The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1907-05-16
Tale of the Ojibways Chippewa Indians--The
Great Battle of Kathio, Where the Sioux
Were Completely Vanquished.
Loyalty of the Mile Laos Chppewas in 1862. and
How They Were Despoied of Their
Time Hallowed Homes.


inquired the use of them. When it was
explained that the guns were to kill
their enemies or to kill game for food,
the Indians wanted to experiment on
one of their number. The white men
refused to shoot at an Indian but when
an anamouse (dog) was tied up killed
it at once. At the report of the gun
there was general scampering to get
out of the reach of the Thunder men, -
as the Indians termed them, and the
guns we're named thunder STICKS.
Radisson in his report says they
were detained at Kathio until some-
time in August, when a party number
ing several hundred started off in a
westerly direction taking them along.
They followed series of small lakes
and rivers presumably the little
string of lakes running from Mile
Laos to Platt lake and down Platt
river) until they came to a large
stream (the Mississippi), where the
water was SO shallow they could walk
across, probably near Little Falls).
After crossing they journeyed on in a
westerly direction through a mixed
timbered country for several days,
finally coming out into country that
was devoid of trees as far as they
could see but covered with droves of
beefes (buffalo). They were so
plentiful that the Indians had no
trouble in crawling through the tall
grass and with their bows and arrows
killing great numbers OF them which
were cut up into strips, dried and
smoked for future use. The hides
were tanned and worked into robes.
They remained here until they had
collected all the whole party could
pack, when they started back for
Kathio, reaching there some time in
September. Radisson now prevailed
upon the Indians to allow he and
Chouart to depart by the promise of
trading some thunder sticks and pow
der, and they were accompanied back
to Superior by a number of Indians,
all loaded with fur, which was traded
for articles, ornaments and a few guns
the latter were thrown away as soon
as the powder was used up. No rec
ords show that the Indians we're again
visited by any white man for twenty
years, when Hennepin was taken pris-
oner and carried to Kathio in 1880.
The Sioux then must have been very
numerous, as they possessed the whole
country from the boundaries of ILL
nois to the Lake of the Woods, and
from the st. Croix to the Missouri
river.
Hennepin in his narrative states
that he with others started in
February, 1880, with goods to trade
with the Indians and to explore the
country to the northwest, but on their
way up the Mississippi they we're
taken prisoners by a band of one
hundred and twenty Sioux warriors,
who we're on their way down to attack
Indian settlements in Illinois. They
were armed entirely with bows and
arrows, so they must have had no
guns among them at that time. The
war party then turned back
and left the Mississippi at or
near where Dayton's Bluff now is, be-
low St. Paul, and started overland
for Mile Laos via Rum river, or
Colbert, as it was then called. They
travelled about five or six days and
then reached the lower village, stu
ated upon Aquipaguetin island, which
was surrounded by marshes, and they
had to wade knee deep to reach it.
Their goods were here divided pre-
sumably so that the other bands stu
ated in the villages near Kathio could
not claim the whole. Hennepin
claimed he was afterwards taken to
Kathio, their main settlement, and
kept prisoner until a runner was sent
to Father Duluth, who had estab-
lished a mission near where the city
of Duluth is now situated, and who
came overland to his relief by way of
Hanging Horn lake and Rice river,
reaching Mile Laos at Malmo, on
what was known later as the Crow
Wing and Superior trail, and thence
along the west shore to Kathio. Du7
Luth, it seems, had been here the year
before and had gained their conf
dence, so that he had no trouble in
getting the prisoners released. A
party of the Indians accompanied the
Hennepin party down the Rum river,
crossing the Mississippi at the mouth,
over to where Champlin now stands,
where another settlement of Sioux was
situated. From there Hennepin and
his party journeyed on down the Mis-
sissippi and made his first discovery
of St. Anthony falls.
L