# History of the Ojibway Nation/Chapter 20

CHAPTER XX.
CLOSING OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE OJIBWAYS AND ODUGAMIES.
The Odugamies (Foxes), who had been forced by the Ojibways during the French domination to retire from the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers to the Mississippi, had, under the guardianship of the Osaugees, partially regained their former strength and numbers; and, still smarting from the repeated and powerful blows which their fathers had received at the hands of the Ojibways about eighty years ago, they made their last grand tribal effort to revenge their wrongs and regain a portion of their former country.
They ascended in war canoes the current of the broad Mississippi, and prevailing on their former allies, the Dakotas, to join them, together they proceeded up the St. Croix. While crossing their canoes over the portage at the Falls of this river, they encountered a war party of Ojibways, and here, among the rocks and boulders of the St. Croix, the Odugamies fought their last tribal battle.
The account which the old men of the Ojibways give of this important event is briefly as follows: Waub-o-jeeg ​(White Fisher), the son of Ma-mong-e-se-da, had succeeded on his father's death, to the war chieftainship of the Lake Superior Ojibways. He was a brave and a wise man, who had already become famous for the success of every party which he joined, or led, against the hereditary enemies of his tribe. On this occasion, he sent his club of war, tobacco, and wampum, to all the scattered bands of the Ojibways, to collect a war party to proceed against the Dakota villages on the St. Croix and Mississippi, who had lately very much annoyed their hunting camps in this district. Warriors from the Falls of St. Marie, Grand Island, Kuk-ke-wa-on-an-ing (L'Ance), the Wisconsin and Grand Portage, obeyed his call, and at the head of three hundred men Waub-o-jeeg started from La Pointe, Shaug-a-waum-ik-ong.
In their light birch-bark canoes, they ascended the left branch of the Mush-kee-se-be or "Bad River," to its head, and made a portage of ten miles in length to Long Lake, a beautiful sheet of clear water which lies on the dividing summit between the Mississippi and Lake Superior. Making three more short portages from lake to lake, they at last embarked on the Num-a-kaug-un branch of the St. Croix, and having now entered the dangerous country of their enemies, the wise leader proceeded slowly, keeping scouts continually ahead, to prevent surprise from an ambuscade. It took him six days to descend to the mouth of Snake River, where he expected to meet a party of warriors from the Sandy Lake and Mille Lac villages. He had sent them his war club and tobacco, with word that "at a given time he would be on the waters of the St. Croix searching for their enemies," and they had sent tobacco and word in return, that "sixty of their warriors would join him on a certain day at the meeting of the waters of the Snake and St. Croix Rivers." On arriving at the spot designated, Waub-o-jeeg discovered no signs of ​the promised party, but still confident in his numbers, he continued on his course down stream.
The Ojibways arrived at the head of the St. Croix Falls (a distance of two hundred and fifty miles from their starting point), early in the morning, and while preparing to take their bark canoes over the rugged portage, or carrying place, the scouts who had been sent in advance, returned with the information that a very large war party of Odugamies and Dakotas were landing at the foot of the falls, apparently with the intention of crossing over their wooden canoes. Now, commenced the hurry and excitement of approaching battle. The "novices," or those of the party who were on their first war path, were forcibly driven back into the water by the elder warriors, there to wash off the black paint which denoted their condition of initiates into the mysteries of war. This customary procedure on the eve of an attack or battle, being performed, the warriors grasped their medicine bags, and hurriedly adorned their faces and naked bodies with warpaint, those that earned them planted the eagle plumes on their head-dress, which denoted enemies they had slain or scalps taken, and the pe-na-se-wi-am, holding the charms of supposed invulnerability, were attached to different portions of their head-dress, armlets, or belts.
During this busy scene of preparation for the coming contest, the war leader called on the Great Spirit with a loud voice for protection to his followers and success against their enemies. Then addressing his fellows, his clear voice rang among the rocks and mingled with the noise of the waterfall, as he urged them to fight like men, be strong of heart, at the same time advising them to be careful of their lives, that their relatives might not weep in mourning for their loss. Having finished these customary preparations, the Ojibways, grasping their arms, proceeded to find their enemies. The scouts of their opponents had already ​discovered them, and the two parties, as if by mutual agreement, met in the middle of the portage. The battle which ensued was the most chivalric which is told of in their traditions. The Odugamies, after seeing the comparatively small number of the Ojibways, and over confident in the prowess of their own more numerous warriors, are said to have requested their allies, the Dakotas, to stand quietly by, to witness how quickly they would gather the scalps of the Ojibways.
This request was granted, and the Dakotas retired to an adjacent eminence, and calmly filling their pipes, they viewed the conflict as though perfectly unconcerned. The fight between the warriors of the two contending tribes, is said to have been fiercely contested, and embellished with many daring acts of personal valor. The voices of the war chiefs resounded above the rattle of musketry and yells of their warriors, as they urged them to stand their ground, and not turn their backs in flight. In fact the nature of the ground on which they fought was such, that retreat was almost impracticable for either party. It was a mere rugged neck of rock, cut up into deep ravines, through which the deep and rapid current of the river forces a narrow passage, and at either end of the portage a sudden embarkation into their frail canoes could not safely be effected in face of an enemy. There is a wood around the portage on the land side, inclosing the neck of rock over which it leads, and only through this could the beaten party safely retreat. Waub-o-jeeg, early in the fight secured this important point, by sending thither a number of his warriors.
About midday, after fighting with great desperation, the Odugamies began to give ground, and they were at last forced to turn and flee in confusion. They would probably have been killed and driven into the river to a man, had not their allies, the Dakotas, arose from their seats at this ​juncture, and yelling their war-whoop, rushed to the rescue of their discomfited allies. The Ojibways resisted their new enemies manfully, and it was not till their ammunition had entirely failed, that they in turn showed their backs in flight. But few would tell the sad tale of defeat and the death of brave men, had not the party of sixty warriors from Sandy Lake, who were to have joined them at the mouth of Snake River, arrived at this opportune moment, and landed at the head of the portage. Eager for the fight, and fresh on the field, the band rushed forward and withstood the onset of the Odugamies and Dakotas, till their friends could rally again to the battle.
After a short but severe contest, the warriors of the two allied tribes were forced to flee, and the slaughter in their ranks is said to have been great. Many were driven over the rocks into the boiling floods below, there to find a watery grave. Others, in attempting to jump into their narrow wooden canoes, were capsized into the rapids. Every crevice in the cliffs where the battle had been fought, contained a dead or wounded enemy. The Ojibways suffered a severe loss in the death of a large number of their bravest warriors. The brother of Waub-o-jeeg was numbered among the dead, and the war-chief himself carried on his person the marks of the sanguinary fight, in a wound on his breast. But a few of the Odugamies escaped, and from this time they forever gave up the contest with the victorious Ojibways. They retired to the south, far away from the reach of the war-club, which had so often made them to weep, and now so nearly exterminated their warriors.
The old Ojibway chief, "Great Buffalo," of La Pointe, says that the fire of the Odugamies was, by this last stroke, nearly extinguished, and they were reduced to fifteen lodges. A second time they went weeping to the village of the Osaugees, who had intermarried with them to a con​siderable extent, and begged to be incorporated in their tribe, and to live under their powerful protection. They offered to be their cutters of wood and carriers of water, and filled with compassion at their broken numbers and tears of sorrow, the Osaugees, who are a family of the Algic stock, at last, for the first time, formally received them into their tribe, and it is only from this period that the fire of these two tribes (whose names are so linked together in modern history), can be truly said as having become one and undivided.
The old men of the Ojibways assert that the Odugamies speak a distant language, and do not really belong to the Algonquin council fires, and it is only since their close intercourse with the Osaugees that the Algonquin language has become in use among them. I am aware that this assertion is directly contrary to the results of Mr. Schoolcraft's researches, who places the Odugamies as one of the most prominent tribes of the Algics. Never having had the advantage of comparing the peculiar dialect of this tribe with the Ojibway, I am consequently not prepared to deliver a direct opinion. Their warfare with the Odugamies has been of such long standing and so sanguinary, that the Ojibways may naturally consider them as much a distinct race from themselves, as the Dakotas or Winnebagoes, the last of whom, in time of peace, they are accustomed to denominate as "younger brothers," which circumstance, however, should not mislead us into the belief that they consider them as being really a kindred tribe in any closer degree than their being respective families of the red race in general.
​As I shall not probably again have occasion to mention, in the further course of my narrative, the name of the distinguished war-chief who led the Ojibways in the battle of St. Croix Falls, which so effectually put a final stop to their old war with the Odugamies, I will here present to the reader a brief account of his short but brilliant career.
Mr. Schoolcraft, in one of his valuable works on the red race, has given an elaborate notice of the life of this noted chieftain, and as he doubtless obtained his information from his direct descendants, nearly thirty years since, when he acted in the official capacity of United States agent among the Ojibways, and when the acts of Waub-o-jeeg were still comparatively new in the traditions of his tribe, the account which he has given can be implicitly relied on, and very little, if anything, can be added to it.
We glean from this, that Waub-o-jeeg was born about the year 1747. He early gave indications of courage, and, Mr. Schoolcraft relates this anecdote, that on the occasion which we have mentioned in a previous chapter, when his father, Ma-mong-e-se-da, turned a sudden attack of the Dakotas on his camp into a peace visit, by calling out for his half-brother, the Dakota chief, Wabasha—Waub-o-jeeg, then a mere boy, posted himself with a war-club close to the door of his father's lodge, and as his tall Dakota uncle entered, he gave him a blow. Wabasha, pleased with the little brave, took him in his arms, caressed him, and predicted that he would become a brave man, and prove an inveterate enemy of the Dakotas. Mr. Schoolcraft continues his biographical notice of Waub-o-jeeg as follows:—
"The border warfare in which the father of the infant warrior was constantly engaged, early initiated him in the arts and ceremonies pertaining to war. With the eager interest and love of novelty of the young, he listened to their war songs and war stories, and longed for the time when he would be old enough to join these parties, and ​also make himself a name among warriors. While quite a youth, he volunteered to go out with a party, and soon gave convincing proof of his courage. He also early learned the arts of hunting the deer, the bear, the moose, and all the smaller animals common to the country; and in these pursuits he took the ordinary lessons of Indian young men in abstinence, suffering, danger, and endurance of fatigue. In this manner his nerves were knit and formed for activity, and his mind stored with those lessons of caution which are the result of local experience in the forest. He possessed a tall and commanding person, with a full, black, piercing eye, and the usual features of his countrymen. He had a clear and full-toned voice, and spoke his native language with grace and fluency. To these attractions he united an early reputation for bravery and skill in the chase, and at the age of twenty-two, he was already a war leader."
Expeditions of one Indian tribe against another require the utmost caution, skill, and secrecy. There are a hundred things to give information to such a party, or influence its action, which are unknown to civilized nations. The breaking of a twig, the slightest impression of a foot-print, and other like circumstances, determine a halt, a retreat, or an advance. The most scrupulous attention is also paid to the signs of the heavens, the flight of birds, and above all to the dreams and predictions of the jos-so-keed, priest or prophet, who accompanies them, and who is intrusted with the sacred sack. The theory upon which all these parties are conducted, is secrecy and stratagem; to steal upon the enemy unawares; to lay in ambush, or decoy; to kill, and to avoid as much as possible the hazard of being killed. An intimate geographical knowledge of the country is also required by a successful war leader, and such a man piques himself not only upon knowing every prominent stream, hill, valley, wood, or rock, but the ​particular productions, mineral and vegetable, of the scene of operations. When it is considered that this species of knowledge, shrewdness, and sagacity is possessed on both sides, and that the nations at war watch each other as a lynx for its prey, it may be conceived that many of these border war parties are either light skirmishes, sudden on-rushes, or utter failures. It is seldom that a close, well-contested, long-continued hand battle is fought. To kill a few men, tear off their scalps in haste, and retreat with these trophies, is a brave and honorable trait with them, and may be boasted of in their triumphal dances and warlike festivities.
"To glean the details of these movements would be to acquire the modern history of the tribe, which induced me to direct my inquiries to the subject; but the lapse of even forty or fifty years, had shorn traditions of most of these details, and often left the memory of results only. The Chippeways told me that this chief had led them seven times to successful battle against the Sioux and Outagamies, and that he had been wounded thrice—once in the thigh, once in the right shoulder, and a third time in the side and breast, being a glancing shot. His war party consisted either of volunteers, who had joined his standard at the war dance, or of auxiliaries, who had accepted his messages of wampum and tobacco, and came forward in a body to the appointed place of rendezvous. These parties varied greatly in number. His first party consisted of but forty men; his greatest and most renowned of three hundred, who were mustered from the villages on the shores of the lake, as far east as St. Mary's Falls."
This last party is the one which Waub-o-jeeg led in the battle of the St. Croix, an account of which Mr. Schoolcraft proceeded to give. Respecting the details of this important occurrence, however, it appears that he has received but meagre information, as he finishes it in a single paragraph. ​He does not mention the sixty warriors from Sandy Lake, who decided the fate of the battle, and which swelled the ranks of Waub-o-jeeg to three hundred and sixty warriors. The tradition of this event is still clearly related by the Ojibways of the Mississippi, they having learned it from the lips of their fathers who were present at the battle.
After giving in verse the plaintive lament of Waub-o-jeeg for the warriors who fell at St. Croix Falls, Mr. Schoolcraft, who, through his long official connection with the Ojibways, obtained an accurate knowledge of their general customs and mode of passing the different seasons of the year, continues in his forcible and lucid style to give a faithful picture of Indian life:
"It is the custom of these tribes to go to war in the spring and summer, which are not only comparatively seasons of leisure with them, but it is at these seasons that they are concealed and protected by the foliage of the forest, and can approach the enemy unseen. At these annual returns of warmth and vegetation, they also engage in festivities and dances, during which the events and exploits of past years are sung and recited: and while they derive fresh courage and stimulus to renewed exertion, the young, who are listeners, learn to emulate their fathers, and take their earliest lessons in the art of war.
"Nothing is done in the summer months in the way of hunting. The small furred animals are changing their pelt, which is out of season. The doe retires with her fawns from the plains and open grounds, into thick woods. It is the general season of reproduction, and the red man, for a time, intermits his war on the animal creation, to resume it against man. As the autumn approaches, he prepares for his fall hunts, by retiring from the outskirts of the settlements and from the open lakes, shores, and streams, which have been the scenes of his summer festivities, and proceeds, after a short preparatory hunt, to his wintering ​grounds. This round of hunting, festivity, and war, fills up the year; all the tribes conform in these general customs. There are no war parties raised in the winter. This season is exclusively devoted to procuring the means of their subsistence and clothing, by seeking the valuable skins which are to purchase their clothing and their ammunition, traps, and arms.
"The hunting grounds of the chief, whose life we are considering, extended along the southern shores of Lake Superior, from the Montreal River, to the inlet of the Wis-a-co-da, or Burnt Wood River of Fond du Lac. If he ascended the one, he usually made the wide circuit indicated, and came out at the other. He often penetrated by a central route up the Mas-ki-go, or Bad River. This is a region still abounding, but less so than formerly, in the bear, moose, beaver, otter, marten, and muskrat. Among the smaller animals are also to be noticed the mink, lynx, hare, porcupine, and partridge, and towards its southern and western limit, the Virginia deer.
"In this ample area, the La Pointe, or Chagoimegon, Indians hunted. It is a rule of the chase, that each hunter has a portion of the country assigned to him, on which he alone may hunt; and there are conventional laws which decide all questions of right and priority in starting and killing game. In these questions, the chief exercises a proper authority, and it is thus in the power of one of these forest governors and magistrates, when they happen to be men of sound sense, judgment, and manly independence, to make themselves felt and known, and to become true benefactors to their tribes. And such chiefs create an impression upon their followers, and leave a reputation behind them, which is of more value than their achievements in war.
"Waub-o-jeeg excelled in both characters; he was equally popular as a civil ruler and war-chief; and while he admin​istered justice to his people, he was an expert hunter, and made due and ample provision for his family. He usually gleaned, in a season, by his traps and carbine, four packs of mixed furs, the avails of which were ample to provide clothing for all the members of his lodge circle, as well as to renew his supply of ammunition and other essential articles.
"On one occasion he had a singular contest with a moose. He had gone out one morning early, to set his traps. He had set about forty, and was returning to his lodge, when he unexpectedly encountered a large moose in his path, which manifested a disposition to attack him. Being unarmed, and having nothing but a knife and small hatchet which he carried to make his traps, he tried to avoid it, but the animal came towards him in a furious manner. He took shelter behind a tree, shifting his position from tree to tree retreating. At length, as he fled, he picked up a pole, and quickly untying his moccasin strings, he bound his knife to the end of the pole. He then placed himself in a favorable position behind a tree, and when the moose came up, stabbed him several times in the throat and breast. At last the animal, exhausted with the loss of blood, fell. He then dispatched him, and cut out his tongue to carry home to his lodge, as a trophy of victory. When they went back to the spot for the carcase, they found the snow trampled down in a wide circle, and copiously sprinkled with blood, which gave it the appearance of a battle-field. It proved to be a male of uncommon size.
"The domestic history of a native chief can seldom be obtained. In the present instance, the facts that follow may be regarded with interest, as having been obtained from residents of Chagoi-me-gon, or from his descendants. He did not take a wife until about the age of thirty, and he then married a widow, by whom he had one son. He ​had obtained early notoriety as a warrior, which perhaps absorbed his attention. What causes there were to render this union unsatisfactory, or whether there were any, is not known; but after the lapse of two years, he married a girl of fourteen, of the Totem of the Bear, by whom he had a family of six children. He is represented as of a temper and manners affectionate and forbearing. He evinced thoughtfulness and diligence in the management of his affairs, and the order and disposition of his lodge. When the hunting season was over, he employed his leisure moments in adding to the comforts of his lodge. His lodge was of an oblong shape, ten fathoms long, and made by setting two rows of posts firmly in the ground, and sheathing the sides and roof with the smooth bark of the birch. From the centre rose a post crowned with the carved figure of an owl, which he had probably selected as a bird of good omen, for it was neither his own nor his wife's totem. The figure was so placed that it turned with the wind, and answered the purpose of a weather-cock.
"In person, Waub-o-jeeg was tall, being six feet six inches, erect in carriage, and of slender make. He possessed a commanding countenance, united to ease and dignity of manners. He was a ready and fluent speaker, and conducted personally the negotiations with the Fox and Sioux nations. It was perhaps twenty years after the battle on the St. Croix, which established the Chippeway boundary in that quarter, and while his children were still young, that there came to his village in the capacity of a trader, a young gentleman of a respectable family in the north of Ireland, who formed an exalted notion of his character, bearing, and war-like exploits. This visit, and his consequent residence on the lake during the winter, became an important era to the chief, and has linked his name and memory with numerous persons in civilized life. Mr. Johnston asked the northern chief for his youngest daughter. ​'Englishman,' he replied, 'my daughter is yet young, and you cannot take her, as white men have too often taken our daughters. It will be time enough to think of complying with your request when you return again to this lake in the summer. My daughter is my favorite child, and I cannot part with her, unless you will promise to acknowledge her by such ceremonies as white men use. You must ever keep her, and never forsake her.' On this basis a union was formed, it may be said, between the Erse and Algonquin races, and it was faithfully adhered to till his death, a period of thirty-seven years.
"Waub-o-jeeg had impaired his health in the numerous war parties which he conducted across the wide summit which separated his hunting grounds from the Mississippi Valley. A slender frame under a life of incessant exertion, brought on a premature decay. Consumption revealed itself at a comparatively early age, and he fell before this insidious disease in a few years, at the early age of about forty-five. He died in 1793, at his native village of Chagoimegon."
Waub-o-jeeg will long live in the traditions of the annals of his tribe. His descendants of mixed blood, by his youngest daughter, who married Mr. Johnston, are now numerous and widespread, being connected with some of the first families in the northwest. Mr. Schoolcraft himself, who is so well known by his numerous valuable works on the red race, married a daughter of this union, who was educated in Ireland. She proved, during the comparatively short period that her life was spared to him, an amiable and loving wife.