Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers Part 10

This new arrangement took the popular name of the American Fur Company.

In other respects, except those related, the mode of transacting the trade, and the real actors therein, remained very much as they were.

American lads, whose names were inscribed in the licenses at Michilimackinack, as princ.i.p.als, went inland in reality to learn the business and the language; the _engagees_, or boatmen, who were chiefly Canadians or metifs, were bonded for, in five hundred dollars each. In this condition, I found things on my arrival here. The very thin diffusion of American feeling or principle in both the traders and the Indians, so far as I have seen them, renders it a matter of no little difficulty to supervise this business, and it has required perpetual activity in examining the boats and outfits of the traders who have received their licenses at Mackinack, to search their packages, to detect contraband goods, _i.e._ ardent spirits, and grant licenses, pa.s.sports, and permits to those who have applied to me. To me it seems that the whole old resident population of the frontiers, together with the new accessions to it, in the shape of petty dealers of all sorts, are determined to have the Indians' furs, at any rate, whether these poor red men live or die; and many of the dealers who profess to obey the laws wish to get legally inland only that they may do as they please, law or no law, after they have pa.s.sed the flag-staff of Sainte Marie's. There may be, and I trust there _are_, higher motives in some persons, but they have not pa.s.sed this way, to my knowledge, the present season. I detected one scamp, a fellow named Gaulthier, who had carried by, and secreted above the portage, no less than five large kegs of whisky and high wines on a small invoice, but a few days after my arrival. It will require vigilance and firmness, and yet mildness, to secure anything like a faithful performance of the duties committed to me on a remote frontier, and with very little means of action beyond the precincts of the post, and this depends much on the moral influence on the Indian mind of the military element of power.

_6th. First Distribution of Presents_.--In fulfilment of a general declaration of friendly purposes, made on my opening speech to the Chippewas in July last, the entire home band of St. Mary's, men, women, and children, were a.s.sembled on the green in front of my office, this morning, to receive a small invoice of goods and merchandise, which were distributed amongst them as presents. These goods were the best that could be purchased in the Detroit market, and were all of the best description; and they were received with a lively satisfaction, which betokened well for my future influence. Prominent among the pleased recipients were the chiefs of the village, s.h.i.+n-ga-ba-was-sin, the Image Stone, She-wa-be-ke-tone, the Man of Jingling Metals, Kau-ga-osh, or the Bird in Eternal Flight, Way-ish-kee, or The First Born Son, and two or three others of minor note. Behind them were the warriors and young men, the matrons and maids; and peppered in, as it were, the children of all ages. All were in their best attire. The ceremony began by lighting the pipe, and having it pa.s.sed by suitable officials to the chiefs and warriors in due order, and by placing a pile of tobacco before them, for general use, which the chiefs with great care divided and distributed, not forgetting the lowest claimant. I then stated the principles by which the agency would be guided in its intercourse with them, the benevolence and justice of the views entertained by their great father, the President, and his wishes to keep improper traders out of their country, to exclude ardent spirits, and to secure their peace and happiness in every practicable way. Each sentence, as it was rendered into Indian, was received with the response of Hoh! an exclamation of approbation, which is uttered feebly or loud, in proportion as the matter is warmly or coldly approved. The chiefs responded. All looked pleased; the presents were divided, and the a.s.sembly broke up in harmony and good will. It _does_ seem that, according to the oriental maxim,[21]

a present is the readiest door to an Indian's heart.

[Footnote 21: "Let thy present go before thee."--Proverbs of Solomon.]

_25th_. The Indian mind appears to lack the mathematical element. It is doubtful how far they can compute numbers. The Chippewas count decimally, and after ten, add the names of the digits to the word ten, up to twenty; then take the word for twenty, and add them as before, to thirty; and so on to a hundred. They then add them to the term for a hundred, up to a thousand.

They cannot be made to understand the value of an American dollar, without reducing it to the standard of skins. A striking instance of this kind happened among the Potowattomies at Chicago last year (1821).

The commanding officer had offered a reward of thirty dollars for the apprehension of a deserter. The Potowattomies pursued and caught him, and received a certificate for the reward. The question with them now was, how much they had got. They wished to sell the certificate to a trader, and there were five claimants. They sat down and counted off as many rac.o.o.n skins. They then made thirty equal heaps, subst.i.tuting symbols for skins. Taking the store price of a rac.o.o.n at five skins to the dollar, they then found they had received the equivalent of one hundred and fifty rac.o.o.ns, and at this price they sold the order or certificate.

_26th. Death of Sa.s.saba,[22] or the Count_.--This chief, who has from the day of our first landing here, rendered himself noted for his sentiments of opposition to the Americans, met with a melancholy fate yesterday. He was in the habit of using ardent spirits, and frequently rose from a debauch of this kind of two or three days' continuance. Latterly he has exhibited a singular figure, walking through the village, being divested of every particle of clothing except a large gray wolf's skin, which he had drawn over his body in such a manner as to let its tail dangle down behind. It was in this unique costume that I last saw him, and as he was a tall man, with rather prominent features, the spectacle was the more striking. From this freak of dress he has been commonly called, for some time, My-een-gun, or the Wolf. He had been drinking at Point aux Pins, six miles above the rapids, with Odabit and some other boon companions, and in this predicament embarked in his canoe, to come to the head of the portage. Before reaching it, and while still in the strong tide or suck of the current, he rose in his canoe for some purpose connected with the sail, and tipped it over. Odabit succeeded in making land, but the Count, his wife and child, and Odabit's wife, went over the rapids, which was the last ever seen of them. Sa.s.saba appeared to me to be a man of strong feelings and an independent mind, not regarding consequences.

He had taken a deep prejudice against the Americans, from his brother having been shot by his side in the battle under Tec.u.mseh on the Thames.

This appeared to be the burden of his complaints. He was fond of European dress, and articles of furniture. It was found that he had in his tent, which was of duck, a set of silver tea and tablespoons, knives, forks, cups and saucers, and a tea tray. Besides his military coat, sword, and epaulets, and sash, which were presented to him, he had some ruffled linen s.h.i.+rts, gloves, shoes and stockings, and an umbrella, all of which were kept, however, in the spirit of a virtuoso, and he took a pride in displaying these articles to visitors.

[Footnote 22: The word means finery.]

Many a more worthless man than Sa.s.saba has had his epitaph, or elegiac wreath, which may serve as an apology for the following lines:--

The Falls were thy grave, as they leapt mad along, And the roar of their waters thy funeral song: So wildly, so madly, thy people for aye, Are rapidly, ceaselessly, pa.s.sing away.

They are seen but a moment, then fade and are past, Like a cloud in the sky, or a leaf in the blast; The path thou hast trodden, thy nation shall tread, Chief, warrior, and kin, to the _Land_ of the _Dead_; And soon on the lake, or the sh.o.r.e, or the green, Not a war drum shall sound, not a smoke shall be seen.

_27th. Oral Literature of the Indians_.--"I am extremely anxious,"

writes a friend, "that Mr. Johnston and his family should furnish full and detailed answers to my queries, more particularly upon all subjects connected with the language, and, if I may so speak, the polite literature of the Chippewas (I write the word in this way because I am apprehensive that the orthography is inveterately fixed, and not because I suppose it is correct)[23]. There is no quarter from which I can expect such full information upon these topics as from this. I must beg you to aid me in the pursuit. Urge them during the long winter evenings to the task. The time cannot be more profitably or pleasantly spent, and, as I am told you are somewhat of an aboriginal scholar, you can a.s.sist them with your advice and judgment. A perfect a.n.a.lysis of the language is a great desideratum. I pray you, in the spring, to let me have the fruits of their exertions."

[Footnote 23: I had written, announcing the word _Od-jib-wa_ to be the true Indian p.r.o.nunciation, and recommending its adoption.]

With a strong predisposition to these inquiries, with such additional excitement to the work, and with the very highest advantages of interpretation and no little fixity of application from boyhood, it must go hard with me this winter if I do not fish up something from the well of Indian researches and traditionary lore.

Go, student, search, and if thou nothing find, Go search again; success is in the mind.--ALGON.

_28th. The right spirit, humble yet manful_.--A young man of purpose and some talent, with considerable ambition, who is diligently seeking a place in the world, writes me from Detroit to-day, in this strain: "True it is, I have determined to pa.s.s the winter either in New York or Was.h.i.+ngton, probably the latter place. But, my dear sir, my hope of doing anything for myself in this world is the faintest possible, and I begin to fatigue with the exertion. If I do not succeed this winter in obtaining something permanent,[24] I shall probably settle down, either in this place or somewhere in New York, _a poor devil!_--from all which, and many other things, 'good Lord deliver us!' Farewell; my best wishes be with you this winter, to keep you warm. I shall expect next spring to see you an accomplished _nichee_" [25] [Ne-je].

[Footnote 24: He did succeed at W.]

[Footnote 25: A term signifying, in the Chippewa, _my friend_, but popularly used at the time to some extent at Detroit to denote an Indian.]

CHAPTER XIII.

My first winter at the foot of Lake Superior--Copper mines--White fish--A poetic name for a fish--Indian tale--Polygamy--A reminiscence--Taking of Fort Niagara--Mythological and allegorical tales among the aborigines--Chippewa language--Indian vowels--A polite and a vulgar way of speaking the language--Public wors.h.i.+p--Seclusion from the world.

1822. _Oct. 1st. Copper Mines of Lake Superior._--On the 8th of May last, the Senate of the United States pa.s.sed a resolution in these words:--

"_Resolved_, that the President of the United States be requested to communicate to the Senate, at the commencement of the next session of Congress, any information which may be in the possession of the government, derived from special agents or otherwise, showing the number, value, and position of the copper mines on the south sh.o.r.e of Lake Superior; the names of the Indian tribes who claim them; the practicability of extinguis.h.i.+ng their t.i.tle, and the probable advantage which may result to the Republic from the acquisition and working these mines."

The resolution having been referred to me by the Secretary of War, I, this day, completed and transmitted a report on the subject, embracing the princ.i.p.al facts known respecting them, insisting on their value and importance, and warmly recommending their further exploration and working.[26]

[Footnote 26: See Public Doc. No. 365, 2d Sess., 17th Congress.]

_4th. White Fish Fishery_.--No place in America has been so highly celebrated as a locality for taking this really fine and delicious fish, as Saint Mary's Falls, or the _Sault_,[27] as it is more generally and appropriately called. This fish resorts here in vast numbers, and is in season after the autumnal equinox, and continues so till the ice begins to run. It is worthy the attention of ichthyologists. It is a remarkable, but not singular fact in its natural history, that it is perpetually found in the att.i.tude of ascent at these falls. It is taken only in the swift water at the foot of the last leap or descent. Into this swift water the Indians push their canoes. It requires great skill and dexterity for this. The fis.h.i.+ng canoe is of small size. It is steered by a man in the stern. The fisherman takes his stand in the bows, sometimes bestriding the light and frail vessel from gunwale to gunwale, having a scoop-net in his hands. This net has a long slender handle, ten feet or more in length. The net is made of strong twine, open at the top, like an entomologist's. When the canoe has been run into the uppermost rapids, and a school of fish is seen below or alongside, he dexterously puts down his net, and having swooped up a number of the fish, instantly reverses it in water, whips it up, and discharges its contents into the canoe. This he repeats till his canoe is loaded, when he shoots out of the tail of the rapids, and makes for sh.o.r.e. The fish will average three pounds, but individuals are sometimes two and three times that weight. It is shad-shaped, with well-developed scales, easily removed, but has the mouth of the sucker, very small. The flesh is perfectly white and firm, with very few bones. It is boiled by the Indians in pure water, in a peculiar manner, the kettle hung high above a small blaze; and thus cooked, it is eaten with the liquid for a gravy, and is delicate and delicious. If boiled in the ordinary way, by a low hung pot and quick fire, it is soft and comparatively flabby. It is also broiled by the inhabitants, on a gridiron, after cutting it open on the back, and brought on the table slightly browned. This must be done, like a steak, quickly. It is the most delicious when immediately taken from the water, and connoisseurs will tell you, by its taste at the table, whether it is immediately from the water, or has lain any time before cooking. It is sometimes made into small ovate ma.s.ses, dipped into batter, and fried in b.u.t.ter, and in this shape, it is called _pet.i.te pate._ It is also chowdered or baked in a pie. It is the great resource of the Indians and the French, and of the poor generally at these falls, who eat it with potatoes, which are abundantly raised here.

It is also a standing dish with all.

[Footnote 27: This word is p.r.o.nounced as if written _so_, not _soo_. It is a derivative, through the French, from the Latin _saltus_.]

_A Poetic Name for a Fish._--The Chippewas, who are ready to give every object in creation, whose existence they cannot otherwise account for, an allegorical origin, call the white fish _attik.u.maig_, a very curious or very fanciful name, for it appears to be compounded of attik, a reindeer, and the general compound _gumee_, or _guma_, before noticed, as meaning water, or a liquid. To this the addition of the letter _g_ makes a plural in the animate form, so that the translation is _deer of the water_, an evident acknowledgment of its importance as an item in their means of subsistence. Who can say, after this, that the Chippewas have not some imagination?

_Indian Tale_.--They have a legend about the origin of the white fish, which is founded on the observation of a minute trait in its habits.

This fish, when opened, is found to have in its stomach very small white particles which look like roe or particles of brain, but are, perhaps, microscopic sh.e.l.ls. They say the fish itself sprang from the brain of a female, whose skull fell into these rapids, and was dashed out among the rocks. A tale of domestic infidelity is woven with this, and the denouement is made to turn on the premonition of a venerable crane, the leading Totem of the band, who, having consented to carry the ghost of a female across the falls on his back, threw her into the boiling and foaming flood to accomplish the poetic justice of the tale.

_17th. Polygamy_.--This practice appears to be less common among the Chippewas than the more westerly tribes. An instance of it came to my notice to-day, in a complaint made by an Indian named Me-ta-koos-se-ga, i.e. Smoking-Weed, or Pure Tobacco, who was living with two wives, a mother and her daughter. He complained that a young woman whom he had brought up had left his lodge, and taken shelter with the family of the widow of a Canadian. It appears that the old fellow had been making advances to this girl to become his _third wife_, and that she had fled from his lodge to avoid his importunities.

_18th. Historical Reminiscences_.--This day sixty-three years ago, General Wolf took Quebec, an event upon which hinged the fall of Canada.

That was a great historical era, and it is from this date, 1759, that we may begin to date a change in the Indian policy of the country. Before that time, the French, who had discovered this region of country and established trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes, were acknowledged supreme by the natives. Since this event, the English rule has been growing, and the allegiance of the tribes has been gradually strengthened and fixed. It is not a light task to change habits of political affiance, cemented by so many years. The object which is only sought so far as the tribes fall within the American lines, may, however, be attained by a mild, consistent, and persevering course of policy. Time is a slow but sure innovator. A few years will carry the more aged men, whose prejudices are strongest, to their graves. The young are more pliant, and will see their interests in strengthening their intercourse with the Americans, who can do so much to advance them, and probably long before half another period of sixty-three years is repeated, the Indians of the region will be as firmly attached to us as they ever were to the French or the English.

Never to doubt, and never to despair, Is to make acts what once but wishes were. ALGON.

_26th. Allegorical and Mythological Tales_.--"I shall be rejoiced,"

observed Governor C., in a letter of this day, in reply to my announcement of having detected fanciful traditionary stories among the Chippewas, "to receive any mythological stories to which you allude, even if they are enough to rival old Tooke in his Pantheon." He had put into my hands, at Detroit, a list of printed queries respecting the Indians, and calls me to remember them, during my winter seclusion here, with the knowledge of the advantages I possess in the well-informed circle of the Johnston family.

_25th. Chippewa Language_.--There is clearly a polite and a vulgar way of speaking the language. Tradition says that great changes have taken place, and that these changes keep pace with the decline of the tribe from their ancient standard of forest morals and their departure from their ancient customs. However this may be, their actual vocabulary is pretty full. Difficulties exist in writing it, from the want of an exact and uniform system of notation. The vowels a.s.sume their short and slender as well as broad sounds. The language appears to want entirely the consonant sounds of f, l, r, v, and x. In conjugating their verbs, the three primary tenses are well made out, but it is doubtful how much exact.i.tude exists in the forms given for the oblique and conditional tenses. If it be true that the language is more corrupt now than at a former age, it is important to inquire in what this corruption consists, and how it came about. "To rescue it," I observe at the close of a letter now on my table to his Excellency Governor C., transmitting him a vocabulary of one hundred and fifty words, "To rescue it from that oblivion to which the tribe itself is rapidly hastening, while yet it may be attempted, with a prospect of success, will const.i.tute a novel and pleasing species of amus.e.m.e.nt during the long evenings of that dreary cold winter of which we have already had a foretaste."

_31st. Public Wors.h.i.+p_.--As Colonel Brady is about to leave the post for the season, some conversation has been had about authorizing him to get a clergyman to come to the post. It is thought that if such a person would devote a part of his time as an instructor, a voluntary subscription could be got among the citizens to supply the sum requisite for his support. I drew up a paper with this view this morning, and after handing it round, found the sum of _ninety-seven dollars_ subscribed--seventy-five dollars of which are by four persons. This is not half the stipend of "forty pounds a year" that poor Goldsmith's brother thought himself rich upon; and it is apprehended the colonel will hardly find the inducement sufficient to elicit attention to so very remote a quarter.

_Nov. 1st_. We have snow, cold, and chilly winds. On looking to the north, there are huge piles of clouds hanging over Lake Superior. We may say, with Burns,

"The wintry wind is gathering fast."

This is a holiday with the Canadian French--"All Saints." They appear as lively and thoughtless as if all the saints in the calendar were to join them in a dance. Well may it be said of them, "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise."

_20th. Seclusion from the World realized_.--We are now shut out from the world. The season of navigation has closed, the last vessel has departed. Philosophers may write, and poets may sing of the charms of solitude, but when the experiment comes to be tried, on a practical scale, such as we are now, one and all, about to realize, theories and fancies sink wonderfully in the scale. For some weeks past, everything with the power of motion or locomotion has been exerting itself to quit the place and the region, and hie to more kindly lat.i.tudes for the winter. Nature has also become imperceptibly sour tempered, and shows her teeth in ice and snows. _Man-kind_ and _bird-kind_ have concurred in the effort to go. We have witnessed the long-drawn flight of swans, brant, and cranes, towards the south. Singing birds have long since gone. Ducks, all but a very few, have also silently disappeared, and have probably gone to pick up spicy roots in the Susquehannah or Altamaha.

Prescient in the changes of the season, they have been the first to go.

Men, who can endure greater changes and vicissitudes than all the animal creation put together, have lingered longer; but at last one after another has left Pa-wa-teeg, till all who _can_ go have gone. Col. Brady did not leave his command till after the snow fell, and he saw them tolerably "cantoned." The last vessel for the season has departed--the last mail has been sent. Our population has been thinned off by the departure of every temporary dweller, and lingering trader, and belated visitor, till no one is left but the doomed and fated number whose duty is here, who came here to abide the winter in all its regions, and who cannot, on any fair principle or excuse, get away. They, and they alone, are left to winter here. Of this number I am a resigned and willing unit, and I have endeavored to prepare for the intellectual exigencies of it, by a systematic study and a.n.a.lysis of the Indian language, customs, and history, and character. My teachers and appliances are the best. I have furnished myself with vocabularies and hand-books, collected and written down, during the season. I have the post library in my room, in addition to my own, with a free access to that of "mine host" of the Emerald Isle, Mr. Johnston, to while away the time. My huge Montreal stove will take long billets of wood, which, to use the phraseology of Burns, "would mend a mill." The society of the officers and their families of the garrison is at hand. The amus.e.m.e.nts of a winter, in this lat.i.tude, are said to be rather novel, with their dog trains and creole sleighs. There are some n.o.ble fellows of the old "North West" order in the vicinity. There are thus the elements, at least, of study, society, and amus.e.m.e.nt. Whatever else betide, I have good health, and good spirits, and bright hopes, and I feel very much in the humor of enjoying the wildest kind of tempests which Providence may send to howl around my dwelling.

We have, as the means of exchanging sentiment, one English family of refinement and education, on the American side of the river, and two others, an English family and the Hudson Bay House in charge of a Scotch gentleman, on the Canada sh.o.r.e. We have the officers attached to a battalion of infantry, most of them married and having their ladies and families with them, and about a dozen American citizens besides, engaged in traffic and other affairs. These, with the resident _metif_ population of above 300 souls, and the adjacent Indian tribes, const.i.tute the world--the little isolated world--in which we must move for six months to come. About fifty miles off, S.E., is the British post of Drummond Island, and about forty west of the latter, the ancient position and island settlement of Michilimackinack, that bugbear to children in all our earlier editions of Webster's Spelling Book.

All the rest of the United States is a far-off land to us. For one, I draw around my fire, get my table and chair properly located, and resort to my books, and my Indian _ia-ne-kun-o-tau-gaid_ let the storm whistle as it may.

_25th_. Zimmerman may write as much as he pleases about solitude. It is all very well in one's study, by his stove, if it is winter, with a good feather bed, and all comforts at hand; but he who would test his theories should come _here_. It is a capital place, in the dead of winter, for stripping poetic theories of their covering.

CHAPTER XIV.

Amus.e.m.e.nts during the winter months, when the temperature is at the lowest point--Etymology of the word Chippewa--A meteor--The Indian "fire-proof"--Temperature and weather--Chippewa interchangeables--Indian names for the seasons--An incident in conjugating verbs--Visiting--Gossip--The fur trade--Todd, McGillvray, Sir Alexander Mackenzie--Wide dissimilarity of the English and Odjibwa syntax--Close of the year.