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CONSONANTS

While the writer is not a linguist, Indian pronunciation came easily to him and he was able to pronounce all plant names in an intelligible manner to Ojibwe people whom he had never seen before.

INTRODUCTION

The subjects of this bulletin, the Ojibwe Indians, have probably been designated by more different spellings of their name than any other tribe in the country. The anglicized version is Chippewa, an adaptation of the Ojibway of Longfellow. Ojibway means “to roast till puckered up,” referring to the puckered seams on their moccasins, from “Ojib”, “to pucker up”, “ub-way”, “to roast”. In historic literature some of the more common ways of spelling their name have been: Achipoes, Chepeways, Chipaways, Odjibwag, Otchipwe, Uchipweys. Less familiar names applied to them have been: Baouichtigouin, Bawichtigouek, Dewakanha, Dshipowehaga, Estiaghicks, Hahatwawne, Khahkhahtons, Neayaog, Ninniwas, Saulteur, Santeaux, Wahkahtowah and at least fifty others.

The Ojibwe is one of the largest tribes in the United States and Canada, and lived originally along both shores of the Great Lakes as far west as the Turtle Mountains, North Dakota. They are of Algonkian stock and in the north are closely related to the Cree and Maskegon tribes. In the south, through Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota they have always been closely associated with the Ottawa and Pottawatomi. These three have been recently called the Three Fires Confederacy. Their languages were even similar, and Pottawatomi have often told the writer that their tongue was an abbreviated Ojibwe language,—“like it was a nickname”.

This numerous people lived far away from the frontiers of the colonial war period, hence are not often mentioned in the early history of the United States. The original habitation of the Ojibwe in Wisconsin is supposed to have been at La Pointe, a town no longer in existence, in Ashland County, near Lake Superior. The first reference to them in history is in the Jesuit Relation of 1640 when they resided at Sault Ste. Marie. It is thought that Nicolet met them either in 1634 or 1639. Father Allouez found them at Superior, Wisconsin, in 1665-67. According to Perrot,[89] in 1670-99 those Ojibwe on the Lake Superior shore of Wisconsin cultivated corn and were living peaceably with their neighbors, the Sioux. About this time they first obtained fire-arms, and pushed their way westward fighting with the Sioux and the Meskwaki. The French established a trading post at Shangawawmikong, afterwards La Pointe, in 1692, which was the most important Ojibwe settlement in Wisconsin.

In the early years of the eighteenth century, the Ojibwe succeeded in driving the Meskwaki from northern Wisconsin, when the Meskwaki joined forces with the Sauk Indians. The Ojibwe then turned their attention to the Sioux, driving them across the Mississippi and as far as the Turtle Mountains in North Dakota. The Ojibwe took part in frontier settlement wars up to the close of the war of 1812. Those living within the United States made a treaty with the Government in 1815 and have since remained peaceful, with the exception of a minor uprising among the Pillager Band of Ojibwe on Leech Lake, Minnesota. Most of them live on reservations or allotted land in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota. There was a small band of Swan Creek and Black River Ojibwe who sold their lands in Michigan in 1836 and went to live with the Munsee, in Franklin County, Kansas.

It was represented to the writer that the Pillager Band of Ojibwe should be quite interesting and primitive since they were the only unsubdued Indians left in the United States. They are supposed to have revolted during the Civil War, when Government attention was concentrated on determining whether or not, the Union should be preserved. They pillaged a small town, killed the inhabitants, took all of the food stores and fled to Bear Island in Leech Lake, Minnesota, shown in plate 60, fig. 1. Again, while the United States was at war with Spain in 1898, the Ojibwe complained bitterly about certain irregularities in regard to the disposal of the dead and fallen timber on Leech Lake Reservation. They accused white speculators of firing the woods to create a class of timber known as dead and down timber, thus depriving them of their winter livelihood in logging operations.[90]

Rather indiscriminate arrests of the Pillager Indians by United States marshals caused resentment and the actual warfare was caused by the attempt of a deputy marshal to arrest certain Indians accused of selling whiskey on the reservation. On September 15, 1898, two Indians were arrested by deputy marshals and rescued by their comrades. Warrants were issued for the arrest of the more than twenty Indians who had assisted in the rescue. Since the marshals feared the Indians, they asked for the assistance of troops. It was thought that a show of force by regular troops would be sufficient. Twenty men of the Third Regiment U. S. Infantry were sent, but since the Indians showed no sign of yielding eighty more left Fort Snelling for Walker, Minnesota. Major M. C. Wilkinson and General J. M. Bacon were in charge.

Two small lake steamers and a barge took the troops to Bear Island, and they anchored in shoal water just across from the island, proceeding by barge to the mainland. The battle took place at the house of Bujonegicig, who died only a few years ago. The troops were fired upon from the woods and Major Wilkinson, Sergeant Butler and four privates were killed. Ten were wounded. On October 6, 1898, 214 more troops came to assist, but no further firing was encountered and the uprising was over. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, W. A. Jones, arrived from Washington, October 10. The next morning he and Father Aloysius, a priest with great influence over the Indians, held a long and friendly conference with the Pillager chiefs investigating and settling the timber complaints. Troops flooded that