Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-11-06
The "Hawkeye Man" at Grand
Falls. n. Is.

llere Is very lcnQer ana touching
legend about these falls. I knew there
must be. If there had been none T
should have made up one, something I
hate to do most awfuily, because I like
all Of my romances to have dash Of truth
in them.
There was, On time within the men,
DRY of the oldest inhab1tant, trouble
among the Indians. The Mohawks, if
1t was the Mohawks, and the Mil1cetes,
if that is the way you spell it, fell in
love with each other, and each begged
the other for lock of his hair to remem-
Der him by. And at the same time, the
ardent sutton begged the poor boon of
being allowed to cut off the lock HIM
self. Moreover, to show that he meant
business, he ground his little Thomas
hawk and honed up his persuasive little
scalping-knife and announced that he
was in the hair business, no trouble to
show goods, new crate just opened to-
day, orders from the country promptly
attended to.
Well, customers came right along from
the day tho sign was hung out on either
side, and both establishments had all
they could do. The supply seemed to
equal the demand and the demand was
steady and constant, wi tn a rising ten
dency. But after while it was evident
that the MohawSs had the most and the
best men out on the road and had got
the dead wood on the country trade,
and vast quantities of hair was worked
| up at prices to suit the times. Things
run on in this way until at last the Mill
cete Indians were forced out Of the job
bling trade entirely, buying in small lots
| and manufacturing only home orders,
| all sales at thirty days, on margin of
| one and half per cent. But the greedy
| Mohawks put up few branch stores to
kill off this stand and the Milicetes
were driven to little puttering side
street business hardly getting enough
hair to run the heading machine.
Meanwhile, the demand in the Mo-
hawk market tor Milicite hair continued
undated, and runners for the house
were untlring in their efforts to secure the
new crops and whatever there was in the
stack Of bins. And when they brought
in word one day that the rival firm had
| skipped out of the country, taking all
| the Milicete hair there was along with
| them, on their heads, the Mohawks got
up, put on their war-paint, piled into
their canoes and started down the river
in fierce pursuit. Night closed in alike
on the pursued and the pursuers, but it
didn't stop the circus minute. The
! Milicetes padded till their backs ached,
and the Mohawks made the ripples hy
right behind them. At length the roar
of the falls sounded in the ears of the
| flying Milicetes, and they turned to
the shore, beached their light barks and
struck for tall timbers. =
All but one. A woman, as usual, was
the last one in the train. A squaw
whose aboriginal name I. either forget
or never knew-Mary Jane Jehnson,
maybe, was skulllng along at the tail
end of the procession. For two or three
miles before reaching the falls she had
made up her womanly, or squawly
mind, that she would save her tribe
and at the same time avenge them. So
she lighted a kerosene lamp, or it may
have been pine knot, and set it in the
stern Of her canoe. The pursuing Mo-
| hawks saw it, thought it was the last
act Of sullen, hopeless defiance, and
they howled till their corns ached, try
ing to reach it. When the fugitives
landed above the falls, Mary Jane John
son landed too, but she did not strike for
the woods. She picked up her kerosene
lamp and trotted around the falls on the
rocks. From rock to rock she n1mbly
sprung and lightly scrambled until
| she reached a point far beyond
them, where her flaming signal just
lined the pursuing canoes with the
"split rock, !" just midway in the cataract.
On came the MohaWks, their fierce eyes
fastened on the fame that danced before
them, their fercer cries drowning the
roar Of the catasact, until suddenly the
angry white foam leaps into their faces
from the swirls and eddying rapids hat
catch their fragile barks and before
their savage yells of hate can be changed
to the notes Of their death song, the sad
plunge is taken, and the gorge is SO full
Of dIowned Indians that the corone, s
office is worth $3.50 year tor the next
six weeks. @ S.Ssz5
It used the. Mohawks up completely.
| They went out ct business and joined the
/ Spiritual1sts.. The Milicetes also, what
was left Of them reformed, went out Of
politics entirely, and the tribe is now
| settled ii an Indian village down below
i here little ways, at the mouth Of the
Aroostock, where they live on the interest
of their taxes. Mary Jane johnson was
highly honored BY her tribe. They mar
ried her 70 the chief and granted her the
free privilege Of cutting wood and
hoeing corn and cooking for her husband
and fifteen children all the rest Of ne1
life,