# History of the Ojibway Nation/Chapter 27

CHAPTER XXVII.
OJIBWAYS OF THE WISCONSIN AND CHIPPEWAY RIVERS.
Among the different bands of the Ojibways, occupying the country drained by the currents of the Wisconsin and Chippeway Rivers, something like a regular system of governmental polity existed at this time. The dangers of their position (being continually subject to the attacks of the powerful Dakotas) linked them together, in a bond of brotherhood, which remained unbroken in its natural simplicity, till the fur traders entered their country in opposition to one another, and to forward their own views and interests, sowed dissensions among them, and eventually almost broke the beautiful system which had held them bound to one another like brothers. This remark is applicable to the whole tribe, but at this stage of our history, we refrain from entering into a discussion of this important question.
At the great convocation of tribes, held by the French nation at Sault Ste. Marie, in 1671, the traditions of the Crane family assert that Ke-che-ne-zuh-yauh, the head of their family, was recognized as principal chief over the ​Ojibway tribe; and a golden medal was placed on his breast, as a badge of his rank. He resided at La Pointe, and at his death left two sons, A-ke-gui-ow (Neck of Earth), and She-da-wish (Bad Pelican), the eldest of whom succeeded him in his rank, and continued to reside at La Pointe, while the youngest became the first pioneer towards the headwaters of the Wisconsin River.
A-ke-gui-ow, after his death, was succeeded by his son, Waub-uj-e-jauk (White Crane), who could rightfully claim the first chieftainship in his tribe; but who, being of an unambitious and retiring disposition, neglecting his civil duties, and attending only to those of the chase, he became at last superseded by a noted character of his time, named Au-daig-we-os (Crow's Flesh), the head or chief of the Loon family, who is justly celebrated in the traditions of his people, for wisdom, honesty, and an unvarying friendship to the whites. During his lifetime, his influence extended over the whole tribe, and his descendants to this day have upheld in some respects the position which their illustrious ancestor attained. The Cranes did not fully regain their former rank in the tribe, till the convocation of the northwestern tribes, held at Prairie du Chien by the United States government in 1825, at which Hon. Lewis Cass acted as commissioner. This treaty was held for the purpose of promoting peace between the different belligerent tribes, and that a just partition might be made between them, of the country which they occupied. The Ojibway tribe was fully represented; chiefs and warriors being present from the Upper Mississippi, Lake Superior, St. Croix, Chippeway and Wisconsin Rivers. Shin-ga-ba-ossin (Spirit Stone), was acknowledged to be the representative of the Crane family, and his name was signed to the treaty, ​as head chief of the tribe. He came from Sault Ste. Marie, over which band, or village, he was resident chief.
Prior to this event, the dignity and influence of the Cranes had been upheld by Keesh-ke-mun (Sharpened Stone), the son of Sha-da-nish, the first Ojibway pioneer towards the Wisconsin. He is first mentioned by the old men and traders of the tribe, as having attained a prominent position as chief, between forty and fifty years ago. He made it his home, or permanent village, at Lac du Flambeau, and from this point he ruled over that division of his tribe, who occupied the midland country, between Lake Superior, southwest to the Mississippi. Under him was a chief of the warriors, whose business it was to carry out, by force, if necessary, the wishes of his chief. Next in rank to the war-chief was the pipe bearer, or Osh-ka-ba-wis, who officiated in all public councils, making known the wishes of his chief, and distributing amongst his fellows, the presents which the traders occasionally gave to the chief to propitiate his good-will.
Keesh-ke-mun was not only chief by hereditary descent, but he made himself truly such, through the wisdom and firmness of his conduct, both to his people and the whites. During his lifetime, he possessed an unbounded influence over the division of his tribe with whom he resided, and generally over the Lake Superior bands and villages.
On the Chippeway River, the traders had recognized as a chief Mis-ko-mun-e-dous (Little Red Spirit), a man noted for courage in war, and especially for great success in the chase. He belonged to the Marten family. At Lac Coutereille, Mon-so-ne (Moose Tail), of the Catfish family, presided as resident chief; and in fact over each separate community, one, either noted for courage in war, success in hunting, wisdom, or age, was recognized, as head man, or chief. All these acted under and listened to the wishes of Keesh-ke-mun. And to this day (even after their former ​simple and natural civil polity had been so entirely broken up, that it is a doubt in the minds of many whether the Indians ever possessed any form of government), the descendants of this chief still retain the shadow of their former ascendancy and real chieftainship.
Waub-ish-gang-aug-e (White Crow), the son and successor of Keesh-ke-mun, fully sustained the influence of his deceased father over the inland bands, till his death in 1847. His son Ah-mous (the Little Bee), though lacking the firmness, energy, and noble appearance of his fathers, and though their formerly large concentred bands are now split up by the policy of traders and United States agents into numerous small factions headed by new-made upstart chiefs, yet virtually, in the estimation of his tribe, he holds the first rank over the Lac du Flambeau and Chippeway River division, and his right to a first rank in the councils of his people is unquestioned.
The war-chiefs, though second in rank to the civil chiefs, have often attained a paramount influence over the villages or sections of the tribe with whom they resided; but this influence (before they learned to follow some of the evil ways of the whites) they always used towards sustaining and strengthening the hereditary civil chiefs. The war chieftainship was usually obtained by courage and exploits in war, and success in leading a war party, through spiritual vision, against the enemy. It sometimes descended from father to son, in fact always, where the son approved himself in a manner to secure the confidence of the warriors.
Half a century ago, in the Chippeway River district, Yellow Head, of Lac Coutereille, was a noted war-chief, and so also, Ke-dug-e-be-shew (Speckled Lynx), who first founded the village on Lac Shatac. The father of Mah-een-gun (Wolf), at present a chief of Chippeway River, was also a noted chief. These men guided the war and peace movements of their respective villages, and they were ​prominent actors in all the most important rencontres which occurred between their section of the Ojibways, and the Dakotas.
It was a day of deep mourning amongst their people, when the brave war-chiefs, Yellow Head and Wolf's Father, fell fighting side by side, against immense odds of Dakotas. With a small party of their fellows they had been hunting deer by torchlight, during the hot nights of summer, on the Red Cedar River. During the course of their hunt, being both men "not knowing fear," they had approached too near the haunts of the Dakotas, and being discovered, one morning, while engaged in curing meat at the mouth of Hay River, a large party of the enemy stealthily surrounded and suddenly attacked them. The two war-chiefs escaped the first volley of bullets; and bade the young men, who were with them, to save themselves by flight, while they withstood the attack. Fighting against immense odds, they were at last forced into the river, where, in crossing to an island which lay close to the scene of action. Wolf's Father received a bullet through his brains, while Yellow Head, having reached the shelter of the island, sustained the unequal fight till his ammunition failed him, and the Dakotas, after a severe struggle, gloried in the possession of his long much-coveted scalp. The saying of the people, is, that "on their journey to the land of spirits, these two warriors went well attended by Dakotas, whom they slew at the time of their departure (or death)."
After this occurrence, and the usual levying of war parties, and consequent bloody revenge which followed it, no event of any immediate importance occurred on the Chippeway and Wisconsin Rivers till the year 1808, when, under the influence of the excitement which the Shaw-nee prophet, brother of Tecumseh, succeeded in raising, even to the remotest village of the Ojibways, the men of the Lac Coutereille village, pillaged the trading house of Michel ​Cadotte at Lac Coutereille, while under charge of a clerk named John Baptiste Corbin. From the lips of Mons. Corbin, who is still living at Lac Coutereille, at the advanced age of seventy-six years, and who has now been fifty-six years in the Ojibway country, I have obtained a reliable account of this transaction:—
Michel Cadotte, after having fairly opened the resources of the fur trade of the Chippeway River district, and having approved himself as a careful and successful trader, entered into an arrangement with the Northwest Fur Company, who at this time nearly monopolized the fur trade of the Ojibways. Mons. Cadotte located a permanent post or depot on the island of La Pointe, on the spot known at the present time as the "Old Fort." He also built a trading house at Lac Coutereille, which in the year 1800, was first placed in charge of J.B. Corbin. To supply these posts, he procured his outfit from the Northwest Company at Grand Portage. It is said that his outfit of goods each year amounted to the sum of forty thousand dollars, which he distributed in different posts on the south shores of Lake Superior, Wisconsin, Chippeway, and St. Croix Rivers. He resided himself at La Pointe, having taken to wife the daughter of White Crane, the hereditary chief of this village. Cadotte, though he continued to winter in different parts of the Ojibway country from this time, always considered La Pointe Island as his home, and here he died in 1836, at the advanced age of seventy-two years.
In the year 1808, during the summer while John B. Corbin had charge of the Lac Coutereille post, messengers, whose faces were painted black, and whose actions appeared strange, arrived at the different principal villages of the ​Ojibways. In solemn councils they performed certain ceremonies, and told that the Great Spirit had at last condescended to hold communion with the red race, through the medium of a Shawano prophet, and that they had been sent to impart the glad tidings. The Shawano sent them word that the Great Spirit was about to take pity on his red children, whom he had long forsaken for their wickedness. He bade them to return to the primitive usages and customs of their ancestors, to leave off the use of everything which the evil white race had introduced among them. Even the fire-steel must be discarded, and fire made as in ages past, by the friction of two sticks. And this fire, once lighted in their principal villages, must always be kept sacred and burning. He bade them to discard the use of fire-water—to give up lying and stealing and warring with one another. He even struck at some of the roots of the Me-da-we religion, which he asserted had become permeated with many evil medicines, and had lost almost altogether its original uses and purity. He bade the medicine men to throw away their evil and poisonous medicines, and to forget the songs and ceremonies attached thereto, and he introduced new medicines and songs in their place. He prophesied that the day was nigh, when, if the red race listened to and obeyed his words, the Great Spirit would deliver them from their dependence on the whites, and prevent their being finally down-trodden and exterminated by them. The prophet invited the Ojibways to come and meet him at Detroit, where in person, he would explain to them the revelations of the "Great Master of Life." He even claimed the power of causing the dead to arise, and come again to life.
It is astonishing how quickly this new belief obtained possession in the minds of the Ojibways. It spread like wild-fire throughout their entire country, and even reached the remotest northern hunters who had allied themselves ​with the Crees and Assiniboines. The strongest possible proof which can be adduced of their entire belief, is in their obeying the mandate to throw away their medicine bags, which the Indian holds most sacred and inviolate. It is said that the shores of Sha-ga-waum-ik-ong were strewed with the remains of medicine bags, which had been committed to the deep. At this place, the Ojibways collected in great numbers. Night and day, the ceremonies of the new religion were performed, till it was at last determined to go in a body to Detroit, to visit the prophet. One hundred and fifty canoes are said to have actually started from Pt. Shag-a-waum-ik-ong for this purpose, and so strong was their belief, that a dead child was brought from Lac Coutereille to be taken to the prophet for resuscitation. This large party arrived on their foolish journey, as far as the Pictured Rocks, on Lake Superior, when, meeting with Michel Cadotte, who had been to Sault Ste. Marie for his annual outfit of goods, his influence, together with information of the real motives of the prophet in sending for them, succeeded in turning them back. The few Ojibways who had gone to visit the prophet from the more eastern villages of the tribe, had returned home disappointed, and brought back exaggerated accounts of the suffering through hunger, which the proselytes of the prophet who had gathered at his call, were enduring, and also giving the lie to many of the attributes which he had assumed. It is said that at Detroit he would sometimes leave the camp of the Indians, and be gone, no one knew whither, for three and four days at a time. On his return he would assert that he had been to the spirit land and communed with the master of life. It was, however, soon discovered that he only went and hid himself in a hollow oak which stood behind the hill on which the most beautiful portion of Detroit City is now built. These stories became current among the Ojibways, and each succeeding year developing ​more fully the fraud and warlike purpose of the Shawano, the excitement gradually died away among the Ojibways, and the medicine men and chiefs who had become such ardent believers, hung their heads in shame whenever the Shawano was mentioned. At this day it is almost impossible to procure any information on this subject from the old men who are still living, who were once believers and preached their religion, so anxious are they to conceal the fact of their once having been so egregiously duped. The venerable chiefs Buffalo, of La Pointe, and Esh-ke-bug-e-coshe, of Leech Lake, who have been men of strong minds and unusual intelligence, were not only firm believers of the prophet, but undertook to preach his doctrines.
One essential good resulted to the Ojibways through the Shawano excitement—they threw away their poisonous roots and medicines; and poisoning, which was formerly practised by their worst class of medicine men, has since become almost entirely unknown. So much has been written respecting the prophet and the new beliefs which he endeavored to inculcate amongst his red brethren, that we will no longer dwell on the merits or demerits of his pretended mission. It is now evident that he and his brother Tecumseh had in view, and worked to effect, a general alliance of the red race, against the whites, and their final extermination from the "Great Island which the great spirit had given as an inheritance to his red children."
In giving an account of the Shawano excitement among the Ojibways, we have digressed somewhat from the course of our narrative. The messengers of the prophet reached the Ojibway village at Lac Coutereille, early in the summer of 1808, and the excitement which they succeeded in raising, tended greatly to embitter the Indians' mind against the white race. There was a considerable quantity of goods stored in Michel Cadotte's storehouse, which was ​located on the shores of the lake, and some of the most foolish of the Indians, headed by Nig-gig (The Otter)—who is still living—proposed to destroy the trader's goods, in accordance with the prophet's teachings to discard the use of everything which the white man had learned them to want. The influence of the chief Mons-o-ne at first checked the young men, but the least additional spark to their excitement caused his voice to be unheard, and his influence to be without effect. John Baptiste Corbin, a young Canadian of good education, was in charge of the post, and through his indiscretion the flame was lighted which led to the pillage of the post, and caused him to flee for his life, one hundred miles through a pathless wilderness, to the shores of Lake Superior. As was the general custom of the early French traders, he had taken to wife a young woman of the Lac Coutereille village, related to an influential family. During the Shawano excitement, he found occasion to give his wife a severe beating, and to send her away almost naked, from under his roof, to her parents' wigwam. This act exasperated the Indians; and as the tale spread from lodge to lodge, the young men leaped into their canoes and paddling over to the trading house, which stood about one mile opposite their village, they broke open the doors and helped themselves to all which the storehouses contained. Mons. Corbin, during the excitement of the pillage, fled in affright. An Ojibway whom he had befriended, followed his tracks, and catching up with him, gave him his blanket, moccasins, and fire-works, with directions to enable him to reach La Pointe, Shag-a waum-ik-ong, on Lake Superior, which he did, after several days of hardship and solitary wandering.
This act, on the part of the Lac Coutereille band, was very much regretted by the rest of the tribe. Keesh-ke-​mun, the chief at Lac du Flambeau, was highly enraged against this village, and in open council, he addressed the ringleaders with the most bitter and cutting epithets. It came near being the cause of a bloody family feud, and good-will became eventually restored only through the exertions of the kind-hearted Michel Cadotte, who, by this stroke, became crippled in his means as an Indian trader, and who from this time gradually curtailed his business, till in the year 1823 he sold out all his interests in the Ojibway trade to his two sons-in-law, Lyman M. and Truman A. Warren, and retired to a quiet retreat at La Pointe, after having passed forty years in the arduous, active and dangerous career of a pioneer fur trader. In 1784 we find him wintering with a small outfit of goods on the Num-a-ka-gun River, and year after year moving his post further westward, leading the Ojibways into richer, but more dangerous hunting grounds. In 1792 we find him wintering on Leaf River of the Upper Mississippi, and in company with his elder brother, opening a vast area of Indian country, to the enterprise of fur traders.
The marks of his wintering posts are pointed out at Thief River, emptying into Crow Wing, at Leech, Winnipeg, and Cass Lakes, at Pokaguma Falls, and at Oak Point, on the Upper Mississippi, where he is said again to have narrowly escaped the bullets of the wild Indians. Yellow Lake, Snake River, Po-ka-guma (in the St. Croix region) and at different points on the Chippeway and Wisconsin Rivers, the marks of this old pioneer are still visible. Like all other traders who have passed their lifetime in the Indian country, possessing a charitable heart and an open hand, ever ready to relieve the poor and suffering Indian, he died poor, but not unlamented. He was known among the Ojibways by the name of Ke-che-me-shane (Great Michel).
* ↑ There is no official record of a golden medal having been given at that time.—E.D.N.
* ↑ A.D. 1852.
* ↑ Isle De Tour or St. Michel is the name given to La Pointe Island by Franquelin in 1688, which it retained until after the year 1800. Madeline Island is a comparatively modern designation.—E.D.N.
* ↑ A.D. 1852.