The expedition proceeds to strike the source of the great Crow-Wing
River, by the Indian trail and line of interior portages, by way
of Leech Lake, the seat of the warlike tribe of the Pillagers, or
Mukundwa.
Having, while at Sandy Lake, summoned the Indians to meet me in council
at the mouth of the _L'aile de Corbeau_, or Crow-Wing River, on the 20th
of July, no time was to be lost in proceeding to that place. The 15th,
being the Sabbath, was spent at the island, where the Rev. Mr. Boutwell
addressed the Indians. The next day, I met the Cass Lake band in
council, and, having finished that business, rewarded the Indians for
their services and canoes on the trip to Itasca Lake, distributed the
presents designed for them, replied to a message from Nezhopenais of Red
Lake, and invested Ozawindib with the President's largest silver medal
and a flag, and was ready by 10 o'clock A. M. to embark. Dr. Houghton
employed the time to complete his vaccinations. I rewarded Mr. Default
for taking charge of my camp during the journey to Itasca Lake. As well
to shorten the line of travel as to visit an entirely unexplored section
of the country, I resolved to pursue the Indian trail and line of
interior portages from Cass to Leech Lake, and from the latter to the
source of the great Crow-Wing fork.
Passing southwardly across the lake, between Red Cedar and Garden
Islands, we have a prolonged bay running deep into the land, toward the
south. This bay is in the direct line to Leech Lake; and as it had been
crossed on the ice in January, 1806, by Lieutenant Pike, in his
adventurous and meritorious journey of exploration, I called it Pike's
Bay. It was twelve o'clock, meridian, when we debarked at its head. The
portage commenced on the edge of an open pine forest, interspersed with
scrub oak. The path is deeply worn, in the sand-plain, and looks as if
it had been trod by the Indians for centuries. I observed, as we passed
along, the alum root, hyacinthus, and sweet fern, with the ledum
latifolium, vaccinium dumosum, and more common species of pine plains.
The pinus resinosa assumes here a larger size, and the Indians pointed
out to me markings and pictographs drawn with charcoal, and covered with
the resin of the tree, which were made by the Indian tribe who preceded
them in the occupancy of the sources of the Mississippi. This must have
been, if I rightly apprehend their history, prior to A. D. 1600. That
such markings should be preserved by the pitch, which sheds the rain,
is, however, probable. They were of the totemic character, _i.e._
relating to the exploits or achievements of groups of families, in which
the individual actor sinks his specific in the generic family or clan
name. Antiquities of this character are certainly a new feature in
Indian history. Letters have perfectly preserved the landing of Cartier
at the mouth of the St. Lawrence in 1534. Pictography here records, that
certain clans had killed bears and taken human scalps before that time.
And the fact is deeply important in shedding light on Indian history and
character; for the killing of deers and bears, and the taking of human
scalps, is precisely what these tribes are doing at the present time. In
the three hundred years' interval, they have made no mental progress.
The Chippewa is just as fierce to-day, in hunting a Dacota scalp, as the
Dacota is in hunting a Chippewa scalp. The conquering tribe has,
however, pushed the Dacotas nearly one thousand miles down the
Mississippi.
"Talk of your Hannibals, Napoleons, and Alps,
My glory," quoth the feathered hunter, "is in scalps."
After following the deeply indented path nine hundred and fifty yards,
we reached a small lake which disclosed, as we passed it, patches of a
dark, coarse, mossy-like substance at its bottom. On reaching down with
their paddles, the men brought up a singular species of aquatic plant
with coral-shaped branches. After crossing this lake, the pine plain
resumed its former character. There was then a shallow bog of fifty or
sixty yards. The rest of the path consists of an arid sand plain, which
is sometimes brushy, but generally presents dry, easy travelling. We had
walked four thousand one hundred yards, or about two and a half miles,
when we reached an elongated body of clear living water, having its
outflow into Leech Lake. Embarking on this, we crossed it, and entered a
narrow stream, winding about in a shaking savanna, where it was found
difficult to veer the large five-fathom canoes in which we now
travelled. This tortuous stream was joined by a tributary from the
right, and at no remote distance, entered an elongated duplicate body of
water, named by the Indians _Kapuka Sagatawag_, or the Abrupt
Discharges.[175] Below the junction of these lakes, which appear to be
outbursts from the Hauteur de Terre range, the stream is a wide-flowing
river. Its shores abound in sedge, reeds, and wild rice. The last
glimpses of daylight left us as this broad river entered into Leech
Lake. Moonlight still served us, as we began the traverse of this
spreading sea, but it soon became overcast, and it was intensely dark
before we reached the recurved point of land of the principal chief's
village. It was now ten o'clock at night, and it was eleven before the
military canoes, under Lieutenant Allen, came up. In the morning a
salute was fired by the Indians, who welcomed us. Aishkebuggekozh,[176]
or the Flat-mouth, the reigning chief, invited me to breakfast. As this
chief exercises a kind of imperial sway over the adjacent country, it
was important to respect him. Having sent a dish of hard bread before
me, I took my interpreter and went to his residence. I found him living
in a tenement built of logs, with two rooms, well floored and roofed,
with two small glass windows. At one end of the breakfast-room were
extended his flags, medals, and warlike paraphernalia. In the centre of
the floor, a large mat of rushes, or Indian-woven _apukwa_ was spread,
and upon this the breakfast and breakfast things were arranged in an
orderly manner. There were teacups, teaspoons, plates, knives and forks,
all of plain English manufacture. A salt-cellar contained salt and
pepper mixed in unequal proportions. There were just as many plates as
expected guests. A large white fish, boiled, and cut up in good taste,
occupied a dish in the centre. There was a dish of sugar made from the
acer saccharinum. There were no stools, or chairs, but small apukwa
mats were spread for each guest. I observed the dish of hard bread,
which came opportunely, as there was no other representative form of
bread. The chief sat down at the head of his breakfast, in the oriental
fashion. Imitating his example, I sat down with a degree of repose and
nonchalance, as if this had been the position I had practised from
childhood. His empress--Equa,[177] sat on one side, near him, to pour
out the tea, but neither ate nor drank anything herself. Her position
was also that of the oriental custom for females; that is, both feet
were thrown to one side, and doubled beside her.[178] The chief helped
us to fish and to tea, taking the cups from his wife. He was dignified,
grave, yet easy, and conversed freely, and the meal passed off agreeably
and without a pause, or the slightest embarrassment. This was, perhaps,
owing in part to my having been acquainted with him before, he having
visited me at my agency at Sault Ste. Marie in 1828, and sat as a guest
at my own table. Nor, in a people so loath to give their confidence as
the Indian, is the fact undeserving of mention, of general affiliation
to the tribe, caused by my marriage with a grand-daughter of the ruling
chief of Lake Superior, a lady of refinement and intelligence, who was
the child of a gentleman of Antrim, Ireland, where she was educated.
[175] From the word _puka_, abrupt phenomenon, and the verb _saugi_,
outflowing.
[176] From _Aizhenagozze_, countenance, and _kozh_, a bill of a bird,
or snout of an animal. The word is appropriately translated _guelle_
by the Canadians.
[177] _Equa_, a female; it is not, appropriately, the term of wife,
for which the vocabulary has a peculiar term, but is generally
employed in the sense of woman.
[178] I have observed this to be the universal custom among all the
aboriginal females of America. They never part the feet.
On rising to leave, I invited him to a council, at my tent, which was
ordered to assemble at the firing of the military. It is not unimportant
to observe, that, in preparing to set out on this expedition into the
Indian country, at a time when the Blackhawk had raised the standard of
revolt on Rock River, and the tribes of the Upper Mississippi were
believed to be extensively in his views, I had caused my canoe, after it
had been finished in most perfect style of art known to this kind of
vessel, to be painted with Chinese vermilion, from stem to stern. Ten
years' residence among the tribes, in an official capacity, had
convinced me that fear is the controlling principle of the Indian mind,
and that the persuasions to a life of peace, are most effectively made
under the symbols of war. To beg, to solicit, to creep and cringe to
this race, whether in public or private, is a delusive, if not a fatal
course; and though I was told by one or two of my neighbors that it was
not well, on this occasion, to put my canoe in the symbolic garb of war,
I did not think so. I carried, indeed, emphatically, messages of peace
from the executive head of the Government, and had the means of insuring
respect for these messages, by displaying the symbol of authority at the
stern of each vessel, by an escort of soldiery, and by presents, and the
services of a physician to arrest one of the most fatal of diseases
which have ever afflicted the Indian race. But I carried them fearlessly
and openly, with the avowed purpose of peace. The canoe, itself, was an
emblem of this authority, and, like the _oriflamme_ of the Mediæval
Ages, cast an auspicious influence on my mission over these bleak and
wide summits, lakes, and forests, inhabited alone by fierce and
predatory tribes, who acknowledged no power but force. Long before I had
reached the sources of the Mississippi, St. Vrain, my fellow agent, had
been most cruelly murdered at his agency, and General Scott, with the
whole disposable army of the United States, had taken the field at
Chicago.
Lieut. Allen paraded his men that morning with burnished arms. We could
not, jointly, in an emergency, muster over forty men, of whom a part
were not reliable in a melée, but arranged our camp in the best manner
to produce effect. Effect, indeed, it required, when the hour of the
council came. Not less than one thousand souls, men, women, and
children, surrounded my tent, including a special deputation from the
American borders of Rainy Lake. Of these, two hundred were active young
warriors, who strode by with a bold and lofty air, and glistening eyes,
often lifting the wings of my tent, to scan the preparations going
forward. Aishkebuggekozh entered the council area, having in his train
Majegabowi, the man who had led the revolt in the Red River settlement
of Lord Selkirk, and who had tomahawked Gov. Semple, after he fell
wounded from his horse. This association did not smack of peaceful
designs. The chief, Aishkebuggekozh, himself, has the countenance of a
very ogre. He is over six feet high, very brawny, and stout. That
feature of his countenance from which he is named Flat-mouth, consisting
of a broad expansion and protrusion of the front jaws, between the long
incision of the mouth, reminds one much of a bull-dog's jaw. He held in
his hand, suspended by ribbons, five silver medals, smeared with
vermilion, to symbolize blood.
A person not familiar with Indian symbols, might deem such signs
alarming. I knew him to be very fond of using these symbols, and,
indeed, a man who never made a speech without them; and I had the
fullest confidence that, while he aimed to produce the fullest effect
upon his listening, but less shrewd tribe of folks, and upon all,
indeed, he never dreamed of an act which should bring him into conflict
with the United States. Like Blackhawk, who was now exciting and leading
the tribes at lower points to war, he had, from his youth, been in the
British interests. He displayed a British flag at his breakfast, and
three of his medals were of British coinage, but he was a man of far
more comprehensive mind and understanding than Blackhawk.
Having been, as a government agent, the medium of the agreement of the
Chippewas and Sioux in fixing on a boundary line for their respective
territories at the treaty of Prairie-du-Chien, in 1825, I made that
agreement, on the present occasion, the basis of my remarks, for their
preserving in good faith the stipulations of that treaty, and of
renewing the principles of it in the points where they had since been
broken and violated. I concluded by assuring them of the friendship of
the United States, of which my visit to this remote region must be
deemed proof, and of the sincerity with which I had communicated the
words of the President. The presents were then delivered and
distributed.
Aishkebuggekozh, or the Guelle Plat, replied, with much of the skill and
force of Indian oratory. He began by calling the attention of the
warriors to his words; he then turned to me, thanking me for the
presents. He said that he had been present when Pike visited this lake
in 1806. He pointed with his fingers across the lake, to the Ottertail
Point, where the old trading-house of the British Northwest Company had
stood. "You have come," he continued, "to remind us that the American
flag is now flying over the country, and to offer us counsels of peace.
I thank you. I have heard that voice before, but it was like a rushing
wind. It was strong, but soon went. It did not remain long enough to
choke up the path. At the treaty of Prairie-du-Chien, it had been
promised that whoever crossed the lines, the long arms of the President
should pull them back; but, that very year, the Sioux attacked us, and
they have killed my people almost every year since. I was myself present
when they fired on a peaceful delegation, and killed four Chippewas
under the walls of Fort Snelling. My own son--my _only_ son--has been
killed. He was basely killed, without an opportunity to defend himself."
A subordinate here handed him, at his request, a bundle of small sticks.
"This," handing them to me, "is the number of Leech Lake Chippewas
killed by the Sioux since the treaty of Prairie-du-Chien." There were
forty-three sticks.
He then lifted up a string of silver medals, smeared with vermilion.
"Take notice, they are bloody. I wish you to wipe the blood off. I
cannot do it. I find myself in a war with this people, and I believe it
has been intended by the Creator that we should be at war with them. My
warriors are brave [looking significantly at them]; it is to them that I
owe success. But I have looked for help where I did not find it."[179]
[179] It is hoped, hereafter, to give further sketches of this
interview, and of this chief's life and character.