[Footnote 72: Oonk-tó-mee--is a "bad spirit" in the form of a monstrous
black spider. He inhabits fens and marshes and lies in wait for his
prey. At night he often lights a torch (evidently the _ignis fatuus_ or
Jack-a-lantern) and swings it on the marshes to decoy the unwary into
his toils.]
[Footnote 73: The Dakotas have their stone idol, or god, called
Toon-kan--or In-yan. This god dwells in stone or rocks and is they
say, the _oldest god of all_--he is grandfather of all living things. I
think, however that the stone is merely the symbol of the everlasting,
all pervading, invisible _Ta-ku Wa-kan_--the essence of all
life,--pervading all nature, animate and inanimate. The Rev. S. R.
Riggs who, for forty years, has been a student of Dakota customs,
superstitions etc., says, "Tâhkoo Wahkan," p. 55: et seq. "The religious
faith of the Dakota is not in his gods as such. It is in an intangible,
mysterious something of which they are only the embodiment, and that in
such measure and degree as may accord with the individual fancy of the
worshipper. Each one will worship some of these divinities, and neglect
or despise others, but the great object of all their worship, whatever
its chosen medium, is the _Ta-koo Wa-kan_, which is the _supernatural_
and _mysterious_. No one term can express the full meaning of the
Dakotas _Wakan_. It comprehends all mystery, secret power and divinity.
Awe and reverence are its due, and it is as unlimited in manifestation
as it is in idea. All life is _Wakan_; so also is everything which
exhibits power, whether in action as the winds and drifting clouds;
or in passive endurance, as the boulder by the wayside. For even the
commonest sticks and stones have a spiritual essence which must be
reverenced as a manifestation of the all-pervading mysterious power that
fills the the universe."]
[Footnote 74: Wazi-kuté--Wah-ze-koo-tay; literally--Pine-shooter--he
that shoots among the pines. When Father Hennepin was at Mille Lacs in
1679-80, Wazi-kuté was the head Chief (Itâncan) of the band of Isantees.
Hennepin writes his name Ouasicoudé and translates it--the "Pierced
Pine." See Shea's Hennepin p. 234, Minn. Hist. Coll. vol. I. p. 316.]
[Footnote 75: When a Dakota brave wishes to "propose" to a "dusky maid",
he visits her teepee at night after she has retired, or rather, laid
down in her robe to sleep. He lights a splinter of wood and holds it to
her face. If she blows out the light, he is accepted; if she covers her
head and leaves it burning, he is rejected. The rejection however is not
considered final till it has been thrice repeated. Even then the maiden
is often bought of her parents or guardian, and forced to become the
wife of the rejected suitor. If she accepts the proposal, still the
suitor must buy her of her parents with suitable gifts.]
[Footnote 76: The Dakotas called the Falls of St. Anthony the Ha-Ha--the
_loud laughing_, or _roaring_. The Mississippi River they called
Ha-Ha Wá-kpa--River of the Falls. The Ojibway name for the Falls
is Ka-ká-bih-kúng. Minnehaha is a combination of two Dakota
words--Mini--water and Ha-Ha--Falls; but it is not the name by which the
Dakotas designated that cataract. Some authorities say they called it
I-ha-ha pronounced E-rhah-rhah--lightly laughing. Rev. S. W. Pond,
whose long residence as a missionary among the Dakotas in this immediate
vicinity makes him an authority that can hardly be questioned, says
"they called the Falls of Minnehaha "Mini-i-hrpâ-ya dan," and it had no
other name in Dakota. It means Little Falls and nothing else." Letter to
the author.]
[Footnote 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."]
[Footnote 78: Wa'tanka--contraction of Wa-kan Tanka--Great Spirit. The
Dakotas had no Wakan Tanka--or Wakan-péta--fire spirit--till whitemen
imported them. There being no name for the Supreme Being in the Dakota
tongue (except Tá-ku Wakan--See note 73)--and all their gods and
spirits being Wakan--the missionaries named God in Dakota--"_Wakan
Tanka_"--which means _Big Spirit_, or _The Big Mysterious_.]
[Footnote 79: The Dakotas called Lake Calhoun--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
úmaHazel-nut Lake. The lake nearest Calhoun on the north--Lake of the
Isles--they called Wí-ta Mdé--Island-Lake. Lake Minnetonka they called
Me-me-a-tán-ka--_Broad Water_.]
[Footnote 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 Tato-ka-dan--little
antelope. It is the _Pish-tah-te-koosh_ of the Algonkin tribes,
"reckoned the fleetest animal in the prairie country about the
Assinneboin." Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner, p. 301.]
[Footnote 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. Carver's 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' "Tâhkoo
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, etc. 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' Tahkoo 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
centre. 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 vapour-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.]
[Footnote 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 aa 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." Tahkoo Wakân, pp. 88-9: ]
[Footnote 83: Gâh-ma-na-tek-wâhk--_the river of many falls_--is the
Ojibway name of the river commonly called Kaministiguia, near the mouth
of which is situate Fort William, on the site of DuLuth's old fort. 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 (to his hungry imagination) fancied resemblance
to a pumpkin pie, and the name, like all bad names, _sticks_. McKay's
Mountain on the main-land, a perpendicular rock more than a thousand
feet high, up-heaved by the throes of some vast volcano, and numerous
other bold and precipitous head lands, 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.]
[Footnote 84: The Mission of the Holy Ghost--at La Pointe on the isle
Waug-a-bá-me--(winding view) in the beautiful bay of Cha-quam-egonwas
founded by the Jesuits about the year 1660, and Father Renè Menard was
the first priest at this point. After he was lost in the wilderness,
Father Glaude Allouëz permanently established ihe 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. 111.]
[Footnote 85: Michâbo--the Good, Great 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.]
[Footnote 86: Pronounced _Kah-thah-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 centre
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 Kathága 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, Kapóza
(near St. Paul), Remnica, (where the city of Red Wing now stands),
and Keúxa (or Keóza) on the site of the city of Winona, so frequently
occupied by several of the bands as to be considered their chief
villages respectively.]