Indian Legends of Minnesota Part 16

WINONA.

[Footnote 1: The name given by the Dakotas to the first-born, if a female.]

[Footnote 2: Tipi, skin tent.]

[Footnote 3: An edible root found on the prairies.]

[Footnote 4: The Crow Indians, hereditary foes of the Dakotas, call themselves Absaraka, which means crow in their language.]

[Footnote 5: Each Indian guest at a banquet carries with him his own wooden bowl and spoon.]

[Footnote 6: Many Indians believe in the transmigration of souls, and some of them profess to remember previous states of existence.]

[Footnote 7: A renowned chief, formerly living on Lake Pepin.]

[Footnote 8: A supernatural monster inhabiting the larger rivers and lakes, and hereditary foe of the Thunder Bird.]

[Footnote 9: The Falls of St. Anthony.]

[Footnote 10: The name given to a first-born, if a male. Upon becoming a warrior or performing some feat of arms, the youth is permitted to select another name.]

[Footnote 11: Hereditary foe of the Dakotas.]

[Footnote 12: The Dakotas formerly disposed of their dead by fastening them to the branches of trees or to rude platforms. This is still practiced to some extent.]

[Footnote 13: The Indians paint and adorn a body before sepulture.]

HIAWATHA.

[Footnote 14: "On the mountains of the prairie." (Mt. Catlin, etc.) Located near the boundary between Minnesota and Dakota, near the head waters of the Mississippi.]

[Footnote 15: This quarry, located near the hills or mountains, was very famous among the Indians, who by common consent had made the adjacent territory neutral ground. Here they came and provided themselves with pipes, very necessary to the Indian's happiness. To apply the stone to any other use than that of pipe-making would have been sacrilege in the native's mind. From similarity in color, they even fancied it to have been made, at the great deluge, from the flesh of the peris.h.i.+ng Indian.]

[Footnote 16: In Northern Pennsylvania, on the Susquehanna River, the scene of a terrible ma.s.sacre by the Indians and Tories in 1778.

Campbell wrote _Gertrude of Wyoming_ on the incidents of that July 5th.]

[Footnote 17: A section of Alabama, taking its name from the chief defeated by De Soto in 1540.]

"The Falls of Minnehaha." (The Scenery about Fort Snelling, etc.)

THE DESCENDING STAR.

This legend is related by Kah-ge-ga-gah-bawh, chief of the Ojibway Nation, or Chippewas, in his "Traditional History of the Ojibway Nation" purporting to be the first volume of Indian history written by an Indian. In common with his forest brethren, he "was brought up in the woods." Twenty months pa.s.sed in a school in Illinois const.i.tuted the sum-total of his schooling. But he had learned the traditions of his people, as was customary, from the lips of the chief, his father.

Through the stilted language of this somewhat unlettered Indian we catch faint glimpses of the poetic beauty with which the tradition glowed when actually related at the wigwam door. An attempt has been made to retain and crystallize this poetic beauty in the preceding metrical version of the Indian legend.

THE TRAILING ARBUTUS.

A new version of the beautiful and popular legend of the first spring flower, making the visitant to the old man's lodge a maiden, and identifying the blossom as the trailing arbutus, was told by Hon. C.

L. Belknap of Michigan before the Folk-Lore Society in Was.h.i.+ngton, Dec., 1891.

THE SEA-GULL.

[Footnote 18: _Kay-oshk_ is the Ojibway name for the sea-gull.]

[Footnote 19: _Gitchee_--great,--_Gumee_--sea or lake,--Lake Superior also often called Ochipwe Gitchee Gumee, Great Lake (or sea) of the Ojibways.]

[Footnote 20: _Ne-me-Shomis_--my grandfather. "In the days of my grandfather" is the Ojibway's preface to all his traditions and legends.]

[Footnote 21: _Waub_--white--_O-jeeg_--fisher (a furred animal). White Fisher was the name of a noted Ojibway chief who lived on the south sh.o.r.e of Lake Superior many years ago. Schoolcraft married one of his descendants.]

[Footnote 22: _Ma-kwa_ or _mush-kwa_--the bear.]

[Footnote 23: The _Te-ke-nah-gun_ is a board upon one side of which a sort of basket is fastened or woven with thongs of skin or strips of cloth. In this the babe is placed and the mother carries it on her back. In the wigwam the _tekenagun_ is often suspended by a cord to the lodge-poles and the mother swings her babe in it.]

[Footnote 24: _Wabose_ (or _Wabos_)--the rabbit. _Penay_, the pheasant. At certain seasons the pheasant drums with his wings.]

[Footnote 25: _Kaug_, the porcupine. _Kenew_, the war-eagle.]

[Footnote 26: _Ka-be-bon-ik-ka_ is the G.o.d of storms, thunder, lightning, etc. His home is on Thunder-Cap at Thunder-Bay, Lake Superior. By his magic the giant that lies on the mountain was turned to stone. He always sends warnings before he finally sends the severe cold of winter, in order to give all creatures time to prepare for it.]

[Footnote 27: _Kewaydin_, or _Kewaytin_, is the North wind or Northwest wind.]

[Footnote 28: _Algonkin_ is the general name applied to all tribes that speak the Ojibway language or dialects of it.]

[Footnote 29: This is the favorite "love-broth" of the Ojibway squaws.

The warrior who drinks it immediately falls desperately in love with the woman who gives it to him. Various tricks are devised to conceal the nature of the "medicine" and to induce the warrior to drink it; but when it is mixed with a liberal quant.i.ty of "fire-water" it is considered irresistible.]

[Footnote 30:

Translation: Woe-is-me! Woe-is-me!

Great Spirit, behold me!

Look, Father; have pity upon me!

Woe-is-me! Woe-is-me!

[Footnote 31: Snow-storms from the Northwest.]

[Footnote 32: The Ojibways, like the Dakotas, call the Via Lactea (Milky Way) the Pathway of the Spirits.]

[Footnote 33: s.h.i.+nge-bis, the diver, is the only water-fowl that remains about Lake Superior all winter.]

[Footnote 34: Waub-ese--the white swan.]