make articles out of it for our use. If any one has any knowledge on this subject, I ask him to bring it to light."
The father of this chief was Maid-o-Saligee, who had four wives, three of whom were sisters, and by them he had twenty children. Shingaba Wossin, during the war with Great Britain, in 1813, went to Canada, and one of his brothers was killed at the battle of the Thames.
A DESPONDENT OJIBWAY.
While the commissioners were at Fond du Lac an Indian entered Col. McKenney’s room the embodiment of despair. Feeble in step, haggard in countenance, emaciated in body, he was a man without a friend. In 1820 he had been employed by Gov. Cass and H.R. Schoolcraft to act as a guide through the copper region for some who were making explorations. Wabishkeepenas, or White Pigeon, was his name, and it was with the disapproval of many of his tribe that he started on a journey for the great copper rock, which they looked upon as sacred. For some reason he lost his way, and the party was forced to return. From this time he was looked upon by his band, as one who had offended the Manitou, and he was shunned. He felt like Cain, and became a "fugitive and vagabond." He wandered alone in the woods, but lost the cunning of his hands, so that he was not successful in the hunt, and lived upon the roots of the earth.[1] The commissioners upon hearing the story took pity upon the poor fellow, "and determined to restore him to the standing from which he had fallen, and having loaded him with presents, convinced him and his band that his offence was forgiven and luck changed."[2]
- ↑ In 1857, he carried letters from La Pointe, to Sault Ste. Marie, and still was unpopular with his tribe.
- ↑ The superstition of the Indians relative to copper was noticed by early travellers. Allouez, the Jesuit missionary, writes of the Lake Superior Indians: "They often find at the bottom of the water pieces of pure copper
