A Life on the American Frontiers: Collected Works of Henry Schoolcraft. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

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      CHAPTER IV.

       Table of Contents

       Brief detail of transactions at Cass Lake.—A select exploring party is organised here, for ascending to the actual source of the Mississippi.—Council with the Indians.—Speech of Oza Windib.—The Indians furnish canoes and guides.—Arrangement of the party.—Notice of a Warrior’s widow.—Scalp dance.—Facts respecting foreign interference in the trade of the Upper Mississippi.—The question of the use of ardent spirits in the trade.—Act of Congress of 1832, prohibiting it.—Departure of the exploring party.—Ascent to Pamitchi Gumaug, or Lac Travers.—Its elevation and size.—A Shingaba Wossin.—Image worship.—Bay.—Ultimate forks of the Mississippi.—Ascend the east fork.—Lake Marquette.—Lake La Salle.—Kubbakunna Lake.—Notices of the Natural History.

Having determined to organise a select party at this lake, to explore the source of the river, measures were immediately taken to effect it. A council of the Indians was assembled, and the object declared to them. They were requested to delineate maps of the country, and to furnish the requisite number of hunting canoes and guides. Oza Windib, said, “My father, the country you are going to see, is my hunting ground. I have travelled with you many days.4 I shall go with you farther. I will myself furnish the maps you have requested, and will guide you onward. There are many rapids in the way, but the waters are favorable. I shall consult with my band about the canoes, and see who will step forward to furnish them. My own canoe, shall be one of the number.”

      Before night the maps were completed, and five different individuals, including Oza Windib, brought each a canoe of the proper size and laid it down. Two young men expressed their willingness to go, as additional guides. Seven engagés and a cook, were added to this number, making, with Lieut. J. Allen, (who declared he could push his men no farther, Doct. Douglass Houghton, the Reverend Wm. T. Boutwell, Mr. George Johnston, and myself,) sixteen persons. These, with their travelling beds, were distributed among five canoes, with provisions for ten days, a tent and poles, oil cloth, mess basket, tea-kettle, flag and staff, a medicine chest, some instruments, an herbarium, fowling pieces, and a few Indian presents. The detachment of infantry was left in their encampment on the island, under the command of their non-commissioned officer. The remainder of the party, with the baggage and travelling equipment, was placed in charge of Mr. Le Default, a clerk of one of the upper posts of trade, who was attached to the expedition from Fond du Lac, and obligingly undertook the acquisition of certain points of information, during the contemplated absence.

      While these arrangements were in process, a mixed group of men, women, and children, from the Indian village, thronged our encampment. Among them I observed the widow of a Chippewa warrior, who had been killed some three or four weeks previous, in the foray of the Leech Lake war party, in the Sioux country. She was accompanied by her children and appeared dejected. I asked one of the Indians the place of her residence. He replied, here; that her husband had been a brave warrior, and went, on the call of the Leech Lake chief, with a number of volunteers, to join the party. I asked him, of what number the party consisted? He replied, about one hundred. Who had led them? The Gueuile Platte. Where they had met the enemy? South of the head of Leaf river. What had been the result of the action? They were victorious, having taken three scalps on the field, and lost but one, being the husband of the widow referred to. The action had however, been at long shots, with frequent changes of position, and the enemy had finally fled to a village for reinforcement. The Chippewas took this opportunity to retreat, and, after consultation, returned, bringing back the three scalps, as memorials of their prowess. These trophies had, we learned, been exhibited in the customary dances at Leech Lake, after which one of them was forwarded to Oza Windib’s band, to undergo a like ceremony. And it was finally presented to the widow.

      It was now exhibited by the young men, in her behalf, for a purpose which was certainly new to me. Although I knew that this people were ingenious in converting most circumstances, connected with both fortune and misfortune, into a means of soliciting alms, I had never before seen the scalp of an enemy employed as a means of levying contributions. Such, however, was the purpose for which it was now brought forward. It was exhibited with all the circumstances of barbarian triumph. Shouts and dancing, intermingled with the sounds of the rattle, and Indian drum, form the conspicuous traits of such a scene. Short harangues, terminated by a general shout, fill up the pauses of the dance, and at this moment the drums cease. It was an outcry of this kind that first drew my attention to a neighboring eminence. I observed some of the simple bark enclosures, which mark the locality of a Chippewa burial ground. Near them, was erected a sort of triumphal arch, consisting of bent and tied saplings, from the arc formed by which, depended an object, which was said to be the remains of decaying scalps. Around this, was gathered a crowd of dancers, moving in a circle. The fresh scalp was suspended from a rod. Every time it waved, a new impulse seemed to be given to the shouting. The widow and her children were present. And the whole group of spectators, Canadians as well as Indians, appeared to regard the ceremony with an absorbing interest. In the brief pause, which separated each dance, presents were thrown in. And all that was given was deemed the property of the widow. This was the scalp dance.

      Other incidents of the sojourn of the expedition on this island will be mentioned on the return of the party to it. A few may be added here.

      Representations having been made to the Department, on the subject of foreign interference in the trade of the Upper Mississippi, a number of queries were addressed to an American trader, well acquainted with its geography and resources. I inquired of him, whether the American traders on that border, were strenuously opposed in their trade by the inhabitants of the Red river colony, or by the partners and clerks of the Hudson’s Bay Company. He replied that the inhabitants of Pembina, were in the habit of making temporary voyages of trade to Voleuse, or Thief river, south of the parallel of forty-nine degrees, but that they had not built or made a permanent stand there. He said, that the open nature of the country about the Red river settlement, gave great facilities for making short excursions into the Indian country, on horseback and in carts. But he did not know any place to which permanent outfits had been sent, except the river Souris, west of Red river. He believed that this traffic was carried on, exclusively, by the inhabitants of the colony and not by the Hudson’s Bay Company.

      I asked him whether the Indians of the Lake of the Woods visited the post of Red Lake, and whether our traders were annoyed in their trade in that quarter by the servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company. He replied, that the Lac du Bois Indians came across to Red Lake ordinarily; that it is a three day’s journey; but that no annoyance is experienced in the trade of that part from the Hudson’s Bay factors. He was of opinion that they do not send outfits into any part of the territory south or west of the national boundary, beginning at Portage des Rats on the Lake of the Woods.

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