The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1849-09-06
BY WILLIAM w. WARREN.
Ist. HISTORY.

no regular tradition. When their old men
are questioned on this subject, their answer
is, that the Great Spirit made the earth at
the beginning, and made the three different
races of Mankind, viz: the Negro, the Red
man, and the White; to each was allotted
their different estates The Negro, a hoe
aud axe-denotIng servltude and work; the
Red man, the bow and arrow, drum and
rattle, -denoting the hunters state, aud Me-
da-we-um, (Grand Medicine:) 10 the w hlte
was given book, denoting wisdom. The
Great Spirit then vlded the earth TO these
three races; the Red man was placed on d
great Island (America) Accounting In vast
forests and prairies, great lakes and rivers,
and plenty of game. In their traditions,
they mention that game, Wild animals, were
at first much larger than at present; but the
Great Spirit, being angry for some fault OF
bis Red children, reduced them 10 the pres
ent size.
In fact, their early or primitive history is
buried in oblivion. Nothing that can be re-
lied Oh, as a fact, can be gathered from their
oral traditions. In these traditions. Nan
ub-uSh-o prominently figures. He Is Is apt
/ ly called by an eminent written the great In
cGrnatiof Of the North.
/ This Spirit or God appears to have come
into his existence after the creation OF man
kind, as he was born of woman who be-
came pregnant from gust of wind. lhis
woman was living at the time with her moth
er. When the birth came on, sudden
hurricane arose which took her away with
her offspring, aud blew their wlgwam to
pieces. The mother searched in vain for
her daughter, the winds had taken her OFT;
but in her search she found drop of blood,
l. -, H.
rabbit; from a rabbit to a man. This is the
origin and birth of Nan ub-oSh-o: with him
were born the Spirits OF the North South,
East and Western Winds. He was posses
sed Of power nearly equal to the power Of
the Great Spirit He killed the Prince Of
Serpents who had devoured the Wolf his
adopted son. For this act, the waters were
let loose on him, and the whole earth was
deluged. From the top of pine tree which
be caused to grow under him, as the waters
arose, with nothing but his head above wa
ter, Nan-ub-osh-o made q new world from a
cIod of earth which he got from the claws
of musk-rat, whom he had caused to dive
down for it at the expense of Its life.
This is the only tradition extant amongst
them pertaining to a former de!uge.
Many objects and things, such rs points of
land, rapids, hills, trees, lakes, islands,
characteristics in animals and birds, and
even the n,inutest objects. have been caused
by Nan -ub osh-o. In his chase after the
Great Beaver on lake Superior, was formed
the Apostle Islands, Point Chag q trdUn. IL,
Falls of Ste. Marie, and the hills along the
north coast of the Lake.
The different adventures of Nan Ub- 0sh-o
would fill book; and an old Indian story
teller will commence In the fore part OF WIN
ter and continue every evening Till Spring
again appears, before he will have finished
relating the adventures of th,s strange being.
/ Ii is not, however, from these absurd ira
dltions of unenlghtened mind, that we are
To gather any matter-of-fact hIstory:-ihey
merely show or prove that the Indian, IN
his darkness and ignorance, has still some
idea of great first Cause for every thing
in nature.
The. earliest event which can be traced
with any accuracy in the progress of their
history is residence or congregation of
the whole tribe on the island of Lapointe
and Its immediate vicinity; than this not one
IOJibway will he found TO say differently
They call Lapointe the root from which all
the different and far scattered bands of the
Ojibway family have sprung and branched
oh. They call it also the me da-We-gann
or me-da-we lodge. And in the same inca
sure consider the place as sacred, not only
as the spot their religious rite was first prac-
ticed IN its pure and highest state of periec-
ton, but as the deposit of the bones OF their
ancestors for generations past.
Ii Is easy to conjecture that the tribe came
originally from the east, but | cannot get
one Indian to affirm it by tradition or other
wise: their ideas and certain information
goes no further back than their residence at
Lapointe.
At this place they were when the white
man first landed in America. They first
saw the whites near the mouth of great
river that runs into the great sait-water-lake.
The tradition of this circumstance is briefly
as follows:
The Indians have much dependence and
faith on their dreams. And Indian chief of
the me-da-tee or grand medicine, dreamed
a dream, wherein he saw the spirits, shapes
like men, but white as the snow, and with
their bodies and heads covered, and with a
stem protruding from their mouths from
which issued smoke. He dreamed that
these spirits came forward with smile TO
shake hands with him. This dream he re-
lated to the old men Of the tribe at feast
got up for the purpose. He told them the
ispirits resided in the east, towards the ri
sing sun, and he would 60 and look for
them; every night he dreamed the same
dream, and it was the will Of the Great
SPIRIT that he should go. For the space of
two years he made his preparations, for it
way long distance, and he would have to
pass through many hostile tribes of his fell
low rcd men. He started in his canoe with
one companion, and at the end of two
moons, while floating down great river
(St Lawrence) they spied clearing, and
saw a wigwam made of logs. On landing
|cau,iously they discovered the wigwam de-
serted. 8 =
| (To BIZ coNrlNUED.)