The test of the young prophetess came in the year 1774. The severe storms and heavy snows of the winter made game very scarce and the Indians were near starvation. They had, therefore, occasion to try the arts of Segwuna to determine the range of the game.
So the chief of the band came into the lodge of Segwuna’s mother and requested that her daughter be allowed to try her skill to relieve them. The mother laid the request before Segwuna and gained her consent.
The prophetess directed the chief to build the prophet’s lodge of ten posts or saplings, each of different kinds of wood that she named. When finished and tightly wound with skins, Segwuna went inside and took a small drum and rattles with her. The whole band assembled around.
The chief put the question to the prophetess:
“Where shall game be found?”
As if from some supernatural power the drum sounded within the lodge, and a voice was heard chanting, while the whole structure began to shake violently, and the people without began to shriek and moan as though to recognize the presence of the Great Spirit that was consulted.
A silence fell suddenly upon the lodge, and the people now looked for an answer to their question.
A voice then arose as from the top of the lodge, which said in slow and sepulchral tones:
“How short-sighted, you. If you will go in the direction of the south, game in abundance you will find.”
Next day the camp was taken up, and they all moved to the southward, led by the hunters. Proceeding not far beyond their former hunting-grounds a doe and two fawns were killed, and the little band thereafter found an abundance of food for the rest of the winter.