke—Names of living chiefs of hereditary descent.

 

During the middle and latter part of the eighteenth century, the hunting camps of the Dakotas and Ojibways often met on either banks of the St. Croix River, as far down as the Falls. Spots are pointed out, on Sunrise, Rush, and Snake Rivers, where bloody fights, massacres, and surprises have taken place, and where lives of helpless women and children, as well as stalwart warriors, have been sacrificed to their implacable warfare. It happened, sometimes, that the camps of either tribe would meet in peace, in order that the hunters might pursue the chase during the winter in security. But no sooner did spring again make its appearance, than the peace was treacherously broken, by either party, and war raged again during the summer, full as deadly as ever.

They did not always succeed in their attempts, each fall, to smoke the pipe of peace together. On one occasion the Ojibway chief, Mons-o-man-ay, sent two of his young men with a peace pipe to a large camp of Dakotas who were, as usual in the fall, approaching to make their winter hunts on the St. Croix River. These young men were received in the enemies' lodges and treacherously killed. They were relatives of the Ojibway chieftain, and he made prepara-