The region of country from which the Mississippi derives its source, is covered with innumerable fresh and clear water lakes, connected with one another, and flowing into the "Father of Rivers" through rapid and meandering streams. All these lakes and streams abound with fish of the finest species and flavor. In Leech, Winnepeg, Cass, and other of the larger lakes, the whitefish are found equal in size to the celebrated whitefish in Lake Superior. And so are also the salmon trout which (curious enough) are to be found only in Puk-a-gum-ah and trout lakes. Mus-cal-longe have been found to grow to the great size of from four to six feet in length. Brook trout, sturgeon and catfish are not found in the waters of the Mississippi above the Falls of St. Anthony.

The shores of these beautiful lakes are lined with groves of the tall pine, and the useful maple from which the Indian manufactures sugar. The birch tree also abounds, from which the Ojibway has long been accustomed to procure the covering to his wigwam, and material for the formation of his ingeniously wrought canoe. In many of these lakes, which lie clustered together within an area of several hundred miles, the wild rice grows in large quantities and most luxuriantly, affording the Indian an important staple of subsistence.

In former times this region of country abounded in buffalo, moose, deer, and bear, and till within thirty years past, in every one of its many water courses, the lodges of the valuable and industrious beaver were to be found.

Possessing these manifold advantages, this country has always been a favorite home and resort for the wild Indian, and over its whole extent, battlefields are pointed out where different tribes have battled for its possession.

The attention of the Ojibways was early directed to it. They found it in possessionof the powerful and wide-spread Dakotas, whom after many years of severe fighting, they eventually forced to seek for new homes farther westward, and they in turn, took possession and have kept to this day the large and beautiful lakes which form the sources of the "Great River."

It is related by their old traditionists, that the boy whose father had died in his stead on the burning fagots of the cruel O-dug-am-ees (as has been related in a former chapter), grew up to be a man. The remembrance of his deep wrong made him a warrior. He never let pass an opportunity of taking revenge and letting his prowess be known among the enemies of his tribe. To him, war not only became a chief business in life, but a pastime, and having adopted the name of his murdered father, Bi-auswah, eventually became a noted war-leader and chief, and the first Ojibway pioneer to the country of the Upper Mississippi.

After the death of his father, he proceeded with his relatives to Fond du Lac, where he remained till middle age, and from which place he joined the war parties, which marched against the Dakotas at Sandy Lake, on the St. Croix River and in the vicinity of Mille Lac. When he had earned in many a hard-fought battle, the admiration and confidence of his people, he sent his war-club, tobacco, and wampum belt of war, to the far-scattered bands of his tribe, inviting the warriors to collect at Fond du Lac by a certain day, and march with him, to put out the fire of the Dakotas at Sandy Lake.

Men from all the villages of the Ojibway responded to his call, and canoes laden with warriors arrived on the appointed day from Sault Ste. Marie, Grand Portage, La Pointe, and all the camps of the tribe within the area of the Great Lake. It is said that the train of warriors which followed Bi-aus-wah on this occasion, was so long, as they marched in their usual single file, that a person standing on a hill could not see from one extremity to the other. They marched against the Dakotas of Sandy Lake. They found the enemy collected in force, notwithstanding which, they made the attack, and after a severe fight, they (being armed with the murderous weapons of the pale face), ultimately forced them to retreat and evacuate their village.

Some years after, having struck repeated blows on this band of the Dakota tribe, Bi-aus-wah with many wigwams of his people, lit their fires and permanently located their village, first on the islands of the lake, but afterwards at the point which lies nearly opposite the mouth of East Savannah River.

From this central location, they gradually increased their conquests in western, northern, and southern directions, and drawn by the richness of the hunting grounds in this region of country, many families from Lake Superior, of both the northern and southern divisions of the tribe, who had separated two centuries before at Sault Ste. Marie, moved over, and joined this hand of hardy pioneers, increasing their strength and causing them to be better able to withstand the powerful Dakotas, and gradually to increase their new possessions. Sandy Lake or Kah-me-tah-wunga-gums, signifying "lake of the sandy waters," is the site of the first Ojibway village about the head-waters of the Mississippi.

It is from this point that the war parties proceeded, who eventually caused the Dakotas to evacuate their favorite seats at Leech, Winnepeg, Cass, and Red Lakes, and also from Gull Lake, Crow Wing, and the vicinity of Mille Lace, as will be hereafter related in the regular course of our narrative.

It will not be amiss in this chapter to say a few words respecting the mounds, which are everywhere to be met with throughout the entire region of country covered by sources of the Mississippi.

Having read the conflicting opinions of men who have casually passed through the country, and seen these apparent remains of the works of a former race, my attention was early drawn to this subject, and my inquiries among the more aged and intelligent men of the Ojibways have been most minute, and to my mind, satisfactorily answered.

Esh-ke-bug-e-coshe, whom I have already mentioned as the truth-telling and respected chief of the Pillagers, still living, and now in his seventy-eighth year, informs me that in the course of his lifetime he has made numerous war parties and peace visits to different tribes who live on the banks of the Upper Missouri River. He states, that a tribe who are known to the Ojibways by the name of Gi-aucth-in-in-e-wug, signify "men of the olden time," and named by the French, Gros Ventres, claim to have been formerly possessors of the country from which the Mississippi takes its rise. Their old men relate they were forced or driven from this country by the powerful Dakotas, who have in turn given way to the Ojibways, now its present possessors.

The Gros Ventres further stated to The Pillager chief, that their fathers lived in earthen wigwams, and the small remnant who have escaped the scourge of the scalping knife and smallpox, still live on the banks of the Missouri in these primitively constructed dwellings. This is an important fact in the early Indian history of Minnesota, and the writer has taken every pain to procure every account and circumstance, which might conduce to prove its truth.

It will account at once for the numerous earthen mounds, which are to be found at different points on the Upper Mississippi, as they may then be safely considered as the remains of the earthen lodges of these former occupants of this fair region.

Till of late years the Kniste-no and Assineboins were accustomed to send their war parties against the Gros Ventres and Arickarees, and the Ojibways were often induced to join them. They forced them to evacuate their earthen villages which were located on the east banks of the Missouri, and to select new homes Further west, placing thereby this great river between them and their more powerful enemies.

conclude chapter 13