Chapter 22

[77] The game of the Plum-stones is one of the favorite games of the Dakotas. Hennepin was the first to describe this game, in his _Description de la Louisiane_, Paris, 1683, and he describes it very accurately. See Shea's translation p. 301. The Dakotas call this game _Kan-soo Koo-tay-pe_--shooting plum-stones. Each stone is painted black on one side and red on the other; on one side they grave certain figures which make the stones _Wakan_. They are placed in a dish and thrown up like dice. Indeed, the game is virtually a game of dice. Hennepin says: "There are some so given to this game that they will gamble away even their great coat. Those who conduct the game cry at the top of their voices when they rattle the platter, and they strike their shoulders so hard as to leave them all black with the blows."

[78] _Wa-tanka_--contraction of _Wa-kan Tanka_--Great Spirit. The Dakotas had no _Wakan Tanka_ or _Wakan-peta_--fire spirit--till white men imported them. There being no name for the Supreme Being in the Dakota tongue (except _Tâku Skán-skán_.--See note 51)--and all their gods and spirits being _Wakan_--the missionaries named God in Dakota--"_Wakan Tanka_"--which means _Big Spirit_, or _The Big Mysterious_.

[79] The Dakotas called Lake Calhoun, at Minneapolis, Minn.--_Mdé-mdó-za_--Loon Lake. They also called it _Re-ya-ta-mde_--the lake back from the river. They called Lake Harriet--_Mdé-únma_--the other lake--or (perhaps) _Mdé-uma_--Hazel-nut Lake. The lake nearest Calhoun on the north--Lake of the Isles--they called _Wi-ta Mdé_--Island-Lake. Lake Minnetonka they called _Me-ne-a-tân-ka_--_Broad Water_.

[80] The animal called by the French _voyageurs_ the _cabri_ (the kid) is found only on the prairies. It is of the goat kind, smaller than a deer and so swift that neither horse nor dog can overtake it. (Snelling's "_Tales of the Northwest_," p. 286, note 15.) It is the gazelle, or prairie antelope, called by the Dakotas _Ta-tóka-dan_--little antelope. It is the _Pish-tah-te-koosh_ of the Algonkin tribes, "reckoned the fleetest animal in the prairie country about the Assiniboin." _Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner_, p. 301.

[81] The _Wicâstâpi Wakânpi_ (literally, _men supernatural_) are the "Medicine-men" or Magicians of the Dakotas. They call themselves the sons or disciples of _Unktéhee_. In their rites, ceremonies, tricks and pretensions they closely resemble the _Dactyli, Idæ_, and _Curetes_ of the ancient Greeks and Romans, the _Magi_ of the Persians and the Druids of Britain. Their pretended intercourse with spirits, their powers of magic and divination, and their rites are substantially the same, and point unmistakably to a common origin. The Dakota "Medicine-Man" can do the "rope trick" of the Hindoo magician to perfection. The _teepee_ used for the _Wakan Wacipee_--or Sacred Dance--is called the _Wakan Teepee_--the Sacred Teepee. Carvers Cave at St. Paul was also called _Wakan Teepee_ because the Medicine-men or magicians often held their dances and feasts in it. For a full account of the rites, etc., see Riggs' _Tahkoo Wahkan_, Chapter VI. The _Ta-sha-ke_--literally, "Deer-hoofs"--is a rattle made by hanging the hard segments of deer-hoofs to a wooden rod a foot long--about an inch in diameter at the handle end, and tapering to a point at the other. The clashing of these horny bits makes a sharp, shrill sound something like distant sleigh-bells. In their incantations over the sick they sometimes use the gourd shell rattle.

The _Chân-che-ga_--is a drum or "Wooden Kettle." The hoop of the drum is from a foot to eighteen inches in diameter, and from three to ten inches deep. The skin covering is stretched over one end, making a drum with one end only. The magical drum-sticks are ornamented with down, and heads of birds or animals are carved on them. This makes them _Wakan_.

The flute called _Cho-tanka_ (big pith) is of two varieties--one made of sumac, the pith of which is punched out. The second variety is made of the long bone of the wing or thigh of the swan or crane. They call the first the _bubbling chotanka_ from the tremulous note it gives when blown with all the holes stopped. Riggs' _Tâhkoo Wahkan_, p. 476, et seq.

_E-né-pee_--vapor-bath, is used as a purification preparatory to the sacred feasts. The vapor-bath is taken in this way: "A number of poles, the size of hoop-poles or less, are taken, and their larger ends being set in the ground in a circle, the flexible tops are bent over and tied in the center. This frame-work is then covered with robes and blankets, a small hole being left on one side for an entrance. Before the door a fire is built, and round stones about the size of a man's head, are heated in it. When hot they are rolled within, and the door being closed steam is made by pouring water on them. The devotee, stripped to the skin, sits within this steam-tight dome, sweating profusely at every pore, until he is nearly suffocated. Sometimes a number engage in it together and unite their prayers and songs." _Tâhkoo Wakan_, p. 83. Father Hennepin was subjected to the vapor-bath at Mille Lacs by Chief _Aqui-pa-que-tin_, two hundred years ago. After describing the method, Hennepin says: "When he had made me sweat thus three times in a week, I felt as strong as ever." Shea's Hennepin, p. 228. For a very full and accurate account of the Medicine-men of the Dakotas, and their rites, etc., see Chap. II, Neill's Hist. Minnesota.

[82] The sacred _O-zu-ha_--or Medicine sack must be made of the skin of the otter, the coon, the weasel, the squirrel, the loon, a certain kind of fish or the skins of serpents. It must contain four kinds of medicine (or magic) representing birds, beasts, herbs and trees, viz.: The down of the female swan colored red, the roots of certain grasses, bark from the roots of cedar trees, and hair of the buffalo. "From this combination proceeds a Wakân influence so powerful that no human being, unassisted, can resist it." Wonderful indeed must be the magic power of these Dakota Druids to lead such a man as the Rev. S.R. Riggs to say of them: "By great shrewdness, untiring industry, and more or less of _actual demoniacal possession_, they convince great numbers of their fellows, and in the process are convinced themselves of their sacred character and office." _Tâhkoo Wakân_, pp. 88-9.

[83] _Gâh-ma-na-tek-wahk--the river of many falls_--is the Ojibway name of the river commonly called Kaministiguia, near the mouth of which is situated Fort William. The view on Thunder-Bay is one of the grandest in America. Thunder-Cap, with its sleeping stone-giant, looms up into the heavens. Here _Ka-be-bon-ikka_--the Ojibway's god of storms--flaps his huge wings and makes the Thunder. From this mountain he sends forth the rain, the snow, the hail, the lightning and the tempest. A vast giant, turned to stone by his magic, lies asleep at his feet. The island called by the Ojibways the _Mak-i-nak_ (the turtle) from its tortoise-like shape, lifts its huge form in the distance. Some "down-east Yankee" called it "Pie-island," from its fancied resemblance to a pumpkin pie, and the name, like all bad names, _sticks_. McKay's Mountain on the mainland, a perpendicular rock more than a thousand feet high, upheaved by the throes of some vast volcano, and numerous other bold and precipitous headlands, and rock-built islands, around which roll the sapphire-blue waters of the fathomless bay, present some of the most magnificent views to be found on either continent.

[84] The Mission of the Holy Ghost--at La Pointe, on the isle _Wauga-bâ-me_--(winding view) in the beautiful bay of Cha-quam-egon --was founded by the Jesuits about the year 1660. Father René Menard was probably the first priest at this point. After he was lost in the wilderness, Father Glaude Allouëz permanently established the mission in 1665. The famous Father Marquette, who took Allouëz's place, Sept. 13, 1669, writing to his superior, thus describes the Dakotas: "The Nadouessi are the Iroquois of this country, beyond La Pointe, _but less faithless, and never attack till attacked._ Their language is entirely different from the Huron and Algonquin. They have many villages but are widely scattered. They have very extraordinary customs. They principally use the calumet. They do not speak at great feasts, and when a stranger arrives give him to eat of a wooden fork, as we would a child. All the lake tribes make war on them, but with small success. They have false oats (wild rice,) use little canoes, _and keep their word strictly_." _Neill's Hist. Minn._, p. III.

[85] _Michâbo_ or _Manni-bozo_--the Good Spirit of the Algonkins. In autumn, in the moon of the falling leaf, ere he composes himself to his winter's sleep, he fills his great pipe and takes a god-like smoke. The balmy clouds from his pipe float over the hills and woodland, filling the air with the haze of "Indian Summer." _Brinton's Myths of the New World_, p. 163.

[86] Pronounced _Kah-tháh-gah_--literally, _the place of waves and foam_. This was the principal village of the _Isantee_ band of Dakotas two hundred years ago, and was located at the Falls of St. Anthony, which the Dakotas called the _Ha-ha_,--pronounced _Rhah-rhah_,--the _loud-laughing waters_. The Dakotas believed that the Falls were in the center of the earth. Here dwelt the _Great Unktéhee_, the creator of the earth and man: and from this place a path led to the Spirit-land. DuLuth undoubtedly visited Kathâga in the year 1679. In his "Memoir" (Archives of the Ministry of the Marine) addressed to Seignelay, 1685, he says: "On the 2nd of July, 1679, I had the honor to plant his Majesty's arms in the great village of the Nadouecioux called Izatys, where never had a Frenchman been, etc." _Izatys_ is here used not as the name of the village, but as the name of the band--the _Isantees_. _Nadouecioux_ was a name given the Dakotas generally by the early French traders and the Ojibways. See _Shea's Hennepin's Description of Louisiana_, pp. 203 and 375. The villages of the Dakotas were not permanent towns. They were hardly more than camping grounds, occupied at intervals and for longer or shorter periods, as suited the convenience of the hunters; yet there were certain places, like Mille Lacs, the Falls of St. Anthony, _Kapoza_ (near St. Paul), _Remnica_ (where the city of Red Wing now stands), and _Keuxa_ (or _Keoza_) on the site of the city of Winona, so frequently occupied by several of the bands as to be considered their chief villages respectively.

Mr. Neill, usually very accurate and painstaking, has fallen into an error in his prefatory notes to the last edition of his valuable _History of Minnesota_. Speaking of DuLuth, he says:

"He appears to have entered Minnesota by way of the Pigeon or St. Louis River, and to have explored where no Frenchman had been, and on July 2, 1679, was at _Kathio_ (_Kathâga_) perhaps on Red Lake or Lake of the Woods, which was called 'the great village of the Wadouessioux,' one hundred and twenty leagues from the _Songaskicons_ and _Houetepons_ who were dwellers _in the Mille Lac region_."

Now _Kathâga_ (Mr. Neill's _Kathio_) was located at the Falls of St. Anthony on the Mississippi as the whole current of Dakota traditions clearly shows and DuLuth's dispatches clearly indicate. Besides, the _Songaskicons_ and _Houetepons_ were _not_ and never were "dwellers in the Mille Lac region." The Songaskicons (Sissetons) were at that time located on the Des Moines river (in Iowa), and the Houetabons (Ouadebatons) at and around Big Stone Lake. The Isantees occupied the region lying between the mouth of the Minnesota River and Spirit Lake (Mille Lacs) with their principal village--_Kathága_--where the city of Minneapolis now stands. These facts account for the "one hundred and twenty leagues" as distances were roughly reckoned by the early French explorers.

September 1, 1678, Daniel Greysolon DuLuth, a native of Lyons, France, left Quebec to explore the country of the Dakotas. "The next year (1679) on the 2nd day of July, he caused the king's arms to be planted in the great village of the Nadouessioux (Dakotas) called Kathio" (_Kathága_) "where no Frenchman had ever been, also at the Songaskicons and Houetabons, one hundred and twenty leagues distant from the former. * * * * On this tour he visited Mille Lacs, which he called Lake Buade, the family name of Frontenac, governor of Canada." _Neill''s History of Minnesota_, p. 122. This is correct, except the name of the village--_Kathio_, which is a misprint or perhaps an error of a copyist. It should be _Kathága_. DuLuth was again at the Falls of St. Anthony in 1680 and returned to Lake Superior via the Mississippi, Rum River and Mille Lacs, according to his own dispatches.

Franquelin's "_Carte de la Louisiane_" printed at Paris A.D. 1684, from information derived from DuLuth, who visited France in 1682-3, and conferred with the minister of the Colonies and the minister of Marine--shows the inaccuracy, as to points of compass at least, of the early French explorers. According to this map, Lake Buade (Mille Lacs) lies north-west of Lake Superior and Lake Pepin lies due west of it.

DuLuth was afterward appointed to the command of Fort Frontenac near Niagara Falls, and died there in 1710. The official dispatch from the Governor of Canada to the French Government is, as regards the great explorer, brief and expressive--"Captain DuLuth is dead. He was an honest man."

To Daniel Greysolon DuLuth, and not to Father Hennepin, whom he rescued from his captors at Mille Lacs, belongs the credit of the first exploration of Minnesota by white men.

Father Hennepin was a self-conceited and self-convicted liar. Daniel Greysolon DuLuth "was an honest man."

NOTES TO THE SEA-GULL

[1] _Kay-óshk_ is the Ojibway name for the sea-gull.

[2] _Gitchee_--great,--_Gumee_--sea or lake,--Lake Superior; also often called _Ochipwè Gitchee Gúmee_, Great lake (or sea) of the Ojibways.

[3] _Né-mè-Shómis_--my grandfather. "In the days of my grandfather" is the Ojibway's preface to all his traditions and legends.

[4] _Waub_--white--_O-jeeg_--fisher, (a furred animal). White Fisher was the name of a noted Ojibway chief who lived on the south shore of Lake Superior many years ago. Schoolcraft married one of his descendants.

[5] _Ma-kwa_ or _mush-kwa_--the bear.

[6] The _Te-ke-nâh-gun_ is a board upon one side of which a sort of basket is fastened or woven with thongs of skin or strips of cloth. In this the babe is placed and the mother carries it on her back. In the wigwam the _tekenagun_ is often suspended by a cord to the lodge-poles and the mother swings her babe in it.

[7] _Wabóse_ (or _Wabos_)-the rabbit. _Penáy_, the pheasant. At certain seasons the pheasant drums with his wings.

[8] _Kaug_, the porcupine. _Kenéw_, the war-eagle.

[9] _Ka-be-bon-ik-ka_ is the god of storms, thunder, lightning, etc. His home is on Thunder-Cap at Thunder-Bay, Lake Superior. By his magic the giant that lies on the mountain was turned to stone. He always sends warnings before he finally sends the severe cold of winter, in order to give all creatures time to prepare for it.

[10] _Kewáydin_ or _Kewáytin_, is the North wind or North-west wind.

[11] _Algónkin_ is the general name applied to all tribes that speak the Ojibway language or dialects of it.

[12] This is the favorite "love-broth" of the Ojibway squaws. The warrior who drinks it immediately falls desperately in love with the woman who gives it to him. Various tricks are devised to conceal the nature of the "medicine" and to induce the warrior to drink it; but when it is mixed with a liberal quantity of "fire-water" it is considered irresistible.

[13] Translation:

Woe-is-me! Woe-is-me! Great Spirit, behold me! Look, Father; have pity upon me! Woe-is-me! Woe-is-me!

[14] Snow-storms from the North-west.

[15] The Ojibways, like the Dakotas, call the _Via Lactea_ (Milky Way) the Pathway of the Spirits.

[16] _Shinge-bis_, the diver, is the only water-fowl that remains about Lake Superior all winter.

[17] _Waub-èsé_--the white swan.

[18] _Pé-boân_, Winter, is represented as an old man with long white hair and beard.

[19] _Según_ is Spring (or Summer). This beautiful allegory has been "done into verse" by Longfellow in _Hiawatha_. Longfellow evidently took his version from Schoolcraft. I took mine originally from the lips of _Pah-go-nay-gie-shiek_--"Hole-in-the-day"--(the elder) in his day head-chief of the Ojibways. I afterward submitted it to _Gitche Shabásh-Konk_, head-chief of the _Misse-sah-ga-é-gun_--(Mille Lacs band of Ojibways), who pronounced it correct.

"Hole-in-the-day," although sanctioned by years of unchallenged use, is a bad translation of _Pah-go-nay-gie-shiek_, which means a _clear spot in the sky_.

He was a very intelligent man; had been in Washington several times on business connected with his people, and was always shrewd enough to look out for himself in all his treaties and transactions with the Government. He stood six feet two inches in his moccasins, was well-proportioned, and had a remarkably fine face. He had a nickname--_Que-we-zánc_--(Little Boy) by which he was familiarly called by his people.

The Pillagers--_Nah-kánd-tway-we-nin-ni-wak_--who live about Leech Lake (_Kah-sah-gah-squah-g-me-cock_) were opposed to _Pa-go-nay-gie-shiek_, but he compelled them through fear to recognize him as Head-Chief. At the time of the "Sioux outbreak" in 1862 "Hole-in-the-day" for a time apparently meditated an alliance with the _Po-áh-nuck_ (Dakotas) and war upon the whites. The Pillagers and some other bands urged him strongly to this course, and his supremacy as head-chief was threatened unless he complied. Messengers from the Dakotas were undoubtedly received by him, and he, for a time at least, led the Dakotas to believe that their hereditary enemies, the Ojibways, would bury the hatchet and join them in a war of extermination against the whites. "Hole-in-the-day," with a band of his warriors, appeared opposite Fort Ripley (situated on the west bank of the Mississippi River between Little Falls and Crow Wing), and assumed a threatening attitude toward the fort, then garrisoned by volunteer troops. The soldiers were drawn up on the right bank and "Hole-in-the-day" and his warriors on the left. A little speech-making settled the matter for the time being and very soon thereafter a new treaty was made with "Hole-in-the-day" and his head men, by which their friendship and allegiance were secured to the whites. It was claimed by the Pillagers that "Hole-in-the-day" seized the occasion to profit personally in his negotiations with the agents of the Government.

In 1867 "Hole-in-the-day" took "another wife." He married Helen McCarty, a white woman, in Washington, D.C., and took her to his home at Gull Lake (_Ka-ga-ya-skúnc-cock_) literally, _plenty of little gulls_.

She bore him a son who is known as Joseph H. Woodbury, and now (1891) resides in the city of Minneapolis. His marriage with a white woman increased the hatred of the Pillagers, and they shot him from ambush and killed him near _Ninge-tá-we-de-guá-yonk_--Crow Wing--on the 27th day of June, 1868.

At the time of his death, "Hole-in-the-day" was only thirty-seven years old but had been recognized as Head-Chief for a long time. He could speak some English, and was far above the average of white men in native shrewdness and intelligence. He was thoroughly posted in the traditions and legends of his people.

The Ojibways have for many years been cursed by contact with the worst elements of the whites, and seem to have adopted the vices rather than the virtues of civilization. I once spoke of this to "Hole-in-the-day." His reply was terse and truthful--"_Mádgè tche-mó-ko-mon, mádgè a-nische-nábé: menógé tche-mó-ko-mon, menó a-nischè-nábè_.--Bad white men, bad Indians: good white men, good Indians."

[20] _Nah_--look, see. _Nashké_--behold.

[21] _Kee-zis_--the sun,--the father of life. _Waubúnong_--or _Waub-ó-nong_--is the White Land or Land of Light,--the Sun-rise, the East.

[22] The Bridge of Stars spans the vast sea of the skies, and the sun and moon walk over on it.

[23] The _Miscodeed_ is a small white flower with a pink border. It is the earliest blooming wild flower on the shores of Lake Superior, and belongs to the crocus family.

[24] The _Ne-be-naw-baigs_, are Water-spirits; they dwell in caverns in the depths of the lake, and in some respects resemble the _Unktéhee_ of the Dakotas.

[25] _Ogema_, Chief,--_Oge-má-kwá_--female Chief. Among the Algonkin tribes women are sometimes made chiefs. _Net-nó-kwa_, who adopted Tanner as her son, was _Oge-mâ-kwá_ of a band of Ottawas. See _John Tanner's Narrative_, p. 36.

[26] The "Bridge of Souls" leads from the earth over dark and stormy waters to the spirit-land. The "Dark River" seems to have been a part of the superstitions of all nations.

[27] The _Jossakeeds_ of the Ojibways are soothsayers who are able, by the aid of spirits, to read the past as well as the future.

FINIS