The Story of Mah-een-gonce
Mah-een-gonce, or Little Wolf, was a rather small Ojibwa Indian about fifty years of age. He was an inmate of the Indian boarding-house at White Earth, Minnesota, in 1909. I observed that this Indian had lost both legs at the knee, and walked about with great difficulty. On Sundays, he arrayed himself in his best garments and strapped to his knees two cork legs, on the feet of which he wore laced shoes. He managed to walk fairly well when he had on what he called his “white man’s legs”. I asked him how he happened to lose his feet and he told me a remarkable story of his own suffering, and sacrifice on the part of his grandfather.
“When I was twelve years old, I happened to be in camp with my parents near Crow-wing, Minnesota. At this place there were four large wigwams in which lived thirty or more Indians. One of the head men called us together and made announcement that he would move the camp to a place called Hackensack. Some of the Indians did not wish to go there, as it was snowing heavily and we were comfortably located. But Say-kash-e-gay, the head man, started in one direction with the main party, and my mother, grandmother, grandfather and myself went in another direction. Grandfather said that game was very scarce and food short in the Hackensack region, and that he thought he could take us to a small lake where we would be able to pass the winter without suffering.
“You must know that this was the winter of the great blizzard in northern Minnesota, when some people died, many suffered, and much stock of the white people froze to death.
“As we walked along, my grandmother said she did not feel well. It grew exceedingly cold and the wind blew very hard. We traveled along slowly, each helping the other through the drifting snow. We came to a little creek, and my grandfather said, ‘Let us stop here’. Near this creek, my grandmother sank down exhausted. Grandfather broke dry wood and made a large fire. We put grandmother by the fire and she lay down while the rest of us moved about to warm ourselves. During the night grandmother died and grandfather carried her over the side of a big rock and placed her there. We passed a hard night; it was bitterly cold and the wind howled through the trees. Grandfather said the evil spirits in the pines were laughing at us. In the morning I felt pains in my feet and spoke to my grandfather and said, ‘Grandpa, my feet hurt very much. There is something the matter with them.’ He built up a big fire and helped me to remove my leggings and we warmed them by the fire, but I could not keep my feet near the heat, because of the pain I suffered.
“We had eaten the last of our food the previous evening. It continued to snow and was so cold that the limbs of the trees snapped with loud noises. My mother died of the cold about noon. After she died, we changed our position to the side of a sheltered hill and grandpa built another fire. All that afternoon and night it continued to snow. Grandfather lay down about dark near the fire, and he lay partly doubled up with his face toward the fire, and his back away from it. He put me inside the hollow his body formed, so that the fire warmed me, and his body protected my back from the cold. I felt that I was freezing. Grandfather could not keep up the fire, for he began to get stiff and he told me to throw on the wood. He held me close to him all night and said, now and then, ‘Are you warm?’
“The snow continued to bank up all of the next day. Grandpa could not move about, but I managed to get wood enough to keep the fire burning. The third day we were too weak to travel. Then the sun came out, it was a beautiful day, and we heard a bell ringing in the distance.
“Grandpa said, ‘That must be the bell of the Mission church. We can hear it because the air is still and cold.’
“After a long silence, grandfather said, ‘My son, I cannot live. Try to get up and save your life.’
“I replied, ‘No, I will not leave you. I will die with you.’
“‘No,’ commanded my grandfather, ‘you must go. You must not stay here. You are too young to die.’ And he gave me his papers, for he was a chief and had papers from Washington and a medal, and other things. I shook hands with him and told him goodbye, and started in the direction of the bell. I cut two sticks for canes to help hold me up, as my legs were like wood. I was very weak and hungry. Grandfather raised his body a little—he was half sitting up, raising himself with his hands—when I looked back at him, he looked at me and then put his head down. I went along slowly for some time. I heard some one singing. Then I thought that people were calling me. About noon I was weak and sleepy and could not go on. My legs were heavy, like logs. But it had become much warmer, so I cut down some small bushes, made a bed and lay down, very tired. While lying there my grandfather seemed to come and stand by me, and I said to him, ‘Are you going along?’ and he replied, ‘Yes, yes, don’t lie here. Get up and exert yourself like a man.’
“When I woke up it was morning and I was very stiff and cold. I had to roll over and get my feet and legs down a hill in order to stand up. I cut two more canes with which to hold me up. I struggled on most of that day and in the afternoon reached some cabins of my people. They carried me in and gave me soup and afterwards some meat chopped fine. Then my legs began to hurt me. They rubbed them with snow but that did no good. Oh, what pain I suffered! In a few days my feet began to decay, and they took me to a doctor, and he cut off both my legs. For many months afterwards I suffered tortures and wished to die.
“A few weeks later, the people went out and found my grandfather dead by the ashes of our little fire. They also recovered the bodies of my grandmother and my mother. If grandfather had not held me next to the fire, and protected me with his own body that long, cold night, I, too, would today be in the Land of the Spirits.”