# Myths and Legends Beyond Our Borders/Kenen's Sacrifice

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KENEN'S SACRIFICE
BOIS BLANC, on the Canadian side of Detroit River, was so named for the white wood that grew there, and that was stripped away under a supposed military exigency in 1837. This was the place in which Tecumseh waited till he had learned the issue of the battle on Lake Erie, and when General Proctor would neither stay to defend himself against the Americans nor allow the braver Tecumseh to occupy the fortifications in his stead, he scornfully charged upon his red-coat ally that he was "a fat dog sneaking off with his tail between his legs, after making a show of courage." The military importance of the river was recognized early, and for a long time it was doubtful if the garrison at Fort Pontchartrain would be kept at the present site of Detroit or moved across to new works at Bois Blanc. Had this removal occurred, Detroit might at this day have been a village and Bois Blanc a city. A French mission for the Hurons was established here, but after the English had resolved to take the land their agents turned these Indians against their teachers, and nearly precipitated a massacre of the French troops.
White Deer was the daughter of one of these Hurons who had died on a mission of policy to Montreal, while her mother, a white woman, had been buried not long before. Fathered and mothered by the whole village, the girl grew up in the ​affection of all. She had the beauty that is often the gift of half-breeds, and many of the young braves, and some of the old ones, looked on her with longing. After their fashion they threw little sticks in her path when they saw her coming, for when a maid was not averse to the attentions of a gallant she would pick up the stick he had thrown. White Deer stooped to none of them, although she lingered near those of Kenen, a tall, strong warrior, young and handsome, and he was thereon mightily encouraged, so that he followed the girl about and gathered berries for her, and in other ways showed that he would like to wed her and have her wait on him. The gossips had it all fixed, even to the day of the wedding, when Kenen came into camp one morning with a white man on his back. He had accidentally wounded the stranger while hunting, and was in anxiety lest he should die, and the French at the fort, when they heard of the shooting, avenge it on the innocent.
White Deer took her turn at nursing the injured one to health, and, as he was a man of well-stored mind and soft manner, the white blood in her veins declared itself, and she looked into his eyes as she had never looked into Kenen's, and saw her happiness there. More than suspicious of loss in her affections, the Indian dogged them sullenly from place to place, and at last came upon the young man kneeling at her feet and kissing her hands. ​Their troth was plighted. Kenen launched on the man a scathing rebuke for his ingratitude, and ordered him to seek his own people at once; then he turned on the girl and poised his knife at her breast. She looked up at him. "No, no," he cried, and flung the blade into the river. "Kenen is like the tempest in his strength, but the lightning of his anger cannot strike the White Deer."
Not long after this a war broke out between the Iroquois and the French, and among the captives taken by the Indians was the white man whom Kenen had shot and the girl had saved. He was condemned to the death by fire, and had been tied to the stake, when a tall man dashed through the shrubbery and stood beside the captive.
"Hold!" he cried. "You have heard of Kenen, the Huron, for he has the scalp-locks of your people at his belt. Many an Iroquois has felt the bite of his axe upon his head. Kenen could take the life of more than one of you even now, and he will do so unless you heed his words, for he comes before you as a willing prisoner to take the place of this captive. Let him go to his people. Kenen is a prize more worthy of you. Go, white man, comfort the White Deer, who waits and weeps for you." And, slashing the cords at his feet and wrists, he set the captive free. "Go, while your path is clear. My canoe is there." With vague words of thanks the rescued one staggered away. Some would have followed, but Kenen stood against ​them like an oak, and to have chased the pale-face would have cost at least one life, so they waited. When the plash of the white man's paddle sounded up from the river, Kenen flung down his axe, walked to the stake, and folded his arms. And as the white man sped away toward his bride a great pain filled his heart, for he saw the blaze of fagots among the trees and saw the forms of dancing devils circling the fire.