Michigan Historical Collections (Volume 26)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ... sagacity is possessed on both sides, and that the nations at war watch each other, as a lynx for its prey, it may be conceived that many of these border war parties are either light skirmishes, sudden on-rushes, or utter failures. It is seldom that a close, well-contested, long-continued hard battle is fought. To kill a few men, tear off their scalps in haste, and retreat with these trophies, is a brave and honorable trait with them, and may be boasted of in their triumphal dances and warlike festivities. To glean the details of these movements, would be to acquire the modern history of the tribe, which induced me to direct my enquiries to the subject; but the lapse of even 40 or 50 years had shorn tradition of most of these details, and often left the memory of results only. The Chippewas told me that this chief had led them seven times to successful battle against the Sioux and the Outagamies, and that he had been wounded thrice---once in the thigh, once in the right shoulder, and a third in the side and breast, being a glancing shot. His war parties consisted either of volunteers who had joined his standard at the war dance, or of auxiliaries who had accepted his messages of Wampum and tobacco and come forward in a body to the appointed place of rendezvous. These parties varied greatly in number; his first party consisted of but 40 men, his greatest and most renowned, of 300 who were mustered from the villages on the shores of the lake, as far east as St. Mary's falls. It is to the incidents of this last expedition, which had an important influence on the progress of the war, that we may devote a few moments. The place of rendezvous was La Poiute, Chagomiegon, or as it is called in modern days, La Points of Lake Superior. The scene of...