Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/510

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500
MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS.

ernor's house, the boy was delivered up, and on being taken to the kitchen by a little son of the Governor, since deceased, he cried, seeming more afraid of his white friends than his dusky captors.

HOLE-IN-THE-DAY AT SAINT PAUL.

On the afternoon of the 15th of May, naked and painted Sioux warriors were seen in Saint Paul much excited. A few hours before the Ojibway chief, young Hole-in-the-Day, had secreted his canoe in a gorge near the western suburbs, and with two or three associates crossed the river, attacked a small party of Sioux, and killed one man. To adjust the difficulties Gov. Ramsey held a council on the 12th of June, and the contending parties, as they had often done before, promised to live in peace.

FAMINE AND CANNIBALISM.

During the winter of 1850–51, the Ojibways of Red, Cass, Leech, and Sandy Lakes, suffered much from want of food. About the first of October, 1850, the Indians collected at the new agency at Sandy Lake to receive their annuities, and here, to their disappointment, they were kept seven or eight weeks awaiting the arrival of provisions. During this period the measles and dysentery prevailed, and many died. With only a partial payment, they began to go to their homes. A family consisting of a man, wife, and two children, and wife's brother, left Sandy Lake in health, but when about half way to Leech Lake, the wife's brother was taken sick and died. They buried him and continued their journey. Then the two children became sick. The father carried his son, and the mother the daughter. The night before they reached Leech Lake the boy died and the father continued to carry him. The next day the daughter died, and the parents appeared at Leech Lake with their dead children on their backs.