Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-06-22
Farm LIFE AMONG CHIPPEWAs
BY F. a, MOORE.
From Hearth and Home.

A1O POAAo ID 1CoCutO bY CduO6 uhflS1llOL3
twenty miles south of Bayfield,, the only
beautiful village on the whole lake borders
There are two thousand Chippewas on tn,
reservation, under eleven chiefs Tia,
chiefs are all stalwart men, of the ancient
Indianesque e-strong-limbed, open
faced, and high-headed. They are evi
IDENTIFY the pick and bt It men of the tribe
Their great orator, Na-gau-nup, is vel
Known at Washington. His three daugh
ters would be noticed any where for thei1
beauty, intelligence, and fine manners
Four-ffths of the tribe wear citizens dress
and at distance have the air of the Cana.
dian gentleman.
stranger visiting the reservation will
need the aid of pilot and oarsman. The
best to be had are two Chippewa women,
who will make the twenty miles distance
from Bayfield,, with neat stroke, in six
hours. Should the wind favor, they will
hoist sail, and go down in four hours,
passing the largest of the Apostle Islands,
where Catholic mission has bl on planted
for two hundred years,
Bad River reservation takes in five or six
townships, each six miles square, along the
river. 1t Is rich bottom land, heavily tim
bered, and bearing striking resemblance to
the famous Miami Valley, in Ohio. The
AA'OA - NOOPs O1OdI, dnu WlnulnS. W1QS
hay, meadows and wild ice marshes border
the mouth. Farther up, we open into a
thick forest of elm, ash, cedar, birch, bal
sam, maple, and zen, with occasional
clumps of pine. The reflection of the green
jack is of the cedars and the red caps of
the naples, on an autumn day, puts all Mr..
Prang's chromos to shame. As we approach
the village, five miles up the river, our fair
oars-women, using the river-surface for
mirror, slick up their hair and face, and
then send forward our canoe with the
swlftness of steamer.
The village proper takes in three hun
dred acres of level clearing, including six
acres OF graveyard, populous with small
frame coops and crosses. There are two
little churches, Protestant and Catholic, q
school-house, Playhouse, government
farmhouse, store, shops, and forty or fifty
bark and log cabins stretching for a mile
along the grassy river bank Here dwells
the ancient Ojibway. The scene presented
of pleasant Sunday afternoon, when half
the tlibe have gathered; the groups in
motion and at rest; TIE variegated Co.'S
tunes of pagan and Chr 'tian; old chiefs
with pipes and paper collars; old women
OF seventy in the dt3ss of seventeen; stylish
young bucks; modest maidens, half-naked
children, and wolfsh dogs. form picture
and study rarely equaled on city boule-
Yards.
ONE ACRE ENOUGH.
The averaged-sized Chippewa farmer is
with an acre of clearing near the
stream. There are two hundred, perhaps,
OF these farmers scattered along the reser
vatlon. They are assisted in making clear
lngs with Government oxen. The trees are
felied, trimmed, and the logs pulled aside
in the edge of the timber. Their cabins of
logs or cedar-bark usually occupy the north
side of the clearing. The bark is double
lowed, set upright, with sloping roofs.
The sides are supported and bound fast
with poles, crossways and perpendicular,
inside and out. They have little square
window at one end, and q door at the side.
The walls are mostly lined with rush. mats
A little raised platform, foot or so high,
at one side, answers for bed, table, and
chairs. little hammock swung from the
oUrners takes the place of the cradle In
most cases, cracked stove of some sort is
seen in the centre, with retinue of poi
and dishes, kept clean and shining by the
ogs.
The philosophy of the Indian is to have
enough for the present, to drudge little.
trust fate, an1 follow his nature. The
Chippewa farmer don't care to add to his
acre of clearing. He has no Yards. no
fences. Indian dogs are guardians of the
cabin lot. A few have ponies, few oxen,
many COW and calf, and some a pig, but
never hog. Their stock is driven down
to the lake shore in summer, where thew
find good pasture and relief from flies.
The COW Is sometimes kept about the
cabin, watched by children, and tied at
night. They work their bulls and oxen
singly, using bend for bow, with long
thllls attached to each end with ring and
bolt. They use them to plough, and to
draw up hay and wood in winter. They
have seldom wagon road; their canoe is
coach and carryall during the reign of sum-
mer.
SUGAR MAKING.
Every family has a separate sugar-bush,
OF one or two hundred trees, which has
come down to them from ormer genera
ton. Sugar-making begins in April, and
is followed up with unlimited frolic and
feasting. The troughs are made of nan
keen-colored bark, folded at the end. Flat
spiles with creases are driven into chisel-
cuts made in the trees. The women do all
the work, gathering wood and sap on snow
shoes. The sap is boiled in long iron
kettles, hung in the centre of the camps
Sugar is king Children kick about on
their bellies, daubing their faces with
candy, and rolling on the snow Young
bucks gorge themselves by day, and ca
rouse about with rattles and drums at night.
Old men start out for ducks and muskrats
with big cake of sugar in their sacks, and
live on 1t for days. When dry, the sugar
is put IN bark mococks holding from two
to sixty pounds. Many of the smaller are
ornamented with dyed porcupine-quills,
worked into stars, flowers, and various
figures. Families make from three to five
hundred pounds each season, They sell
more than half to the traders, and then
buy it back by the pound at double price.
PLANTING.
Planting comes on early III June, lasting
two days. 1t is a family affair, the women
and children turning out en- nodsse They
plough from half to three-quarters of an
acre. They plant potatoes mostly, drop
ping the smallest They plant about an
eighth of an acre Of small, Red River corn
The hills are close, crooked, and crowded
with stalks. Small patches of rutabagas,
pumpkins, squashes, melons, beans and
cabbages rejoice by themselves. few
plant peas, and four or five among them
last years raised oats and peas together.
wheat is not thought OF, as there are no
Rour-mills on all Lake Superior. They hoe
but once, and hill largely.
HAVING.
Baying begins the last of July. Each
family has little strip of meadow which
was set off by their fathers before them,
and is marked as their own. They cut from
fifteen to twenty hundred of hay each. In
dian men handle the scythe well. They
cut few hours in the morning, and then
lay by. The women throw of their blankets,
and take the rake after dinner. When the
hay is heaped, two poles are run under
each cock, and the hay carried off and
stacked on dry ground. No teams are used.
Those who have no stock sell their hay for
thirty dollars ton. There are forty acres
of tame grass on the Government farm by
the village, two hundred acres of pasture
and fifty of ploughing. Neighbor Indian
does all the work,
RICE HARVEST.
Rice harvest begins in August. Whole
villages of travelling camps are set up be-
side the rice swamps. The rice grows two
feet or more above the water of the same
depth Each family stakes off it's lot OF