The Virginia enterprise., 1914-04-10
old SIDEll
OF St LOUIS
COUNTY HER /
Patriarch of the Nett Lake Chip
pewas Attends Council of
White Chief.
4 J WITNESS BEFORE
THE GRAND JURY TO-DAY
Likes Firewater and Pastoral
:; Life and Chafes Under
Delay.
From Wednesdays Daily.

= rom WeOneSQayS S Da1ly.
One of the real pioneers of ST..
Louis county is Virginia visitor to-
day in Bah-Ah-Nish, patriarch Of the
Nett Lake Chippewas, who with his
three sons is a witness before the
grand jury of the Virginia term of the
range district court, presumably on
some charge involving a paleface in
the sale Of red liquor to the simple
children Of the north woods.
Bah-Ah-Nish is at least "a years
old, how much older nobody cares to
predict and he doesn't know himself,
for an Indian doesn't keep track of
the years, he just grows old graceful
ly. Bah-Ah-Nish yesterday submit
ted to an interview, Mayor Joseph
Austin of Chisholm, who speaks the
Chippewa and several other tongues
fluently, acting as interpreter.
According to Bah-Ah-Nish he was
born in the month of the sugar moon
a long time ago, many moons, he says,
up on the Rainy river. All his life he
has lived in northern St. Louis coun-
ty. Aside from occasional pilgrimages
made by his people to the prairies of
northeastern North Dakota and Of the
Canadian country on the north he has
never left the county. Only once since
he can remember have his people gone
on the warpath. THAI was when
-Nish was very small boy
and the Nett Lake Chippewas fell on
thriving party of marauding Sioux
up in the Koochiching river country
and drove them back to the Red River
valley. His father participated in that
campaign and the scalps of the Sioux
taken at that time were priceless
treasures to the Nett Lake band, care
fully cherished and kept in the medi-
cine chest, except at such times as his
people in festive moods were wont to
dance the war dance the green maize
dance and other figures that have
long been part of the traditions of
the American aborigines.
Firewater, is described as "Ugh,
good" and Bah-Ah-Nish recalls that
the fur buyers and itinerant voyagers
for the Hudson Bay company first
brought it among his people. Bah
Ah-Nish has been hunter and fish
erman all his life. He hasn't noticed
that the hunting isn't as good as it
was in the old days although he says
the "Wacondah," wild geese, are not
as common in the Nett Lake country
as they were in the days when he
was just little Indian playing around
the wigwam door.
Bah-Ah-Nish is one of the finest
types of the aged Indian. He isn't
afraid to pose for camera and half
a dollar will turn the trick any time
He has two brothers older than he and
he expects to live for many moons
yet, he says.
He had lived for more than forty
moons before he ever lost tooth
never consulted a dentist in his life
hasn't taken bath for more than a
decade and says he has never felt
any i'll effects. The old man was
weary with the white mans council
yesterday. "The white chiefs linger,
he said. "Bah-Ah-Nish is old. He
would like to go to the white mans
council soon so that he can return to
his lodge on the Crane Lake river
and help the young men to make
sugar" Charles King, accompanied
Bah-Ah-Nish and his sons to act as
interpreter.