The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-09-12
Hiawatha's Country.

ave are on the threshold of Hia-
watha's country, do you know" OBJ
served the Antiquary, as Launce con-
cluded. "Yonder, forty miles south,
near the picturesque little village of
Munising, Indian tradition places
the site of old Nokomis cottage. Easily
reached, too, by railroad to New NUNS
ing, thence by stage to Old Munising,
four miles to eastward on the shore of
the lake" The propinquity so wrought
on us that one August afternoon we
found ourselves alighting at the little
station of New Munising, on the
borders of that enchanted land where
the exploits of "the goldman had
been performed. There were perhaps
dozen frame structures in the hamlet,
all built since the railroad "went
through" their shingled roofs and
pine clapboards cleaning in the sun
light-a typical western village, with
none of the MOSES and neutral tints of
age about it. Antiquity was there,
however, in the solemn pine forest that
extended for hundreds of miles in
every direction save on the east. A
road, thread of white, uncoiled itself
through the forest to the eastward.
We asked for the mail-carrier, and a
barefooted hirsute fellow in hunting
shirt and buckskin breeches was pointed
out, plodding into the forest with a
leather mailbag over his shoulder. He
had come on foot that day, not expect
ing passengers. What should we do?
for there was neither horse nor vehicle
in the hamlet. foot it," said the
bluff station-master. Here is Mr..
Nah-be-nay-ask going over to show you
the way" A tall, straight Ojibway
Indian in suit of clerical black, even to
the stiff hat, who had been pacing the
platform, came up at the words and
shook hands. Great indeed was our
pleasure to find in him the Rev.
Thomas Nah-be-nay-ask, the Indian
preacher of Munising, to whom we
bore letter of introduction from a
friend in Marquette and of whom we
had heard much as the friend and
spiritual guide of the various Indian
remnants gathered in missions and
reservations along the western shore OF
Lake Superior: man as much famed
for eloquence, tact and shrewdness as
for his skill in the Ojibway language
and traditions. He aspired, our friend
thought, to become second Tecumseh
or Pontiac to his people, though in more
peaceful way, his aim being to induce
them to give up their nomadic habits
and adopt the arts and customs, as well
as the religion, of the whites. CHANGING
out over the bay, darkening in the twi
light, the old man falls into interesting
"reminiscences " Yonder on Munisin
Bay l have seen two hundred torch,
lights dancin' of an evenin'-Iniuns
spearin' fish. Grand Island in those
days was Fur Company fort, where
every spring the Injuns cum by hun
dreds to trade their furs for supplies
The traders and uoyage,rs cum, too
and made merry times. Runnin'
jumpin', wrastlin', QUOT pitchin', la
crosse playin' by day, dancin' at night
merry an jolly cretur was the free
trapper before the whites cum an
made him slave" and he continues
with picturesque descriptions of the old
UoyageurS and traders, and of his ad.
ventures in hunting and trapping. The
Munising fishermen, too, were an in
teresting class, in their cheap cow-hid,
boots, buckskin trousers and wooden
hii'oi WV i"e'oi OPoh IA ilohu anu GA
posing the brawny, hairy chest. They
were famous hunters, too, the regior
round about being great "deer coun-
try" whence in the season venisor
saddles were shipped to Chicago by the
carload. We often saw their Sandusky
skiffs beating in from the nets as we
left the breakfast-table of morning
and fell into the habit, with the othel
village loungers, of sauntering down tt
the fish-house on the messy wharf tC
inspect the " catch." The latter was
pretty sight as it lay scattered over thu
floor-silvery-scaled white fish, th'
most delicious food-fish in our markets
long, arrowy lake-trout, like the eastern
pickerel, and sometimes one, NOR,
often half dozen, huge sturgeon, tn,
king of lake fishes. The latter, as thu
hero of one of the Hawaiian exploits
we viewed with especial interest
Charles Burr Todd, in american Maya
zine for September.