The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-10-14
LEGEND OF THE LAKE
How Mile Laos Was Wrested From
the Siouxs by the Chippewas
Years and Years Ago.
A Tale of the Chieftain Retold by Thee.
II. knappen in Saturdays
Minneapolis Journal. 80

dams are loath to leave is indeed, as
its name indicates, one in a thousand.
Before they held it the bitter enemies
OF the Chippewas, the Dakotas, or
Sioux, possessed it and priced it as
dearly as do the people who wrested it
from them. Now that the Indian has
had his day and the white men have
taken possession of the shores of the
beautiful country that surrounds it,
they soon become as closely attached
to 1T as the aborigines. The Sioux
called it the Spirit Lake and the Chip
pewas call it the Missi-sag-i-egan or
La axe I Observation-Disclosures. Both
names are, suggestive. When the
traveller comes to the lake and eazes
out over the vast stretch of waters to-
wards the blue line which can some
times be seen in the distance, he
thinks of the Chippewa name. When
! heshas been on the lake for a few days
he5feels its subtle charm and thinks
the Sioux name the better one.
twas not without bloody struggle
that the Sioux left their old home on
this lake and fled to the west and south.
The Mile Lacers still treasure in their
traditions the account of the war
which put them in possession of a
region which bore the name of one of
the leading Sioux tribes-the M'de-
wak-ans. Yet so fast does tradition
BECOME legend that the present gener-
alton of~the Mile Laos has an idea
that the tradition they relate has to do
with the conquest of a race that lived
in the land before the Sioux came.
When one night two weeks ago
Chief Wah-we-ye-a-cumig told the
story there was little more of it left
than his recollection that his father
had told him that many generations
ago his people had come out of the
north and fallen upon the jewellers in
=| es4ahen wigwams on the south shore
Of the lake. The Sioux defended
themselves well, but not having the
advantage of the powder and ball
which the Chippewas already had
from the French, were forced to take
refuge in their houses. ''Then," says
Wah-we-ye-a-cumig, ''our fathers
threw through the smoke holes in the
tops of the huts bags of powder which
catching fire, exploded and killed the
occupants or drove them forth to die
outside at the hands of our warriors.
The enemy were killed to a man."
Back of this simple story there lie
the elements of a great tragedy. The
Indians of the present day do not keep
their traditions as their fathers did,
and with a few exceptions they have
but the vaguest ideas of what was done
by the men who were on earth before
their generation. The generation that
was in existence in the first half of this
century knew the full story of the talk
ing of the "Lake-T hat-Spreads-All-
Over" and told it with all the indiana
relish for an interesting historical mar
rative. The exact year of the great
battle cannot be named, but it is cer-
tain that between 1880 and 1895 the
Sioux had been driven from their
Mile Laos homes. For it is we'll
authenticated that Father Hennepin,
Michael Accault and Picard du Gay,
having fallen into the hands of the
Sioux the first was kept prisoner on an
island in lake Mile Laos in the first
year named. That island now called
Spirit island, may be seen to this day,
as bleak as it was when the old father
was there imprisoned. But in 1896
when the French succeeded in bring
ing to a close the long and bloody war
between the Sioux and Chippewas it
was found that the latter were in pos
session of the Mile Laos country. So
in the interval of fifteen years the lake
had passed from the defeated Sioux to
the conquering Chippewas. AS the
Indians of tn elder generation told the
story of this border war it was this:
Five generations ago, shortly after
/ the Ojibways (Chippewas) residing on
the shores of Lake Superior, had com
menced to obtain firearms and ammu-
milton of the old French traders, a firm
peace existed between them and the
Dakotas, who then resided on the
head waters of the Mississippi and the