The Red Cloud chief., 1880-01-01
THE STORY OF wAKUZZA.

. lft Biitklttl, OH u IIlBlidIN vi Tic
North Saskatchewan, the regular
evening romancing in front of the fire
, gave 10 me story of Wakuzza, as told
by a renegade voya9cur, who carried
under his grizzled hair a library Of un-
written and imprinted romance.
McAlpinc, "a factor of the Hudson's
Bay Company, had been ordered, in the
Gear 1875, to explore the region to the
west and northwest of the bay; To cx-
anime the country about the Great Slave
Lake and the Great Bear Lake; also, to
explore the Mackenzie River from the
Slave Lake to It's mouth in the Arctic
~Ocean. New trading posts were To be
established. A party of Athabasca In
Slians served McAlpinc as hunters and
Sguides. They had reached a point to
the north and far To the west of the
Slave Lake, when the Arctic winter of
1897 closed on them. Ii was the land
of snow and cold the land where the
northern lights blaze and actually
crackle as they sweep out of the north
ern horizon in waves of fire, flowing
upward through space 10 the zenith.
y SicAlpinc had made his winter encamp-
ment in the woods ON the banks of the
Moose River. TO the west the Rocky
Mountains doomed, in disordered sub
ranges. a billowy sea of mountains,
white with snow. Lakes. rivers, swampS,
all were ice bound. The groans of the
frozen earth and water, As the frost pen
etrated deeper aud deeper, struck
Iaarshly on McAlpinc's ears. The split
ting of the sappy birch trees o nights
sounded like the sharp reports of
rifles. Almost daily Il loud noise
Mike thunder rolled out from
fhe not far distant mountains, and the
terror-stricken Athabasca Indians cow
cred As they heard the voice of the
avalanche, which they thought was the
$aemon of the mountain. The solitude
was intense. They were in the north
crn edge of the Thickwood country.
Deep lay the snow. Superstition, ever
rife in the minds of the North American
AndianS, had lis silent counterpart in
IN. brain of the half-civilized McAlpinc.
The tales that this hard-hcaded Scotch
factor of the fur company heard when a
~child, knccling at his mothers lap in the
little hut in the Shetlands of Scotland,
came trQs.ing back TO him at night in a
sss NSCanny recollections.
Ig,S.ic wa scarce in the Thickwood
country, aS it is in all forests, and only
bly, arduous hunting was famine kept
rS.of. They hunted To the south, rs To
The north the trees dwarfed rapidly, and
there was no open land. Depression
hung heavily ovcr the camp. All We're
discouraged, all uneasy, all alarmed.
Nightly, AS their fire was piled high
with logs, the talk of the Indians re-
verified Ia the countless legends of the
ROXY Mountains. Such blood chilling
tales rs 1.-THE Lost Souls of the Chief
Mountain" 1.-THE HcadleSs Hunters of
i Cypress Hills" or "Thc Three
Fishers of the Slave Lake" were told
SAND rctold 10y the solemn group. Me
Alpine became affected with hereditary
second sight, and his nights were made
unhappy 10y grim visions. llard-headed,
cold-hearted, sclf-containcd, he did not
hetray what he saw, and none knew the
...guish he suffered rs he thought his
Jason was lettering. He resolved to
hunt Ia the north, oStcnsibly for game,
really for the utter fatigue he needed Ia
be able Ia sleep u~nhaunted by the spec
tiers of his brain.
Hunting on the l1th of January, 1897,
he descended into Il little valley. There,
on the surface of the icc-bound river, in
Qy newly fallen snow, he saw the well
Uclincd track of u snow-shoe. Startled
by the sight. he halted and examined it,
10 prove To himself that il was real. Sat
isticd on this point, he cautiously fol-
lowed il for a few miles; then, his brain
clearing itself of the fantastic phantoms
I of its idlencSs, and restored to practical
vice.. I'D bought he had better return
SEsaal warn his followers of the
Ss.s AlsSibger of hostile indians. Re-
turned, he told his tale. Ii was re-
Ekived with many smothercd eNciama-
Ans of surprise. To a soul his follow
'Gers refused to believe that he had seen
the fresh track of a strange show-shoe.
They declared that no one eyer Win
tered in the country; that it was a will
aernesS of SNOW, ice, and dcmon-haunt-
ed mountains. After a long talk it was
decided by the Indians to follow this
reported track on the untrodden snow
of the northern wilds.
Early the next morning the tracking
party. under the command of their Ath-
abaSca warrior and hunter, Matonabee,
set forth, lone believing that the track
AYas made, if it existed at all, by a NOR
1al foot. Following the trail made by
McAlpine the day before, they cam to
the little ice bound river. There, on
the newly fallen snow, were the tracks,
the dragging of the heel of the shoe in
the light snow plainly visible. Not a
word said Mc.Alpine. Silently he point
ed 10 the evidence of the truth of his
story. Clustering around the signs of a
follow creature, the Indians carefully
Examined the marks. The make
of the shoe was unknown TO
them. Matonabee, who had fingered
behind to set partridge snareS, soon
came up. After much thought and re-
peated examination of the imprint of
the mesh and frame of the shoe, he de-
Jared it to be of the make of the Dog
4bbed Indians. The stride showed
chat the footprint was a woman's, and
not one of the demons of the icy high
lands to lure them to destruction. What
could a woman of the Dog-Ribbed tribe,
hereditary foes of the Athabascas, be
doing, alone, in their country?
Speculation was ended by McAlpine
~aggesting that the trail be followed.
<Yreading out, fan-like, eyes and ears
alert, they advanced up the snowAbound
valley of the Red Deer River, ever
watchful fog an ambuscade. After
marching several miles the Red River
turned abb Billy TO the west; the south
eyn slope of the valley, losing its pre-
ciPitous character, gradually sloped
back to the mountainous mass to the
southwest; the northern wall became
more precipitous, and lowered many
hundreds of feet above the stream. AT
its foot, sheltered from the cruel north
winds, and protected from the east
winds by a great mass of fallen rock,
stood a little grove of spruce. To the
west, a well defined pass in the mount
aims admitted the balmy Chinook winds
of the Pacific. Nestled in the evergreens
at the foot of the wall was a hut. neatly
made with the trunks of small trees.
eunningly chinked with moss and grass,