7. Le Bœuf que [qui] Marche, or Walking Buffalo, as we are informed by Dr. Foster, was also called Tahtawkahmahnee; "he was a kind of sub-chief of old Wabashaw (who was not present), being also called Red Wing; and it is from him that the village at the head of Lake Pepin derives its name. He was the father [Hancock says uncle] of Wahkootay, the present [1854] old chieftain of the Red Wing band." Compare [note67], p. 69.
[II-3] Outard Blanche, correctly Outarde Blanche, means White Bustard. The bustard is a very large bird, many species of which inhabit Europe, Asia, and Africa, but none America. It may, therefore, be well to explain that outarde was a name given by the early French in America to the Canada goose (Bernicla canadensis); but that since this goose is mostly black, the phrase outarde blanche would rather indicate the snow goose (Chen hyperboreus), which when adult is pure white excepting the tips of the wings. I remember seeing somewhere a statement, the source of which I cannot now recall, to the effect that the phrase meant White Buzzard, not White Bustard; in which case the French form would be Busard Blanc. Major Taliaferro speaks of White Buzzard in his autobiography, as printed in Minn. Hist. Coll., VI. Part 2, 1891, p. 225, p. 234, etc. Major Forsyth calls him White Bustard. However this may be, it is certain that there was a chief of the name of Mahgossau, who was called Old Bustard, and for many years known to the whites by the latter designation. For an account of the stabbing of this chief in a whisky-bout, in the summer of 1820, see letter of Lawrence Taliaferro, Indian agent at St. Peters, dated Aug. 5th, 1820, in Minn. Hist. Coll., II. Part 2, 1864, 2d ed. 1881, p. 104.
[II-4] Setting camp close to a small stream which falls in on Pike's left, and which has acquired great celebrity for its pretty little water-fall. For this is no other than the Minnehaha. It is a wonder Pike missed Minnehaha falls; or that, if he was informed of them, he did not take the trouble to go less than a mile up the stream to see so pretty a spectacle. About 2½ m. from Fort Snelling, on the road to Minneapolis, the stream spills over the bluff, with as clear a descent as water ordinarily makes from the nozzle of a spout. The picturesque features of this place may be imagined, or easily inspected by ordinary tourist travel; the poetical and sentimental are well developed by Longfellow in Hiawatha; the hydrographic are a creek 5 yards wide, falling 43 feet in an unbroken parabolic curve. This was formerly plain Brown's cr. and Brown's fall; Nicollet named the stream Cascade cr.; but it will doubtless always be best known by the name which Longfellow transferred from its original to a new application, to suit the exigencies of verse. This stream is the discharge of Lake Minnetonka. In its course it receives the outlet of a chain of lakes from the W., called Bass (modern), Calhoun (Nicollet), and Harriet (Nicollet); nearer the falls is a set of smaller lakes, whose modern names are Diamond, Pearl, Duck, Mother, Amelia, and Rice (latter, the Lake Ann of times when Fort Snelling was Fort St. Anthony, an expansion of Brown's cr. itself).
[II-5] The rapids Pike thus ascends to the falls, and the comparative characters of the two gorges, of the Mississippi and Minnesota respectively, which unite at Fort Snelling, indicate that in prehistoric time the falls were located about the position of the fort. But there has been no natural recession within the brief historic period—merely a momentary flash on the screen of geologic duration. The most marked alteration of the falls that we know of was the accidental result of an unintended interference by man. This happened from the bursting of a log-boom. "Behind the boom were thousands of logs two or three feet across and twelve feet long. These descending by the fall probably acquired a velocity of not less than 64 feet a second, and striking endwise on the débris of the hard copping rock pulverized it so that the undermining of the soft sand rock which this débris protected went on with great rapidity," Warren, Ex. Doc. No. 57, 1866-7, p. 19. On July 5th, 1880, the Minn. Hist. Soc. celebrated the bi-centennial of the discovery of the falls, and there is no question that they were first seen of white men by the two companions of Accault within a few hours of July 5th, 1680, if not by the light of that very day. The occasion was a buffalo-hunt down river from the great Sioux town on Lake Buade (Mille Lacs), when the Indians brought the Picard and the priest (two of their three prisoners) along. The falls were named by Hennepin Sault de St. Antoine de Padoü (so map, 1683) "in gratitude for the favors done me by the Almighty through the intercession of that great saint whom we had chosen patron and protector of all our enterprises," as Shea's tr. Hennep., 1880, p. 200, puts it. What these favors were is not evident in the light of history; according to Hennepin's own relation, God's gracious designs, whatever they may have been, were effectually disconcerted by the Sioux, who took this slavish son of superstition by the nape of the neck and otherwise subjected him to dire indignities; while as to the monk Anthony, that Franciscan was born at Lisbon, Aug. 15th, 1195, died at Padua, June 13th, 1231, and there is not a scintilla of evidence that he did anything whatever subsequent to this latter date. We might laugh off even so glaring an anachronism as a mere theological pleasantry which deceives no one, were it not for the injustice it does to La Salle, who furnished the sinews of war for Accault's, Auguelle's, and Hennepin's campaign, and was the only person who patronized their trip, saving the said Sioux, who turned it into a personally conducted tour like our modern Cook's. "Saut St. Antoine" appears on Franquelin's map, 1688. The Sioux called these falls Minirara, the laughing water, whence Minnehaha. In Dakotan ira means to laugh, and the reduplicated form irara means to laugh much or often; but ira is compounded of i, the mouth, and ra, to curl; and in its application to the falls rara, which is simply ra reduplicated, should be translated curling and not laughing waters. Ungeographical transfer of Minnehaha to Brown's falls is simply poetical license. The Chip. name was Kakabikah, alluding to the severed rock. Hennepin calls the falls "something very astonishing," indeed "terrible," more suo crasso, and exaggerated the descent of waters to 50 or 60 feet. Carver brings him to book about this, and reduces the height to 30 feet. Pike's figures are very close indeed, and his description is the most accurate we had in 1810; Long makes the height practically the same, but Pike's breadth of 627 yards was reduced by Say and Calhoun in 1823 to 594. In view of these good measurements it is surprising that Schoolcraft elevates the falls to 40 feet perpendicular, and narrows the width to 227 yards. He was a man of great ability and still greater industry, whose acquirements were extensive and varied; yet he must be taken warily, for there is many a loose screw in his handiwork, and no structure is stronger than its weakest joint. The trouble with Schoolcraft is two-fold; he tried to cover too much ground to go over it thoroughly, and never emerged from the penumbra of that same theological occultation which kept Hennepin's wits in total eclipse. The natural beauty of this cataract was not destined to be a thing of joy forever; one's emotions, on beholding it now, are those that might be aroused by any mill-tail of similar dimensions. But the new beauty of utility has been conferred by human skill and ingenuity in utilizing the vast water-power, to which Minneapolis measurably owes her matchless progress and present opulence; pop. 1870, 13,000; 1880, 47,000; 1885, 129,000; now or lately, 220,000; thus surpassing the 190,000 of her elder sister, St. Paul—in fact becoming the alter ego of the wonderful pair. Considering the rapid building up of the fair interurban district, and consequently the absorption of respective suburbs into mutualities, it is logical to infer the complete Siamization of the splendid twins, and a clutch at the laurels of Chicago or New York. By that time such scenes as the Mississippi has here transferred to the canvas of human art will be shifted to the Great Falls of the Missouri, where history will repeat itself in another magnificent metropolis. Everything begins in watery elements; the force of falling water controls the course of empire; and the conversion of gravitational potentialities into electrical potencies realizes dreams of destiny, without the intercession of saints or the interference of God.
[II-6] Decidedly less than this; it is only 18-20 m. by river or rail from Minneapolis to Anoka, which Pike does not reach till to-morrow night; to-day's camp between Casey's isls. and Coon cr., in Anoka Co. if on the right, in Hennepin Co. if on the left. The three rapids he passed raised him from 792 to 808 feet above sea-level; one of them is known as Fridley's bar, 5 m. above Minneapolis, 1½ m. below Durnam's isl. He had made the usual portage of the falls on the right-hand side (left bank); and soon after decamping this morning he passed on his left Bassett's cr., which runs through the city, or recently did so—what disposition may have since been made of it I do not know. This was formerly called Falls cr., as by Nicollet, who maps it in connection with his Lake of the Isles and two other sheets. Either this or the next above on the same side is also traced on Pike's map, without name. This next one is Shingle cr., called Omini Wakan cr. by Nicollet and by Owen; it comes in on the left a mile or more below Fridley's bar. Half a mile above Durnam's isl., and on the right, is Rice or Manomin cr., which Nicollet calls Ottonwey r., and connects with Mde Wakanton l. Pike also traces this one, but by no name. R. R. station Fridley is near its mouth. (See further under [Fridley], in the index.)
[II-7] About 8 m., to Anoka, seat of that county, a logging town of 6,000 pop., at mouth of Rum r. Pike first passed Coon cr., right, and the most difficult rapids he went up are those named for the same intelligent and ablutionary quadruped, Procyon lotor. Coon or Racoon cr. was formerly known as Peterah cr. Wanyecha (now Elm) cr. falls in on the left, slightly below Rum r. The latter is a notable stream, being the main discharge of Mille Lacs, and as such having acquired a long history. Carver called it Rum r.: "in the little tour I made about the Falls [of St. A.], after traveling 14 m. by the side of the Mississippi, I came to a river nearly 20 yards wide which ran from the north east, called Rum River," he says, p. 45, ed. 1796. This was Nov. 19th, 1767, and the river has oftenest been so designated ever since. But here is a place where the involuntary exploration which the Sioux forced on Accault's party comes in, and the Hennepinian canonical calendar is obtruded as usual, making the following trouble:
"Eight leagues above St. Anthony of Padua's falls on the right, you find the river of the Issati or Nadoussiou [Sioux], with a very narrow mouth, which you can ascend to the north for about 70 leagues to Lake Buade or of the Issati [Mille Lacs] where it rises. We gave this river the name of St. Francis," Shea's Henp., tr. 1880, p. 201. In French the name was R. de St. François: so Henp., map, 1683; on Franquelin's, 1688, it is "Riviere des Francois ou des Sioux," which turns it over from the saint to the French nation, possibly less saintly on the whole—that is, unless Franquelin intended to cover St. Francis de Sales, St. Francis d'Assisi, and St. Francis de Paola, or unless des be a mis-engravement for de S. But Franquelin's earlier map, 1683 or 1684, has only R. des François, which is there connected with R. de la Madelaine (St. Croix r.) by R. du Portage, which latter stands for present Snake r., a branch of the St. Croix. De L'Isle's map, 1703, avoids any such question by turning the river entirely over to the Sioux; he letters R. de Mendeouacanion, i. e., Mdewakantonwan or Gens du Lac. A question affecting the identification of St. Francis with Rum came up in Carver's time, and is still mooted. Carver says, ed. cit. p. 45: "Reached the River St. Francis, near 60 miles above the Falls. To this river Father Hennipin gave the name," etc. He reached it Nov. 21st, 1687. This is the stream next above Rum r. on the same side, now best known as Elk r. But Pike's map letters "Leaf R. or St. Francis of Carver & Henepen"; Long has it St. Francis r.; even Nicollet gives Wichaniwa or St. Francis. Prof. N. H. Winchell remarks, Hist. Sketch Expl. and Surv. Minn., 4to, p. 15: "On modern maps the name of St. Francis is applied to the next stream above the Rum, and that may have been the river to which Hennepin referred in his journal, since by a portage the route by it to lake Buade is much less than the course by the Rum river, and the Indians may have followed that route." I quite agree with my friend the professor that the Sioux who took charge of Hennepin's "explorations," in spite of all the saints on the calendar, may have brought him that way from Mille Lacs to the Mississippi; but the question is not by what river he came; the question is, Which river did he call R. de St. François and map by this name? To me Hennepin makes it perfectly clear that he meant Rum r. Thus he fixes it 8 leagues = 23⅓ m. above the falls, which is much closer to the actual position of Rum r. than such a befogged geographer often comes; item, he makes his St. François r. come from Mille Lacs, as Rum r. does and the other one does not (at least not uninterruptedly); item, his alternative names, r. of the Issati or Nadoussiou, point directly to Rum r.; item, for a clincher, Hennepin's map letters R. de St. François precisely along the whole course of Rum r. from the Mississippi to Lac Buade, and traces the other river too, without any name. You seldom find a case clearer than this seems to me to be. Carver was simply mistaken in identifying Hennepin's St. Francis with the other river instead of with his own Rum r.; and this malidentification on Carver's part seems to have given later writers an unconscious bias in the wrong direction; Pike makes the same mistake further on in this book. The strongest counter-argument to my view is that I differ with Nicollet in this case. It is always unsafe to disagree with that model of caution and precision; but I must venture to do so in this instance. For the rest, add to the synonyms of Rum r. the aboriginal name Iskode Wabo, as given by Nicollet, and the variants of this phrase; also, R. de l'Eau de Vie of Pike; also, Missayguani-sibi and Brandy r. of Beltrami. F. eau de vie is obviously the explanation of the "Audevies Cr." of Lewis and Clark's map, 1814, though the stream thus designated looks to my eye too low down for Rum r. The source of this river is noted beyond, where the case of Mille Lacs comes up.
[II-8] The curious word "brelaw," elsewhere "brelau," which we owe to Pike, is a corruption of F. blaireau, badger. This, of course, originally denoted the European badger, Meles taxus, but was easily transferred to the generically and specifically different American badger, Taxidea americana. Other forms of similar perversity are braro, brarow, brairo, braroca, praro, prarow, etc. See L. and C., ed. 1893, p. 64. Pike's original editor of 1807 had blaireau, correctly, but Pike himself seldom got any F. word or phrase exactly right.
[II-9] Less than this, as Crow r. is not yet passed, though Pike is not much short of that point. There is little to note: pass Cloquet or Clouquet isl.; camp at head of Goodwin's isl. or foot of Dayton rapids; a small body of water to the right called L. Itaska, not to be confounded with L. Itasca! At or near the mouth of Crow r. Pike leaves both Hennepin and Anoka cos.; he then has Wright on his left and Sherburne on his right. Dayton, Hennepin Co., is at the mouth of Crow r. The crossing there was called Slater's ferry.
[II-10] What Pierre Rousseau called a "prairie mole" was the pocket-gopher of this region, Thomomys talpoides. This was first made known to science by Dr. John Richardson in his paper entitled "Short Characters of a few Quadrupeds Procured on Capt. Franklin's late Expedition," published in the Zoölogical Journal, III. No. 12, Jan.-Apr. 1828, pp. 516-520. He named it Cricetus talpoides, taking this specific name from its mole-like appearance, and afterwards called it Geomys talpoides, in the Fauna Boreali-Americana, I. 1829, p. 204. Among the peculiarities of the animal, and indeed of the whole family to which it belongs, are the strictly subterranean habits, and the possession of large cheek-pouches external to the mouth and lined with fur inside: see Coues and Allen, Monographs N. A. Rodentia, 1877, p. 623. The common mole of the United States, from which Pike saw that this gopher was very different, is Scalops aquaticus, of the mammalian order Insectivora (not Rodentia).