Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1931-02-26
Little Journeys IN
Americana
Keeping a Jump Ahead Of the
Skillet
By LESTER B. COLBY

S|"SSsS""SS
Keeping a Jump Ahead Of the
Skillet
EARLY settlers in the Central West
IL knew that certain Indian tribes
living in the general neighborhood of
Lakes Huron and Superior and upper
Lake Michigan were cannibals. They
ate the bodies of the men they killed
in battle as a sort Of rite. They be-
lieved that to do so gave them great
strength and courage.
Alexander Henry, an English trader,
was captured in June, 1868, at Michili-
mackinac and spent nearly year just
q jump ahead of the skillet. In his
later life he set his adventures down
on paper. ran across them the other
day. If he wrote the truth, he had
time of it.
When the English fort in the straits
was captured by the Chippewas and
Sacs, by ruse Henry took refuge in
were friendly to the French. Through
crack in the roof he saw the Indians
dressing out" and Quartering the
bodies of his friends. They carried
away the "meat."
In checking over the EnglishmeD
they had killed and captured, the In
dams missed Henry. They started a
search. Finally, fearful of the safety
of his own family, the Frenchmap
gave Henry up. The Indians in glee
| put him in a canoe with their Other
prisoners and started up the lake.
While pOrtaging across a point of
land at L'Arbre Crochet about 20
miles west of Mackinac island, the
Chippewas were stopped by village
of Ottawas. These took charge of the
prisoners, saying that they were
friends of the English. One of the OF
tawas told Henry:
These Chippewas were taking you
down to the Isles du Castor (Beaver
island, to cook and eat you"
All that night the Ottawas and Chip
pewaS sat in council. The next morn
ing the OttawaS announced that they
would also go to war against the Eng
lish and gave Henryback to the Chip
pewas. Once more they began to get
their pots and kettles ready.
But suddenly Wawatam, a Chippe-
wa chief who had been a friend of
Henry, appeared. He made speech
to the Indians telling them that the
year before he had adopted Henry into
his family and that he was brother.
'You would not eat my brother" he
said.
Finally they agreed to that and went
ahead with their repast-other Eng
lishmen. Wawatam, his brother
Henry records, a little later came
home to his tent with wooden bowl
filled with soup. As he stirred it with
a wooden spoon human hand floated
around in it.
For the next several months. accord
ing to Henry, he lived with Wawatam
in never-ending fear of being killed
and eaten. His security was at no
time sure. The Indians, always inim-
ical, discussed him regularly in terms
Of broth.
Now and then they would get whisky
and when they did, Wawatam would
hide him out. Once he took him to q
cave at night. When he awoke the
next morning Henry found that he had
slept all night on pile Of human
bones. He had wondered at the hard
ness of his bed.
Finally Wawatam said he could not
protect him longer. But he arranged
to have Chippewa squaw, wife of
a French trader named Cadotte, take
him to her husbands post at Sault Ste
Marie. On the way a fleet of twenty
hostile canoes surrounded them and
demanded "the Englishman." Henry
pretended he could not understand the
demand, made in English, and the
squaw said he was not an Englishman.
They got away with it-temporarily.
A few days later war party came
to Cadotte's and was demanding his
surrender when two canoes appeared
up the lake. They carried couriers.
l. tSc UOTt WOIu tudl luS wal was
over. The English had arrived at
Niagara with a mighty army. In this
army were soldiers as numerous 'as
leaves on the trees" the cOuriers said.
So once more, in the nick of time,
Henry's life was saved. The couriers
brought notice that the Indians must
send a party at once to Niagara to
treat with Sir William Johnson, the
English commander, and make peace
or they would all be destroyed.
Henry went with the party, now
supposed to be his friends. But on
the way a sudden storm came up. The
waves ran high and threatened to
swamp the canoes. Finally, to placate
the god Of the storm, chief threw
his favorite dog int the lake and 1t
was drowned. The storm continued
and another dog was sacrificed, but
without result. Then an Indian, look
ing at Henry, remarked:
"Perhaps if we sacrificed the Eng
lishman our god would be appeased
and the storm would subside."
Others agreed with him, but before
the final decision was made the wind
dropped, the lake Gained, and he was
not thrown into the water. A few
days later he arrived at Niagara and
found safety with friends.
ia 1929. Lester B, Colby.)