History of the Ojibways - Chapter 7a

The signs were apparently two winters old, but satisfied that it was the work of the spirits, for whom he was in search, Ma-se-wa-pe-ga proceeded on his journey, and he soon came to another hut and clearing, which though deserted, had been built and occupied during the previous winter. Much encouraged, he paddled on down stream till he discovered another hut from the top of which arose a smoke. It was occupied by the "white spirits," who, on his landing, cordially welcomed him with a shake of the hand.

When about to depart to return home, presents of a steel axe, knife, beads, and a small strip of scarlet cloth were given him, which, carefully depositing in his medicine bag, as sacred articles, he brought safely home to his people at La Pointe. Ma-se-wa-pe-ga again collected the principal men of his tribe in council, and displaying his curious presents, he gave a full narrative of his successful journey and the fulfillment of his dream. The following spring a large number of his people followed him on his second visit to the supposed "white spirits." They carried with them many skins of the beaver, and they returned home late in the fall with the dread firearm, which was to give them power over their much feared enemies. It is on this occasion also, that they first procured the firewater, which was to prove the most dreadful scourge and curse of their race.

It is related that on the arrival of this party at La Pointe, with the firewater, none dare drink it, thinking it a poison, which would immediately cause death. They, however, to test its virtues, made an experimental trial on a very aged woman who--as they reasoned--had but a short time to live at all events, and whose death would be a matter of no account. The old woman drank it, appeared perfectly happy and in ecstasies, got over the effects of it, and begged for more. On which the men took courage, and drank up the remainder themselves. From that time, firewater became the mammon of the Ojibways, and a journey of hundreds of miles to procure a taste of it, was considered but as boys play.

They tell, also, the effect of the first gun, which they procured from the whites and introduced among the more remote and ignorant Dakotas, with whom at this time they happened to be on terms of peace. A peace party of the Ojibways visited a village of these people on the St. Croix River, and took with them as a curiosity, the dreadful weapon they had procured. While enjoying their peaceful games, the young men of the Ojibways informed the Dakotas of the fearful and deadly effects of the gun; but they, thinking that the Ojibways wished to intimidate them with an imaginary fear, reviled and laughed at the instrument, and in their disbelief they even offered to bet against its deadly effects. The dispute becoming high, the bet was taken, and a Dakota brave in utter derision, insisted on offering the back part of his body as a prominent mark. He was shot dead on the spot. With difficulty the peace party succeeded in returning safely home, for the wrath of the Dakotas was aroused at the death of their warrior, and the old feud was again renewed, though from this time they evinced a mortal fear of the gun, which their remoteness from the white strangers precluded them from obtaining, till many years after the Ojibways had been fully supplied.

About this time, the old men of the tribe date the sudden evacuation of their town on the island of La Pointe, and the planting of their lodges in the adjoining Bay of Shag-a-waum-ik-ong, which occurrence I have fully mentioned in the preceding chapter. The first white men whom they tell of having visited them, came after this dispersion, and while they were congregated on the shores of the Bay.

One clear morning in the early part of winter, soon after the islands which are clustered in this portion of Lake Superior and known as the Apostles, had been locked in ice, a party of young men of the Ojibways started out from their village in the Bay of Shag-a-waum-ik-ong, to go, as was customary, and spear fish through holes in the ice, between the island of La Pointe and the main shore, this being considered as the best ground for this mode of fishing. While engaged in their sport, they discovered a smoke arising from a point of the adjacent island, toward its eastern extremity.

The island of La Pointe was then totally unfrequented, from superstitious fears which had but a short time previous led to its total evacuation by the tribe, and it was considered an act of the greatest hardihood for any one to set foot on its shores. The young men returned home at evening and reported the smoke which they had seen arising from the island, and various were the conjectures of the old people respecting the persons who would dare to build a fire on the spirit-haunted isle. They must be strangers, and the young men were directed, should they again see the smoke, to go and find out who made it.

Early the next morning, again proceeding to their fishing ground, the young men once more noticed the smoke arising from the eastern end of the unfrequentedisland, and led on by curiosity, they ran thither and found a small log cabin in which they discovered two white men in the last stages of starvation. The young Ojibways filled with compassion carefully conveyed them to their village, where, being nourished with great kindness, their lives were preserved.

These two white men had started from Quebec during the summer with a supply of goods, to go and find the Ojibways who every year had brought rich packs of beaver to the seacoast, notwithstanding that their road was barred by numerous parties of the watchful and jealous Iroquois. Coasting slowly up the southern shores of the Great Lake late in the fall, they bad been driven by the ice on to the unfrequented island, and not discovering the vicinity of the Indian village, they had been for some time enduring the pangs of hunger. At the time they were found by the young Indians, they had been reduced to the extremity of roasting and eating their woolen cloth and blankets as the last means of sustaining life.

Having come provided with goods they remained in the village during the winter, exchanging their commodities for beaver skins. The ensuing spring a large number of the Ojibways accompanied them on their return home.

From close inquiry, and judging from events, which are said to have occurred about this period of time, I am disposed to believe that this first visit by the whites took place about two hundred years ago. It is, at any rate, certain that it happened a few years prior to the visit of the "Black gowns" mentioned in Bancroft's History, and it is one hundred and eighty-four years since this well-authenticated occurrence.

If thorough inquiry were to be made, it would be found that the idea which is now generally believed, that the pious missionaries of those olden times, were the first pioneers into the Indian country about the great chain of Lakes, and Upper Mississippi, and were only followed closely by the traders, is a mistaken one. The adventurous, but obscure and unlettered trader, was the first pioneer. He cared only for beaver skins, and his ambition not leading him to secure the name of a first discoverer by publishing his travels, this honor naturally fell to those who were as much actuated by a thirst for fame, as by religious zeal.

The glowing accounts given by these traders on their return with their peltries to Quebec, their tales of large villages of peaceable and docile tribes caused the eager Jesuit and Franciscan to accompany him back to the scene of his glowing accounts, and to plant the cross amongst the ignorant and simple children of the forest.

In making these remarks, we do not wish to deteriorate from the great praise, which is nevertheless due to these pious and persevering fathers, who so early attempted to save the souls of the benighted Indians.

In the separation of the Ojibway tribe into two divisions, upwards of three centuries ago at the outlet of Lake Superior, which has been fully treated of in a previous chapter, a considerable band remained on their ancient village site at Bow-e-ting or Falls of St. Marie; and here, some years prior to the first visit of the white men and "Black Gowns" to the greater village in the Bay of Shag-a-waum-ik-ong, traders and priests had established themselves, and this circumstance naturally conduced to draw thither from their more western and dangerously situated villages, many families of this tribe, till they again numbered many wigwams, on this, the site of their ancient town. It was the first discovery of this tribe, at this point, which has given them the name, by the French, of Saulteaux, from the circumstance of their residing at the "Falls."

This band have ever since this period, remained detached by the intervening southern shores of Lake Superior, from the main body of the tribe who have radiated northward, westward and southward, from their central town of La Pointe.

Aided by the French, Ottawas, Potawatumies, and Wyandots, they succeeded in checking the harassing incursions of the war-like Iroquois, and as they became equally possessed of the fire-arm, instead of being pressed westward, as they had been for centuries before, they retraced the eastern track of their ancestors' former emigration, and rejoined the remnants of their race who had been for many years cut off from them by the intervening Iroquois, and who had first greeted the French strangers who landed in the river St. Lawrence, and who termed them Algonquins.

From this period, the communication between the eastern section or rear of the Algic tribes, occupying the lower waters of the River St. Lawrence, and the great western van who occupied the area of Lake Superior, became comparatively free and open, for villages of the Algic tribes lined the shores of the great chain of Lakes and also the banks of the great river which forms the outlet into the "salt water."

In one of their traditions it is stated that "when the white man first came in sight of the 'Great Turtle' island of Mackinaw, they beheld walking on the pebbly shores, a crane and a bear who received them kindly, invited them to their wigwams, and placed food before them." This allegory denotes that Ojibways of the Crane and Bear Totem families first received the white strangers, and extended to them the hand of friendship and rites of hospitality, and in remembrance of this occurrence they are said to have been the favorite clans with the old French discoverers.

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