sent one of their number to their home east of the Mississippi to announce their probable death.[1] The twelve who remained now began to dig holes in the ground, and prepare for the conflict from which they could not hope to escape. Soon they were surrounded by the Sioux, and their leader, exasperated by their continued loss, gave orders for a general onset, when all the Ojibways were tomahawked. The thirteenth returned home, and related the circumstances, and while friends mourned, they delighted in the story of their bravery.
GOVERNOR LEWIS CASS IN 1820 VISITS OJIBWAYS.
In June, 1820, Governor Lewis Cass, of Michigan, visited the Lake Superior region. At Sault Ste. Marie he found forty or fifty lodges of Ojibways, and Shaugabawossin was the head chief. There was another chief Shingwauk, or Little Pine, who had been with the British in 1814,[2] and also Sassaba, a chief of the Crane Totem, whose brother had been killed at the battle of the Thames. He wore a scarlet uniform with epaulets, and was hostile to the United States. After some sharp words with the latter, on the 16th of June a treaty was concluded, by which the "Chip-
- ↑ The story as given in the text was narrated by Aitkin, trader of Sandy Lake, and appears In Minnesota Year Book for 1851. James D. Doty, secretary of Gov. Cass in 1820, gives a different version in his journal.
The Fond du Lac Ojibways, he wrote, having been reprimanded by the more distant Ojibways for their unwarlike spirit, thirteen went on a war party to the Sioux country. At night they came upon a party of Sioux and begin to dig holes to which they might retreat, and fight to the last extremity. They appointed the youngest of their number to stand at a distance and watch the struggle and told him when they were all killed to go back, and tell their friends. Early in the morning they attacked the Sioux, who numbered nearly one hundred. They were forced back to their holes after four had been killed on the field, and here the other eight died. This story Doty received from the survivor. See letter of Gov. Lewis Cass to Secretary of War. Schoolcraft mentions that he saw the survivor at Grand Island In Lake Superior in 1890, and describes him as a young and graceful warrior. - ↑ Anna Jameson mentions him in her Winter Studies and Summer Rambles.
