[VII-15] Pike's phrase "Le Mille Lac" brings up an orthographic case unique in some respects. No Minnesota lake is better known than this one; but what shall we call it? Shall we say Mille Lac, and then call the county in which it is partly situated Mille Lacs, as the G. L. O. map of 1887 does? Is the single body of water Le Mille Lac, as Pike says, or Les Mille Lacs? Is this one lake of a thousand, or a thousand lakes in one? Nobody seems to know; hence a crop of phrases, e. g., Mille Lac, Mille Lacs, Milles Lac, Milles Lacs; also, Mille Lac Lake, Lake Mille Lac, Lake Mille Lacs, Mille Lacs Lake; item, Mil Lac, Mill Lake, and other vagaries too many and too trivial to cite, all of which the student of Minnesota geography will discover sooner or later. The phrase being French, we naturally turn to see what a pure French scholar who was also a great geographer has to say on the subject. Speaking of the Sioux having their principal hunting-camps on Leech l. and on "Minsi-sagaigon-ing, or Mille Lacs," Nicollet explains in a note, Rep. 1843, p. 66: "This name is derived from minsi, all sorts, or everywhere, etc.; sagaigon, lake; and ing, which is a termination used to indicate a place; so the meaning of the word is 'place where there are all sorts of lakes,' which the French have rendered into Mille Lacs." Whence it appears that Mille Lacs is short for some such phrase as le pays aux mille lacs, l'entourage des mille lacs, the country full of lakes, the environment of a thousand lakes, etc. Now it so happens geographically that this one lake among the thousand is vastly larger than any of the rest, perhaps than all the rest put together; it is par excellence le lac des mille lacs, the one among a thousand; furthermore, that it was a Sioux rendezvous, which became known as Mille Lacs by a sort of unconscious figure of speech on the part of those who very likely never heard of the rhetorical trope synecdoche, but called a part by the name of the whole, to suit themselves. I imagine, therefore, that the seeming solecism of a plural phrase for a singular thing is logically correct; that Nicollet was right in writing Mille Lacs; that Lac Mille Lacs would be grammatically defensible, though inelegant; and that we could say in English Lake Mille Lacs, or Lake Thousand-lakes, with equal propriety, though we should avoid such forms as Lake Mille Lac, or Mille Lac lake. In fine, the phrase Mille Lacs has ceased to concern any question of grammatical number, and become a mere name of two words. As for the pleonasm or tautology of such phrases as Lac Mille Lacs, or Lake Mille Lacs, etc., this need not disturb us as long as we continue to talk of "Mississippi river," for example, as that means "Misi River river." There are several earlier names of this remarkable body of water. The memoir of Le Sieur Daniel Greysolon Du Luth on the discovery of the country of the Nadouecioux, addressed in 1685 to Monseigneur Le Marquis de Seignelay, as translated from the original in the archives of the Ministry of the Marine, has this passage, as given, e. g., in Shea's Hennep., 1880, p. 375: "On the 2nd of July, 1679, I had the honor to plant his Majesty's arms in the great village of the Nadouecioux, called Izatys, where never had a Frenchman been, no more than at the Songaskitons and Huetbatons," etc. De or Du Luth, Lhut, Lhu, Lut, Lud, whatever the trader's name was, had come from Montreal (Sept. 1st, 1678) with six or eight men to this part of Canada and was in the vicinity of Sault Ste. Marie on Apr. 5th, 1679, under the patronage of Comte Louis de Buade de Frontenac, who had succeeded De Courcelle as governor of Canada Apr. 9th, 1672; consequently he named the lake Lac de Buade or Lac Buade; this was its original denomination in French, and such name appears on many old maps, e. g., Hennepin's, 1683, Franquelin's, 1688, De L'Isle's, 1703, etc., some of which also mark a place by the name of Kathio, supposed to be the site of a large Sioux village, on the W. side of L. de Buade, near the base of the peninsula later known as Cormorant Point. Du Luth's Izatys were Gens des Mille Lacs, i. e., Sioux who lived about Lake Mille Lacs in the country of that "number of small lakes called the Thousand Lakes," as Carver phrases it; they were the Issati or Islati, Issaqui, Issanti, Issanati, Issanoti, Issayati, etc., meaning those who lived in lodges on sharp stones, i. e., Knife Indians, at one of the Mille Lacs called Lake Isan or Knife l. However loosely Du Luth's term Izatys may have come to be used, it designated and most properly designates the genuine original Gens du Lac, or People of Lake Thousand-lakes, our modern Mdewakontonwans. Du Luth's Houetbatons are supposed to be our Wakpatons, Warpetonwans, or Waqpatonwans; his Songaskitons, our Sisitonwans, Seseetwawns or Sissetons, i. e., lake-dwellers (sisi, marsh or lake, tonwan, people); these two tribes are located on old maps eastward of Lake Mille Lacs. In 1689, date of Pierre Lesueur's and Nicholas Perrot's visit to Sioux dominions, we hear that N. E. of the Mississippi lived the Menchokatonx or Mendesuacantons, i. e., the same Sioux as Du Luth's Izatys of Lac Buade. According to E. D. Neill, Macalester Coll. Cont. No. 10, in 1697 Aubert de la Chesnaye said that "at the lake of the Issaqui, also called Lake Buade, are villages of the Sioux called Issaqui; and beyond this lake are the Oetbatons; further off are the Anitons who are also Cioux." Neill also cites a certain doc., dated Quebec, 1710, which states that "the three bands with which we are acquainted are the Tintons, the Songasquitons, and the Ouadebaetons." Two of these are obviously the same as two of Du Luth's; the third (Tintons) are the same as the Izatys, or rather a band of Indians who came under this more general denomination. This connection is established in Hennepin, whose Tintonbas, Tintonhas, or Thinthonhas were Sioux who lived on the St. Francis (or Rum r., the main discharge of Lake Buade) near the Issantis, and were the Indians who captured his companions and himself. This dig at the roots of primitive Sioux ethnology is merely to bring up the next name of Lac Buade; for, from such intimate connection as this body of water had with certain Sioux, it immediately became known as Lac des Issatis, and soon as Lac des Sioux, or Sioux l.; moreover, St. Francis or Rum r., which runs out of the lake, became Sioux r.; e. g., Franquelin's map, 1688, marks "R. des François ou des Sioux." De L'Isle's map, 1703, letters the lake "Mississacaigan ou L. Buade," and the issuant river "R. de Mendeouacanion." The first of these two Indian names is the one which Nicollet adopts for the lake in the form Minsi Sagaigoning; the other is the same word as Mdewakantonwan. Nicollet's remark on this subject, like all his pregnant writing, requires attention here, especially as it raises a geographical besides a nomenclatural point, Rep. 1843, p. 67: "We still find some confusion on the maps as regards the name of Minsi-sagaigon-ing. Some have laid it down as Mille Lacs; others as Spirit lake; and on others, again, it appears as two lakes, with (separately) both names. The ambiguity arises from the fact that the same lake has been named by two nations. The one which I have adopted is from the Chippeways; that by which it is known to the Sioux is Mini-wakan—meaning literally, water spirit; but, in this case, intended to signify ardent spirits. The river that issues from this lake has been named Rum river by the traders; which appellation the Chippeways have translated into Ishkode-wabo, or ardent spirits; and the Sioux into Mdote-mini-wakan, or outlet of the ardent spirits." That is a dismal aboriginal pun which mixes up nature-spirits with the artificial product, turns the lake into a bottle, and the river into its neck; it is bad enough to have been perpetrated "next morning," and it is too bad that the debauches to which the traders allured the Indians should have been perpetuated in geographical nomenclature. Spirit l. is the name under which Long, for example, maps Lake Mille Lacs, and the Gens du Lac he calls People of Spirit Lake; and Schoolcraft, Narr. Journ. of 1820, pub. 1821, p. 214, has Great Spirit lake and Missisawgaiegon—the latter name also applied to its discharge (Rum r.). Spirit is not now a name of Lake Mille Lacs; the one for which Nicollet conserved the name Mini-wakan, and which hence became known as Spirit l. and Devil's l., is the large body of water in N. Dakota, tributary to the Red River of the North; Spirit l. of modern Minnesota geography is a little one of the collection in Aitkin Co., between Lower Red Cedar l. and Mille Lacs l. The latter is the second largest lacustrine body of water in the State. It is situated across the intercounty line between Aitkin and Mille Lacs, about half in one and half in the other of these two counties. Its figure is more regular than usual, being squarish, with three corners rounded off and the S. E. one drawn out a little; there is also some constriction about the middle, where points facing each other run out from the E. and W. shore respectively; the shore line is said to be about 100 miles in all. The lake is readily accessible, being only some 12 m. S. of Aitkin, and is a favorite resort for outings. One of the 14 present Ojibwa reservations is on its S. shore.
[VII-16] There is an error here, as what Hennepin called the St. François in 1680 is Rum r. of Carver, 1766, and authors generally; while St. Francis r. of Carver, which he thought was Hennepin's St. François, is Pike's Leaf r., now known as Elk r. See [note7], p. 95, where this case is fully discussed.
[VII-17] Pike maps four on the W., above his Clear = Platte r., and below his Pine cr. = Swan r.: see [note19], p. 103.
[VII-18] The name of this branch of St. Pierre's r. in Minnesota duplicates that of a large branch of the Mississippi in Wisconsin. The Minnesota tributary is Miawakong r. of Long's map, 1823, and Manya Wakan r. of Nicollet's, 1843.
[VII-19] Lac à la Queue de Loutre of the F., whence the E. name. This is the largest body of water into which the Red River of the North expands in Minnesota, and may be called a principal source of that river, as Pike says, though it compares with the true source very much as Leech l. or Winnibigoshish l. does with that of the Mississippi. It is situated about the center of Otter Tail Co., some 60-70 m. S. W. of Leech l.; Pike's map tucks it up snug under Leech l. The Leech-Otter Tail traverse, or route by which one passed from Mississippian waters to those of Red r., as beyond indicated by Pike, is given in detail by Schoolcraft upon information of traders who were familiar with this chain of lakes. Using the nomenclature of his Narrative, etc., 1834, p. 105, it may be stated as follows: From Leech l. through lakes called Warpool, Little Long, of the Mountain and of the Island, to the Crow Wing series, or Longwater, Little Vermillion, Birch, and Plé. Lake Plé was the one where the route forked—one way leading on down the Crow Wing series, the other turning off to the Otter Tail series. The latter consisted in, first, a portage of four pauses to Island l.; portage of one pause into a small lake which led into another, and this into Lagard l.; half a pause to a small lake; pause and a half to another; four pauses into Migiskun Aiaub or Fishline l.; a pause into Pine l.; five pauses into a small river which runs into Scalp l. The latter has an outlet which expands into three successive and about equidistant lakes, and is then received into Lac Terrehaute, or Height of Land l. The outlet of this last expands into a lake, and again into water called Two Lakes from its form; whence the discharge is into Otter Tail l. It is not easy to pick this exact route up from a modern map; but I may add that it runs in Hubbard, Becker, and Otter Tail cos.; that some of the lakes on or near this series are known as Height of Land, Little Pine, Pine, and Rush (these being on the course of Otter Tail r., and therefore on the Red River water-shed); and that some places on or near the route are called Park Rapids, Osage, Linnell, Shell Lake, Jarvis, Erie, McHugh, Frazer City, Lace, Perham, and St. Lawrence. The N. P. R. R. from Moorhead to Brainerd crosses the route in two or three places, one of these being between Pine and Rush lakes.
[VII-20] Pinenet or pinenett is Pike's version of épinette of the French voyageurs, name of the tree we commonly call tamarac or hackmetack, and which the botanists know as black larch, Larix americana. It is so abundant and characteristic in some places that the wet grounds in which it grows are usually called tamarac swamps. The sap pine of the same sentence has been already noted as the balsam-fir, Abies balsamea: see [note44], p. 132. There is a Lac Sapin, called in English Balsam-fir lake. The supposed occurrence of hemlock, Tsuga canadensis, in this locality is open to question.
[VII-21] "R. le Crosse" of Pike's map, the discharge of the lake now universally known as Ball Club: see the account of it in [note56], p. 150.
[VII-22] The lake which Pike calls Winipie is the large body of water in British America, through which the combined streams of the Assiniboine and Red River of the North find their way into Hudson's bay, and which we know as Lake Winnipeg; but this does not further concern us now. Pike's Lake Winipeque is what we now call Lake Winnibigoshish, on the course of the Mississippi. The French forms of the latter name, such as Ouinipique, etc., whence our Winipeque, Winipec, Winipeck, etc., are diminutizing terms, as if to say Little Lake Winipeg. There can be no occasion for confounding the two lakes, notwithstanding the similarity and sometimes the identity of their names.
Lake Winnibigoshish is that very large dilatation of the Mississippi which lies next below Cass l.: see [note8], p. 159, for the distance between the two, and details of that section of the river which connects them. The variants of its name are moderately numerous: Winipeque, as above, but Winipec on Pike's map; Wenepec, Lewis and Clark's map, 1814; Little Winnepeck, Long; Winnipec, Beltrami, Schoolcraft; Winnepeg and Big Winnipeg, Allen; Winibigoshish, Nicollet, Owen—this last the only name now used, generally with doubled n, and with some variants, like Winnepegoosis, etc. This is the second largest body of water in the whole Itascan basin, exceeded only by Leech l., and much exceeding Cass l.; its area is probably not far from that of Lake Pepin, but the shape is very different. The figure is squarish, with the N. W. and S. W. corners rounded off, and the N. E. corner extended into a well-marked bay; the main diameters are about 11 m. from N. to S., and 7½ from E. to W.; the area thus indicated is little encroached upon by projecting points, so that the shore line is shorter than usual in proportion to the extent of waters; the collateral feeders of the lake are comparatively few and unimportant. The lake lies partly in no fewer than eight townships (each 6 × 6 m. sq.); but it only slightly encroaches on five of these, occupying nearly all of T. 146, R. 28, 5th M., the greater part of T. 145, R. 28, and about half of T. 146, R. 27: actual area thus equivalent to rather more than two townships, or over 72 sq. m. The construction of the government dam at the outlet has decidedly altered the shore line, and modified other natural features; the overflow due to this obstruction has inundated the original shore contour in the low places, formed some backwater expansions, and drowned countless trees. Many of these stand stark and black where they grew, far out from the present shore line, which itself is piled with drift-wood in most places. Snags also abound all along the wooded shores, and the water is so shallow that some beds of bulrushes rise above the surface a mile or more from land. The scene is desolate and forbidding. Add to this a danger of navigation to an unusual degree for the frail birch-bark canoes which alone are used on Winnibigoshish. The lake is too large to be safely crossed in such boats at any time. Even the Indians habitually sneak to the shore through the snags and rushes; for the water is very shallow, easily churned up to quite a sea. Sudden squalls and shifting currents are always to be expected, and one runs considerable risk in venturing where land cannot be made in a few minutes, if necessary. It would be nothing, of course, to a well-built keel-boat with sail and oars; but a birch-bark is quite another craft. I have seen Winnibigoshish as smooth as glass, and then in a few minutes been glad to put ashore, to escape a choice between swamping or capsizing, amid whitecaps and combers at least four feet from crest to hollow, breaking on a lee shore full of snags and piled with driftwood. Good landing places are not to be found all along; most of the shore is low, and much of it consists of floating-bog, in which a man may sink as easily, and less cleanly, than in quicksand, if he sets an incautious foot. The water is so impure as to be scarcely fit for drinking; the lake is a sort of cesspool for all the sewerage of the basin whose waters pass through it. Winnibigoshish, in short, is dreary, dirty, deceitful, and dangerous.
The Mississippi enters this reservoir in the S. W. part, at a point in the S. W. ¼ of Sect. 36, T. 146, R. 29, 5th M., where it sweeps around a firm bank, steep enough to be cut in some places, and on which some Indians live; quite a little delta extends far out into the lake, overgrown with bulrushes to such an extent as to hide the opening. But it is not difficult to thread any one of several ways through these to the high bank just said, which is the land-mark; a more conspicuous one, from a distance, is a piece of high woodland whose point is due S. ½ m. from the inlet. Hence southward is the nearest approach of Leech l.; a traverse offers by means of Portage l. (Nicollet's Lake Duponceau), though the carrying-place is somewhat over 2 m. long.