The morning call., 1892-01-17
A DETROIT INDIAN LEGEND.

The Story of "She-Who- Climbs" and
Her Unfortunate Love Affair.
Several years ago. when Detroit was
mere trading post, says the Free PresS, and
one coon skin would buy quart OF whisky
on any day in the week except Sunday,
tribe of Chippewa Indians had their camp
on the Cass farm. The most friendly feel
ing prevailed between white man and In
dian at the time, chiefly because the white
man was planning to skin the Indian out OF
all he possessed and then order him TO move
on.
The chief of the tribe was named HE
who bosses e-job." He was q great war
ri0r, famous hunter, and had been known
to eat a whole dog at single meal. By
some unacconntable accident this chief had
daughter-a beautiful maiden, who had
outJumped her eighteenth birthday by three
or four months. She bad the grace of an an
telOpe. the step of a rabbit, the voice of
nightingale and the sweet disposition of a
woodchuck. She loved her ma and pa up to
100 cents on the dollar. and at Christmas
time she hung ND both stocking to have
them filed TO the bTim. Her name was
she whO-climb -a-tree-by-nig
Everything was going well In the camp Of
the ChippewaS until the Indian maiden
happened into a store on Jefferson avenue
she encountered a young white man named
"He-Yho- DaTts-his- har-in-the- middle" and
he waited on her with such a charming
grace and paid her so high for her muskrat
furS that she fell in love with him and vowed
that she would make him her provision pro-
wider or never marry any one. He also
seemed 10 be considerably gone on her, but,
alas it was only his way of encouraging
lnjun trade and earning his salary Of SO per
month and found.
The maiden called again and again to in
spect the bear-trapS and to look the love
burning In her bosom, and now and then, to
help trade over dull week, the young man
went to her camp and sat in her tent and
read 10 her from Shakespeare. Milton and
other standard authorities. He saw that
she loved him, but he did not recip. He
could not. lie was engaged to the daughter
OF widow, who was keeping hfty-two
boariers at 81 per week. and was salts
fed with a good thing. ''She-Who-Climbs"
did not know this, and continued to think
OF him by day and dream Of him by night
until an Indian known as "He-whO-catches-
on" finally gave her a pointer She would
not believe II, OF course, replying 10 him:
Go TO Pontiac, base calumniatOr! NY
heart tells me that He-whn-parls-his
in-the- middle is no deceiYer"
II can prove 1t for quarteT!" he aHgrlly
exclaimed. Tonight at 8 he will meet her
at the usual trysting place-the big beech
enue Ensconee yourself ia the outrageous
umbrageOusness, and FL bet my last coon
skin against deer's track you will hear
something dropp'
The dusky maiden attempted to follow
his advice, and at As o'clock she was up
tree. He-WhO-paTts and his girl met at the
usual hour and talked love, maple sugar,
molassess candy and other sweetness, and
She-whO-climbS heard every word from her
perch overhead. The young man just re-
marked that he would like Ihe marriage
day set for the 10th Of the next month,
when the Indian maiden's neaFt. which had
been swelling for the last hnu-, suddenly
burst with loud ''kerWanR" Rnd down
she fell. lifeless thing. In her fall she
struck and killed both the lovers, and as the
stars of a summers night came out to
gi0rify the dome Of the earth. and the soft
breezes blew up from Wyandutte to fan the
camp-fres of the sleeping redmen, the
whip poor-will came and rested on the tree
and sang a lullaby to the Qniet dead.