The Project Gutenberg eBook, Narrative of an Expedition Through the Upper Mississippi to Itasca Lake, the Actual Source of this River, by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft
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SKETCH OF THE SOURCES
OF THE
MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
Drawn from Lieut. Allen’s observations
in 1832, to illustrate
SCHOOLCRAFT’S INLAND JOURNEY
TO ITASCA LAKE.
De Count & Hammond Sc.
NARRATIVE
OF AN
EXPEDITION
THROUGH THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI
TO ITASCA LAKE,
THE ACTUAL SOURCE OF THIS RIVER;
EMBRACING
AN EXPLORATORY TRIP THROUGH THE ST. CROIX
AND BURNTWOOD (OR BROULE) RIVERS;
IN 1832.
UNDER THE DIRECTION OF
HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT.
NEW-YORK:
PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS,
NO. 82 CLIFF-STREET.
1834.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1833,
By Henry R. Schoolcraft,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District of Michigan.
Geo. L. Whitney, Printer, Detroit.
TO GEN. HUGH BRADY,
OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY.
Sir:
In prefixing your name to this volume, I am reminded that, while indulging the gratification of personal friendship, I am addressing a soldier, who early entered the field of western warfare under the veteran Wayne; and who, for a period of upwards of forty years, during the changing circumstances of war and of peace, has ever been found faithfully, bravely, and honorably serving his country.
With sentiments of respect,
HENRY ROWE SCHOOLCRAFT.
PREFACE.
The circumstances under which the present expedition was undertaken, are indicated in the following extracts from the letters of instruction.
“Detroit, Aug. 9, 1830.
“Sir: I have been directed by the War Department to request you to proceed into the Chippewa country, to endeavor to put an end to the hostilities between the Chippewas and Sioux. The general route must be left to your discretion. Whether it will be necessary for you to go beyond Fond du Lac, you can best determine on your arrival there. From the limited means applicable to this object, I am apprehensive that your journey cannot be extended beyond that place. But in that event, it will be necessary to summon some of the principal Mississippi Chiefs to meet you, as without their concurrence no durable pacification can be effected.
“Your object will be to impress upon them, the necessity of terminating their hostilities with the Sioux. And the considerations connected with the subject are so familiar to you, that I need not dwell upon them. You are perfectly acquainted with their useless and harrowing contests, and the miseries these have inflicted, and yet threaten to inflict upon them. But it will be well to state to them the result of the recent council at Prairie du Chien, that they may know what has been done by the other Indians, and that the Sioux, now freed from the pressure in other quarters, can direct their whole force against them.
“In addition to the other considerations you may urge, I enclose a speech to be delivered to them, which you will please to accompany with a proper belt. I think it will be best for them to send a message to the Sioux without delay, stating their determination to refrain from hostilities in conformity with the wish of their great father the President, and their adhesion to the treaty of Prairie du Chien. This message should be sent while you are with them, and I recommend that one from you be likewise sent to the Sioux, explanatory of the matter.
“You will proceed to the execution of this duty without delay, if the season be not too far advanced when you receive this letter. But I am apprehensive it will not reach you in season. Should it be so, you will please send a message to the chiefs stating your intention to visit them next summer, and recommending them to sit still until you can see them. It may have the effect of keeping them quiet. If, however, you cannot proceed this fall, it is probable that circumstances may require some change in these instructions before the next season, and your arrangements must therefore depend upon such as may be hereafter given.”
“Very respectfully, &c.
LEW. CASS.”
“Department of War,
Office of Indian Affairs, 25th April, 1831.} “Sir: Since writing the letter to you of the 5th instant, Gov. Cass has arrived here, and submitted to the Secretary of War his views, as to the propriety of directing you to proceed into Lake Superior and the Mississippi country, &c. These views have been approved, and I am accordingly directed to instruct you to proceed as soon as your arrangements can be made for the purpose, on the proposed expedition. The objects to be accomplished are so well known, and have also been so fully explained in the letter of Gov. Cass to you of the 9th of August last, that it is deemed unnecessary to give you any further instructions on the subject.
“Orders will be issued through the proper department, to the Commanding Officer at the Sault Ste. Marie for a detachment of the troops, to form a part of the proposed expedition.
“Very respectfully, &c.
SAMUEL S. HAMILTON.”
| “Department of War, Office of Indian Affairs, 25th April, 1831. | } |
“Department of War,
Office of Indian Affairs, May 3rd, 1832.} “Sir: Your letter of Feb. 13th has been received, and its general views are approved. The Secretary of War deems it important that you should proceed to the country upon the heads of the Mississippi, and visit as many of the Indians in that, and the intermediate region, as circumstances will permit.
“Reports have reached the department, from various quarters, that the Indians upon our frontiers are in an unquiet state, and that there is a prospect of extensive hostilities among themselves. It is no less the dictate of humanity, than of policy, to repress this feeling, and to establish permanent peace among these tribes. It is also important to inspect the condition of the trade in that remote country, and the conduct of the traders. To ascertain whether the regulations and the laws are complied with, and to suggest such alterations as may be required. And finally to inquire into the numbers, standing, disposition and prospects of the Indians, and to report all the statistical facts you can procure and which will be useful to the government in its operations, or to the community in the investigation of these subjects.
“In addition to these objects, you will direct your attention to the vaccination of the Indians. An act for that purpose, has passed Congress, and you are authorised to take a surgeon with you. Vaccine matter prepared and put up by the Surgeon General is herewith transmitted to you, and you will, upon your whole route, explain to the Indians the advantages of vaccination, and endeavor to persuade them to submit to the process. You will keep and report an account of the number, ages, sex, tribe, and local situation of the Indians who may be vaccinated, and also of the prevalence, from time to time, of the small pox among them, and of its effects as far as these can be ascertained.
“Very respectfully, &c.
ELBERT HERRING.”
| “Department of War, Office of Indian Affairs, May 3rd, 1832. | } |
In the execution of these orders, the summer season of two years was devoted. All the bands of the Chippewa nation, located north of the mouth of the Wisconsin, and some bands of the Sioux were visited. Councils were held with them at various points, for the objects above specified, and no opportunity was omitted to acquire statistical and other information suited to aid in the formation of correct opinions respecting their condition, and the policy to be pursued respecting them.
The portion of country situated between the bands of Lake Superior and the Mississippi, south of St. Anthony’s falls, occupied the summer of 1831. The area extending thence north, to the source of the Mississippi, and the Hauteur des Terres, forming the elevation separating its waters, from the streams received by Hudson’s bay, constituted the object of the expedition of 1832. So much of this area, as lies north of a latitude line passing through Cass lake, and west of about its parallel of longitude, comprehends the principal topic of description in the following work. And it is thus distinguished, from other portions of the western country, brought into discussion, in my two previous volumes of travels.
HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT.
Detroit, October 10, 1833.
CONTENTS.
NARRATIVE
OF AN EXPEDITION THROUGH THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI,
TO ITASCA LAKE.
Introductory observations on the sources of the Mississippi.—Pike’s expedition in 1805, for exploring its course, and ascertaining its origin.—The expedition of Gov. Cass, directed to the same objects, in 1820.—Its extent, termination, and results.—Renewed efforts to ascend to its source, by the author, in 1831.—Diverted to the unexplored country lying in the area between Lake Superior and the Upper Mississippi, south of St. Anthony’s Falls.—Summary of the route.—The St. Croix and Chippewa Rivers.—Massacre of the Monomonees at Prairie du Chien, in 1831.—Mine country.—Return to the Straits of St. Mary.
Farther observations on the exploration of the Upper Mississippi, and the discovery of its source.—An expedition authorised by the United States government, in 1832.—Its organization, objects, and route.—Leaves St. Mary, and proceeds through Lake Superior.—Sketch of this lake.—Notice of the murder of Brunet, by an Indian, in 1831.—Mission at Lapointe, or Chagoimegon.—The importance of this point in Indian history.—Mongozid, Wahbojeeg.—Meet Ozawindib, at the Brule.—Route to Sandy Lake, on the Upper Mississippi.—Portages on the St. Louis.—The Savanne portage.—Sandy Lake.—Assassination of Mr. Kay.
General arrangements for the route of the expedition on the waters of the Upper Mississippi.—The width of this stream and Sandy Lake ascertained.—Notices of the ascent from that point by the Falls of Peckagama and Lake Winnipec, to Cass Lake.—Attack of a party of Mandans on the Chippewas at Pembina.—The route of the Bogottowa Lake.—Encamped at Winnipec House.—Inquiries respecting the opposition trade, and the traffic in ardent spirits.—Reach Cass Lake.—The width of the Mississippi, at its outlet.—Encamped on an island in this lake.—Yellow Head’s town; its population and hunting grounds.—Remarks on the Fur Trade.—North West, Hudson’s Bay, and American Fur Companies.—Lord Selkirk’s triumph.—Murder of Owen Keveny.
Brief detail of transactions at Cass Lake.—A select exploring party is organised here, for ascending to the actual source of the Mississippi.—Council with the Indians.—Speech of Oza Windib.—The Indians furnish canoes and guides.—Arrangement of the party.—Notice of a Warrior’s widow.—Scalp dance.—Facts respecting foreign interference in the trade of the Upper Mississippi.—The question of the use of ardent spirits in the trade.—Act of Congress of 1832, prohibiting it.—Departure of the exploring party.—Ascent to Pamitchi Gumaug, or Lac Travers.—Its elevation and size.—A Shingaba Wossin.—Image worship.—Bay.—Ultimate forks of the Mississippi.—Ascend the east fork.—Lake Marquette.—Lake La Salle.—Kubbakunna Lake.—Notices of the Natural History.
Ascent of the east fork of the Mississippi, from Kubbakunna Lake to the Naiwa rapids.—Its productions.—Indians kill a deer; their mode of dissecting it.—Reach the foot of Naiwa rapids.—The Naiwa portage.—Copper-head snake.—Zoned agate.—Journey from thence to Ossowa Lake, the source of this branch of the Mississippi.—Mistake in the latitude.—Portage from the east to the west branch.—Hauteur des Terres.—The height of land between the Hudson’s Bay and Gulf of Mexico waters.—Geographical notices of its extent.—Its natural productions.—Its geology.—Arrival at Itasca Lake.
Outlines of Itasca Lake.—Its scenery and productions.—Forest trees, deer, fish, shells.—Width of its outlet.—Altitude above the ocean.—Length of the Mississippi.—Its course above Cass Lake.—Its origin south of latitude 47 deg. 16 minutes.—General observations on the Mississippi.—Erect a flag on the island in Itasca Lake.—Commence the descent of the West, or Itascan branch of the Mississippi.—Character of its channel.—Rapids and plateaux.—Falls of Kakábikons.—Portage.—Encamp at Pine Banks.
Continuation of the descent.—Velocity of the rapids.—One of the canoes is upset, and its contents carried over the falls.—Notices of the vegetation and zoology.—Fork-tailed hawk.—A novel species of lizard.—The Yellow Head’s failure in hunting.—Instinct of the saw-billed duck in preserving its young.—The river continues to exhibit a succession of rapids and plateaux, during its passage through the alpine region.—Purity and frequency of springs on its banks.—Influx of the Cano and Piniddiwin rivers.—Notice of an inroad and murder committed by the Sioux in former years.—A night descent.—Some of its incidents.—Reach the junction of the east and west forks.—Return to Cass Lake.—Observance of the Sabbath.—Missionary field of labor in the northwest.—Superstitions and idolatry of the Indians.—Their name for the Deity.—Its probable derivation.
Council with the Chippewas at Cass Lake.—Speeches of Oza Windib, Neezh Opinais, and Wai Wain Jeegun.—Distribution of presents.—Geographical and Geological notices of Cass Lake.—Colcaspi Isle.—Allen’s Bay.—Pike’s Bay.—Heights and distances.—Tributary of Turtle River.—Turtle Lake.—Portage from Cass Lake to Leech Lake.—Hieroglyphic marks.—Moss Lake.—Reach Lake Shiba.—The source of the River Shiba flowing into Leech Lake.—Traverse Leech Lake at night, and encamp at Guelle Plat’s village.—Received by the Indians with respect.—Description of Leech Lake.—Its population and principal Chiefs.—Warlike character of the Pillagers.—Efforts made by them to defend the Chippewa frontiers.—Their warfare defensive.
Transactions at Leech Lake.—Notice of the Pillager band.—Their chief, Aish Kibug Ekozh, or the Flat Mouth.—He invites the agent and his interpreter to breakfast.—His address on concluding it.—Vaccination of the Indians.—A deputation from the Rainy Lake band is received, and a flag presented to their leader, The Hole in the Sky.—Council with the Pillagers.—Speech of Aish Kibug Ekozh, in which he makes an allusion to Gen. Pike.—He descants on the Sioux war, the Indian trade, and the interdiction of ardent spirits.—Personal notices of this chief.
Observations on the Leech Lake Chippewas.—Data respecting the former state of the fur trade.—Their turbulent character.—Assassination of Relle by Puganoc.—Causes of the emigration of the North-western Indians.—The unsatisfactory character of their traditions.—Their language.—Brief synopsis of its grammatical structure.
Encampment on a peninsula in Leech Lake.—Departure for the portage to the source of the De Corbeau river.—Traverse a bay.—Commencement of the portage.—The mode of passing it.—First portage to Warpool Lake.—Pass successively Little Long Lake, the Four Lakes, Lake of the Mountain, Lake of the Island, and encamp at the Kagi Nogumaug or Longwater, the source of the De Corbeau.—Are visited by the Chief of the Pillagers, who performs a journey for that purpose.—Recognize in his attendant the murderer of Gov. Semple.—Narrative of facts leading to this event.—Commence the descent of the river De Corbeau, passing successively the Longwater, Little Vermillion, Birch Ple, Boutwell’s Vieu, Desert, Summit, Long-rice, Allen’s, Johnston’s, and Leelina Lakes.—Junction of the Shell River fork.—Encamp in a storm.
Further descent of the De Corbeau.—Remarks on its general course and character.—Junction of Leaf and Long Prairie Rivers.—The latter pursued by the Pillagers in their wars against the Sessitons and Yanktons.—Cause of the appellation of Mukkundwa.—Their robbery of Berti, and assertion of a belligerent principle.—Forest trees of the De Corbeau.—Monotony of its scenery.—Meeting with a Chippewa hunter.—Arrival at the mouth of the river, and entrance of the Mississippi.—Concourse of Indians assembled at that point.—Council with them.—Sketch of the speeches of Grosse Gueule, Soangikumig, and White Fisher.—Arrival of the Pierced Prairie.—First intelligence of the breaking out of the Sauc War.—Close of the Narrative.—Notice of the effects of the disuse of ardent spirits by the men, and the observance of the Sabbath.
EXPLORATORY TRIP
THROUGH THE
ST. CROIX AND BURNTWOOD
(OR BRULÉ) RIVERS.
Interval of the banks of the Mississippi, between the mouths of the River De Corbeau and St. Croix, adverted to.—Plains above St. Anthony’s Falls, agricultural.—Fact respecting the recession of the bison.—Geological change in the character of the Mississippi, in crossing 45 deg. parallel.—Fort Snelling.—Council.—Reach the mouth of the St. Croix.—Picturesque character of St. Croix Lake.—Traits of its natural history.—Encamp near a diminutive kind of barrows.—“Standing Cedars.”—An Indian trader.—Green-stone rock.—Falls of the St. Croix.—Traditionary account of an ancient Indian battle, fought at these falls by the Chippewas, Saucs, Foxes, and Sioux.—Wahb Ojeeg.
Ascent of the St. Croix above the falls.—Direct the burning of illegal trading houses.—Snake River.—Its chief, Pezhicki.—Notices of Snake River.—Its population and trade.—A foreign trading company formerly located here.—Effects upon the Indian intercourse of the present day.—Anecdote of the former mode of using rum and tobacco.—Kettle Rapids.—Shell River.—A hunting party of Chippewa boys.—Pokanokuning, or Yellow River.—Its population and trade.—Notices of its natural history.—Shells.—Prairie squirrel.—Widow of a murdered Indian, called the Little Frenchman, declines having her son put to school.—Reach the forks of the St. Croix.—Notice of the Namakagon Branch.—The chief, Kabamappa.—Women’s Portage.—The Sturgeon Dam.—Kabamappa’s village.—Upper St. Croix Lake.
Character of the St. Croix.—Its productiveness in wild rice.—Population and trade.—Condition of the Indians, and their prospect.—Portage to the Burntwood.—Marine sand formation.—Bass lake.—Character of the Burntwood river.—Arrival at its discharge into Fond du Lac of Lake Superior.—Indian friends.—Close of the Narrative.—Brief general remarks on the condition of the Chippewas.—Traits of character and government.—The institution of the Totem.—Tale of the origin of White Fish.
APPENDIX
[APPENDIX I. NATURAL HISTORY.]
[APPENDIX II. INDIAN LANGUAGE.]
[APPENDIX III. OFFICIAL REPORTS.]
NARRATIVE
OF AN EXPEDITION THROUGH THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI,
TO ITASCA LAKE.
CHAPTER I.
Introductory observations on the sources of the Mississippi.—Pike’s expedition in 1805, for exploring its course, and ascertaining its origin.—The expedition of Gov. Cass, directed to the same objects, in 1820.—Its extent, termination, and results.—Renewed efforts to ascend to its source, by the author, in 1831.—Diverted to the unexplored country lying in the area between Lake Superior and the Upper Mississippi, south of St. Anthony’s Falls.—Summary of the route.—The St. Croix and Chippewa Rivers.—Massacre of the Monomonees at Prairie du Chien, in 1831.—Mine country.—Return to the Straits of St. Mary.
American geography may be said to have had three important problems to solve, in modern times. The first and second of these, related to the source of the Missouri, and to the course and termination of the Columbia. Both, were substantially resolved by the expedition of Lewis and Clark, under the administration of Mr. Jefferson. It is to be borne in mind, however, that but one of the three forks, up to which the Missouri was traced, has been explored, that its two northwestern branches have not been ascended, and that, consequently, we do not actually know, which of its primary tributaries is the longest, or brings down the greatest volume of water.
The true source of the Mississippi, which forms the third topic of inquiry, was brought into discussion at the same period. And immediately after the acquisition of Louisiana, the American government sent an officer, with a suitable body of men, to determine it. Lieut. Pike, who was selected for this service (who, nine years afterwards lost his life as a general in the service, at the taking of York) did not, however, set out early enough in the season (1805) to accomplish the object. After the selection and purchase of the site, on which the fort near the Falls of St. Anthony, is now situated, he encountered delays in ascending the rapids characteristic of that part of the Mississippi. Winter overtook him before reaching the junction of the De Corbeau. He prepared for its severities by erecting a block house, for the security of his provisions and men. He then proceeded with a small detachment, on snow shoes to Sandy Lake, and Leech Lake; two points of central influence, which were then occupied by the North West Fur Company. As the partners of this company consisted of foreigners, and their operations were continued after the legal transfer of the country to the American government, Lieut. Pike would have been justified in making a seizure of the valuable furs then in their possession. He did not, however, adopt this course, and exhibited a magnanimity in relation to it, which is in accordance with his subsequent acts of disinterested intrepidity. He collected the geographical data, which are embodied in his published map and journal, and returned from his wintry station, on the opening of navigation in the spring.
No further effort was made to explore the sources of the Mississippi, for several years. In 1820, Gov. Cass, then administering the government of Michigan Territory and exercising jurisdiction over Indian affairs, obtained the sanction of the general government to visit the region. He left Detroit, with a party of thirty-eight men, including the gentlemen composing his suit, during the latter part of May. He was supplied for a journey of four months. After traversing the coasts of Lake Huron, and visiting Michilimackinac, he proceeded north-westward, by ascending the primitive summit at the Falls of St. Mary, went through the extended and picturesque basin of Lake Superior, and first struck the waters of the Upper Mississippi at Sandy Lake. To this point he was accompanied by the military escort, and by the train of larger canoes employed to transport stores and baggage. But the fatigues which the men had undergone in crossing portages, added to the low state of the water, induced him to form a permanent encampment at this place. And he proceeded with a select party, in canoes to explore the Mississippi.
It was the middle of July when the expedition reached Sandy Lake, and the difficulty of subsisting so large a party in so remote a position, with the constant claims of suffering and hungry tribes, who presented themselves at every point, began to be severely felt. The exploring party, which was now organized, went out, under a sense of these circumstances, and with a feeling of the responsibility pressing upon the claims of the expedition in other quarters, which limited the time applicable to the ascent. They entered the Mississippi on the 17th of the month, and found a strong current, with alluvial banks, and a vegetation indicative of a fertile soil. For the distance of about one hundred and fifty miles, above this point, the party found no diminution in the average strength of the current, which was frequently accelerated by rapids. The latter then assumed a more formidable aspect for ten or a dozen miles, at the end of which they were terminated by the falls of Peckágama. At this cataract, the river, which below has its course through alluvial banks, densely wooded, is compressed between rocks of granulated quartz, over which it rushes with a velocity, which would seem to threaten destruction to any species of craft that should attempt the descent. It became necessary, at this point, to transport the canoes and baggage from two to three hundred yards over land.
On reaching the Peckágama summit, the channel of the Mississippi was found to flow more directly from the west, with a comparatively sluggish current. But the most distinctive trait of this part of the river was found to consist of a series of extensive savannahs, through which the river displays itself in the most elaborate windings. The junction of the Leech Lake branch takes place at this plateau, at the computed distance of fifty-five miles above the falls. After passing this point, the course of the river is again, generally, from the north-west, about forty-five miles to Lake Winnipec, a handsome body of clear water, estimated to be ten miles broad. The course of the ascent is then west, for about fifty miles, at which distance the river is found expanded into a more considerable lake, presenting an area of limpid water of, perhaps, 120 square miles. This sheet, which has subsequently been found to be the largest expansion of the Mississippi, is since denominated Cass Lake. It was the highest point reached. The party entered it on the 21st of July. The question of pursuing the stream further, was then submitted by Gov. Cass, to the gentlemen composing his party. Anxious as all were to see the actual source of so celebrated a stream, their wishes were controlled by circumstances. Inconveniences had been felt from leaving the supplies at so considerable a distance below, and as the waters were found to be low, and the preparations inadequate for a journey of indefinite extent, a decisive opinion was expressed in favor of a return from this point. This decision was immediately carried into effect.
From the best information that could be obtained, the Mississippi was represented to have its origin in a lake called La Biche, supposed to be sixty miles distant, in a north-west direction. Upon this estimate, the length of the river was computed to be 3038 miles, and by a series of approximate estimates, its altitude placed at 1330 feet above the Atlantic. Numerous rapids and lakes were, however, stated to exist in this remote part of the stream, and a degree of vagueness and uncertainty exhibited in relation to it, which evinced, that the traders, who were relied on for information, either, had seldom frequented it, or preserved an indefinite recollection of its geographical features.
Such was the state of public information on this point in 1820. A veil of obscurity was still cast about the actual source of the Mississippi, which there was no further attempt to remove for ten or eleven years. In 1830, the writer of these sheets was directed to proceed into the Chippewa country, north-west of Lake Superior, in the execution of duties connected with Indian affairs. But the instructions were received so late in the season, that their execution became impracticable until the next year. In the mean time, means for more extensive observation were provided, a physician and botanist engaged, and a small detachment of troops, under the command of a subaltern, ordered to form a part of the expedition.
This expedition numbering twenty-seven persons, exclusive of guides and Indian auxiliaries, employed on the portages, left St. Mary’s at the foot of Lake Superior, late in June 1831. After entering, and coursing around the shores of Lake Superior to Lapointe, it was found, from every representation, that the low state of the water on the Upper Mississippi, would render it difficult, if not impracticable, to reach the bands at its sources, during the drought of summer. Public reasons were, at the same time, urgent for visiting the interior bands, located between the group of islands at the head of Lake Superior, and the Mississippi—where a useless and harassing conflict was kept up between the Sioux and Chippewa nations.
The expedition returned eight miles on its track, and entered the mouth of Mushkigo, or Mauvais river of Lake Superior. This stream, which carries down the waters of an extensive slope of highlands, is embarrassed with permanent rafts of flood wood, and with numerous rapids, presenting an arduous ascent. The axe, the canoe-pole, and the carrying-strap, were alternately employed in the ascent, and they were employed under the influence of the midsummer’s heat, and the annoyance of the hordes of smaller insects, who are on the wing, in this secluded valley, during the greater part of the twenty-four hours. This stream was ascended one hundred and four miles, to the portage. The goods and canoes were then carried 8¾ miles, across highlands, to a lake called Kaginógumoc, or the Longwater; and thence by four separate portages, and three intervening lakes, to the Namakágon river. The latter was descended one hundred and sixty-one miles, to its junction with the St. Croix, of which it is the right fork, and the channel of the latter pursued to Yellow River. From this point, where a public council was convened, the expedition re-ascended the Namakágon to the portage into lac Courtorielle, or Ottawa Lake. This portage consists of a carrying place of three miles and a lake, then another carrying place of 750 yards and a lake, from the latter of which there is a navigable outlet into the Ottawa for canoes.
Ottawa Lake is a sheet of water about twelve miles long, having an outlet into the Chippewa river of the Upper Mississippi. In order, however, to visit certain hostile bands, a portage was made from this outlet (after following it down about half a day’s journey,) of 3½ miles, into lac Chetac, the principal source of Red Cedar river. The latter was then pursued, through four principal expansions, called Wigwas, Warpool, Red Cedar and Rice Lakes, to its falls. A short portage over horizontal sand-rock, interrupts the navigation, after which there is a series of rapids, extending about 24 miles. Deep and strong water was then found to its junction with the Chippewa river, which it enters at the estimated distance of 40 miles from the confluence of the latter with the Mississippi, (on its eastern bank.)
The entire line of country travelled by this interior route was 643 miles. The Mushkigo, the St. Croix, and the Chippewa, were the rivers, which by their common origin and interlocking on the summit lands, afforded this communication. Many bands of Indians were visited in their fastnesses, where they had hitherto supposed themselves out of the reach of observation. Councils were held at various points, and presents distributed. And the pauses afforded by these assemblages, and by the necessary delays of overland transportation, furnished opportunities for preserving notes on the manner of living, among those bands, and their population, traditions and resources, as well as the geographical features and the natural history of the country. On entering the Mississippi, the truth of the information, derived on Lake Superior, respecting its depressed state, was verified. Extensive portions of its outer channel and bars, were found exposed and dry. The party encamped on a sand bar formed by the junction of the Chippewa, which is usually several feet under water.
From the mouth of the Chippewa, the expedition descended the Mississippi to Galena, in Illinois. While at Prairie du Chien, the murder of twenty-six Monomonee men, women, and children, by a war party of the Sacs and Foxes, which had transpired a few days previous, was the subject of exciting interest. It was narrated with all its atrocious circumstances. A flag waved over the common grave of the slain, and several of the wounded Monomonees, who had escaped the massacre, were examined and conversed with. This affray unparalleled for its boldness and turpitude, having occurred in the village of Prairie du Chien, in the hearing of its inhabitants, and in sight of the fort, was made the subject of demand by the government for the surrendry of the murderers, and produced the concentration of troops on that frontier, which eventuated in the Indian war of 1832. Some excitement was also felt at Galena, and its vicinity, in consequence of the menacing attitude which the Sacs and Foxes had recently assumed, in the vicinity of Rock Island, and a general mistrust felt of their sincerity in the treaty concluded with the United States a short time previous.
At Galena, the exploring party separated, part returning in canoes up the Wisconsin, and part crossing the mine country, over the branches of the Pekatolika, and by the way of the Blue Mounds, to fort Winnebago. From this point, Fox River was descended to Green Bay, and the route of the lake coast pursued northward to the straits, and to the Sault of St. Mary.
A narrative of this expedition, embracing its principal incidents, and observations on the productions of the country, is in preparation for publication by one of the gentlemen of the party. In the mean time, the official report transmitted to Government, and submitted to Congress by the War Department, together with remarks in a series of letters on the mine country, are subjoined in the appendix to this volume.
CHAPTER II.
Farther observations on the exploration of the Upper Mississippi, and the discovery of its source.—An expedition authorised by the United States government, in 1832.—Its organization, objects, and route.—Leaves St. Mary, and proceeds through Lake Superior.—Sketch of this lake.—Notice of the murder of Brunet, by an Indian, in 1831.—Mission at Lapointe, or Chagoimegon.—The importance of this point in Indian history.—Mongozid, Wahbojeeg.—Meet Ozawindib, at the Brule.—Route to Sandy Lake, on the Upper Mississippi.—Portages on the St. Louis.—The Savanne portage.—Sandy Lake.—Assassination of Mr. Kay.
Early in 1832, the plan of visiting the source of the Mississippi, was resumed. And a memoir for its execution, accompanied by estimates, forwarded to the Department of War, which received the sanction of the Hon. L. Cass, then placed at the head of that department. An expedition was accordingly organized, consisting of thirty persons, including an officer of the army, detached, with ten men, for topographical duty, a surgeon and geologist, an interpreter of the language, and a missionary to the north-western Indians, who was invited to accompany the exploring party. This expedition was based on a renewal of the effort to effect a permanent peace with the two principal Indian nations, who inhabit that region, and whose continued feuds, not only weaken and harass each other, but embarrass the trade, interrupt the execution of the intercourse laws, and involve the lives and property of the frontier inhabitants. Additional weight was given to these considerations, by the unquiet state of the Indians on the Upper Mississippi, which broke out in open hostility during the year. These reasons were connected with the supervision of the trade, the acquisition of statistical facts, and the carrying into effect an act of Congress of that year, for extending the benefits of vaccination to the Indian tribes. To which end it was enjoined “to proceed to the country on the heads of the Mississippi, and to visit as many Indians in that, and the intermediate region, as circumstances would permit.”
This expedition, to the account of which the present volume is devoted, left St. Mary’s on the 7th of June, 1832. As the route through Lake Superior, and thence north-west, on the waters of the Upper Mississippi, to Cass Lake, has been described in a “Narrative Journal of Travels in the North-west,” of 1820, heretofore published by the author, no details of the geography of the country then passed over and described, or of the ordinary incidents of a journey through this portion of the country, will be given. A brief sketch, however, of the general route, will serve to refresh the memory of readers whose attention has been before called to the subject, and cannot but prove acceptable to all, who feel an interest in the development of its natural features and character.
The village of the Sault of St. Mary’s is situated on the communication which connects Lake Huron with Lake Superior, fifteen miles below the foot of the latter. A strong and continued rapid, over shelving sand rock, interrupts the navigation for vessels. The water has been computed to sink its level, twenty two feet ten inches, at this place. A portage exceeding half a mile, enables boats to proceed beyond. The river above has a brisk current, which is imperceptibly lost on entering between the two prominent capes, which form the opening into Lake Superior.
This lake, which is called Igomi, Chigomi, and Gitchigomi, by the Indians, as the term is more or less abbreviated, is remarkable for its extent, its depth, and the purity of its waters. It lies in a basin of trap rocks, with alternations of the granite and sand stone series. No variety of calcareous rock is present,[1] and its waters are consequently free from impregnations from this source. As it is the largest and the purest of the series of lakes it is also the highest in position; its altitude being computed at 640 feet above the Atlantic. Its banks are diversified with mural precipices, with extensive deposits of marine sand, and with beds of mixed detritus. Its immediate margin is loaded with primitive boulders and pebble-stones, alternating with shores of yellow and of iron sand. Several bold mountains of primitive construction, stand near the central parts of its south shores, which are in striking contrast with the ruin-like, walled masses, of horizontal structure, which characterize other parts. Among the detritus of its shores are still occasionally found masses of native copper, which are now referred to the trap formation.
Of a body of water so irregular in its shape and imperfectly defined, it may be vague to speak of its superficial area, but this may be assumed to cover 30,000 square miles. It embraces numerous islands, the largest of which are Grand, Royal, and Magdalen islands. It has several noble harbors, bays and inlets, and receives numerous rivers. It abounds with fish, the most noted of which are white-fish, sturgeon, and salmon-trout. But by far the most valuable product of its present commerce, is its furs and peltries. The Indian population of its immediate shores, is not great. Exclusive of bands located on the heads of its rivers, it does not exceed 1006 souls, to which may be added 436 for the American side of the St. Mary’s river. Their trade is conducted by 15 clerks, licensed by the Indian department, employing 70 boatmen, interpreters and runners. Recently a mission has been established on Magdalen Island (La Pointe of the traders,) by the American Board of Foreign Missions, and the gospel began to be preached to the natives. The estimated population which, in a comprehensive view, should be added for the south shores, extending to the borders of the Winnebago and Monomonee lands, and running west, to the Sioux line, is, for the northern curve of Green Bay, 210; heads of the Monomonee and Wisconsin rivers, 342; the Chippewa river and its tributaries, 1376; the St. Croix and its tributaries, 895; Grand Portage, and Rainy Lake, 476; to which latter may perhaps be added, 249, making, with the former estimates, 5000 souls.
In travelling through this lake, in boats or canoes, the shores are followed round. The distance from Point Iroquois to the entrance of the St. Louis river of Fond du Lac, is estimated at 490 miles, exclusive of the journey around the peninsula of Keweena, which is ninety miles more. The general course is nearly due west, in consequence of which, the climate is deemed to be decidedly more favorable to agriculture at its head than at its outlet. Traders, who course round the peninsula in boats, take, on an average, twenty-six days in the voyage. Fifteen were employed on the present expedition. Indians were met at various points, and wherever it was practicable, they were vaccinated. The surgeon employed on that service reported 699 vaccinations on the voyage through the lake, and experienced no difficulty in getting them to submit to the process.
At the mouth of the Ontonagon, where the party arrived on the 19th of June, a band of Indians was encamped on its way out, from Ottawa lake. Mozojeed, their chief, confirmed a report of the murder of an engagé, or under clerk, named Brunet, by a Chippewa, named Waba Annimikee, or the White Thunder. He said that he had concurred with the traders in apprehending the Indian, and bringing him out to be delivered up to the Indian agent. But that he had effected his escape on the Mauvais Portage. He promised to exert himself to re-apprehend him, the following year. And he rigidly performed his promise. In July, 1833, the White Thunder was delivered by Mozojeed and his followers, to the civil authorities. He was tried for the murder at the U. S. circuit court holden at Michilimackinac, in that month. Counsel being assigned to defend him, every advantage was secured to him that the laws provide. His own confessions were proved, to substantiate the murder, and on these he was convicted.
He made no defence whatever on the trial, silently submitting to the determinations of his counsel. When judgment had been pronounced, he arose, and, through an interpreter, stated to the judge the reasons which had actuated him. He observed, that after aiding Brunet, on a certain occasion, in carrying his goods to the banks of a river, he had taken a canoe bound there, (being his own canoe) to cross the stream. For this Brunet threatened him, and shook a tomahawk over his head. On another occasion, having sold Brunet a shaved deer-skin, he asked him (as is customary after getting payment) for tobacco; but he replied abusively, that he did not give tobacco to such scaly dogs. Not long afterwards, being engaged in playing at the Indian game of bowl, Brunet took him by the hair, on the crown of his head, and shook him. Finally, on the morning of the day of the murder, Brunet had struck him on the chin, with violence. This, together with the other indignities, took place in the presence of the Indians, in whose eyes he was, consequently, disgraced. In the afternoon of that day, Brunet went back from the lake on which they were encamped, into the forest to procure some birch bark for making flambeaux for fishing. The White Thunder secretly followed him. He observed him tie up a roll of bark, put it across his shoulders, and commence his return. He soon crossed a log which lay in his path. The Indian quickly followed him, mounting the same log, and, from this elevation, raised his gun and deliberately shot him in the back. He fell dead.
At La Pointe, the party were introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Hall, missionaries, who, with Mr. Ayer, had proceeded to this place, in 1831, to establish a mission among the Chippewas. Mrs. Hall had presented to her husband a daughter during their residence, which is believed to be the first child of white parents, both by father and mother, ever born within the precincts of this lake. The mission had encountered no unforeseen obstacles in its first efforts. It has since been enlarged in its means and the number of its laborers, and promises to exert a happy influence in the region.
It is interesting to observe the dawning of the gospel at a spot, which has been long noted as the scene of Indian trade, and the rallying point of Indian war parties. It is at this place, the Chegoimegon of early writers, that tradition places the ancient council fire of the Chippewa nation. And here resided the presiding chief, called Mudjikiwis, or Waishki, who exercised the sovereign power over a rude confederation of local tribes, whose dissolution, or separation into independent fragments, may be traced to the right of each chieftain of declaring a negative to any decision, and silently withdrawing his aid, for the time being. Personal influence and authority may be supposed to have counteracted this defect, while the tribe was small, as tradition represents it to have been when it first migrated from the east, to this lake; but its increase and spread over the adjacent country, would naturally destroy so feeble a tie of political power, and must soon have left each local band as it now remains, independent and sovereign in its acts. Yet the voice of tradition refers to this era of the reign of the Mudjikiwis as one of comparative splendor. Although republican in all that is left of their institutions, the succession of the Mudjikiwis is said to have been hereditary among the Chippewas, and the descendants of this magistrate, who yet exist at Chegoimegon, evince a pride of ancestry which we should only look for, among feudal or despotic nations. The last person who may be said to have exercised this office was Mongazid, (or Mamongazida,) who was in high favor with the French. He is represented to have visited Quebec in the time of Montcalm, and to have been an actor in the final battle in which that distinguished commander fell. His son Wahbojeeg, or the White Fisher, succeeded him as the ruling chieftain of the band, and eminently distinguished himself as a war leader. He died in 1793, after having been greatly instrumental in driving his cousins-german, the Foxes, from the Chippewa country. The present chieftain, Chi Waishki, alias Pizhickee, or the Buffalo, is the representative of this line. He said to the Indian Agent, who, by direction of the commissioners at the treaty of Fond du Lac, in 1826, invested him with a silver medal, “What need I of this! It is known whence I am descended.”
But there is no space for these reminiscences. Many scattered parties of Chippewas were encountered east of this point, interspersed with the loaded boats of the traders, bringing out their annual returns. Some of the parties were bound to the British post of Penetanguishine, others, to St. Mary’s or Michilimackinac. Chi Waishki, the chief above alluded to, was met at Keweena, on his way to visit the Agency. He expressed his regret that the agent would not be there, evinced a strong interest in the object of the expedition, and presented a peace-pipe, as the evidence of his friendship. At the mouth of the river Brule, a small party of the Chippewas was encountered, from the sources of the Mississippi. It turned out to be the family of Ozawindib, one of the principal Chippewas, from Cass Lake. He was persuaded to return, and proved himself to be a trusty and experienced guide through the most remote and difficult parts of the route.
The expedition entered the mouth of the St. Louis river on the 23d of June. The ascent of this stream is attended with separate portages of nine, and of three miles. There is, finally, a portage of six miles across a sandy tract, which separates the Lake Superior from the Mississippi waters, making 18 miles of land carriage. The other portions of the route consist of rapid water, much of which is shallow and interspersed with sharp rocks, requiring both strength and dexterity in the men to manage the canoes, and to repair them when injured. A part of the summit portage, immediately after quitting the Savanne river, consists of bog, the sod of which being cut through, it becomes necessary to wade in a pathway of mud and water, portions of which, are mid-thigh deep. The entire distance from Lake Superior to the Mississippi, estimating from water to water, is 150 miles. The expedition spent about ten days on this part of the route, and reached the trading house of Mr. Aitkin, on the banks of the Mississippi, on the 3rd of July. It remained there, until the evening of the 4th, giving Lieut. Allen, who was in command of the troops, an opportunity to fire a salute in honor of the day, to the no small gratification of the Indians, who, being apprized of the occasion, thronged the banks of the river to witness the ceremony.
Sandy Lake has been a post of importance in the fur trade from the earliest French times, being one of the central seats of Indian power on the Upper Mississippi. An assassination occurred here in 1785, which affords a striking illustration of the evils of using ardent spirits in the Indian country. Mr. Kay, the victim of Indian resentment on this occasion, was a gentleman of Montreal, who had come out with an adventure of Indian goods, into this region. After passing the winter on the waters of the Mississippi, he awaited the assembling of his clerks at this place, and employed himself in closing the spring business with the Indians, preparatory to his return to Michilimackinac. On the 2nd of May, he was informed of the near arrival of one of his clerks, and prepared to go and meet him. The sequel is given in a translation of the words of an eye witness, whose manuscript account is before the author.[2]
“Mr. Kay said that he would himself go, although somewhat fatigued by the continual running of the Indians, the night previous. On parting he told me to draw some rum, of which he took a stout drink. And as he knew there was no rum at the post of Pine river, when he left Mr. Harris, he thought a dram would be pleasing to him also; for which reason he told me to fill one of the flagons of his liquor case, to take with him. And he gave me orders to give the Indians no drink during his absence, which was difficult, because they were already tipsey.
“The Indians had given me the name of The Writer, which they are accustomed to do to all whom they observe writing. As soon as Mr. Kay had gone, I did not want for visits, his savagesse remaining in the tent with me. A great many Indians came in; among the number was Katawabida and Mongozid, who said to me, “Writer, give us rum!” I told them that I could not—that I was not master. They tormented me a long time. Mongozid threw to me a pair of metasses, which he had got on credit, and had not paid for, (for he was a poor paymaster,) demanding rum for them. I told him, no! He then talked with Mr. Kay’s woman, who was tired of them, as well as myself. She begged me to give them a little, after which they went out of the tent.
“Within an hour after Le Barrique Eau arrived, and told me that Mr. Harris and Mr. Pinot had actually arrived at the fish-dam. The Indians, one and all, set up a shout of joy, and ran to the beach to receive them. They did not however, meet with a very good reception, the flagon Mr. Kay had taken with him having intoxicated the whole party. They debarked, and while Mr. Harris was getting his tent pitched, Mr. Kay entered mine and took a glass in my presence. Mr. Harris was quite noisy. To complete the scene, the ferocity of Cul Blanc[3] (an Indian unfriendly to Mr. K.) had returned. He had persuaded Le Cousin to stab Mr. Kay, in the course of the winter, saying to him, that he had not courage enough himself to do it. The other gloried in being equal to the commission of a crime, which he had promised to perpetrate when they came together.
“The Cul Blanc was sitting, with many others, on a hillock, before the fire, smoking, directly before Mr. Kay’s tent. Le Cousin got up and went towards the tent, at the entrance of which he met Mr. Kay. Mr. Kay’s bed was placed across, opposite the pole supporting the tail-piece of his tent. The barrel of rum was behind the bed, in the bottom of the tent. Mr. Kay saw him coming, as he was going to take a seat beside me on the bed. At this moment Le Cousin entered. He tendered his hand, and asked for rum. Mr. Kay, who did not like the man, answered, “No! You do not pay your credits! You shall have none! Go out, immediately!” With this, he took him by the arm, and conducted him out of the tent. On turning round to re-enter, the Indian, who was armed with a knife, which he had concealed under a mantelet de calmande, gave him a stab in the back of the neck. He then retired towards the camp fire, which was surrounded by a great many Indians and our men. I got up immediately, hearing the scream of his wife, whom I perceived in front of me. “Have you been stabbed?” I inquired of Mr. Kay. “Yes!” he replied, “but he shall pay for it.” So saying he put his hand in the mess-basket and drew out a large, pointed table knife, with which he sallied furiously from the tent, without my being able to stop him. The Indians seeing the knife in his hand, asked the cause of it. He said that Le Cousin had stabbed him, and that he was in search of him to kill him. But Le Cousin had taken refuge in his own lodge which was near our camp. Mr. Kay went towards the lodge. We ran after him to prevent some fatal accident. The tumult was, by this time, very great. Great numbers were collected from all sides, and all, both French and Indians, bereft of their reason, for it was in the midst of a general carouse. In a moment, every one seized his arms, and there was a motley display of knives, guns, axes, cudgels, war-clubs, lances, &c. I found myself greatly at a non-plus, for I had not before witnessed such a scene. I saw so many preparations that I judged we should have a serious time.
“Mr. Kay pursued Le Cousin, but before he could reach him, the passage to his lodge was blocked up by the crowd. Le Cousin’s mother asked him what he wanted. “Englishman!” said she, “do you come to kill me?” She made her way among the crowd, armed with a small knife, and reached the spot where Mr. Kay was standing, without any one’s observing the knife, for she came in an humble attitude imploring Mr. Kay for the life of her son. In a moment, Mr. Kay cried out, in a loud voice, “I am killed,” and he fell. We entered, and found that she had struck him in the side, making an incision of more than three inches. We now took him to his tent, bathed in his blood. We laid him on his bed, which in a moment, was soaking with his blood.
“At this moment his friend Le Petit Mort, (Jeebyains) who had been tipsey and gone to sleep, started up. He ran to Mr. Kay’s tent, where the first object he saw, was his friend pale and quivering. He went and embraced him amidst a flood of tears, saying, “My friend, you are dead, but I survive to revenge you.” In contemplating a calico night-gown which Mr. Kay had on when he was wounded, and which was all bloody, he could no longer restrain his anger. He took up the knife which Mr. Kay had, at the time he was wounded, and which had been brought back by his wife, who was present. He sallied out of the tent to seek revenge, not of Le Cousin,—who was the instrument, but not the author of the murder—but of Cul Blanc, who was sitting before the fire, smoking his pipe. He seized him by the scalp-lock, drew his body back with one hand, exclaiming, “Die, thou dog!” with the other hand, he plunged a knife into his breast, Cul Blanc begging all the while for mercy.
“This scene of carnage put a stop to the drinking. The women spilled out all the rum, of which there was still no small quantity in the different lodges. The stab Cul Blanc had received did not prove mortal, notwithstanding the ghastliness of the wound, the knife having passed out through the flesh without penetrating any vital part. But the blood issued copiously and disfigured his wife, who carried him off, trailing his blood through the camp.
“This tragedy being finished, Le Petit Mort re-entered the tent. He told his wife, who followed him, to go and search for certain roots, which he chewed and formed into a cataplasm for the wound, after having applied his mouth to it, and sucked out the extravasated blood, an operation that caused Mr. Kay great pain. He enjoyed a little ease during the remainder of the night and following day. Le Petit Mort passed the night opposite to his bed. The next day he took off the compress, and replaced it by another, after having once more sucked out the blood and cleaned the wound. The patient became so exhausted by this dressing, that for the space of half an hour he lost all recollection. When he regained his senses he felt easier, and asked for the Bras Casse, (the chief of the band,) who had not yet heard what had happened, for the Indians had been occupied in drinking, and he had been getting ready to depart, having only delayed a little, to give some game to the Frenchmen. He came to the field of these atrocities, entered Mr. Kay’s tent, and gave him his hand, saying, “My friend, your misfortune has given me much pain. If I had been here, it would not have taken place. One thing, however, consoles me. It is, that I had not gone off; you may depend on my best efforts to restore you.” Mr. Kay accepted his offer, having confidence in him, and in his skill in the medical art, in which he was very expert. He resolved to take him along with him on his route to Mackinac, to take care of him.
“On the third of May, the Bras Casse took him in hand, and began to apply his medicines, which were found to be efficacious. After letting him repose a little, he told him he would cure him, but in order to do this he must consent to bridle his appetites. He must abstain from the use of pepper and salt in his food; he must guard against drinking, de ne point toucher des femmes. The next day Mr. Kay was a little better. He sent for M. Harris and myself to come to his tent, to receive his orders. He said to us: “Gentlemen, you see my situation. I do not know whether God will spare my life or not. I have determined to leave you, and at all hazards to set out for Mackinac with seven men, accompanied by the Bras Casse and his wife, to take care of me on the road. Assort the remainder of the goods, and ascend to Leech Lake, and wait there for the return of the Pillagers, who are out on the prairies. In short, complete the inland trade. Mr. Pinot is too feeble an opponent to do you much injury. I confide in the capacity of you both.” A few moments afterwards Mr. Harris went out, when he said to me particularly, taking hold of my hands—“My dear friend, you understand the language of the Chippewas. Mr. Harris would go with me, but he must accompany you. He is a good trader, but he has, like myself and others, a strong passion for drinking, which takes away his judgment. On these occasions, advise him. I will myself speak to him before my departure. Prepare every thing to facilitate our passage over the portages and along the lake. I shall set out to-morrow. I find myself better every day.”
“I left him with his physician, and went to distribute the provisions and lading for two inland canoes, one for Mr. Kay, and one for the four men who were to take the furs from Pine river, consisting of 19 packs of 80 lbs. each, and four packs of deer skins, to serve as seats for Mr. Kay’s men. The next day Mr. Kay was a little better, which diffused pleasure among us all. I constructed a litter (un broncard) for two men to carry him over the portages, and he set out the same day, being the 5th of May, about two o’clock, in the afternoon. Mr. Pinot also departed the same day. Bras Casse and his wife departed about sun set.”
The sequel of this tale is briefly told. Mr. Kay reached Mackinac, where Capt. Robinson, then in command, had a second operation performed on him by the post surgeon. He afterwards closed his business, and went to Montreal. A suppuration of his wound, however, took place at the Lake of Two Mountains, which terminated his life on the 26th of August, 1785, three months and twenty-four days after receiving the wound.
CHAPTER III.
General arrangements for the route of the expedition on the waters of the Upper Mississippi.—The width of this stream at Sandy Lake ascertained.—Notices of the ascent from that point by the Falls of Peckagama and Lake Winnipec, to Cass Lake.—Attack of a party of Mandans on the Chippewas at Pembina.—The route of the Bogottowa Lake.—Encamped at Winnipec House.—Inquiries respecting the opposition trade, and the traffic in ardent spirits.—Reach Cass Lake.—The width of the Mississippi, at its outlet.—Encamped on an island in this lake.—Yellow Head’s town; its population and hunting grounds.—Remarks on the Fur Trade.—North West, Hudson’s Bay, and American Fur Companies.—Lord Selkirk’s triumph.—Murder of Owen Keveny.
At Sandy Lake the expedition made its general arrangements for the route. Most of the Indians at that post being absent, with their principal Chief, on the plains near the junction of the Des Corbeau, it was determined to assemble them at that point, so as to meet the expedition on its return down the Mississippi, and to deposit at Sandy Lake House, the presents intended for distribution to this band, together with the supplies required for the home route. These were placed in charge of a trusty person, with directions to proceed down the river with them, to the Isle Des Corbeau, in season to meet the party at that place on the 24th July. Relieved of this portion of the burthen of transportation, it was then settled that the expedition should go up the Mississippi, through all its windings, to Cass Lake; there make a final deposit of the remainder of its heavy baggage, and fit out a select exploring party, in light canoes, to ascend to its actual source. This point fixed, the party would again descend to Cass Lake, thence, cross the interior, by a route, represented to be practicable, to Leech Lake, and from the latter, strike south-westwardly, falling on a series of portages and lakes leading to the head of the great Des Corbeau, or Crow Wing River. This river it was proposed to follow down its entire length, to its entrance into the Mississippi, the point fixed on, for assembling the Sandy Lake, Pine River, and Mille Lac Indians.
In conformity with these arrangements, the party left Sandy Lake House, on the afternoon of the 4th of July, having previously ascertained the width of the Mississippi, at that place, to be 331 feet. The evening of this day and the two following days, were employed in reaching the vicinity of the Peckagama Falls, against a brisk current, with occasional rapids. They made a portage on the 7th over the Granular Quartz ridge, producing the Falls, and encamped the same evening at Point aux Chenes, in the savannahs above. The next day, being the Sabbath, was passed at that point. While there, a French engagé arrived from Leech Lake, being on his way to Sandy Lake. Advantage was taken of this opportunity, to send directions for the hastening the meeting of the Indians at Isle Des Corbeau, by the space of two days, as the waters were found even more favorable, than had been anticipated.
This man, whose name was La Plante, confirmed reports which had been current at Fond du Lac and at Sandy Lake, of the going out of a strong war party of the Leech Lake Indians against the Sioux. But he added, that the party, which had been headed by the popular Chief, Aishkibugikozh, or the Geulle Platte, had returned, bringing, as a trophy of their victory, three Sioux scalps. He also reported the attack of a hostile party of Indians, supposed to be Sioux, on the outskirts of the Pembina settlement, where they scalped a girl, in open day, but were pursued by a party of Chippewas, overtaken in the act of crossing a stream, and lost several men. It was found, by subsequent information, of an authentic character, that the attacking party, on this occasion, were Mandans, and that it consisted of forty men. They crossed the river Pembina, at the point of its junction with Red River, on a raft, went down the latter about four miles, and concealed themselves in the vicinity of a trading house, at which there were several lodges of Chippewas. After waiting a definite time, and finding no opportunity to effect their purpose, they resolved to return to the raft at the crossing of the river, leaving a select party to make a sally upon the Chippewas. This party met the girl, tore off her scalp in haste, and fled to rejoin their companions at the raft. But as the girl was not killed, the alarm was immediately given. Nine Chippewas started in the pursuit. They overtook and fired upon the Mandans, killing one man, and driving them in to their main party. The latter, in the mean time, had tied their guns together and laid them on the raft, preparatory to crossing. Being suddenly roused by the war whoop, in their midst, and without arms, they plunged into the Pembina, and swam across. During this effort, they were fired upon by their pursuers, who killed two more of their number. One of these succeeded in gaining the opposite bank, and was carried a short distance by his companions before he expired. His body was left. The remainder of the party pursued their flight. But they were without the means of subsistence, for they had lost their arms. A new calamity overtook them. The Sioux (who were also their enemies, as well as the enemies of the Chippewas,) fell upon them, and, in their defenceless state, killed thirty-six men. The survivor reached his people on the Missouri to narrate the disaster.
The expedition pursued its way on the 9th. The ascent of this part of the river, being through a series of savannahs, the guides availed themselves of an intimate knowledge of the country, and the high state of the water, to avoid numerous curves, which would have consumed much time in coursing around, and led the way through extensive fields of reeds and grass, assuming the character of semi-lakes. Not far above Oak Point, a side route was taken, through a lake called the Bogottowa, or Lac a le Crosse. This lake, which is a clear and pleasant sheet of water of some ten miles in extent, receives a small but narrow creek at its head, noted for its helices, which is ascended to a small lake terminating a few hundred yards east of the Little Winnipec Lake of the Mississippi. The portage is through a fine forest. By taking this route the circuitous south bend of the Mississippi, at the entrance of the Leech Lake branch, was avoided, and the better part of a day’s travel saved. Day light was still undiminished, when the party reached the minor trading post of Winnipec House, where they encamped.
The following queries were put to the Clerk in charge of this post, respecting the opposition trade, and the traffic in ardent spirits.
1st. Do the Hudson’s Bay Clerks cross the American lines from the post of Rainy Lake, for the purposes of trade? Ans. No. They furnish goods to Indians who go trading into the American territories.
2d. Do the Partners, or Clerks of the Hudson’s Bay Company, present flags and medals to Indians? Ans. Yes.
3d. Do they give such flags and medals to Indians living within the American lines? Ans. No. I have heard that they took away an American flag given to an Indian on the United States’ borders of Rainy Lake, tore it, and burnt it, and gave him a British flag instead.
4th. Was the Hudson’s Bay Company’s post on Rainy Lake, supplied with ardent spirits last season? (i. e. 1831 and 1832.) Ans. It was. They had about sixty kegs of highwines, which were shewn to some of our Indians, who went there, and Mr. Cameron, the person in charge of the post, said to them, that although their streams were high, from the melting of the snows, they should swim as high with liquor if the Indians required it.
5th. What is the usual strength of the highwines? Ans. One keg is reduced to four.
6th. Have the Indians sent on derwin by the Hudson’s Bay Company, approached near to your post? Ans. They have come very near—having been on the Turtle Portage, with goods.
7th. Did they bring liquor thus far? Ans. No. The liquor is kept at Rainy Lake, to induce the Indians to visit that place with their furs.
8th. Did the disposition made of the liquor, which the Secretary of War permitted the principal Factor of the Fond du Lac Department, to take in last year, (1831,) embrace the post of Winnipec? Ans. It did not. It was kept chiefly at Rainy Lake, and on the lines, to be used in the opposition trade.
Another trader, inquired of, in the country below, observed that five Chiefs had been invested with medals and flags, by the British trader at Lac le Pluie.
The party traversed Lake Winnipec on the morning of the 10th, and entered and passed up the sand-hill bordered valley of the Mississippi, to Cass Lake, the entrance to which they reached about one o’clock, being eleven days earlier in the season than this lake had been visited by the light canoes of Gov. Cass, twelve years previous. The outlet of this lake, was ascertained to be 172 feet in width, with an estimated depth of eight feet; being over half the width of the river, immediately below the inlet of the Sandy Lake branch.
At this point, being the ultima Thule of previous discovery, our narrative may assume a more personal character. The day was characterised by the striking warmth of the month of July in this latitude. The fore part of it had been spent in a diligent ascent of the Mississippi from Lake Winnipec; and the party reached the point of entrance, with a feeling of gratification, arising from the accomplishment of one of its objects. We halted a few moments, to allow the hindmost canoes to come up, so as to enter the Lake together. Oza Windib, or the Yellow Head, our Chippewa guide, had preceded the party a little, as he often did, to get the first glance of little bays and inlets, where water fowl are usually found. He had put his canoe ashore behind a small point, where he met a party of the Cass Lake band. Of this he kept us ignorant till turning the same point, that he might surprise us with an unexpected salute. The Indians then approached in their canoes in a body, with a welcome, which could hardly have been more cordial, had we been old friends. They represented their residence to be on a large island, bearing south-west from the entrance. And for this island we set forward, with every appliance. The Indians accompanied us, imparting a spirit of emulation to the men, by shouts and firing. In making this traverse, we left the mouth of Turtle river, (the spot of Gov. Cass’ landing in 1820,) on our right, and did not come near enough to the shore, distinctly to recognise its features. We were upwards of an hour in reaching the island, which is called Grand Island, or Colcaspi. On approaching it, a number of Indians were observed, running across an elevation, and pointing, with wild gestures, to a bay beyond. It was the best place of landing. They were assiduous in directing the men to the spot. They ranged themselves along the shore, fired a salute, and then came eagerly to the water’s edge, giving each one a hand, as he alighted from the canoe. He, who has formed his estimate of an Indian from the reading of books, in which he is depicted as cruel and morose, without any insight into his social character, need only to be ushered into a scene like this, to be convinced that he has contemplated an overshadowed picture. We found these Indians to be frank, cheerful, and confiding.
CASS LAKE
2978 miles above the Gulf of Mexico.
On ascending the elevation before referred to, it was found to be the site of an abandoned village, now covered partially with corn-fields, and overgrown, in other parts, with sumac and other shrubbery. The cutting down too much of the forest, and the consequent exposure to winds, had probably been their reason for removing the village to a more southerly and sheltered part of the island. An Indian town, all America over, is nothing but an assemblage of wigwams, built, exclusively to suit the particular convenience of the occupant, without right angled streets, for which (as they have no carts or waggons) they have no occasion, and they get thereby the additional advantage of having no clouds of dust blown up from the denuded surface. There is (as we should say) a public square, or rather, an open grassy spot, where councils and dances are held, and the ceremonies of the wabeno and medicine society performed. Hillocks and elevated grounds are selected for erecting their lodges on; and clumps of small trees and shrubs are sought. Large trees are avoided, for the simple reason, that they often loose a limb during windy weather, and are liable to be blown down by tempests. But the whole circular opening, constituting a town plat, is surrounded with forest, to shelter them, in summer and winter. Gardens are variously located, and generally without fences, as there are no domesticated cattle. Such, at least, was the town of Oza Windib, situated nearly a mile from the spot of our landing, to which he was welcomed, on his return, by groups of men, women, and children. The total population, as counted during our stay, was 157, and it does not, probably, at any time, exceed 200 or 250. They rely, in the main, on hunting for a subsistence, deriving considerable aid, as the season shifts, from fishing, the gathering of wild rice, and the products of small fields of corn and potatoes, cultivated by the women. We were assured that the corn crop was always relied on, and that seed corn is preserved from year to year, and has not been known to fail. About sixty miles northwest, at Red Lake, corn is stated by the traders, to be a profitable crop, and it is among the singularities of the fur trade, that this article has, within a few of the last years, been furnished in considerable quantity, from that lake, to the posts on the Upper Mississippi, and even as far east as Fond du Lac.
The hunting grounds of Yellow Head’s band, embrace the extreme sources of the Mississippi, and his village is the last fixed location in the ascent. Part of them go to Lac Travers, and encamp there, for the purpose of making the winter hunt. And from this point, they ascend southerly, which carries them still further into the red deer and stag and hind country of (the absolute head of the Mississippi,) Itasca Lake. The furs and skins collected, are exchanged for goods with traders, who visit them annually in the fall, and remain during the winter. These goods are brought in canoes from Michilimackinac, an estimated distance, as travelled, of 1120 miles. Of this distance there are only 18¾ miles land carriage, separated into five portages, at distant points.
We may observe in this singular facility of internal water communication, one of the primary reasons of the heads of the Mississippi, being supplied with Indian goods at first from Montreal, and afterwards from New-York. Not only were these facilities early found to exist, but it was the track of interior discovery, while the Mississippi itself opposed an obstacle to the trade, by its difficult navigation, and the unhealthiness of the climate of its lower latitudes. Political considerations, also, entered into the earlier arrangements. Indeed, whoever is curious to examine into this matter, will find the history of the fur trade in north-western America, to be intimately blended with the civil history of the country, for about two hundred and fifty years after its discovery. Dating this discovery from the arrival of Jaques Cartier in the gulf of St. Lawrence, in 1534, (the first well settled era,) the traffic then commenced with the natives, and, soon assuming an engrossing character, may be traced through various modifications, up to the surrender of the lake posts to the American government in 1796. This momentous interval of two hundred and sixty-two years, is fraught with incidents of a deeply interesting character, which it will be sufficient here, to allude to. Through every change of things the fur trade continued to be, not only cherished, but formed one of the cardinal interests in the policy of the government which France and Great Britain successively exercised over this portion of North America. Under the French government the system was intimately connected with military and with missionary efforts, in a manner which was peculiar to that government. Licences to trade were granted by the governor general to superannuated officers, and other servants of the crown, by whom they were sold out to enterprising individuals. These persons went inland to exchange their goods for furs, and first drew upon themselves the epithet of Couriers du Bois. Great irregularities, however, existed. Civil and ecclesiastic power were alternately exerted to restrain them. And an order to prohibit the traffic in the article of brandy was issued by one of the French governors.
Under English rule, local agents were authorised, in the name of the king, to oversee Indian affairs, grant licences, and exercise a general supervision over the trade. Serious difficulties arose in acquiring the confidence of the northern Indians after the fall of Quebec. But, after an interruption of four or five years, (say from ’59 to ’64,) including the period of Pontiac’s war, the trade gradually resumed its healthful action. French enterprise had spread it through the region of Lake Superior and the Upper Mississippi, to the banks of the Saskatchawine. Scottish intrepidity carried it to the mouths of the Mackenzie, and the Columbia.
The date of American authority in the lake country, may be placed in 1796. It was, however, but feebly felt in its influence on the northwest fur trade, for several years. Congress first legislated on the subject in 1802, but four years afterwards Lieut. Pike, on reaching the Upper Mississippi, found it in the exclusive possession of the North West Company. The Indians were then as much attached to the English, as they had been to the French, in 1759. It cost the British crown the expenses of a war to gain this ascendancy, and the Americans were not permitted to succeed them, as the sovereign power over Indian territory, at a less hazard. The war of 1812, found all the northern tribes confederated with the English. Tecumseh had risen to re-act the part which Pontiac had failed to accomplish, fifty-two years before, namely, driving back the infringing power. This happened, in 1759, to be Great Britain; but in 1812, it was the United States. With less sterling capacity to organise and command, however, than his great predecessor had, and with the powerful resources of England to back him, he utterly failed. It was not till after this failure, and the re-establishment of American garrisons at Detroit and Michilimackinac, that the Jeffersonian Indian code of 1802, began to be put into effect in the north-west. In 1816, a law was passed by Congress to exclude foreigners from the trade. In 1819 St. Peter’s was established. In 1820, Gov. Cass personally visited the tribes, and in 1822, a military post was advanced to St. Mary’s Falls, the most northern point occupied by the United States army.
Although the North West Company had now transferred to an American company, organised by Mr. Astor, all their posts south and west of the lines of demarcation, they maintained, however, an active trade along the lines, and waged one of the most spirited and hard contested oppositions against the Hudson’s Bay Company, which has ever characterised a commercial rivalry. Lord Selkirk had now placed himself at the head of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and staked his character and resources on the maintenance of its territorial and commercial rights. It is no part of our object to go into details. Let it suffice, that he took Fort William on the 13th of August, 1816, carried his power over the region of Red river, where he planted a colony, and, after losing the lives of several of his most zealous agents and officers, (including the governor of his colony,) finally triumphed in asserting the rights of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and quieted, by an amalgamation of stocks, the claims of his intrepid rivals.
One of the most painful atrocities which arose, in the course of this rivalry, was the murder of Owen Keveny. As the facts were subsequently detailed in a court of justice, they may be succinctly narrated. Mr. Keveny, a gentleman in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company, was taken prisoner by the North West Company, in the summer of 1816; and ordered to be sent out from Red river to Montreal. On ascending the river Winnipec, (northwest of the Lake of the Woods,) he was finally put in charge of a couple of engagés, named Faye and La Point, in a canoe, with an Indian guide, called Joseph, Son-of-the-White-partridge, with directions to take him to Rainy Lake. By these he was landed on an island below the Dalles, where they slept. Next morning Keveny complained of being ill, and asked Faye to bring him some warm water. The latter, on coming to the beach, found that La Pointe, and the Indian, had put out into the stream. On being called, they came ashore and took in Faye, and all then went down the river together, abandoning Keveny on the island. A few days afterwards one of the engagés in the canoe, quarrelled with the Indian, and the latter left them. They then turned about and began to ascend the river, but, having lost their guide, could not find their way, and soon encamped on a small island, resolved to wait till some canoe should pass. Four or five days had elapsed, when their expectations were answered, by the arrival of a light canoe, with two partners of the North West Company, and Charles de Reinhard, a clerk, and a Boisbrulè, named Mainville, besides the Indian, Joseph, Son-of-the-White-partridge, who had fled from Faye and La Pointe, below. After a short halt, during which Mr. M‘Lellan, (a partner of the North West Company,) beat the two men with a canoe-pole, all embarked for Rainy Lake. The same day they met other canoes, from which they learned, that Keveny, whose life had been threatened by de Reinhard and others, had left the island, where he was first abandoned, and gone up the river five or six leagues, to another island situated above the Dalles. He was now the subject of engrossing interest and conversation. On reaching this, they found Keveny, as expected. Mr. Grant, one of the partners, landed, with others, and shook hands with him. They then embarked, leaving de Reinhard, Mainville, and Joseph, Son-of-the-White-Partridge, on the island with Keveny. After going two or three leagues further up the river, they encamped. Some time after landing, the report of a gun was heard in the direction they came from. In half an hour’s time, a canoe came from the same direction, having in it de Reinhard, Mainville, and Joseph, Son-of-the-White-Partridge. It had much blood in it, together with the trunks, and clothes worn by Keveny, but Keveny himself was not there. On examining the coat, there was perceived to be a ball hole, and an incision, in different parts of it. Keveny’s trunks were then landed, unlocked, and a division made of his clothes, linen, and other effects. De Reinhard wiped the blood from his sword, declaring in the hearing of the men, as if glorying in the perpetration of the act, that he had killed him, and was entitled to the best apparel, which he accordingly appropriated to himself. Mainville took the perforated coat.
The facts of this foul deed appeared to be these. Keveny, with the three persons left with him, by the Northwest partners, embarked in a small Indian canoe, to ascend the river. He complained of being unwell, and was landed at a certain spot. De Reinhard, Mainville, and Joseph, waited at the beach. De Reinhard stood near the canoe as Keveny re-embarked, and suddenly drawing a short sword, thrust it into his body. Keveny doubled down under the blow, but being a tall and powerful man, (although weakened by disease,) he recovered himself, seized the blade of the sword, and would have wrenched it away and overpowered the assassin, had he not called to Mainville to fire. The latter obeyed. The ball passed through Keveny’s neck, and he instantly fell. It does not seem that the Indian participated in the act. The body was stripped and left on shore, unburied. Two years after (i. e. 1818,) De Reinhard, who had, it seems, been a subaltern officer in one of the disbanded foreign regiments, was tried for the murder at Quebec, proved guilty, (by his own confessions to the men at the encampment,) and sentenced to the gallows. Mainville escaped.
CHAPTER IV.
Brief detail of transactions at Cass Lake.—A select exploring party is organised here, for ascending to the actual source of the Mississippi.—Council with the Indians.—Speech of Oza Windib.—The Indians furnish canoes and guides.—Arrangement of the party.—Notice of a Warrior’s widow.—Scalp dance.—Facts respecting foreign interference in the trade of the Upper Mississippi.—The question of the use of ardent spirits in the trade.—Act of Congress of 1832, prohibiting it.—Departure of the exploring party.—Ascent to Pamitchi Gumaug, or Lac Travers.—Its elevation and size.—A Shingaba Wossin.—Image worship.—Bay.—Ultimate forks of the Mississippi.—Ascend the east fork.—Lake Marquette.—Lake La Salle.—Kubbakunna Lake.—Notices of the Natural History.
Having determined to organise a select party at this lake, to explore the source of the river, measures were immediately taken to effect it. A council of the Indians was assembled, and the object declared to them. They were requested to delineate maps of the country, and to furnish the requisite number of hunting canoes and guides. Oza Windib, said, “My father, the country you are going to see, is my hunting ground. I have travelled with you many days.[4] I shall go with you farther. I will myself furnish the maps you have requested, and will guide you onward. There are many rapids in the way, but the waters are favorable. I shall consult with my band about the canoes, and see who will step forward to furnish them. My own canoe, shall be one of the number.”
Before night the maps were completed, and five different individuals, including Oza Windib, brought each a canoe of the proper size and laid it down. Two young men expressed their willingness to go, as additional guides. Seven engagés and a cook, were added to this number, making, with Lieut. J. Allen, (who declared he could push his men no farther, Doct. Douglass Houghton, the Reverend Wm. T. Boutwell, Mr. George Johnston, and myself,) sixteen persons. These, with their travelling beds, were distributed among five canoes, with provisions for ten days, a tent and poles, oil cloth, mess basket, tea-kettle, flag and staff, a medicine chest, some instruments, an herbarium, fowling pieces, and a few Indian presents. The detachment of infantry was left in their encampment on the island, under the command of their non-commissioned officer. The remainder of the party, with the baggage and travelling equipment, was placed in charge of Mr. Le Default, a clerk of one of the upper posts of trade, who was attached to the expedition from Fond du Lac, and obligingly undertook the acquisition of certain points of information, during the contemplated absence.
While these arrangements were in process, a mixed group of men, women, and children, from the Indian village, thronged our encampment. Among them I observed the widow of a Chippewa warrior, who had been killed some three or four weeks previous, in the foray of the Leech Lake war party, in the Sioux country. She was accompanied by her children and appeared dejected. I asked one of the Indians the place of her residence. He replied, here; that her husband had been a brave warrior, and went, on the call of the Leech Lake chief, with a number of volunteers, to join the party. I asked him, of what number the party consisted? He replied, about one hundred. Who had led them? The Gueuile Platte. Where they had met the enemy? South of the head of Leaf river. What had been the result of the action? They were victorious, having taken three scalps on the field, and lost but one, being the husband of the widow referred to. The action had however, been at long shots, with frequent changes of position, and the enemy had finally fled to a village for reinforcement. The Chippewas took this opportunity to retreat, and, after consultation, returned, bringing back the three scalps, as memorials of their prowess. These trophies had, we learned, been exhibited in the customary dances at Leech Lake, after which one of them was forwarded to Oza Windib’s band, to undergo a like ceremony. And it was finally presented to the widow.
It was now exhibited by the young men, in her behalf, for a purpose which was certainly new to me. Although I knew that this people were ingenious in converting most circumstances, connected with both fortune and misfortune, into a means of soliciting alms, I had never before seen the scalp of an enemy employed as a means of levying contributions. Such, however, was the purpose for which it was now brought forward. It was exhibited with all the circumstances of barbarian triumph. Shouts and dancing, intermingled with the sounds of the rattle, and Indian drum, form the conspicuous traits of such a scene. Short harangues, terminated by a general shout, fill up the pauses of the dance, and at this moment the drums cease. It was an outcry of this kind that first drew my attention to a neighboring eminence. I observed some of the simple bark enclosures, which mark the locality of a Chippewa burial ground. Near them, was erected a sort of triumphal arch, consisting of bent and tied saplings, from the arc formed by which, depended an object, which was said to be the remains of decaying scalps. Around this, was gathered a crowd of dancers, moving in a circle. The fresh scalp was suspended from a rod. Every time it waved, a new impulse seemed to be given to the shouting. The widow and her children were present. And the whole group of spectators, Canadians as well as Indians, appeared to regard the ceremony with an absorbing interest. In the brief pause, which separated each dance, presents were thrown in. And all that was given was deemed the property of the widow. This was the scalp dance.
Other incidents of the sojourn of the expedition on this island will be mentioned on the return of the party to it. A few may be added here.
Representations having been made to the Department, on the subject of foreign interference in the trade of the Upper Mississippi, a number of queries were addressed to an American trader, well acquainted with its geography and resources. I inquired of him, whether the American traders on that border, were strenuously opposed in their trade by the inhabitants of the Red river colony, or by the partners and clerks of the Hudson’s Bay Company. He replied that the inhabitants of Pembina, were in the habit of making temporary voyages of trade to Voleuse, or Thief river, south of the parallel of forty-nine degrees, but that they had not built or made a permanent stand there. He said, that the open nature of the country about the Red river settlement, gave great facilities for making short excursions into the Indian country, on horseback and in carts. But he did not know any place to which permanent outfits had been sent, except the river Souris, west of Red river. He believed that this traffic was carried on, exclusively, by the inhabitants of the colony and not by the Hudson’s Bay Company.
I asked him whether the Indians of the Lake of the Woods visited the post of Red Lake, and whether our traders were annoyed in their trade in that quarter by the servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company. He replied, that the Lac du Bois Indians came across to Red Lake ordinarily; that it is a three day’s journey; but that no annoyance is experienced in the trade of that part from the Hudson’s Bay factors. He was of opinion that they do not send outfits into any part of the territory south or west of the national boundary, beginning at Portage des Rats on the Lake of the Woods.
A quite different aspect was put upon the temper of this opposition by the Principal of this department of trade, who was met below. He complained of the influence which the Hudson’s Bay Company exert across the lines, and the moral character of the means which were resorted to, to induce the American Indians to go to their posts. He said that in 1831, (I think) one of his petty clerks had been induced to abscond with his outfit, and had been well received by one of the partners of the Hudson’s Bay Company. On inquiry, I found this clerk to be Mainville, one of the murderers of Keveny. He said that high wines was the great power of the supremacy of the Hudson’s Bay Company on the lines, and brought forward the usual arguments of those persons, who either deem ardent spirits essential to the success of the trade, or justify its temporary use on the principle of expediency.
It may here, in brief, be observed, that all such arguments plausible as they may appear, are founded on a false principle. They assume the existence of an evil, which is alleged to be so fixed, that it is better to tolerate it, than to run the risk of uprooting it; as if it were better to submit to a disease, than to attempt its cure, by a removal of its causes. No trader, will however, deny the existence of the evil, as an abstract question. Neither is it denied, that ardent spirits is a tax upon the trade, in the exact ratio of its entire cost, doubled, and trebled, and quadrupled, as this cost is by the expense of interior transportation. But the question is, “Who shall begin to give up its use?” This is a question internally, between trader and trader, externally, between company and company. As such it has been bandied between New-York and London, the seats of commercial power. But neither side has felt the requisite degree of confidence, to risk the experiment of a voluntary arrangement for its entire exclusion from the lines.[5] Congress has terminated this question, so far as it respects American citizens, by an act of the 9th of July, of the present year, (1832,) which contains this provision: “That no ardent spirits shall be hereafter introduced, under any pretence, into the Indian country.” The enforcement of this act, has been rigidly enjoined, and it is in the process of successful execution. Posterity will probably regard this measure as reflecting more honor upon our national legislation, than if we had decreed a hundred monuments to fallen greatness. But we are writing a homily, where we intended to offer a few hints, and must hie to the labor of the journey before us. Every arrangement being completed on the evening of the 10th, we embarked, at the island, at three o’clock the next morning. Our course lay westward, through a strait, formed by the approach of a part of the island, to a part of the main shore. We then passed two islands, called Garden and Elm islands. The morning was too hazy to give us any extensive prospect of the lake, or its shores. We had been a little more than an hour in motion, when we found ourselves nearing the western head of the lake, and the men soon shoved our canoes upon a sandy beach, with the exclamation of un portage. We found this portage to extend about fifty yards, over a plain of sand, bearing pine, and terminating on the banks of a small lake. Through this lake the Mississippi has its course, and the two lakes are connected by a circuitous channel, which might, perhaps, have occupied a half, or three quarters of an hour, to ascend. The lake, for which we heard no name, is several miles in extent. We passed it transversely, and entered the channel of the river on its western border. It presents a still current, with an edging of savannah, which, at no great distance above, is again expanded around the margin of another lake, called Tascodiac.[6] Hills of sand, covered with yellow pines, here present themselves, and the river exhibits for several miles above, either a sand bank, or a savannah border. Time is the only measure of distance, which we had the means of referring to. About eight o’clock, rapid water was encountered, and at this point, which may be fifteen miles above Cass Lake, the meadow lands cease. Boulders, of a primitive character, are found on the rapids. The rapids are such, in their force and inequality of depth, as to require the men frequently to wade, and pull up the canoes. There are, say, ten of these principal rapids, in the ensuing twenty or twenty-five miles, at which distance, we reach the most northern point of the Mississippi, which is marked by the fine expanse of the Pamitchi Gumaug, or Lac Travers. This lake may be fifty feet above the level of Cass Lake. It is about 12 miles long, from north to south, and six or seven broad, with elevated shores, presenting to the eye a beautiful vista of hard wood groves.
We landed a few moments, on the right hand shore in entering it, to examine an object, which the men had been conversing of on the way, namely, a Shingaba Wossin. It proved to be a boulder of gneiss rock, water worn, so as to present the figure of a rude shaft, with an entablature, but not exceeding in weight, the maximum of a man’s strength. One of the canoe-men lifted it. It had been set up, on its base, and was decorated with a ring of red paint. The name may be freely translated Image Stone, and has no reference to the composition of the mass, any farther than that the name is usually found to be applied to rocks of the primitive kind, both from the liability of this class of rocks to assume these forms, and from their hardness, which has enabled them to endure the power of attrition. Offerings are usually left at such rude altars, and they afford, perhaps, the nearest approach to idol worship, in its grosser forms, which an examination of our Indian customs, present. The soil, at this spot, appeared to be rather rich, bearing a growth of elm, soft maple and white ash.
We were an hour in crossing the lake south-westwardly, and were impressed with the extent and beauty of the prospect. On gaining the opposite shore, we found the Mississippi flowing with a brisk and deep current into it, and exhibiting a width of, perhaps one hundred and fifty feet. In landing, a few moments, at this point, we found the beach strewed with small shells, both uniones, and helices. A log house, used as a winter trading camp, stood a few hundred yards northwardly. And this may be referred to, as the most advanced trading location on the main waters of this river.
Lac Travers is separated by a short channel, from a bay or lake of moderate dimensions, which is, from its proximity, considered a part of the main lake, although the current of the separating channel, indicates the latter to be rather a river than a strait. It will be convenient to refer to it, as it is from this point that the Mississippi, which has now been pursued to its utmost northing, is ascended directly south. About four miles above this bay, the Mississippi has its ultimate forks, being formed of an east and west branch, of which the west branch is decidedly the largest, and considerably the longest. Reasons indicated by our guide, induced him to conduct us up the east branch, which we soon found expanded into a small lake, denoted Marquette, and not far above, into another, denoted La Salle. We were twenty-four minutes in passing through the last, and on leaving it, found the stream strikingly diminished in volume, with a limited depth, and a vegetation of a more decidedly alpine character. About four miles above the latter, the stream expands into a lake some six or seven miles in length, and about half that distance in width. This lake, which is called Kubbakunna, The Rest in the Path, presented a pleasing aspect, after the sombre vegetation, we had passed below. Rushes, however, were abundant toward its head, and we found the ground too low and wet for encamping. After ascending the river, for a distance, we put ashore for the night, at a point of woods extending into the marsh-land, constituting the river margin. The soil at this place, appeared to be of the most frigid character. A carpet of moss covered it, which the foot sank deep into, at every step. The growth was exclusively small grey pine, with numerous dead branches below, and strikingly festooned with flowing moss. Nearer the margin of the river, alder, tamarack, and willow, occupied the soil. As night approached it commenced raining, which served to add to the natural gloom of the spot.
Notices of the natural history of the country, during this day’s journey are meagre. The principal growth of forest trees, out of the immediate valley, is pine. The plants appear to present little variety, and consist of species peculiar to moist, cold, or elevated situations. Water fowl are abundant, and were frequently shot. Among the number brought in from the different canoes, in the evenings, were the duck and mallard, wood-duck, and saw-bill. One of the latter species, had a unio firmly attached to its lower mandible, having been in the act of opening it when shot.
CHAPTER V.
Ascent of the east fork of the Mississippi, from Kubbakunna Lake to the Naiwa rapids.—Its productions.—Indians kill a deer; their mode of dissecting it.—Reach the foot of Naiwa rapids.—The Naiwa portage.—Copper-head snake.—Zoned agate.—Journey from thence to Ossowa Lake, the source of this branch of the Mississippi.—Mistake in the latitude.—Portage from the east to the west branch.—Hauteur des Terres.—The height of land between the Hudson’s Bay and Gulf of Mexico waters.—Geographical notices of its extent.—Its natural productions.—Its geology.—Arrival at Itasca Lake.
We resumed the ascent at five o’clock in the morning, (12th.) The course of this branch of the river, above the Kubbakunna Lake, resembles a thread wound across a savannah valley. A species of coarse marsh-land grass, covers the valley. Clumps of willow fringe this stream. Rushes and Indian reed are gathered in spots most favorable to their growth. The eye searches in vain, for much novelty in the vegetation. Wherever the stream touches the solid land, grey pine, and tamarack are conspicuous, and clumps of alder here take the place of willow. Moss attaches itself to almost every thing. And there is a degree of dampness and obscurity in the forest, which is almost peculiar to the region. Water fowl seem alone to exult in their seclusion, and evince the infrequency of intrusion by flying a short distance, and frequently alighting within gun-shot.
After we had gone on a little more than an hour, the Indian in the bow of the forward canoe, fired at, and killed a deer. We all landed to look at the animal. Although fairly shot through the fore part of the body, it ran several hundred yards before it fell. The Indian traced it by its blood, and found it quite dead. He brought it to the banks of the river, before skinning it. We stood in astonishment at the dexterity with which this operation was performed. In a very few minutes it was disrobed of its skin, quartered and dissected. The owner presented me the quarters. He gave the moze to our guide. This term comprehends all parts of the carcass except the four quarters, head and entrails. Nothing was, however, thrown away; and we had occasion, at night to observe, that the aid of fire enables them, with very little of the culinary art, to despatch those parts of the animal, which, it might be inferred, were most in need of preparation. Signs of this animal were frequently seen, and had the objects of the journey permitted delay, it might have been often killed.
Our progress through the savannahs, was rendered more unpleasant than it would otherwise have been, by frequent showers of rain, which gave, as is usual, a peculiar activity and virulence to the musquito. When the usual hour of landing for breakfast had arrived, the banks were too marshy to admit of it, and we went on until a quarter past twelve. We then again renewed a labor with little variety of incident.
At half past five we came to an elevated sand-hill on the right shore, covered with yellow pine, and presenting a naked face towards the river. As one of the canoes required mending, I directed the men to land at this spot, for that purpose. Oza Windib, who was a little in the rear, at the moment, said, on coming up, that we were within a few hundred yards of the junction of the Naiwa, the principal tributary of this fork; that a series of rapids commenced at that point, which would render it necessary to make a portage the whole extent of them, and that it was better to commence the portage at this place, as the river so ran, that we might go directly back through the forest, and strike its channel. He said that the Naiwa, which came in on the left, was a stream of considerable length, and originated in a lake which was infested by copper-head snakes, to which its name has reference. I observed that the soil at this place was of a diluvian character, and embraced pebbles, and small boulders of syenite, trap rock, and quartz, and other debris of primitive and secondary rocks. One of the party picked up a well characterised piece of zoned agate.
While the mending of the canoes was in progress, the baggage was put in portable order, and as soon as all was ready, the men moved on with the canoes and effects, which were so arranged that all could be carried at one load, and it did not require them to go back. This was a point originally kept in view, in the curtailment of the baggage at the island, and it was an object of the highest importance to the speed and success of the trip. Each canoe and its apparatus, with some of the lighter pieces was carried by one man. The guide led off the men, with no slight burden on his own shoulders, first scrambling up the sandy acclivity, and then striking through a growth of scrub oak and pines. The showers of the morning had so thoroughly wet the grass and shrubbery, that a few moments walking through it, was sufficient completely to saturate both pantaloons and stockings. I walked out a few hundred yards from the trail, towards the left which brought me into the curve of the river, in view of the rapids. There appeared to be a series of small rapids, with intervening shallows. The noise of falling water and the white wreaths of foam, induced me to think there might be distinct falls, but I could discern nothing entitled to the name. The average descent of the river, at this series of rapids, appeared to be, however, considerable, and might perhaps be estimated at forty-eight feet. I rejoined the party at the spot they had selected for their first pause, somewhat to their relief, probably, as guns had been fired by them, under the belief of my having missed the way. We first came in sight of the river again, on the brow of an elevated sand-hill, precipitous towards the water. The guide halted to inquire whether it would not be preferable to encamp at this spot, as we should suffer less from insects than if we encamped in the valley of the river, at the termination of the portage. As the day light was not gone, and some distance still remained, I deemed it better to go on, that we might have nothing to do in the morning, but to put our canoes in the water. On reaching the bank of the stream, we found its current placid, and our guide informed us that we had now surmounted the last rapids.
A fog prevented our embarking until five o’clock in the morning, (13th) and it was then impossible to discern objects at a distance. We found the channel above the Naiwa, diminished to a clever brook, more decidedly marshy in the character of its shores, but not presenting in its plants or trees, any thing particularly to distinguish it from the contiguous lower parts of the stream. The water is still and pond-like. It presents some small areas of wild rice. It appears to be a favorite resort for the duck and teal, who frequently rose up before us, and were aroused again and again by our progress. An hour and a half diligently employed, brought us to the foot of Ossowa Lake. We halted a moment to survey it. It exhibits a broad border of aquatic plants, with somewhat blackish waters. Perch abound in it. It is the recipient of two brooks, and may be regarded as the source of this fork of the Mississippi. We were precisely twenty minutes in passing through it. We entered one of the brooks, the most southerly in position. It possessed no current and was filled with broad leaved plants, and a kind of yellow pond-lily. We appeared to be involved in a morass, where it seemed equally impracticable to make the land, or proceed far by water. In this we were not mistaken; Oza Windib soon pushed his canoe into the weeds and exclaimed, Oma, mikunna, (here is the portage.) A man who is called on for the first time, to debark, in such a place, will look about him to discover some dry spot to put his feet upon. No such spot however existed here. We stepped into rather warm pond water, with a miry bottom. After wading a hundred yards, or more, the soil became firm, and we soon began to ascend a slight elevation, where the growth partakes more of the character of a forest. Traces of a path appeared here, and we suddenly entered an opening affording an eligible spot for landing. Here our baggage was prepared for the portage. The carbonaceous remains of former fires, the bones of birds, and scattered camp poles, proved it to be a spot which had previously been occupied by the Indians. The prevailing growth at this place, is spruce, white cedar, tamarack and grey pine. We here breakfasted.
Having followed out this branch of the Mississippi to its source, it may be observed, that its existence, as a separate river, has hitherto been unknown in our geography. None of the maps indicate the ultimate separation of the Mississippi, above Cass Lake, into two forks. Little surprise should therefore be manifested that the latitude of the head of this stream, is found to be incorrect. It was not however to be expected that the inaccuracy should be so great as to place the actual source, an entire degree south of the supposed point. Such however is the conclusion established by present observations.
The portage from the east to the west branch of the river, is estimated to be six miles. Beginning in a marsh, it soon rises into a little elevation of white cedar wood, then plunges into the intricacies of a swamp matted with fallen trees, obscured with moss. From this, the path emerges upon dry ground. It soon ascends an elevation of oceanic sand, having boulders, and bearing pines. There is then another descent, and another elevation. In short, the traveller now finds himself crossing a series of deluvial sand ridges, which form the height of land between the Mississippi Valley and Red River. This ridge, is locally denominated Hauteur des Terres where it is crossed in passing from Lac Plaie to Ottertail Lake, from which point it proceeds northward, separating the tributaries of the River des Corbeau from those of Red River. It finally subtends both branches of the Mississippi, putting out a spur between the east and west fork, which intersects the portage, crosses the west or Itascan fork about the point of the Kakábikonce, or Little Rock Falls, and joining the main ridge, passes northeastwardly of Lac Travers and Turtle Lake, and is again encountered in the noted portage path from Turtle Lake to Red Lake. It is, in fine, the table land between the waters of Hudson’s Bay and the Mexican Gulf. It also gives rise to the remotest tributaries of the river St. Louis, which, through Lake Superior and its connecting chain, may be considered as furnishing the head waters of the St. Lawrence. This table land, is probably, the highest in North-western America, in this longitude.
In crossing this highland, our Indian guide, Oza Windib, led the way, carrying one of the canoes, as his portion of the burden. The others followed, some bearing canoes, and others baggage. The whole party were arranged in Indian file, and marched rapidly a distance—then put down their burthens a few moments, and again pressed forward. Each of these stops is called a posè by the voyageurs, and is denominated Opugid-jiwunon, or a place of putting down the burthen, by the Indians. Thirteen of these rests, are deemed the length of the portage. The path is rather blind, and requires the precision of an Indian eye to detect it. Even the guide was sometimes at a loss, and went forward to explore. We passed a small lake occupying a vale, about midway of the portage, in canoes. The route beyond it, was more obstructed with underbrush. To avoid this, we waded through the margins of a couple of ponds, near which we observed old camp poles, indicating former journies by the Indians.
The weather was warm and not favorable to much activity in bird or beast. We saw one or two species of the falco, and the common pigeon, which extends its migrations over the continent. Tracks of deer were numerous, but travelling without the precaution required in hunting, we had no opportunity of seeing this animal on the high grounds. It was observed in the valleys of the river, on both branches. Ripe straw berries were brought to me, by the men, at one of the resting places. I observed a very diminutive species of the raspberry, with fruit, on the moist grounds. Botanists would probably deem the plants few, and destitute of much interest. Parasitic moss is very common to the forest trees, and it communicates a peculiar aspect to the grey pine, which is the prevailing growth on all the elevations.
To the geologist, the scene is one of interest. The boulders of granite, and other primitive strata, occurring on the surface, remind him of the original position of these masses, in the system of nature and indicate revolutions affecting the earth’s surface, which have widely changed both the position and form of these solid materials. When the soil itself is examined, it adds further evidences of such changes. We may refer its sand to consolidated strata of this mineral which have been broken down by oceanic action, and distributed in the remarkable ridges and elevations, which now characterise the face of the country. In whatever light the subject is viewed, it seems difficult to resist the conclusion, that water has been the cause, under providence, in effecting these changes, and that the highest grounds in this region, have been subjected to the peculiar influence which this element alone exerts in the work of attrition and deposition of strata, solid or diluvial. It might be interesting to inquire, in what manner this agent of change was withdrawn, and whether a current was created toward either of the cardinal points. It would aid this inquiry to observe, in which direction the debris and soils were deposited in the heaviest masses? How far granite boulders had been carried from their beds? And whether wood, bones, and other organic remains had been subjected to like removals? We think these accumulations are abundantly witnessed in casting the eye down the Mississippi valley, with a measured decrease in the size and weight of the pulverised masses, in proceeding from the head to the mouth of this river. It is thus evident, that the heaviest boulders are found on its upper branches, while they become rare in its central plains, and disappear altogether, long before its entrance into the deltas at its mouth. And this remark may be coupled with the accounts given by travellers of the bleak, and denuded, and sterile character of the northern rock formations.
But we have no leisure to devote to this investigation, and must proceed with the narrative that is before us. Every step we made in treading these sandy elevations, seemed to increase the ardor with which we were carried forward. The desire of reaching the actual source of a stream so celebrated as the Mississippi—a stream which La Salle had reached the mouth of, a century and a half (lacking a year) before, was perhaps predominant; and we followed our guide down the sides of the last elevation, with the expectation of momentarily reaching the goal of our journey. What had been long sought, at last appeared suddenly. On turning out of a thicket, into a small weedy opening, the cheering sight of a transparent body of water burst upon our view. It was Itasca Lake—the source of the Mississippi.
ITASCA LAKE
(the source of the Mississippi River, 3160 miles from the Balize.)
CHAPTER VI.
Outlines of Itasca Lake.—Its scenery and productions.—Forest trees, deer, fish, shells.—Width of its outlet.—Altitude above the ocean.—Length of the Mississippi.—Its course above Cass Lake.—Its origin south of latitude 47 deg. 16 minutes.—General observations on the Mississippi.—Erect a flag on the island in Itasca Lake.—Commence the descent of the West, or Itascan branch of the Mississippi.—Character of its channel.—Rapids and plateaux.—Falls of Kakábikons.—Portage.—Encamp at Pine Banks.
Itasca Lake, the Lac la Biche of the French, is, in every respect, a beautiful sheet of water, seven or eight miles in extent, lying among hills of diluvial formation, surmounted with pines, which fringe the distant horizon, and form an agreeable contrast with the greener foliage of its immediate shores. Its greatest length, is from south-east to north-west, with a southern prolongation, or bay, which receives a brook. The waters are transparent and bright, and reflect a foliage produced by the elm, lynn, maple, and cherry, together with other species more abundant in northern latitudes. The lake itself is of irregular form, which will be best illustrated by the accompanying sketch. It has a single island, upon which we landed, after an hour’s paddling from the spot of our arrival and embarkation. We found here, the forest trees above named growing promiscuously with the betula and spruce. The bones of fish and of tortoise, found at the locality of former Indian camp fires, indicate the existence of these species in the lake. We observed a deer, standing in the margin of the lake. And, here, as well as throughout the lakes of the region, found the duck, teal and loon, in possession of their favorite seclusions. Innumerable shells, (a species of small helix,) were driven up on the head of the island. Other parts of the lake yield small species of the unio, which were found strewing the bed of the outlet. And it may here be remarked, that this shell exists, in the largest and heaviest species heretofore known, in the lower parts of this stream—the Mississippi having its origin here.
The outlet of Itasca Lake, is perhaps ten to twelve feet broad, with an apparent depth of twelve to eighteen inches. The discharge of water appears to be copious, compared to its inlet. Springs may, however, produce accessions which are not visible, and this is probable both from the geological character of the country, and the transparency and coolness of the water.
The height of this lake, above the sea, is an object of geographical interest, which, in the absence of actual survey, it may subserve the purposes of useful inquiry, to estimate. From notes taken on the ascent, it cannot be short of one hundred and sixty feet above Cass Lake. Adding the estimate of 1330 feet, submitted in 1820, as the elevation of that lake, the Mississippi may be considered to originate at an altitude of 1490, say 1500 feet, above the Atlantic. Its length, assuming former data as the basis, and computing it, through the Itascan, or west fork, may be placed at 3160 miles, one hundred and eighty-two of which, comprises an estimate of its length above Cass Lake. Its general course, in ascending, above the latter point, is north of west, as far as Lac Travers. Then south to its primary forks which is continued, following up the east fork to Kubbakunna Lake, and for some distance further. It then varies a short distance, north and north-west, then south-west and south, and finally south-west, to its main source in Ossowa Lake. The portage thence to Itasca Lake, is west south-west. Both these lakes appear to rise in springs, on the height of land. They are separated by about six miles of country. Their latitude, we had no means of accurately determining. From daily notes of the courses and distances, kept by Lieut. J. Allen, as indicated by a compass and watch, their position is, however, shown to be south-west, and not, as heretofore supposed, northwest, of Cass Lake. They are, in fact, a little south of west from Leech Lake, which is placed, on our best maps, in forty-seven degrees sixteen minutes. The highest northing attained by the Mississippi, is on the great diluvial plateau, containing the contiguous waters of Lakes La Salle, Marquette and Travers, which cannot vary more than a few minutes, from forty-eight degrees. These facts will explain the error of the elder geographical writers, who supposed that the parallel of forty-nine degrees would intersect the Mississippi. Its origin in the remote and unfrequented area of country between Leech Lake and Red river, probably an entire degree of latitude south of Turtle Lake, which still figures on some of our maps as its source, throws both the forks of this stream out of the usual route of the fur trade, and furnishes, perhaps the best reason why its actual sources have remained so long enveloped in obscurity.
The Mississippi river traverses more degrees of latitude than any other river in America, and the remark might, perhaps, be extended to the habitable globe. The extremes of its changes in climate and vegetable productions, are, consequently, very great. It occupies more than three thousand miles of the distance between the arctic circle and the equator. Long as it is, however, it has a tributary longer than itself, (the Missouri.) Like the Niger, its mouth was discovered by expeditions down its current, but unlike that stream, which has so long held the geographical world in suspense, its sources have been also sought from its central parts. Its entire course is, at length, known. And we may now appeal with full certainty to the Balize and to Itasca Lake, as its most extreme points. At the latter, it is a placid basin of transparent spring water. At the former, it is as turbid as earth in suspension can make it, and carries a forest of floating trees on its bosom. Below the junction of its primary forks, it expands at very unequal distances, into eight sheets of clear water, each of which has features worthy of admiration. Four of these, Lac Travers, Cass Lake, Winnepec, and Lake Pepin, are lakes of handsome magnitude, and striking scenery. The number of its tributaries of the first, and the second and the third class, is so large, that it would furnish a labor of some research, to determine it. The Missouri, the Ohio, and the Arkansas, are of the noblest class. Whoever has stood at the junction of these streams, as the writer has done, must have been impressed with an idea of magnitude and power, which words are incapable of conveying. The broadest parts of its channel lie in the central portions of its valley. Its depth is great in all its lower parts, and increases as it flows on to the Gulf, and its general descent and velocity are such as to appear very striking characteristics.[7] Noble views arrest the eye of the observer, in every part of its diversified course. Originating in a heavy and extensive bed of diluvial soil, superimposed upon primitive strata, it soon wears its channel down to the latter, and after running over them for several hundred miles, plunges at length, at the Falls of St. Anthony, over the carboniferous limestone formation, which is so prevalent and so valuable for its mineral deposits, below that point. This is finally succeeded by diluvial and alluvial banks, the latter of which are semi-annually enriched by fresh deposits, and exhibit a delta as broad and as exuberant as the Nile. Like the latter, it has its cataracts in the Falls of St. Anthony and Pukaigama, and in numerous lesser leaps and cascades, where its current is tossed into foam and threatens destruction to the navigation. Such are its physical traits, and there is enough in their character, magnitude, and variety to lead our contemplations irresistibly “through nature up to nature’s God.”
Having gratified our curiosity in Itasca Lake, we prepared to leave the island, but did not feel inclined to quit the scene without leaving some memorial, however frail, of our visit. The men were directed to fell a few trees at the head of the island, thereby creating an area, for the purpose of erecting a flag staff. This was braced by forked stakes, and a small flag hoisted to its place. Taking specimens of the forest growth of the island, of a size suitable for walking canes, and adding its few species to our collections of plants and conchology, we embarked on our descent. The flag which we had erected continued to be in sight for a time, and was finally shut out from our view by a curve of the lake. We found this curve drawn out in such a manner as to form, with the opposite shore, the channel of the outlet. We soon felt our motion accelerated by a current, and began to glide, with velocity, down a clear stream with a sandy and pebbly bottom, strewed with shells and overhung by foliage. Ten feet would, in most places, reach from bank to bank, and the depth would probably average over a foot. The water was not, however, equally distributed. A strong and winding channel, made it a labor of active watchfulness for the canoe-men, to keep our frail vessels from being dashed against boulders, or torn in pieces by fallen timber or overhanging trees. Chopping with the axe, was frequently necessary to clear the passage, and no small labor was imposed by getting through the drift wood, piled up at almost every sudden bend. We were almost imperceptibly drawn into a series of rapids and petty falls where the stream was more compressed, and the water deepened; but the danger rendered tenfold greater by boulders of blackened rocks, and furious jets of the stream. We were rather hurled than paddled through these rapid passes, which increased in frequency and fury as we advanced. After being driven down about twelve miles of this species of navigation, during which the turns are very abrupt, the river displays itself, so to say, in a savannah valley, where the channel is wider and deeper, but equally, or more circuitous, and bordered with sedge and aquatic plants. This forms the first plateau. It extends eight or nine miles. The river then narrows and enters another defile, beset with an almost continued series of rapids. The sensation, in going down these, where the channel is free from stones, can be compared to nothing so aptly, as the emotion which every one has felt as the enterprise of youth has buoyed him up, in directing his tiny sled down a snow covered declivity. The brevity of the emotion takes away nothing from the truth of the comparison. The frowing rock, often rears its dark head to dispute the passage, and calls for the exertion of every muscle, in the canoe-men, to avoid, by dexterity of movement, a violent contact. Often it became necessary for them to step into the channel, and lead down the canoes, where the violence of the eddies made it impracticable otherwise to guide them. At a place called Kakábikons, or the Little-rock falls, we made a short portage. Two of the canoes, however, made the descent, but not without imminent peril, and a delay eventually greater, than if they had been carried across the portage. We descended this second series of rapids a distance of about nine miles, and encamped, at a late hour, on a high fine bank, having come altogether about thirty-two miles below Itasca Lake. Wearied with the continued exertion, the frequent wettings, and the constant anxiety, sleep soon overshadowed the whole party, “with his downy pinions.”
CHAPTER VII.
Continuation of the descent.—Velocity of the rapids.—One of the canoes is upset, and its contents carried over the falls.—Notices of the vegetation and zoology.—Fork-tailed hawk.—A novel species of lizard.—The Yellow Head’s failure in hunting.—Instinct of the saw-billed duck in preserving its young.—The river continues to exhibit a succession of rapids and plateaux, during its passage through the alpine region.—Purity and frequency of springs on its banks.—Influx of the Cano and Piniddiwin rivers.—Notice of an inroad and murder committed by the Sioux in former years.—A night descent.—Some of its incidents.—Reach the junction of the east and west forks.—Return to Cass Lake.—Observance of the Sabbath.—Missionary field of labor in the northwest.—Superstitions and idolatry of the Indians.—Their name for the Deity.—Its probable derivation.
We were in motion again a little before five o’clock, in the morning, (14th.) The rapids continued. The branches of large trees often hung so near to the water, that if we were not in peril of being entangled, like the jewish rebel king, we were in a more continual danger of having every moveable article swept from the canoes. An accident occurred to one of the canoes, about six o’clock in the morning, which might have had a fatal termination. My men had paused a few moments at the head of a formidable rapid, to determine the best place of going down it. Lieut. Allen, who, with his canoe, was behind at the moment, soon came up. His bowsman caught hold of my canoe to check his own velocity. It produced that effect, but the stern of his canoe swung across the stream, so that the steersman caught hold of a branch to prevent its being carried broadside over the rapid. Being thus rendered tense between bank and bank, the velocity of the water poured over the gunnel, and it was instantly reversed, with all its contents. This whole occurrence could not have occupied half a minute. It was impossible to render assistance, and Mr. Allen was hardly conscious of the matter, till he found himself in the stream. With no little exertion, he recovered himself, so as to be able to keep his feet, against the pressure of the current. The water was breast high. The canoe-compass was irrecoverably lost. He fetched up his fowling piece himself. Other articles went over the falls.
The character of the stream, made this part of our route a most rapid one. Willing or unwilling we were hurried on. But we had every reason to desire rapidity. Less time was given to the examination of objects than might otherwise have been devoted. Yet I am not aware that any important object was neglected. Where there is much sameness in natural features, frequent landings are unnecessary, and whoever has devoted his time in going thus far up the Mississippi, will have made himself so familiar with its plants, soil and productions, that “he who runs may read.” The pine, in its varieties, is the prevailing tree; and whenever we get out of the narrow alluvions of the valley, arenaceous plains appear. Among the plants that border the river, the wild rose, which is so conspicuous on all the streams northwest of Lake Superior, is very often seen. The salix, so common to the lower Mississippi, and so uniformly infested with mosquitoes, presents itself on the first plateau, and is afterwards one of the constant shrubs on the savannahs.
The Indian reed first shews itself distinctly, about the mouth of the Piniddiwin, and is here associated with wild rice. The stag and hind appear to be the species of deer, which were most frequently seen, and were several times fired at by the party, along this branch of the river. We also observed the falco furcatus, or swallow tailed hawk, a species not heretofore, thought to inhabit the continent, so far north. A small animal of the amphibious kind was here brought to our notice, under the name of Ocaut Ekinabic, or legged snake, a species of lizard, striped blue, black, and white, with a disproportionate length of tail. It is thus readily distinguished from ordinary species. Its most striking peculiarity of habit, is its extreme activity and swiftness of motion.
The Yellow Head landed, during the morning, to fire at a deer, which was seen grazing on a meadow, at some distance. He approached cautiously, but was unsuccessful in the shot he fired. What most excited our surprise, was the rapidity with which he reloaded and fired again, before the deer had got without the range of his shot. This was effected without the use of wadding to separate the powder from the ball. It did not, however, arrest the deer, who pursued his flight. The Indian returned to his canoe with a look of marked disappointment. Frequent opportunity was given in the course of the day, for firing at the various species of water fowl which resort to this stream. The saw-billed duck,[8] which is a common species, has an art of protecting its young, which we had frequent opportunities of observing. When the mother is surprised with a brood, she affects to have a wing broken, and flaps awkwardly on the water, as if unable to rise. By thus attracting notice to herself, the young, who are unable, at this season, to fly, have an opportunity to screen themselves: and the mother then boldly rises from the stream, and puts an end to the pursuit.
The river continues to descend in steps. The second series of rapids was followed by a second level, or plateau, in which the channel assumes a width nearly, or quite, double to that which it presents on the rapids. On this level, the Cano river comes in, as a tributary on the right shore. The volume of water is perceptibly increased by it. This plateau may extend nine miles. It is succeeded by rapids of a milder character, below which the river again displays itself in savannahs, with a comparatively wide, winding channel. These are finally terminated by short and easy rapids, which bring the river out of what, we may designate as its alpine passes. We landed for the purpose of breakfast, on an open pine bank, (left shore,) near the termination of the third plateau. Several beautifully clear and cool springs were observed running from its base into the river. It requires, indeed, but a bare recollection of observed facts, to make it evident that the waters of both branches of the Mississippi, have their origin in springs of bright and pure water. It may be farther observed, that although the Upper Mississippi receives a number of colored tributaries, all its larger rivers are pure, and it is itself essentially a clear stream, when not in flood, as far as its junction with the Missouri.
At four o’clock, we came to the junction of the Piniddiwin, a tributary from the left, having its origin in a lake, and entering the Mississippi amidst an extensive marsh of rice, reeds, and rushes, which give it rather the appearance of a marsh than a lake. It is, however, called Lac la Folle. This spot was estimated to be one hundred and four miles below Itasca Lake. The name of the river employed above, is an abbreviation of the phrase Tah-pinuniddewin, the place of violent deaths, in allusion to an inroad and murder committed at this place, in former times, by the Sioux. A party of this tribe, had previously entrenched themselves on the river above, at a spot which concealed their position and gave them command of the river channel. After waiting here for a time, without success, they proceeded lower, and discovered a Chippewa lodge, not far below the entrance of this river. It was cautiously approached, assaulted, and all its inmates killed, without distinction of age or sex. This event happened at an early period. No persons are now living who were contemporary with the victims. And it may be regarded as one of the occurrences which marked the Chippewa conquest of this portion of the country.
About eighteen miles below the junction of the Piniddiwin, we debarked for the purpose of cooking supper, and preparing our canoes for a night descent, as the channel of the river was now sufficiently broad, deep, and equable to justify it. An Ocaut Ekinabic, was killed at this place. Lieut. Allen, wishing day light, to finish tracing the river to its junction with the east fork, encamped here. By the time we were ready to embark, clouds had overcast the moon, which afforded a clear light before. But we trusted to our experienced guide, on a part of the river familiar to him, and we had no cause to repent of our confidence. Several shots were fired during the night at deer, standing in the edge of the water. The men landed at one spot, and pursued an animal, supposed to have been wounded. We found ourselves at the junction, about half past one o’clock in the morning, (15th.) Having given notices of our ascent of the river thus far, it is unnecessary to add to them. We were borne along with the double force of current and paddles, and with no care of topographical observation to delay our progress. The night air became very damp and chilly. To defend ourselves from it, we disposed of our travelling cloaks and blankets in the best manner possible. Neither sleep nor rest were, however, truly attainable, in a confined position where there was not room enough to extend the body, and every limb was so hampered as to make it impracticable to afford the relief of a change of position. Day light broke upon us in our descent from Lac Travers, and we reached our permanent encampment on the island in Cass Lake, at nine o’clock in the morning. We had been eleven hours and a half in our canoes. Mr. Allen did not rejoin us till four o’clock in the afternoon.
The day being the Sabbath, the Reverend Mr. Boutwell, devoted a part of it, as he had done on the previous Sabbaths of our route, in giving religious instruction. As three of the soldiers of the party were christians, and two of our canoe-men could sing Indian hymns; singing, both in English and in Indian, became practicable. Mr. Johnston’s readiness in scripture translation, put it in the power of Mr. B. to address them on the leading doctrines of the gospel. With what effects these exhortations were listened to, on this, or on other occasions, cannot be fully stated. Strict attention appeared to be paid by the Indians, during these little forest meetings, which were generally held under some spreading tree, or on the grassy area of some sheltered glade, contiguous to the camp. Incredulity and bold cavilings, were more observable, I think, at the most remote points of our route; and most interest manifested in the subject, in the villages situated nearest the frontier posts. Whatever were the results, it is to be hoped that no circumstances will prevent Mr. B. from communicating his observations to the christian public, at an early period.
The field for missionary labor, in all the region northwest of St. Mary’s and Michilimackinac, is certainly a very extensive and important one. And the incitements to its occupancy, at the present era, may be said to be decidedly greater, than they have been at any time, since the discovery of the country. No very strong barriers appear to stand in the way of the introduction of christianity among the northern tribes. Their institutions, moral and political, are so fragile, as to be ready to tumble on the application of the slightest power. They are not worshippers of the sun, or the moon. They have no list of imaginary gods, of the horrid character, which belong to the idolatrous nations of Asia and Africa. A Hindoo worshipper would hardly be able to impose his tale of multiform incarnations, and transmigratory existence, upon their belief. And a votary of Juggernaut, would verily be looked on by them, as little better than a mad man. It is not, however, to be inferred that because these gross forms of idolatry do not exist, they have no idolatry at all. Their medicinism, is nothing more nor less than a species of idolatry. They impute supernatural powers to certain material substances, which are preserved and guarded with religious care. These objects, which are often taken from the mineral kingdom, are carried about in sacks, and are appealed to under every form of solemnity, to perform cures, and to grant deliverances, which would require a miracle. Their lesser monedos, of which the number is endless, are expected to operate through these idol-medicines. And although they do not bow down to them, nor appear to place an implicit confidence in them, they remain in a state of mental alarm, which often impels them to resort to their influence. Nothing is more common, however, on conversing with them, than to find individuals, who are ready to acknowledge, the insufficiency of these means, and who appear to be prepared to abandon them, and embrace the doctrine of the Savior, the moment the fear of popular opinion among their own people, can be removed. No dead man has been deified by them, and they have not a name or word in their language, so far as known, which represents a god, but that of “Monedo.” This word, I am inclined to think, is itself, a derivative from one of the forms of the active verb, Momo, to take. But, like other Chippewa verbs, it is so buried and clogged with adjuncts, in the nature of prefix and suffix, that it might often require a Champollion to decipher it. And here, it may be observed, that Indian verbs, have not only the active and passive forms, but these forms are indicated by separate words. Thus, momo, verb active to take. Odápin, verb passive, to take. Each verb has the animate and inanimate forms. As most verbs are transitives, and their simplest forms indicate the third person singular of the imperative mood, the following conjugations of the verb, to take, result:
- Momih, verb active, animate, take him.
- Momon, verb active, inanimate, take it.
- Odápin, verb passive, animate, take him.
- Odapinun, verb passive, inanimate, take it.
CHAPTER VIII.
Council with the Chippewas at Cass Lake.—Speeches of Oza Windib, Neezh Opinais, and Wai Wain Jeegun.—Distribution of presents.—Geographical and Geological notices of Cass Lake.—Colcaspi Isle.—Allen’s Bay.—Pike’s Bay.—Heights and distances.—Tributary of Turtle River.—Turtle Lake.—Portage from Cass Lake to Leech Lake.—Hieroglyphic marks.—Moss Lake.—Reach Lake Shiba.—The source of the River Shiba flowing into Leech Lake.—Traverse Leech Lake at night, and encamp at Guelle Plat’s village.—Received by the Indians with respect.—Description of Leech Lake.—Its population and principal Chiefs.—Warlike character of the Pillagers.—Efforts made by them to defend the Chippewa frontiers.—Their warfare defensive.
Health, and a peaceable intercourse with the natives, had, under Providence, preserved our party at the island in Cass Lake, and we rejoined them in their encampment, with mutual pleasure. The day following our arrival, being Monday, was devoted to the formalities of a council with the Indians. I stated to them the objects of my visit to the region, so far as these related to them—the desire felt by the Government for their welfare, and its anxiety to cultivate their friendship—and endeavored to impress upon their minds, the importance of terminating their warfare with their hereditary enemies, the Sioux.
Oza Windib spoke in reply. Thanks, he said, were all they had to offer me, and through me, to the Great Chief of America, for the charitable feelings which had led to my visit, and the good counsels he had received. He should remember these counsels. They would be kept in his heart. He would endeavor to act by them. And although not himself a Chief, or the son of a Chief, he would exert the influence he possessed, to induce his people to live in peace, and to listen to the voice of counsel. He rejoiced to see the American flag displayed at this remote point, and should the master of life preserve him till another year, it was his fixed purpose to visit the Agency at Michilimackinac.
The son of Neezh Openais, or the Twin Birds, followed him. He said his father had received his medal from the American Chief, (the present Secretary of War, Hon. Lewis Cass.) who had visited, this lake, thirteen summers before. His father was now at Red Lake, but in going there, he had carried with him his friendship for the American Government, and he had directed him to express it to me, and to unite in the promotion of any good measure proposed. He assented to the sentiments uttered by Oza Windib. He approved of the advice. He would act by it. He thanked me, as being the bearer of it, and he looked to me to direct the Chippewas in their affairs, and to make them prosper.
A deputy from the band at Red Lake, then delivered a peace pipe, with its garnished stem, decked with feathers, from Wai Wain Jeegun, a War Chief of that lake. He had sent it, it was declared, as a token of his friendship—his remembrance of the power that permitted traders to come into their country to supply them with goods, and his hope and expectation, that his remote position, and limited authority, might not operate, to render his present unwelcome. It had been prepared by his own hand. Although he had wielded the war club, it was in self defence, and to prevent others from saying he is a coward. The peace pipe he offered, he smoked, however, with his heart.
The distribution of presents to the promiscuous assembly of men, women, and children, the payment of those who had furnished canoes, and the rewarding of the guides, closed the business of the council. I invested Oza Windib with a flag and the President’s medal, delivered a flag into the hands of Neezh Openais, for his father, and sent a message, with an acknowledgment and presents, to Wai Wain Jeegun. These things dispatched, we prepared to embark for the portage to Leech Lake. But previous to quitting this lake, it may be proper to subjoin a few particulars respecting it, which, from a desire to gain a more perfect knowledge of it, were omitted, on first entering it.
Cass Lake occupies a position on the American continent, and particularly in relation to the Upper Mississippi, which makes it desirable to acquire more accurate details and observations than it fell to our lot to be enabled to make. But in the absence of such data, such facts as our means permitted, may be substituted. We were impressed with its extent, the picturesque character of its islands, and the diversified appearance of its very irregular woodland shores. Its geological features are similar to those of Leech Lake and Lake Winnipec, being a basin of diluvial formation, spotted with islands, occupying a position on the great marine sand district of the Upper Mississippi. This district abounds in pure springs, and is so impervious in its lower strata, that it has probably retained to the present day, more water in the character of lakes, large and small, than any other part of the world. The greatest expanse of the lake appears to lie in the direction from north to south. Its length is from northeast to south-west. From the time consumed in passing through it, it cannot fall short of sixteen miles. It has four islands, the largest of which Colcaspi or Grand Island, which is itself of a most striking shape, occupying a large area in its centre and presenting its green forests of elm and oak in striking contrast with the bright expanse of waters. Allen’s Bay[9] is, properly the head of this lake, receiving the Mississippi from the west. Nothing, however, in the mere figure of the lake, is so characteristic as the noble bay which puts out from its southern shore, presenting an expanse of clear and deep water which we were an hour, with every exertion, in crossing transversely. This bay was visited on the ice by the late General Pike, in his search of the sources of the Mississippi in the winter of 1806, and it may be appropriately named after a man, who, both as a traveller and a soldier, has so fair a claim to remembrance.
Cass Lake has been estimated to be within a few miles of 3,000 from the Gulf of Mexico, and to lie at an elevation of 1,330 feet above that point of the Atlantic waters; its distance northwest of Sandy Lake, is about two hundred and seventy miles, and of Fond du Lac, four hundred and twenty miles. Estimates make it one hundred and eighty-two miles below the true source of the Mississippi in Itasca Lake, and sixty south of Red Lake. It receives Turtle River on its northern shore. This river is ascended through eleven small lakes, a distance of about thirty-eight to forty miles to its origin in Turtle Lake, once deemed to be the source of the Mississippi.[10] There is a portage from the lake, for light packages of goods, across the summit level of the Mississippi valley into Red Lake, and the fertile valley of Red river. The latter embraces the settlements planted by the Earl of Selkirk, the inhabitants of which maintained their existence for several years against the strenuous opposition of the North West Company, and they appear now to be in a state of comparative prosperity under the direction of a local governor, council, and clergy.
The portage from Pike’s Bay, (where we arrived at twelve o’clock in the morning, after a two hours journey from the island,) commences on the edge of an open pine forest, interspersed with shrub oak. The path is deeply worn, and looks as if it might have been used by the Indians, for centuries. It lies across a plain presenting the usual aridity of similar formations, and exhibiting the usual growth of underbrush and shrubbery. I observed the alum root, harebell and sweet fern, scattered through the more prevalent growth of wortle berry, L. latifolia, &c. Markings and hieroglyphic characters were pointed out to us on the pines, some of which were said to be so ancient as to have been made by the people who occupied the country before the Ojibwais. Of the truth of this assertion there did not appear to be any certain means of judging. A blaze on the pinus resinosa, if made upon a matured tree, may be considered as comparatively permanent, from the fact that the outer bark is not apt to close over it, while the gum that exudes over the wounded surface, has some of the properties of a varnish. How long the rude drawings of birds and animals, made with charcoal would thus be preserved, is mere matter of conjecture, and must depend upon observations which we had no means of making.
A portage of nine hundred and fifty yards brought us to the banks of a small lake, called Moss Lake, which we were but a short time in crossing. The water being clear, large masses appeared to rise from the bottom, which had very much the aspect of boulders. On reaching down, however, the men brought up on their paddles, a species of moss of a coarse fibrous character. And this moss seemed to be quite a characteristic trait of the lake. There is a slight relief, to both mind and body, in these changes from land to water transportation, even where the distance is very short; and the men resume their labor, in carrying, with greater alacrity. We found it so on the present occasion. No change however appeared in the general character of the country. We crossed a bog of perhaps fifty or sixty yards in extent, where the water appeared to have some motion towards the left. All the rest of the way consists of an unvaried sand plain, which is sometimes brushy, but generally open, presenting facilities for travelling. A walk of four thousand and one hundred yards, or about two and a half miles brought us out to the edge of Lake Shiba,[11] a body of clear water, of moderate dimensions, which has its outlet into an arm of Leech Lake. There is a portage path from its southern side which the Indians use when they are passing with light canoes.
The day was well nigh spent, by the time the men brought up all the baggage to the banks of this lake. And the fatigue of the route itself might have justified our encamping. But whoever has a definite point to reach in a given time, will find that the loss of a single hour, or half hour of an evening’s journey, on sundry days, will soon combine to waste an entire day, which may be the exact time necessary to accomplish the route. Besides, when the question of going on, is at a spot where a land is to be exchanged for a water journey, there is a sensible relief to the men, in the position of sitting and being freed from the pressure of the head-strap, or apicun, by which they carry. And north-men thus embarked, in a state of fatigue, will soon resume their strength and gaiety. I felt this, on the present occasion, and directed them not to lose a moment in getting afloat. We crossed the lake, with but little effort, and entered its thread-like outlet, so tangled and wound about, in a shaking savannah, covered with sedge, that every point of the compass seemed to be alternately pursued. In this maze it was joined, from the right by a tributary of its own size, very welcome for its accession of waters, but not aiding to straighten the channel. Another tributary flows in directly opposite the Indian portage before referred to. This tributary appears to be the outlet of a contiguous, narrow and long lake, which can be, in part observed. The channel is suddenly enlarged by it, and it is soon after still further swelled by a similar inlet. Both these inlets are referred to by the Indians, by the phrase, “Kapucka Sagitowag.” The stream is so enlarged by them, as not only to assume the character of a river, but it is a river of handsome magnitude, broad and deep but without strong current. Its shores assume a low and marshy character, and they are fringed with extensive fields of wild rice. Amidst these, the river opens into an arm of Leech Lake. The last glimpses of day light here left us. We pursued our way by moonlight for a time. The sky was overcast before we effected our first traverse. Sometime previous to landing it became quite dark. Even with the knowledge of an Indian guide, it was necessary to fire guns, to ascertain the position of the principal village. It was ten o’clock, on our landing, and it was an hour later before the military canoes came up. Salutes were separately fired by the Indians through the top openings of their lodges. In the morning, (17th,) a more formal salute was given. Fresh fish and wortle-berries were brought in: and an invitation to breakfast sent from the presiding chief.
Leech Lake is one of the most irregular shaped bodies of water that can be conceived of. It is neither characteristically long, spherical, or broad, but rather a combination of curves, in the shape of points, peninsulas, and bays, of which nothing short of a map can convey an accurate idea. The Indians, whom I requested to draw a sketch of it, began by tracing an oblong as large as half a sheet of foolscap would admit of. They filled it up by projecting points inwardly, or extended it by tracing bays outwardly. Ten islands were drawn in different parts of it, and seven rivers and creeks made to enter it. Its outlet is called by them the great river, and is towards the northeast. The lake cannot be less than twenty miles across the extreme points of the waters. Its principal peninsula resembles in shape the letter T. Ottertail Point is a part of its northern shore. Its waters are deep and clear in all its central parts, and yield the white-fish and other species. Its numerous and extensive bays abound in wild rice, and attract in the proper season, a great variety of water fowl. The pelican, swan, brant, and cormorant, are the largest of the species that annually visit it. Its shores yield the deer and bear. Beavers were formerly abundant, but they have, in a great measure, disappeared. The muskrat and marten are now the principal items of its fine furs. The subjoined sketch is from the notes of Lieut. Allen.
LEECH LAKE
“My intercourse with the Indians at this lake occupied the day after my arrival. The population was reported at eight hundred and thirty-two souls. Seven eights of this number, are of the band called Mukkundwais, or Pillagers, a term derived from occurrences in their early history. The remainder are locally denominated the Bear Island Indians. The principal chiefs are Aish Kibug Ekozh, or The Gueule Plat, and The Elder Brother, and Chianoquot. This band appear to have separated themselves from the other Chippewas, at an early day, and to have taken upon themselves the duty which Reuben, Gad, and Menasseh assumed, when they crossed the Jordan. They have “passed armed before their brethren,” in their march westward. Their geographical position is one, which imposes upon them the defence of this portion of the Chippewa frontier. And it is a defence in which they have distinguished themselves as brave and active warriors. Many acts of intrepidity are related of them which would be recorded, with admiration, had white men been the actors. Perfectly versed in the arts of the forest, they have enjoyed the advantage of concealment in the progress of a war, which has been directed against the Sioux, a powerful assemblage of tribes, who live essentially in plains, but who aim to make up the disadvantage of this exposure, by moving habitually in larger bodies. It seems, however, indisputable, that, with fewer numbers, the Chippewas have not hesitated to fall upon their enemies, and have routed them, and driven them before them, with a valor and resolution, which in any period of written warfare, would have been stamped as heroic. It is not easy, on the part of government, to repress the feelings of hostility, which have so long existed, and to convince them, that they have lived into an age when milder maxims furnish the basis of wise action. Pacific counsels fall with little power upon a people situated so remotely from every good influence, and who cannot perceive in the restless spirit of their enemies, any safeguard for the continuance of a peace, however formally it may have been concluded. This fact was adverted to by one of their chiefs, who observed that they were compelled to fight in self defence. Although the Sioux had made a solemn peace with them at Tipisagi in 1825, they were attacked by them that very year, and had almost yearly since, sustained insidious or open attacks. He said, “his own son, his only son,” was among the number, who had been basely killed, without an opportunity to defend himself.”
CHAPTER IX.
Transactions at Leech Lake.—Notice of the Pillager band.—Their chief, Aish Kibug Ekozh, or the Flat Mouth.—He invites the agent and his interpreter to breakfast.—His address on concluding it.—Vaccination of the Indians.—A deputation from the Rainy Lake band is received, and a flag presented to their leader, The Hole in the Sky.—Council with the Pillagers.—Speech of Aish Kibug Ekozh, in which he makes an allusion to Gen. Pike.—He descants on the Sioux war, the Indian trade, and the interdiction of ardent spirits.—Personal notices of this chief.
The domestic manners and habits of a people, whose position is so adverse to improvement, could hardly be expected to present any thing strikingly different, from other erratic bands of the northwest. There is indeed a remarkable conformity in the external habits of all our northern Indians. The necessity of changing their camps often, to procure game or fish, the want of domesticated animals, the general dependence on wild rice, and the custom of journeying in canoes, has produced a general uniformity of life. And it is emphatically a life of want and vicissitude. There is a perpetual change between action and inanity, in the mind, which is a striking peculiarity of the savage state. And there is such a general want of forecast, that most of their misfortunes and hardships, in war and peace, come unexpectedly. None of the tribes who inhabit this quarter, can be said to have, thus far, derived any peculiarities from civilized instruction. The only marked alteration which their state of society has undergone, appears to be referable to the era of the introduction of the fur trade, when they were made acquainted with, and adopted the use of, iron, gunpowder, and woollens. This implied a considerable change of habits, and of the mode of subsistence; and may be considered as having paved the way for further changes in the mode of living and dress. But it brought with it the onerous evil of intemperance, and it left the mental habits essentially unchanged. All that related to a system of dances, sacrifices, and ceremonies, which stood in the place of religion, still occupies that position, presenting a subject which is deemed the peculiar labor of evangelists and teachers. Missionaries have been slow to avail themselves of this field of labor, and it should not excite surprise, that the people themselves are, to so great a degree, mentally the same in 1832, that they were on the arrival of the French in the St. Lawrence in 1532.
“Unknown the measured joys of peaceful art,
Love, hatred, pity, storm, by turns, the heart,
And all the evils of the savage state,
Arise from false conceits of being great.”
Partial exceptions in the acquisition of civil information, are to be found; and the incident I am about to relate, is the more remarkable as connected with the history of a chief, who has passed his life in so very unfrequented a part of the continent, with only the advantages of occasional short visits to the posts of St. Mary’s, St. Peter’s and Michilimackinac. Aish Kibug Ekozh, or the Guelle Plat, is the ruler of the Pillager band, exercising the authority of both a civil and war chief. And he is endowed with talents which certainly entitle him to this distinction. Complying with European customs, he directed his young men to fire a salute on the morning of my arrival. Soon after he sent one of his officials to invite me to breakfast. I accepted the invitation. But not knowing how the meal could be suitably got along with, without bread, I took the precaution to send up a tin dish of pilot bread. I went to his residence at the proper time, accompanied by Mr. Johnston. I found him living in a comfortable log building of two rooms, well floored, and roofed, with a couple of small glass windows. A mat was spread upon the centre of the floor, which contained the breakfast. Other mats were spread around it, to sit on. We followed his example in sitting down after the eastern manner. There was no other person admitted to the meal but his wife, who sat near him, and poured out the tea, but ate or drank nothing herself. Tea cups, and tea spoons, plates, knives and forks, of plain manufacture, were carefully arranged, and the number corresponding exactly with the expected guests. A white fish, cut up and boiled in good taste, occupied a dish in the centre, from which he helped us. A salt cellar, in which pepper and salt were mixed in unequal proportions, allowed each the privilege of seasoning his fish with both or neither. Our tea was sweetened with the native sugar, and the dish of hard bread seemed to have been precisely wanted to make out the repast. It needed but the imploring of a blessing, to render it essentially a christian meal.
This chief brought me a letter from the interior some years ago, at St. Mary’s, in which he is spoken of as “the most respectable man in the Chippewa country.” And if the term was applied to his mental qualities, and the power of drawing just conclusions from known premises, and the effects which these have had on his standing and influence with his own band, it is not misapplied. Shrewdness and quickness most of the chiefs possess, but there is more of the character of common sense and practical reflection, in the Guelle Plat’s remarks, than, with a very extensive acquaintance, I recollect to have noticed in most of the chiefs now living, of this tribe.[12] He is both a warrior and a counsellor, and these distinctions he holds, not from any hereditary right, for he is a self-made man, but from the force of his own character. I found him ready to converse on the topics of most interest to him. And the sentiments he uttered on the Sioux war, the fur trade, and the location of trading posts and agencies, were such as would occur to a mind which had possessed itself of facts, and was capable of reasoning from them. His manners were grave and dignified, and his oratory such as to render him popular with his tribe.
During the repast, the room became filled with Indians, apparently the relatives and intimate friends of the chief, who seated themselves orderly and silently around the room. When we arose, the chief assumed the oratorical attitude, and addressed himself to me.
He expressed his regret that I had not been able to visit them the year before, when I was expected.[13] He hoped I had now come, as I came by surprise, to remain some days with them. He said, they lived at a remote point, and were involved in wars with their neighbors, and wished my advice. They were not insensible to advice, nor incapable of following it. They were anxious for counsel, and desirous of living at peace, and of keeping the advice which had heretofore been given them. They had been told to sit still on their lands, but their enemies would not permit them to sit still. They were compelled to get up, and fight in self defence. The Sioux continued to kill their hunters. They had killed his son, during the last visit he had made to my office. They had never ceased to make inroads. And he believed there were white men among them, who stirred them up to go to war against the Chippewas. He named one person particularly.
It was necessary, he continued, to take some decisive steps to put a stop to these inroads. This was the reason why he had led out the war party, which had recently returned. This was the reason why I saw the stains of blood before me.
He alluded, in the last expression, to the flags, war clubs, and medals, which decorated one end of the room, all of which had vermilion smeared over them to represent blood. I replied, that I would assemble the Indians at a general council, at my camp, as soon as preparations could be made; that notice would be given them by the firing of the military, and that I should then lay before them the advice I came to deliver from their Great Father, the President, and offer, at the same time, my own counsel, on the subjects he had spoken of.
During the day constant accessions were made to the number of Indians, from neighboring places. And before the hour of the council arrived, there could have been but little short of a thousand souls present. Most of the warriors carried their arms, and were painted and drest in their gayest manner. And they walked through the village with a bold and free air, in striking contrast with the subdued and cringing aspect, which is sometimes witnessed in the vicinity of the posts and settlements. Many applications were made for the extraction of decayed teeth, and for blood letting, the latter of which appears to be a favorite remedy among the northern Indians. Most of the time of the surgeon, (Dr. Houghton,) was however employed in the application of the vaccine virus, which constituted one of the primary objects of the visit. Among the number vaccinated by him, one was past the age of eighty, several between sixty and eighty, and a large number under the age of ten. Little difficulty was found in getting them to submit to the process, and wherever there was hesitancy or refusal, it seemed to arise from a distrust of the protective power of the disease. None had been previously vaccinated. Of the younger classes, it was remarked here, as at other places, that the boys evinced no fear on the display of the lancet, but nearly every female child, either came with reluctance and entreaty of the parents, or was absolutely obliged to be held, during the process. The ravages made by the small pox in this quarter, about the year 1782, were remembered with the distinctness of recent tradition, and had its effects in preparing their minds, generally, not only to receive the vaccine virus, but in imparting a solicitude that all might be included, so as to ensure them from the recurrence of a pestilence, which they regard with horror. Their name for this disease, of Ma Mukkizziwin, suggests the disfiguration of the flesh and skin produced by it.
Among the number of Indians who arrived here, during the day, were a party of nine Rainy Lake Indians under the leadership of a man named Wai Wizhzhi Geezhig, or The Hole in the Sky. He represented himself and party as part of a small band residing at Springing-bow-string Lake, in the middle grounds between Lake Winnipec and Rainy Lake. He said, they had heard of my passing the post of Winnipec, with an intention of returning through Leech Lake. This was the cause of his visit. They lived off from the great lake, and seldom saw Americans. He came to express his good will, hoping to be remembered, as he now saw his father, among his children, &c. I presented him, publicly, with my own hand, with a flag, and directed to be laid before him an amount of presents, committing to him, at the same time, a short address to be delivered to the American portion of the Rainy Lake Indians.
The hour for the council having arrived, and the Mukkundwa, or Pillagers, being present with their chiefs and warriors, women and children, I caused the presents intended for this band, to be displayed in bulk, on blankets spread on the grass, in front of my tent. I called their attention to the subjects named in my instructions, the desire of the government for the restoration of peace, and its paternal character, feelings, and wishes in relation, particularly, to them—reminded them of their solemn treaty of peace and limits with the Sioux, at Prairie du Chien in 1825, enforcing the advantages of it, in its bearings on their hunting, trade, and well being. The presents were then delivered to the chiefs, as an earnest of good will and sincerity on the part of the government, and were by them directed to be immediately divided and distributed.
Aish Kibug Ekozh, or the Guelle Plat, was their speaker in reply. He called the attention of the warriors to his words. He thanked me for the presents, which reminded him, in amount, of the times when the British held possession in that quarter. He pointed across an arm of the lake, in front, to the position formerly occupied by the North West Company’s fort. He said many winters had now passed since the Americans first sent one of their chiefs to that post, (alluding to the visit of Pike.) He remembered that visit. I had now come, it appeared, to remind them that the American flag was flying in the land, and to offer them counsels of peace. He thanked me for them. He had hoped that I was to spend more time with them, that they might consult on a reply, but as they must speak on the instant, (orders had been given for embarking that evening) they would not lose the opportunity of declaring their sentiments.
He had before heard the Americans say, peace, peace! But he thought their advice resembled a rushing wind. It was strong and went soon. It did not abide long enough to choke up the road. At the treaty of Tipisagi,[14] it had been promised that the aggressors should be punished; but that very year they were attacked by the Sioux; and almost yearly since, some of their nation had been killed. They had even been fired on by the Sioux, under the walls of the fort at Ishki Buggi Seebi,[15] and four of their number had been killed. He had, himself, been present. He here asked one of his subordinates for a bundle of sticks, which he handed to me saying, it is the number of the Leech Lake Chippewas who have been killed by the Sioux, since they signed the treaty of Tipisagi. The number was forty-three.
He then lifted up four silver medals, attached by a string of wampum, and smeared with vermilion. Take notice, he said they are bloody. I wish you to wipe off the blood. I am unable to do it. I find myself irretrievably involved in a war with the Sioux. I believe it has been intended by the creator that we should be at war with this people. I am not satisfied with the result of the last war party. My warriors are not satisfied. They are brave men. It is to them I owe success, and not to myself. Both they, and I, have heretofore looked for help where we did not find it. (He alluded to the American government.) We are determined to revenge ourselves. If the United States does not aid us, I have it in mind to apply for aid elsewhere. (He alluded to the British government.) My warriors are in a restless state. I have sent my pipe and invitations to my friends around, to continue the war. Circumstances control me. I cannot avoid it. My feelings are enlisted deeply in the contest. When the enemy killed my son, I resolved never to lay down the war club. I have sought death in battle but have not met it. All I now can say is this, that perhaps I shall not lead out the next war party.
Other parts of his speech on the war are omitted. This is, however, the thread, although a broken thread of his argument, omitting frequent and glowing appeals to his warriors, who expressed their approbation at every pause.
He proceeded to accuse persons on the waters of the Upper Mississippi, of giving advice to the Sioux to go to war against the Chippewas. He said it was the interest of persons in the trade to induce the Sioux to extend their hunting grounds across the boundary lines. He evinced a familiarity with persons and places. He boldly accused, not only traders, but even some persons holding offices under government, of participating in this course of mal-advice.
He complained of the traders. He criticised their conduct with severity. He declared their prices to be exorbitant, and said they were so intent on getting furs, that they did not deem it necessary to use much formality in their dealings. He complained of the exclusion of ardent spirits, but at the same time admitted, that formerly it was brought in to buy up their wild rice—a practice which left them at the beginning of cold weather, in a destitute situation.
Much of the sentiment of this address appeared to be uttered for popular effect. There was a marked difference between the tone of his private conversation, and his public address, of which more will appear in the sequel. Such parts of it, as required it, were replied to, and the simple truths, political and moral, dictating the visit to them, brought clearly before their minds, so as to leave definite impressions.
So far as related to the traders withdrawing the article of whiskey from the trade, I felt it due to say, that no hard feelings should be entertained towards them. That it was excluded by the Indian Office. They should, therefore, in justice, blame me or blame the government, but not the traders. I was satisfied, I added, that the use of whiskey was very hurtful to them, in every situation of life, and felt determined to employ every means which the control of the agency of the northwest gave me, to exclude the article wholly, and rigidly from the Chippewas, and to set the mark of disapprobation upon every trader who should make the attempt to introduce it.
It was near the hour of sunset when the council closed. Minor duties employed some time after. And while these were in the progress of execution, the Guelle Plat, who had been the principal actor during the day, gave us occasion to observe, that if he had studied effect in speaking, he was also a judge of propriety in dress. At a dinner to which I invited him, at my tent, and also during the public council following it, he appeared in his native costume. But after the close of the council and before we embarked, he came down to the lake shore, to bid us fare well, dressed in a blue military frock coat, with red collar and cuffs, with white underclothes, a linen ruffled shirt, shoes and stockings, and a neat citizen’s hat. To have uttered his speeches in this foreign costume, might have been associated in the minds of his people, with the idea of servility; but he was willing afterwards to let us observe, by assuming it, that he knew we would consider it a mark of respect.
This chief appears to be turned of sixty. In stature he is about five feet nine or ten inches, erect and stout, somewhat inclined to corpulency. He is a native of this lake, of the totem[16] of the Owásissi, a kind of fish. He observed at my table, at St. Mary’s, four years ago, that he had been twenty-five times on war parties, either as leader or follower, and had escaped without a wound. He was once surrounded by a party of Sioux, with only three companions. They cut their way out killing two men. He was early drawn into intercourse with the British at Fort William, on Lake Superior, where he received his first medal. This medal was taken from him by Lieut. Pike, in 1806. I renewed it, by the largest class of solid silver medals, July 19th, 1828.
Reciprocating the customary compliment in parting, we embarked and encamped on a contiguous part of the coast, where we could procure fire wood, and be sure of making an early start on the morrow.
CHAPTER X.
Observations on the Leech Lake Chippewas.—Data respecting the former state of the fur trade.—Their turbulent character.—Assassination of Relle by Puganoc.—Causes of the emigration of the North-western Indians.—The unsatisfactory character of their traditions.—Their language.—Brief synopsis of its grammatical structure.
Leech Lake has been one of the principal posts of trade in the northwest since the region was first laid open to the enterprise of the fur trade, and it has probably yielded more wealth in furs and skins, than one of the richest mines of silver would have produced. European goods were extremely high at the period referred to, at the same time, that furs were abundant, and the ability of the Indians to pay, consequently, ample. The standard of value and computation in this trade, is an abiminikwa, or prime beaver, called plus by the French. A plus, tradition states, was given for as much vermilion as would cover the point of a case knife, and the same price was paid respectively for four charges of powder, or four charges of shot, or fifteen balls, or two branches of wampum. It is related that an outfit of six bales of goods, worth, say $2000, brought from Athabasca, ninety-six packs of beaver, each of which would weigh ninety pounds, at a time when prime beaver was worth four dollars per pound. A fine gun, worth ten guineas, was sold to a chief at one of the northern posts, for one hundred and twenty pounds of beaver, say four hundred and eighty dollars. The post of the Pic, alone, is said to have yielded one hundred packs of beaver, during a single season. From the MSS. of M. Perrault, now before us, referred to in a previous part of our narrative, the rates at which furs were reduced to the plus, at this lake, in 1784, were the following. A bear was estimated to be one plus, an otter, three martens, a lynx, fifteen muskrats, respectively, one plus. A buffalo robe, two plus. A keg of mixed rum, which was then the kind of spirits used in the trade, was sold at thirty plus, and the Indians, when they commenced trading, first put out the furs they intended as pay for their liquor.
The Leech Lake Indians were then stated to be numerous, although, in common with other northern bands, they had also suffered from the general ravages of the small pox, in this region, two years previous. They were, however, then, as now, deemed a turbulent band, and such was the fear of giving additional excitement to their passions, that the liquor which was sold to them, was put in cache at the entrance of the river, that it might not be delivered to them, until the traders had finished their traffic, (which on that occasion, occupied but a single day,) and embarked on their return for Michilimackinac. Besides the original robbery of a principal trader, which drew upon them the name of Pillagers, their intercourse with the traders has been of a character to require perpetual caution to avoid the recurrence of serious difficulties. It is but two years ago that they confined a trader to his lodge, and threatened him, in such a manner, that he was happy to escape from the country with his life, and has not since returned to it.
During the winter of 1821-22, a man named Relle, who was employed at Leech Lake, to collect credits, as it is termed, entered the lodge of a hunter named Puganoc i. e. Nutwood, and without much ceremony, obtained the Indian’s furs. He had as he conceived, got consent which the Indian afterwards withdrew. Relle, however, whose business it was to collect furs for his employer, and who had, from long usage, become expert in that employment, did not pay that deference to the Indian’s wishes, which he probably would have done, could we suppose that he considered them to indicate any more, than a mere reluctance to part with the furs. On this point we are without particular information. Be this as it may, Relle took up the furs, and proceeded homewards. Puganoc followed him but without any demonstrations of anger. It might be supposed that he intended in make a friendly visit to the post, for the purpose of further trading, and Relle evidently so considered the circumstance of his accompanying him, for he was wholly unsuspicious of latent revenge. Silent as this passion was kept, it burned, however, in the Indian’s breast, and, in crossing a lake, on the ice, the Indian treading in the hindmost step, (a practice in walking with snow shoes,) he suddenly discharged his piece. The ball entered his victim’s back below the shoulders. He fell dead. Puganoc then drew his knife, cut off two of the voyageur’s fingers, to make it appear that he had been struggling with an adversary, then threw down the knife on the snow, and returned with a report that the man had been killed by the Sioux.
It may be interesting to notice the fate of Puganoc. Attempts for his surrender to the civil authorities were made, but without success. Meantime he was regarded as having forfeited his life by a young Chippewa of his own band, a relative, perhaps, of the deceased voyageur’s Indian wife. While assembled to amuse themselves by firing at a mark, this young man, as it became his turn to fire, saw Puganoc lifting the cloth door of his tent, and wheeling half a circle in his aim, fired his ball through the neck of the assassin, and killed him on the spot.
Pride, and the desire of personal distinction, as in other tribes which have not the light of christianity to guide them, may be considered as lying at the foundation of the Indian character. For there are no tribes so poor and remote as not to have pride. And this passion seems always to be coupled with a desire of applause, and with the wish on the part of its possessors to be thought better than they really are. We have found pride in the remotest Indian lodge we ever visited, and have hardly ever engaged in ten minutes conversation with a northern Indian, without discovering it not only to exist, but, where there was moral energy at all, as constituting the primary motive to action. It has always been found, however, unaccompanied by one of its most constant concomitants, in civilised life—namely, the desire of wealth.
The workings of this principle may, indeed, be looked upon as the chief motive of Indian emigration, and as causing tribe to secede from tribe, and leading to that multiplication of petty nations, each with some peculiarities of language, which marks the face of the northern regions. Did we possess any thing like a clear and connected tradition of these migrations, even for a few hundred years, we should perhaps have cause to blush that so many blunders had been committed in assigning so many primitive stocks, when, in fact, there is great reason to believe, that the primitive stocks are few.
Tradition does not reach far, where there is neither pen nor pencil to perpetuate the memory of events. People who are constantly and habitually concerned, how they shall subsist, and what they shall wear, will soon forget, in the realities before them, occurrences which can no longer produce fear or excite hope. And were it otherwise,—were they as prone to reflect as they are to act, the very misery in which they live, would take away the pleasure of historical reminiscence. Oral history is very uncertain at best. Every repetition varies the language at least, and it must be a very stoical people, indeed, who, in repeating their own story, do not add to the coloring, if not the number of circumstances, which serve to give pleasure or to flatter pride. Unfortunately such appears to have been the state of the north-western Indians, as far as we know any thing of them, that they could not, in strict truth, repeat very little of their history, without giving pain, or exciting feelings, often of pity, and often of humiliation. The few favorable points would naturally grow by the process of repetition, out of all proportion. And fiction would often be called on, to supply lapses. Hence it is, perhaps, that in looking over our printed materials for Indian history, we are so apt to find that every tribe arrogates to itself the honor of being original, great, brave, magnanimous, above its neighbors. Indeed we regard all unrecorded Indian tradition, referring to events beyond the close of the sixteenth century, as entitled to no confidence.
The names the Indians bestowed upon themselves, contain no clue to their early history. They were, for the most part purely accidental, as they are at this day. They do not refer to their origin. They do not in some cases, even signify their peculiarities. This is, we think, emphatically true of the various tribes of Algonquins. To part of the people composing this stock, who were settled in a country abounding in lakes and streams, they gave the local name of Nipissings, i. e. People of the Place of Waters. Part, who lived on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, subsisting on fish, they called Popinoshees, alluding to a kind of fish. Those who dwelt in swampy grounds, (as between that point and Lake Superior,) were called Mushkeegos, from the name for swamp. Those who lived in plains, south-west of Lake Michigan, Muscotins, from plain. Others having a peculiarity of intonation, were called Ojibwas, or Chippewas; a band who lit up a council fire for themselves, Pottawattomies; another band, given to trading. Ottawas; another who inflicted cruelties in their northern wars, Kenistonos; another who lived inland, Nopimings. Others might be added to the list. These were all identical people; but not one of the name referred to their origin. The French, on their arrival increased the confusion, by bestowing a new name upon each, rendering the thread of history more entangled, and utterly confounding all attempts to trace their affiliation by etymology. They called the first band whom they found speaking this language, on the St. Lawrence, Algonquins, probably because they subsisted on the oga. This term has become generic. But there is no light thrown by it on the history of the race. Nay, there is not a particle of proof that the Indians had bestowed it upon themselves, or that it was not given like all their other appellations, as a mere nom de guerre. No wonder should therefore be expressed, that classifications founded on etymological proofs should have been found defective.
But we shall not pursue the subject. The Leech Lake Indians, like others of the stock, derive their distinctive appellation from a mere accident. They are not, however, separated by any distinctive feature, from the rest of the more favorably located Chippewas. Their prominent manners and customs, ceremonies and opinions, are the same. They migrated by the same track, adopted the same means of living, sought the attainment of the same general objects, and speak the same language. There are minor peculiarities of speech in most of the bands of this nation, separated by a few hundred miles. But they consist mostly in accent, with some interchanges of the labial and liquid consonants. The vowel sounds are identical. Whatever remarks could be made, therefore, on the principles of the language, would be equally applicable to the current language of other Chippewa bands.
This language covers an extensive area in the west, and the north-west. It is emphatically the court language of the Indians, being the medium of communication, in all general councils. Its copiousness and freedom from the barbarities which disfigure many of the native languages, were remarked at an early day, and have led to its being more studied and spoken, than perhaps any other native American language. The regret has been expressed, that where so many good points exist, there should be found any defects to mar them. In its grammatical structure, it exhibits some peculiarities, which do not, perhaps, admit of being strictly classed with other transpositive languages, although it has most features in coincidence with them. Originally, simple in its character, and consisting of scarcely any distinctions of speech, beyond the verb and substantive, and the pronominal and other primary particles, the tendency of usage and invention has been, to increase the length of words by combination, rendering them formidable to the eye, and pompous to the ear. These combinations assume almost every shape, in which words can be made to coalesce. And the primitives when thus united, are still further compounded by inflections for time and person, for number and quality, and sometimes to indicate other circumstances, as if it were the chief scope of the speaker to concentrate all the offices of speech in a single word, or a single expression. But in this process of accretion, as might be expected, clearness and simplicity are often sacrificed to sound, and the distinctions of person, and number, and tense, are not, perhaps, always accurately preserved. So many letters, and even whole syllables, are also dropped, to effect the purposes of a harmonious coalescence, agreeably to the Indian ear, that it becomes extremely difficult to trace analogies, and one of the usual helps to comparison, is thus withdrawn. Number is entirely wanting in the third person of the declension of their pronouns and nouns, and in the conjugation of their verbs. Nor is there any distinction to mark the sex of the third person, although the first and second persons, are uniformly and scrupulously thus marked. He and she, him and her, are expressed by the same word, or the same pronominal sign. Although there is a positive and a conditional future, in the conjugation of their verbs, the compound tenses, are generally thought to be defective.
Notwithstanding these deficiencies, the language admits of many fine turns of expression, and pointed terms of irony, and in its general simplicity, and nervous brevity, will admit of a comparison with some terms of scripture phraseology. Among its grammatical forms, there are several, which exhibit beautiful and succinct modes of conveying thought. All its active verbs can be multiplied as often as there are distinct objects of their action, and they are conjugated both negatively, as well as positively. Substantives admit of adjective terminations, and adjectives of substantive terminations. Both can be turned into verbs, and both are endowed with number. Pronouns are inflected for time, and in this shape, supply the want of our auxiliary verbs. The verb, to be, may be said to characterize this language, as differing from some of the Indian languages, although its use is restricted, and there is no declarative existence indicated in the ordinary conjugation of verbs. As all nouns assume verbal terminations, they undergo all the modifications of other verbs. Possession is indicated by an inflection analogous to, but differing from case. Locality, diminution, and derogation, may be, either separately, or all together, denoted by inflections of the noun. Particles, are very copiously used. And this part of speech is very important, making the use of words definite or exact, which without these adjuncts, would often lack both coherence and exactitude. Adverbs are liberally employed, and by their help, the degrees of comparison are formed. There is but one degree of comparison formed by an inflection of the substantive. There is a numerous list of prepositions, which are not, however, disjunctively used, but always as the prefixed syllable or syllables, to substantives. Conjunctions, of which the language has a number, are not thus restricted, and cannot thus be used. The most important distinction, however, which belongs to the language, and that which most rigidly pervades its forms, is the separation of words into two classes, distinguished as animate and inanimate, or personal and impersonal, carrying also, the idea of noble and ignoble. This principle, merges the ordinary distinctions of gender, and imparts a two-fold character to the verb, substantive, and adjective, and consequently creates the necessity of double conjugations and declensions. This results from the transitive character of the whole language, and its habitual application to material objects. The verb which would be used to imply vision, is made to indicate the presence or absence of vitality, creating the distinction of the animate and inanimate forms. The same principle interdicts the promiscuous use of adjectives. A strong man and a strong house, require different modifications of the word strong. All its concords are directed to the upholding of this rule. This novel and curious principle, appears to lie at the foundation of the syntax, and imparts to the language its most marked characteristic feature. Whatever modifications other rules require, they all coincide in this. It is a point which every good speaker pays attention to. And as the rule may be arbitrarily employed, it enables him to invest the whole inanimate creation with life, and thus to throw a charm over the most barren waste; an advantage which is very freely resorted to, in their oral tales and mythological fables.
In contemplating such a language, it is impossible to avoid the observation of many beauties and many defects. But its beauties do not appear to be of a character to entitle them to the enthusiastic encomiums which have been bestowed upon some of our Indian languages; nor do its defects and barbarisms merit the depreciating terms which have been applied to others. Truth, in this, as in many other metaphysical investigations, will be found to lie in a mean. If there are forms and expressions suited to call forth the applause of the speculative philologist, there are also many features for him to rectify or condemn. Like the character of the people by whom it is spoken, its principles are perpetually verging to extremes. There is either a redundancy of forms creating distinctions, not, in all cases, of very obvious utility, or an absolute want of them. And the inquirer is often led to wonder, how a people who require the nice distinctions in the one case, should be able to dispense with distinctions altogether in the other.
From this vacillation between barbarism and refinement, poverty and redundance, a method strictly philosophical or purely accidental, there might be reason to infer that the people themselves, by whom the language is spoken, were formerly in a more advanced and cultivated state. And that a language once copious and exact, partaking of the fortunes of the people, degenerated further and further into barbarism and confusion, as one tribe after another separated from the parent stock. Change of accent would alone produce a great diversity of sound. Accident would give some generic peculiarities: and that permutation of the consonants, which we see among the Algonquin bands, would, in the end, leave little besides the vowel sounds, and the interchangeable consonants, to identify tribes long separated by time and by distance, without means of intercommunication, without letters, and without arts. If compared by these principles there is reason to believe, philologists would find the primitive languages of America extremely few, and their grammatical principles, either identical or partaking largely of the same features. And to this result, the tendency of inquiry on this side the Atlantic is slowly verging, however it may contravene the theories of learned and ingenious philologists in Europe. The inquiry is fraught with deep interest to the philosophical mind; and it offers a field for intellectual achievement, which it may be hoped will not be left uncultivated by the pens of piety, philosophy, or genius.
CHAPTER XI.
Encampment on a peninsula in Leech Lake.—Departure for the portage to the source of the De Corbeau river.—Traverse a bay.—Commencement of the portage.—The mode of passing it.—First portage to Warpool Lake.—Pass successively Little Long Lake, the Four Lakes, Lake of the Mountain, Lake of the Island, and encamp at the Kagi Nogumaug or Longwater, the source of the De Corbeau.—Are visited by the Chief of the Pillagers, who performs a journey for that purpose.—Recognize in his attendant the murderer of Gov. Semple.—Narrative of facts leading to this event.—Commence the descent of the river De Corbeau, passing successively the Longwater, Little Vermillion, Birch Ple, Boutwell’s Vieu, Desert, Summit, Long-rice, Allen’s, Johnston’s, and Leelina Lakes.—Junction of the Shell River fork.—Encamp in a storm.
On leaving the Gueule Plat’s village, the Surgeon and Interpreter, with Lieut. Allen’s command, were left behind to complete the vaccination of the Indians, while the rest of the party went forward a couple of leagues, to form the night’s encampment. It was after seven o’clock before they came up, and we waited some time after supper, which is generally a late meal in voyaging, for the arrival of the Indian guides, who had been promised to conduct us next day, to the landing of the portage to the river De Corbeau. Morning, however, came without them, and we embarked, (18th,) and proceeded towards the southern shore of the lake, under the hope of being able to find the portage, from the descriptions which had been given of it. Our course lay, for a distance, along the peninsula, on which we had encamped. Its trending too far to the east, induced us to hold a southerly course across a spacious bay. On gaining its centre, doubts arose, as to the proper course. A separation of the party was made. Part of the canoes took a south, and part, a south-east course, having agreed to concentrate on the firing of a gun, a signal which was eventually given, by the southern canoes under Mr. Johnston and Lieut. Allen. They had discovered a path, having every appearance of a portage, being in the required direction. Examination served to confirm this opinion. The baggage was immediately landed, the loose articles put in a portable shape, and the order of march on a portage, taken up. For this purpose, every article of the outfit, is originally put up in the most compact and convenient form, not exceeding ninety pounds weight. Pork is packed in kegs, flour in sail cloth bags, groceries in wooden or tin canisters, goods in corded bales. These are carried on the back, by a strong strap of leather passed around the forehead, and tied by its tapering ends, to the bag, or other article, forming the first, or lower piece. This is swung over the shoulders, and other pieces laid on, to the number of two, or sometimes three, according to the carrier’s strength. He then bends strongly forward, and proceeds at a half trot. He goes on the length of a pause, say half a mile, where the burden is put down, the strap untied, and the carrier, after a few moments rest, briskly returns, for another load. This process is continued till all the goods, are brought up to the first pause. The canoe and its apparatus, are then brought up, when the men commence making the second pause, and this order is repeated at every pause. This is a severe labor, and requires able bodied men, well practiced. And where the ground is low or swampy and often travelled, it soon becomes a perfect bed of mire.
The present portage, however, was found to lie across a pine plain, offering a clean beach of sand to debark on, and a dry smooth path to travel. A portage of 1,078 yards, brought us to the banks of a small lake, after crossing which we came to the entrance of a small clear brook, having not over two or three inches depth of water, spread over a bed of yellow sand. It seemed impossible to ascend it, especially with the larger canoe, but by the men’s first carrying the lading, by widening the channel in cutting down the banks with paddles, and then by walking in the stream and lifting the canoe by its gunnels, they succeeded in getting it up to another lake, called Little Long Lake. We were twenty-four minutes in crossing this latter lake, and found its inlet to be connected with four other small lakes of a pondy character, redolent with nymphæ odorata, through which we successively passed, and debarked at the head of the last lake on a shaking bog, being the commencement of portage Ple. This portage is quite short and dry, lies over a hill-prairie, and terminates on the banks of a transparent, bowl-shaped lake, with elevated shores, where we made our breakfast, at twelve o’clock. This lake, which we may refer to as the Lake of the Mountains, notwithstanding the liveliness and purity of its waters, has no visible outlet, a characteristic of which it partakes in common with a very great number of the small lakes of this quarter, which may be supposed to lie in aluminous strata. Next, in the order of travelling south of it, is the Mountain Portage, appropriately so called. Its extent is nine hundred and ten yards. The elevation is considerable, but no rock strata appear in situ. The soil is diluvial, with boulders. The growth, yellow pine, with small maples and underbrush. It terminates on the Lake of the Island. There is then a portage of two pauses, or 1,960 yards into another lake, quite pond-like, where it is first entered, but assuming a clear and bright surface after turning a prominent point. There is then a further portage of one pause, a part of it, through a morass, but terminating on highlands, surrounding the head and shores of a handsome and comparatively extensive sheet of water called Kagi Nogumaug, or The Long Water, where we encamped for the night. This day’s journey was a hard and fatiguing one, to the men. The Gueule Plat, who with one of the minor chiefs from Leech Lake, overtook us on the banks of the Lake of the Island, expressed his surprise that, with all our baggage and heavy canoes, we had pushed on so far. It was, however, a definite point in the journey. We were now on the source of the Kagági, or De Corbeau river. To have stopped short of it, would have seriously broken in on the labors of the following day; and the knowledge that the series of portages terminated there, and the downward passage commenced, buoyed up the men to make exertions. The day was particularly severe upon the soldiers, who were less accustomed to this species of fatigue. Never were the shadows of night more grateful to men, who had employed the morning, and the noon, and the evening of the day, in hard labor. We had now reached the fourth source of the primary rivers of the Mississippi, and all heading on the elevation of the Hauteur des Terres, within a circle of perhaps seventy miles. These sources are Itasca Lake, its primary, Ossowa, east fork, Shiba Lake and river, source of Leech Lake, and the present source, The Long Water, being the source of the De Corbeau, or Crow-wing river.
Gueule Plat, with his Indian secretary, so to call him, or Mishinowa, and their families, came and encamped with us. The chief said that he had many things to speak of, for which he had found no time during my visit. I invited him to sup with the party. Conversation on various topics ensued, and the hour of midnight imperceptibly arrived, before he thought of retiring to his own lodge. I was rather confirmed in the favorable opinions I have before expressed of him, and particularly in the ordinary, sober routine of his reflections, and the habitual, easy manner, which he evinced of arriving at correct conclusions. I could not say as much for his companion and pipe-lighter, Maji Gabowi, a very tall, gaunt, and savage looking warrior, who appeared to be made up, body and mind, of sensualities. And although he appeared to be quiet and passive, and uttered not a single expression that implied passion or vindiction, I could not divest my mind of the recollection that I was in company with the murderer of Gov. Semple. Whoever has given much attention to north-western affairs, will recollect that this event occurred in the fierce strife carried on between the North West and Hudson’s Bay Company. And that, in the desperate struggles which these corporations made for the possession of the fur trade, the Indians often became the dupes of whichever party appeared, at the moment, to possess the power of influencing them. The event referred to, took place near the close of a long struggle in which the spirit of opposition had reached its acme, in which company was furiously arrayed against company, charter against charter, and agent against agent. A period, at which, like the increasing energies of two powerful bodies moving towards each other, they were destined to come into violent contact, and the destruction of one, or both, seemed inevitable. The dispute respecting territory which imbittered the strife, appeared to be carried on, not so much from political ambition or the intrinsic value of the soil, as to decide which party should have the exclusive right of gleaning from the lodges of the unfortunate natives, the only commodity worth disputing for—their furs and peltries. A question, in which the Indians, in reality, had no other interest, but that which a serf may be supposed to feel on an exchange of masters, in which he has neither the right to choose nor the power to reject. Whichever party prevailed, they were sure to loose or gain nothing, if they kept aloof from the contest, or if they had any hopes from its effects upon their condition, they arose more from a prolongation, than a termination of the rivalry, as they were sure to fare better, both “in script and store,” so long as they possessed the option of rival markets.
Semple had accepted a governorship, which the late John Johnston, Esq. had the forecast to refuse. He appeared to be a man zealously devoted to the objects of the company (the Hudson’s Bay) whose interests were committed to him. But he does not appear clearly to have perceived the great difference which circumstances had interposed between a magistracy in an English or Scottish county, and the naked solitudes of Red River. He sallied forth himself, with a considerable retinue, to read the riot act, to a disorderly and threatening assembly of all kinds of a northwest population, on the plains. The agents and factors of the North West Fur Company, were accused of being at the bottom of this uproar, and it is certain that some of their servants were engaged, either as actors or abettors. It is among the facts recorded in a court of justice, that when certain of the clerks or partners of the North West Company heard of the tragic result of this sally, they shouted for joy.[17]
While the act was in the process of being read, one of the rioters fired his piece. This was taken as a signal. A promiscuous and scattering firing commenced. Semple was one of the first who received a wound. He was shot in the thigh, and fell from his horse. He was unable to sit up. At this moment a rush was made by the Indians in the North West interest, and a total and most disastrous route of the Hudson’s Bay party ensued. Panic, in its wildest forms, seized upon Semple’s men. He was himself one of the first victims despatched. Maji Gabowi, (one of our guests this evening) coming up, struck his tomahawk in his head. He was then scalped.
We embarked at sunrise, on the 19th, bidding adieu to the Leech Lake chief and his companion, who returned from this point, after having requested, and received a lancet, with directions from Dr. Houghton, for vaccinating such of his people as had not been present on the 17th. We were forty minutes in passing the Kagi Nogumaug, which is a handsome sheet of pure water presenting a succession of sylvan scenery. Its outlet is a narrow brook overhung with alders. It may average a width of six feet, but the bends are so extremely abrupt, and the channel so narrowed with brushwood, that it became necessary to dig down the acute points, and to use the axe in cutting away branches, to veer about a canoe thirty-two feet in length. We were just half an hour in clearing this passage, when the stream opened into another lake, denominated on our travelling map, Little Vermillion Lake. The growth on the banks of this lake is birch and aspen, with pines in the distance. We were twenty minutes in passing it. The outlet is full doubled in width, and free from the embarrassments encountered above. Tamarack is a frequent tree on the shores, and the pond lily, flag and Indian reed, appear in the stream. This outlet is followed about eight miles, where it expands into a small lake, called Birch Lake, which we were only thirteen minutes in passing. Its outlet exhibits a pebbly bottom, interspersed with boulders, which produce so much inequality in the depth, that the men were obliged often to wade. Not more than seven or eight minutes were thus occupied, in the course of which we passed through a broken fish-dam, when we entered another expanse called Lac Ple.
Lac Ple is about three and a half, or four miles long. Vegetation here appears to show a more southerly character. Part of its shores are prairie, interspersed with small pines. It is particularly deserving of notice, as being the point, from which a series of portages is made to Ottertail Lake. A map of these furnished by the traders, who often use this route, exhibits the following features. First, a portage of four pauses, to Island Lake, then a portage of one pause, into a small lake, which has an outlet, through another small lake into Lake Lagard, having a transverse position. Thence half a pause, into a small lake, a pause and a half into another small lake, and thence four pauses into Migiskun Aiaub, or Fish-line Lake. Thence one pause into Pine Lake, and five into a small river which falls into Scalp Lake. The latter has an outlet which expands into three lakes, at nearly equal distances apart, and is finally received by Lac Terrehaut, on the Height of Land. The outlet of the latter is twice expanded into the form of a Lake, the last of which is, from its peculiarities called the Two Lakes, and is finally discharged west of the Height of Land, into Ottertail Lake. I had designed to come down this route, or down Leaf river, had circumstances favored my going into Red river, from the sources of the Mississippi. But these sources were found so much further south, than it had been supposed, and so considerably removed from any practicable route into Red river that I found it would be a consumption of time altogether disproportionate to the anticipated results; and it was, therefore, given up.
On going out of Lac Ple, the channel exhibits numerous fresh water shells driven up against the shore, or lodged against inequalities in the bottom.[18] And these productions are afterwards seen in all the subsequent outlets which connect the numerous lakes of this river. But little variety was, however, noticed among the species, although greater attention than we could bestow, might elicit new characteristics. Generally, they were small, or middle sized, often decorticated and broken. Soon after entering this channel, one of my men fired at, and brought down, a fork-tailed hawk, a species which had before been noticed on the wing, but we had now an opportunity of closer scrutiny. We did not observe any characteristics in which it differed from the described species. And if we except the numerous species of duck, the colomba migratoris, catbird, and some other land species almost equally common, this constitutes the substance of our observations, on the birds of this river. We saw the deer, of which there are apparently two species. And we had frequent occasion to observe the antlers and bones of these animals around deserted camps, evincing their abundance in this part of the country.
We had been three fourths of an hour in descending this outlet, when we entered a lake called Boutwell, with banks of rather sombre vegetation, which we were nineteen minutes in passing. Its outlet, of a spreading, sandy, shelly character, is about a mile and a half in extent, at which distance it expands into Lac Vieux Desert, or the Lake of the Old Wintering Ground, where we halted long enough to prepare breakfast. This lake we were twenty-six minutes in passing through. Its outlet is about two miles long, where it again expands into a lake of about two and a quarter miles extent, which may, from its position, be denominated Summit Lake. The course, which, from the Kagi Nogumaug, is thus far generally south-west, here suddenly veers to the east and northeast, and after a striking circuit, comes round to the south-east, and eventually again to the south-west, before its junction with Shell River. And the stream which thus far seems to have its course on a level or summit, is here deflected into a valley, and is beset with rapids, and by the flood wood lodged upon its banks, and their partial denudation, puts on the appearance of a stream which must sometimes assume the fury of a torrent. It probably, at such times, is a turbid stream, but was now clear with a gravelly bottom. We were hurried along through this channel for the space of two hours and fifteen minutes, when it expanded into Long-rice Lake. We were thirty-five minutes in passing this lake. Shortly below it, the channel expands again into a lake, which from Lieut. Allen’s exploring it, we called Allen’s Lake. It is probably the largest of the series below the Kagi Nogumaug. It receives a tributary from the northwest, which was visited by Lieut. Allen.
The atmosphere had for some time admonished us of a storm, and it broke upon us, on entering this lake. Dark clouds rolled over each other, until the light of day was sensibly and suddenly obscured. We have seldom known an equal quantity of the electric fluid discharged in so short a space of time, or with the incessant repetition of an electric light, so subtle and painful to be endured. The rain fell in a heavy and continued torrent, and it began with gusts of wind which threw the canoe-men into alarm. They veered the canoe for the nearest shore, but before reaching it, the tempest settled, and the rain fell less violently. We therefore, continued our way without landing, and passed out of the lake. A short channel, on the banks of which the elm and oak appeared conspicuously, terminated in a moderate sized lake of handsomely elevated hard wood and pine shores, for which, as our maps afforded neither Indian nor French name, we made use of the circumstance of Mr. Johnston’s landing to fire at a deer, to name it after him. On going out of this lake, we had our attention excited by an unextinguished fire, on the banks of the outlet. But no person appeared, nor was there any canoe ashore, nor lodge-poles, which there would have been, in the case of a travelling Chippewa family. These evidences were deemed conclusive by the canoe-men, of the presence of Sioux, who, it is supposed, perceiving the character of the party, had concealed themselves. And the circumstance was suited to alarm a class of men, who, being of the Gallic-Chippewa race, retain very strong attachments to the Chippewas, and have imbibed with very little abatement, all the prejudices which this people feel for a powerful hereditary enemy.
An hour’s voyage from this spot brought us to the entrance and merely to the entrance of the eleventh, and last lake of the series called Kaichibo Sagitowa, or the Lake which the River passes through one End of, or Lake Leelina. Not many miles below this point, the river forms its first forks, by the junction of Shell river, a considerable stream of nearly equal size with itself. Below this point, there is always water enough, although the channel exhibits numerous rapids, and is often spread over a wide bed, giving rise to shallows. We descended about fourteen miles below the junction, and encamped. It was after eight o’clock when we put ashore. The rain had fallen, with steadiness for some hours previous. And the flashes of lightning, which lit up the sombre channel of the stream, excited a feeling of no very pleasant kind. We landed wet, cold and cheerless. The rain continued to fall. But the cheerfulness and activity of our canoe-men did not desert them. They searched among the prostrate vegetation, to discover dry fibres, or the unwetted parts that could be pulled from the nether rind of fallen trees. They ignited the mass with spunk, and soon sent up the gladdening flames of an ample camp fire. To pitch the tent, arrange its interior furniture, and place the heavy baggage under oil-cloths, secure from rain, or night dews, is the work of a few moments with these people—and he who would travel fast over an intricate interior route and be well served on the way, should not fail to prepare himself with a canoe allége and a crew of voyagèurs. They will not only go, when they are bid to go, but they will go unmurmuringly. And after submitting to severe labor, both of the night and day, on land and water, they are not only ready for further efforts, but will make them under the enlivening influence of a song.
CHAPTER XII.
Further descent of the De Corbeau.—Remarks on its general course and character.—Junction of Leaf and Long Prairie Rivers.—The latter pursued by the Pillagers in their wars against the Sessitons and Yanktons.—Cause of the appellation of Mukkundwa.—Their robbery of Berti, and assertion of a belligerent principle.—Forest trees of the De Corbeau.—Monotony of its scenery.—Meeting with a Chippewa hunter.—Arrival at the mouth of the river, and entrance of the Mississippi.—Concourse of Indians assembled at that point.—Council with them.—Sketch of the speeches of Grosse Gueule, Soangikumig, and White Fisher.—Arrival of the Pierced Prairie.—First intelligence of the breaking out of the Sauc War.—Close of the Narrative.—Notice of the effects of the disuse of ardent spirits by the men, and the observance of the Sabbath.
The ensuing portion of our voyage down this stream, occupied a day and a half, during which we probably descended a hundred and twenty miles. Its general course, from the forks, is south-east. It is swelled by two principal tributaries from the west, called Leaf and Long Prairie rivers, each of which brings in an ample volume, and both bear the impress of draining an extensive area. On the other bank, it is joined by the Kioshk, or Gull River, a stream of inferior size. Lesser streams or creeks, were noticed at several points, on either shore, by which the mass of water is considerably augmented. Altogether it is a stream of noble size, and is driven on through a diluvial formation, with a velocity indicating no small ratio of descent. There is no part of it, which can be called still water; much of it is rapid. For about seventy miles below the junction of Shell River, there is a regular series of distinct rapids, in each of which, the descent is several feet, and it requires dexterity to avoid running against the boulders, or “lost rocks,” which shew themselves above the water. Below the junction of Leaf River, this characteristic becomes less noticeable, and it disappears entirely, below the entrance of the Long Prairie branch. Its banks are elevated, presenting to the eye, a succession of pine forests, on the one hand, and an alluvial bend, bearing elms and soft maple, on the other. There is a small willow island about eighteen miles below the junction of Shell river, and several small elm islands in its central parts; but nothing at all comparable, in size, soil and timber, with the large and noted island, called Isle De Corbeau, which marks its junction with the Mississippi.
Long Prairie River is the avenue through which the Chippewas ascend, in their war excursions against the Sessitons and Yanktons. And many tales are related of mishaps and adventures on this stream, and the plains contiguous to it. Some of these it may be supposed, are tales merely. Others are the events of Indian history. But truth and fiction appear to be so blended in the accounts, that the separation of the one, from the other, must be often difficult, if not impossible. The recent war party, of which we saw one of the trophies, while encamped on the island of Colcaspi, went up this river in canoes. They encountered the Sioux, as they affirm, coming out against them. A fight ensued in the prairies, and was continued with changes of position throughout the day. Three Sioux and one Chippewa fell. The Sioux withdrew to a more remote position near their village. And the Chippewas returned to exult over the scalps of their enemy, and to meditate another blow. We saw several traces of this war party in our descent of the De Corbeau, in their places of hasty encampment, and also in remains of very small fires, tracks in landing on an open sand bank, and abandoned canoes, stranded and partly sunk, on the shores.
This war, between the Chippewas and Sioux, appears to be of ancient origin. It is at least coeval with the discovery of the country. Although the Chippewas are confessedly conquerors of the country they possess on this border, the conquests are of remote date. For the French, in exploring northward, found them already seated here. The part the Leech Lake Indians have played in this war, has rendered them conspicuous in their nation, and as before indicated, led to the appellation of Mukkundwais, or Pillagers, by which they are distinctively known. The circumstances which imposed upon them this name, are these.
Tradition asserts that in the interval which happened between the first attack on the French power in Canada, and the final acknowledgment of English supremacy, great irregularities existed in the fur trade in this quarter. The French were loved by the Indians, and naturally retained their influence to the last. And when the English entered the field of the trade, they were essentially dependent upon French clerks, and wholly so, on French or Canadian boatmen. During this era, a Mr. Berti entered the country, with a large assortment of goods. He took his station at the mouth of the De Corbeau, where he carried on a lucrative trade with the Chippewas. He had, however, more goods than these had furs to purchase, and among them, guns and ammunition, which he very well knew would find a ready sale among the Sioux. But, the Leech Lake Indians, forbid his going into the Sioux country, alleging that the Sioux were their enemies, and that the putting of guns and powder in their hands, would be to join their cause. Mr. Berti did not probably consider these declarations as absolutely final, for he proceeded towards the mouth of the Long Prairie River, in order to go to the Sioux. The result, however, was most disastrous to him. This band arrested his progress, and with arms in their hands, robbed him of all his goods without discrimination, but spared his own life and the lives of his men, who were suffered to go back, with their private effects. Mr. Berti was probably overwhelmed by this misfortune, for he never returned from the country, but soon after this event, died a natural death, and was buried in the region about Sandy Lake.
The forest of this fork of the Mississippi, abounds in almost every variety of the pine family. We observed the sugar maple less frequently on our whole route, than would be inferred from the knowledge, that this tree is spread over the sources of the Mississippi, and flourishes, even in its most northern latitudes; and that the sugar made from it, is relied on by the Indians, as one of the regular of the minor means of their subsistence. This may be accounted for, perhaps satisfactorily, from knowing that river alluvions, and low grounds generally, are unfavorable to its growth. Its true position is the uplands, to which the Indians are known to resort, in the season of sugar making. Other species of the maple, frequently exhibited their soft foliage, over the stream, together with the elm, and the ash, and some varieties of the oak. Pine is, however, by far the most abundant and valuable timber tree, disclosed along the immediate banks of this river, and it affords a repository of this species, which will be much resorted to, when the agricultural plains above the falls of St. Anthony, shall teem with their destined population.
The mere exhibition of woods and waters, however inspiring in their effects, is not sufficient to keep the attention from flagging, if there be no striking succession of variety in their character. It seems not less a physical, than a moral truth, that “uniformity will tire, though it be uniformity of excellence.” The eye is perpetually searching for something new, and however it may have been with other explorers, I think we may venture to say, that with us, novelty has been a far more constant or immediate passion, than utility. The “lightning splintered” pine, which raises its dead arms, amid the living foliage, is suited to call forth a remark. The waterfowl with a tuft, or the shell with a deep cicatrice or a pearly interior, gives occasion for interrupting the silence, that plainer species would have left unbroken. And it is this search for something distinctive or peculiar, that gives an edge to the zeal of discovery.
On the third day of our voyage down this river, towards noon the monotony of its incidents, was relieved by descrying an Indian canoe, ascending the channel before us. A simultaneous yell of recognition, both from it, and from our men, shewed the accuracy, with which each could identify, on a first glance, and at a distance, the approach of friends, for it proved to be a Chippewa with his family. Our flag-staff was instantly placed in its socket, in the stern of the canoe, and the distance between us and them, made to appear less, under the influence of un chanson du voyageur. The Indian, who, on reaching him, seemed pleased, informed us that we were at no great distance from the mouth of the river, where the Sandy Lake and Mille Lac bands were assembled, awaiting our arrival. And that the count, by which they were assured of the day appointed for meeting them, would be finished with the setting of this day’s sun. We had pushed forward to attain the object, and were highly gratified, that it had pleased a favoring Providence, to enable us to keep our word, with them. Every face in this canoe, appeared to wear a smile, and the maja! maja! which the owner of it uttered on parting, conveyed with a truth, which could hardly be mistaken, the equivalent English sentiment of “God speed you!”
The remainder of the distance was easily despatched. We reached the parting of the channels, which encloses the large island of De Corbeau, about twelve o’clock. On issuing out of the upper channel, and entering the broad current of the majestic Mississippi, we beheld the opposite shore lined with Indian lodges, with the American flag conspicuously displayed. The Indians commenced firing a salute the instant we hove in sight, and continued it, with yells of joy, to the moment of our landing. A throng then crowded the banks, among whom I recognized the two principal chiefs, who, with their retinue, evinced, both by word and act, the gratification they felt; not only at the meeting, but the punctuality with which it had been observed. We were gratified on being told, within a few hours of our arrival, that our canoe, with the goods and supplies from Sandy Lake, was in sight; and soon found the event verified, in the safe arrival of the men, and the landing of the packages.
Being thus enabled to proceed with the council, it was determined immediately to assemble the Indians, and state to them, in a more full and formal manner than had been done at Sandy Lake, the objects of the visit. On closing the address, the presents and provisions designed for these bands, were issued to them. Kwiwizainsish, or the Grosse Gueule, Soangikumig, or the Strong Ground, White Fisher, and the son of Pugusainjigun, were the principal speakers in reply. The peculiarities in the speech of each, may be adverted to.
The Grosse Gueule, observed, that, as the line was a question between the Chippewas and Sioux, a firm peace could never exist, until the line was surveyed and marked, so that each party could see where it ran. This was wanted in the section of country, immediately west of them. The Sioux, were in the habit of trespassing on it. And when their own hunters went out, in the pursuit of game, they did not like to stop short of the game, and they saw no marked line to stop them. He said that it had been promised at the treaty at Prairie du Chien, that the line should be run, and he wished me to convey his words on the subject, to the President. He was in favor of peace now as he had been, when he had met the Government in council at Tipisagi, and at Fond du Lac.
Soangikumig,[19] said, through his brother, that he had taken a part in defending the lines. He hoped that they might be made plain, so that each party could see them. As it was, a perpetual pretence was given, for crossing the path, (or lines.) It must be expected that the peace would often be broken, when it could be, so easily.
Wabojeeg, or the White Fisher, stated that he had given his influence to peace counsels. He had been present at the treaty of Fond du Lac. The Sandy Lake Indians had been lately reproached, as it were, for their pacific character, by hearing the Leech Lake war party passing so near to them. (This party went up Long Prairie River.) He hoped the same advice given to Chippewas, would be given to Sioux. If the Sioux would not come over the lines, they, (the Chippewas,) would not go over them. He thought the lines might have been differently run. Their hunters always came out of Sauc river, which had been given up to the Sioux. But as they had been agreed to, by their old Chiefs, who were now gone, (he referred particularly to the late Katawabida, and Babisikundadi,) it would be best to let them remain.
Nittum Egabowa, or the Front Standing Man, confined his speech to personal topics. He said the medal he wore, and by virtue of which, he claimed the Chieftainship, had been presented to his deceased father, at the treaty of Prairie du Chien. He presented a pipe.
Ascertaining the trading house of a Mr. Baker to be near our encampment, after closing the council, we embarked and descended the Mississippi about eighteen miles to Prairie Piercée. Intelligence had reached this place a few days before, by way of St. Peter’s, of open hostilities among the Saucs and Foxes, and we here saw a western paper, giving an account of an action with the militia on River Rock, the murder of St. Vrain, the agent for these tribes, and other particulars indicating the frontier to be irretrievably plunged into an Indian war.
At this point, (i. e. the mouth of the De Corbeau) a remote point in our north-western geography, the route, of which the preceeding sketches give an outline, intersects that of the expedition to the sources of the Mississippi, under the direction of the present Secretary of War, Gov. Cass, in 1820. And in order that no part of the present volume may be considered as going over grounds pre-occupied by the details embraced in our “Narrative Journal of Travels,” the account of the present expedition is here terminated.
In submitting it to the public, it is conceived suitable to remark, that it has been accomplished, from beginning to end, without the use of so much as a drop of ardent spirits, of any kind, either by the men upon whom the fatigues of the labor fell, or by the gentlemen who composed the exploring party. This fact itself might be deemed an empty annunciation, were it not in my power to add the gratifying result, that no diminution of the strength or capacity of the men to perform their labor has been, at any time experienced; nor has any sickness at all supervened. At no stage of the journey, have the men, who were originally engaged with a distinct understanding on this point, asked for or required any liquor, or evinced any murmuring that it had been excluded from the supplies. But even, where the labor was most severe, on portages, in morasses, or in crossing highlands, they have evinced a readiness, a cheerfulness, and an ability for sustaining continued fatigue, which has often been the subject of remark and commendation by the party. Often when the day’s work was done, when they had labored hard at the paddle or carrying-strap, and sometimes when even a portion of the night had been added to it, they showed a joyful spirit in the encampment. And they frequently went to gather wood, after such fatigues, for supplying the night fires, with the boatman’s song.
Another fact, may, with equal pleasure, be recorded, and it seems intimately connected, in its influence with the preceeding. No Sabbath day was employed in travelling. It was laid down as a principle, to rest on that day, and wherever it overtook us, whether on the land, or on the water, the men knew that their labor would cease, and that the day would be given them for rest. Such of them as felt the inclination, had the further privilege of hearing a portion of the scriptures read, or expounded, or uniting in other devotional rites. There were but a few hours of a single morning and a few hours of a single evening, of separate Sabbaths, at distant points, which were necessarily employed in reaching particular places. And the use of these appeared to be unavoidable under the particular circumstances of our local position. It may, perhaps, be thought, that the giving up of one seventh part of the whole time, employed on a public expedition in a very remote region, and with many men to subsist, must have, in this ratio, increased the time devoted to the route. But the result was far otherwise. The time devoted to recruit the men, not only gave the surgeon of the party an opportunity to heal up the bruises and chafings they complained of, but it replenished them with strength; they commenced the week’s labor with renewed zest, and this zest was, in a measure, kept up by the reflection, that the ensuing Sabbath would be a day of rest. It was found by computing the whole route, and comparing the time employed, with that which had been devoted on similar routes, in this part of the world, that an equal space had been gone over, in less time, than it had ever been known to be performed, by loaded canoes, or (as the fact is) by light canoes, before. And the whole expedition, its incidents and results, have been of a character furnishing strong reasons for uniting in ascriptions of praise to that Eternal Power, who hath been our shield from “the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and from the destruction that wasteth at noon-day.”