USA > Minnesota > Dahkotah land and Dahkotah life [microform] : with the history of the fur traders of the extreme northwest during the French and British dominions > Part 7
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
to retain the favour of the French, and open a trading intercourse.
Perceiving one of the canoe-men shoot a wild turkey, they called the gun Manza Ouackange-iron that has understanding; more correctly, Maza Wakande, this is the supernatural metal. "
Aquipaguatin, one of the head men, resorted to the following device to obtain merchandise. Says the- Father, "this wily savage had the bones of some dis- tinguished relative, which he preserved with great care in some skins dressed and adorned with several rows of, black and red porcupine quills. From time to time he assembled his men to. give it a smoke, and made us come several days to cover the bones with goods, and .by a present wipe away. the tears he had . shed for him, and for his own son killed by the Miamis. To appease this captious man, we threw on the bones several fathoms of tobacco, axes, knives, beads, and some black and white wampum .bracelets. * We slept at the- point of the Lake of Tears,1 which we so called from the tears which this chief shed all night long, or by one of his sons whom he caused to weep when he grew tired." .
The next day, after four, or five leagues' sail, a chief came, and telling them to leave their canoes, he pulled up three piles of grass for seats. Then taking a piece of cedar, full of little holes, be placed a stick into one, which he revolved between the palms of his hands, until he kindled a fire, and informed the Frenchmen. `that they would be at Mille Lac in six days. On the nineteenth day after their captivity, they arrived in the
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vicinity of Saint Paul, not far, it is probable, from the marshy ground on which the Kaposia band once lived, . and now called "Pig's Eye."
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The journal remarks, " Having arrived, on the nine- teenth day of our navigation, five "leagues below St. Anthony's Falls, these Indians landed us in a bay, broke our canoe to pieces, and secreted their own in the reeds."
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They then followed the trail to Mille Lac, sixty Toagues distant. As they approached their villages, the various bands began to show their spoils. The tobacco was highly prized, and led to some contention. The chalice of the Father, which glistened in the 'sun, they were afraid to touch, supposing it was " wakan."1 After five days' walk they reached the Issati (Dahkotah) settlements in the valley of the Rum river. The dif- ferent. bands each conducted a Frenchman to their village, the chief Aquipaguetin taking charge.of Hen- nepin. After marching through the marshes towards the sources of Rum river, five wives of the chief, in three bark canoes, met them and took them a short league to an island where their cabins were.
An aged Indian kindly rubbed down the way-worn Franciscan-placing him on a bear-skin near the fire, he anointed his legs and the soles of his feet with wild -. cat oil.
The son of the chief took great pleasure in carrying upon his bare back the priest's robe with dead men's bones enveloped. -. It was called Père Louis Chinnien- in the Dahkotah language Shinnà or Shinnan signifies
" The word for supernatural, in ed, but pronounced "wakon,", or the Dahkotah Lexicon, is thus spell- "wawkawn.'
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
a buffalo robe. Hennepin's description of his life on the island is in these words :--
· "The day after our arrival, Aquipaguetin, who was the head of a large family, covered me with a robe made of ten large dressed beaver skins, trimmed with porcu- . pine quills. This, Indian showed me five or six of his wives, telling them, as I afterwards learned, that they should in future regard me as one of their children.
" He set before me a bark dish full of fish, and, seeing that I could not rise from the ground, he had a small sweating-cabin made, in which he made me enter naked with four Indians. This cabin he covered with buffalo skins, and inside he put stones red-hot. He made me a sign to do as the others before beginning to sweat, but I merely concealed my nakedness with a handkerchief? As soon as these Indians had several times breathed out quite violently, he began to sing vociferously, the others putting their hands on me and rubbing me while they wept bitterly. I began to faint, but I came out and could scarcely take my habit to put on. When he made me sweat thus three times a week, I felt as strong as ever." -
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The mariner's compass was a constant source of wonder and amazerient. Aquipaguetin having assem- bled the braves, would ask Hennepin to show his com- pass. Perceiving that the needle turned, the chief harangued his men, and told them that the Europeans were' spirits, capable of doing anything.
In the Franciscan's possession was an iron pot with lion paw feet, which the Indians would not touch unless their hands were wrapped in buffalo skins.
The women looked upon it "as " wakan," and would not enter the cabin where it was ..
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QUERIES OF THE DAHKOTAHS.
"The chiefs of these savages, seeing that I was de- sirous to learn, frequently made me write, naming all the parts of the human body ; and as I would not put on paper certain indelicate words, at which they do not blush, they were heartily amused."
They often asked the Franciscan questions, w answer which it was necessary to refer to his lexicon .. This appeared very strange, and, as they had no word for paper, they said, "That white thing must be a"spirit. which tells Père Louis all we say."
Hennepin remarks : "These Indian's often asked me how many wives and children I had, and how old I was, , that is, how many winters ; for so these natives always count. Never illumined by the light of faith, they were surprised at my answer. Pointing to our two French- men, whom I was then visiting, at a point three leagues from, our village, I told them that a man among us · could only have one wife; that, as for me, I had pro- mised the Master of life to live as they saw me, and to · come and live with them to teach them to be like the - French.
" But that gross people, till then lawless and faithless, turned all I said into ridicule. "How,' said they, 'would you have these two men with thee have wives ? Ours would not live with them, for they have hair- all over their face, and we have none' there or elsewhere.'| -In fact they were never better pleased with me than when Lavas shaved, and from a complaisance, certainly not final, I shaved every week.
A's I often went to visit the cabins, I found a sick child,whose father's name was Mamenisi. Michael Ako would not accompany me ; the Picard du Gay alone
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134
HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
followed me to act as sponsor, or rather to witness the baptism.
"I christened the child Antoinette, in honour of St. Anthony of Padua, as well as for the Picard's name, which was Anthony Auguelle. He was a native of Amiens, and nephew of the Procurator-General of the Premonstratensians both now at Paris. Having poured natural water on the head and uttered these words :- 'Creature of God, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' I took half an altar cloth which I had wrested from the hands of an Indian who had stolen it from me, and .put it on the body of the baptized child; for as I could not say mass for want of wine and vestments, this piece of linen could not be put to better use, than to enshroud the first Christian child among these tribes. I do not know. whether the softness of the linen had refreshed her, but she was the next day smiling in her mother's arms, who believed that I had cured the child-but she died soon after, to my great consolation.
" During my stay among them, there arrived four savages, who said they were come alone five hundred leagues from the west, and had been four months upon the way. They assured us there was no such place as the Straits of Anian, and that they had travelled with- out resting, except to sleep, and had not seen or passed over any great lake, by which phrase they always mean the sea.
'They further informed us that the nation of the Assenipoulacs (Assiniboines) who lie north-east of Issati, was not above six or seven days' journey ; that none of the nations, within their knowledge, who lie to the east
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FALSEHOODS OF HENNEPIN.
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or north-west, had any great lake about their countries, which were very large, but only rivers which came from the north. They further assured us that there were very few forests in the countries through which they passed, insomuch that now and then they were forced to make fires of buffaloes' dung to boil their food. All these circumstances make it appear that there is no such place as the Straits of Anian, as we usually see them set down on the maps. And whatever efforts have been made for many years past by the English and Dutch, to find out a passage to the Frozen Sea, they have not yet been able to effect it. But by the help of my discovery, and the assistance of God, I doubt not but a passage may still be found, and that an easy one too.
" For example, we may be transported into the Paci- fic Sea, by rivers which are large and capable of carry- ing great vessels, and from thence it is very easy to go to China and Japan, without crossing the equinoctial line, and, in all probability, Japan is on the same continent as America."
It is painful to witness a member of the sacred pro- fession so mendacious as Hennepin. After publishing a tolerably correct account of his adventures in Minne- sota, in 1683, at Paris, fifteen years after he issued · another edition greatly enlarged, in which he claims to have descended the Mississippi towards the Gulf of Mexico, as well as discovered the Falls of St. Anthony. As the reader notes his glaring contradictions in this last work, he is surprised that the author should have been bold enough to contend, that the statements were reliable. Though a large porti was plagiarized from
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the accounts of other travellers, it had a rapid sale, and was translated into several languages.1
1 The following will give some his third vol. ; No. 1 sup., being his idea of the popularity of Hennepin's first, and No. 7 sup. his second. narrative. It was prepared by Dr. Rich. O'Callaghan, for the Historical Ma- 12. An edition in Dutch. 4to. gazine, Jan. 1858, and is believed to Utrecht, 1698. . J. R. B. be nearly a complete list of the seve- 13. Nouveau Voyage. Amster- dam, 1698. Faribault. ral editions of Hennepin's books :
No. 1. Description de la Louisiane. 12mo. Paris, 1683. Meusel. Ter- naux, No. 985.
2. The same. 12mo. Paris, 1684. Rich., in No. 403 of 1683. "
3. Descrizione della Luisiana. 12mo. Bologna, 1686. Rib. Belg. Meusel Ternaux, No. 1012. Trans- lated by Casimir Frescot.
- 4. Description de la Louisiane. 12mo .- Paris, 1688. Richarderie Faribault.
6. Beschreibung, &c. 12mo. Nurnberg, 1689. Meusal. Ternaux, No. 1041.
7. Nouvelle Decouverte. 12mo. Utrecht, 1697. Ternaux, 1095. verte.
" Nouvelle Description," Meusel. Faribault.
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8. The same. 12mo. Amsterdam, 1698. Ternaux, No. 1110.
9. New Discovery. London, 1698. Ternaux, No. 1119, who calls it a 4to .; all the other catalogues an 8vo. J. R. B. says 2v .; but see Rich.
10. Another, same title. 8vo. London, 1698. J. R. B.
11. Nouveau Voyage. 12mo. Utrecht, 1098. Ternaux, No. 1111.
14. A New Discovery of a Vast Country, &c. 8vo. London, Bon- wick, 1699. t. f. Ded. 4ff. Pref. 2ff. Cont. 3ff. Text, pp. 240 and 216, with tit., pref. and cont. to part II .; two maps, six plates. [Not in any catalogue.]
15. Relacion, de un Pays, &c. 12mo. Brusselas, 1699. Ternaux, 1126. A translation into Spanish by Seb. Fern. de Medrano.
16. Neue Entdekungen vieler 5. Beschryving van Louisiana. grossen Landschaften in Amerika. 4to. Amsterdam, 1688. Harv. Cat.
12mo. Bremen, 1699. Ternaux, 1049, who gives the date incorrectly, 1690. Translated by Langen. Meu- sel, No. 6 of J. R. B., and an edition in German of No. 7. , Supra.
17. Voyage ou Nouvelle Decou- 8vo. Amsterdam, 1704. Meusel, Rich., No. 8.
18. The same. Svo. Amsterdam, 1711. Meusel. Faribault says "Nouvelle Description." 19. The same. 12mo. Amster- dam, 1712. J. R. B.
20. A Discovery of a large, rich, &c. 8vo. London, 1720. Rich., No. 12. J.
21. Nouvelle Description. Am- sterdam, 1720. Faribault.
22. Nouvelle Decouverte. 4to. 2v. Bib. Belg. Hennepin calls this Amsterdam, 1737. Richarderie. In
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137
KING OF FRANCE DISSATISFIED WITH HENNEPIN.
No doubt much of the information which the author . obtained in relation to. Minnesota, was obtained from Du Luth, whom he met in the Dahkotah country, and with whom he descended the Mississippi on his return to Canada ..
Having made a favourable acquaintance with English . gentlemen, he dedicated the' edition of his work, pub- lished at Utrecht, in. 1698, to King William, and the contents induced "the British to send vessels to enter the Mississippi river. Callieres, Governor of Canada, writing to Pontchartrain,1 the Minister, says, "I have learned that they are preparing vessels in England and Holland to take possession of Louisiana, upon the rela- tion of Père Louis Hennepin, a Recollect who has made a book and dedicated it to King William." .
After he had earned a reputation, not to be coveted, he desired to return to America, and Louis XIV., in a . despatch to Callieres, writes, " His majesty has been informed that Father Hennepin, a Dutch Franciscan, who has formerly been in Canada, is desirous of return- ing thither. As his majesty is not satisfied with the conduct of the friar, it is his pleasure, if he return thither, that they arrest and send him to the Intendant of Rochefort."
In the year 1701 he was still in Europe, attached to · a Convent in Italy.' He appears to have died in obscurity, unwept and unhonoured.
Histoire des Incas. A translation of 1 May 12, 1699. See Smith's Hist. Garcilasso de la Vega by Rousseler .- Wisconsin, vol. i., p. 318.
23. Neue Entdekungen, &c. Bre- ' 'Historical Magazine, Boston, p. men, 1742. The same as No. 15, 316, vol. i. with a new title page.
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
1
Du Luth and not Hennepin was considered the real discoverer of Minnesota. Le Clercq remarks, that "in the last year of M. de Frontenac's first administration, Sieur du Luth, a man of talent and experience, opened a way to the missionaries and the gospel in many dif- ferent 'nations, turning toward the north of that lake (Superior), where he even built a fort. He advanced as far as the Lake of the Issati (Mille Lac), called Lake Buade, from the family name of M. de Frontenac.""
In the month of June, 1680, he left his post on Lake Superior, and with two canoes, an Indian, and four Frenchmen, entered a river, eight leagues below, ascend- ing to the sources of which, he made a portage to a lake, which is the head of a river that entered into the Mis- sissippi. Proceedit oward the Dahkotah villages he met Hennepin, with a party of Indians.
Returning to , Quebec, Du Luth visited France, and conferred with the Minister of the Colonies, but in 1683, he was at Mackinaw fortifying the post against a threatened attack by the savages, and sending ex- presses to the Indians north and west of Lake Superior, who traded at Hudson's Bay with the English, to come and traffic with the French.
In the spring of 1683, Governor De La Barre sent twenty men, under the command of Nicholas Perrot, to establish frendly alliances with the Ioways and Dah- kotahs. Proceeding to the Mississippi, he established a · post below the mouth of the "Ouiskonche"' (Wiscon- sin), which was known as Fort St. Nicholas."
He found the Miamies, Foxes, and Maskoutens, at war 1
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PERROT'S INTERVIEW WITH DAHKOTAHS .- LEAD MINES. 139
with the Dahkotahs, who were at that time in alliance with their old foes, the Ojibways.
Frenchmen visited the Dahkotahs during the winter ; and, at the opening of navigation, a deputation of them came down to the post, and carried Perrot with great parade, on a robe of beavers, to the lodge of their; chief, chanting songs, and weeping over his head according to custom.
He learned from the Dankotahs a droll adventure. The Hurons, who had fled to them for refuge, at length excited them to war. The Hurons secreted themselves in marshes, keeping their heads only out of water. The Dahkotahs, knowing that they would travel in the night, devised an ingenious stratagem. Cutting up beaver-skins into cords, they stretched them around the marshes, and suspended bells on them which they had obtained from the French. When night came the Hurons marched, and, stumbling over the unseen cords, they rung the bells, which was a signal for the attack of the Dahko- tahs, who killed the whole party with one exception.
While they were in the neighbourhood, they pillaged the goods of some Frenchmen; but, under the threats of Perrot, they were brought back'
The Miamies brought to the post lumps of lead, which they said were found between the rocks, on the banks of a small stream which flowed into the Mississippi, about two days' journey below that point. These were pro- bably the mines of Galena, which are marked on De . l'Isle's maps of the Mississippi.
In the month of March, 1684, notwithstanding all the attempts of the French to keep the peace, a band of Seneca and Cayuga warriors, having met seven canoes
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
manned by fourteen Frenchmen, with fifteen or sixteen thousand pounds of merchandise, who were going to trade with the "Scioux," pillaged and made . them prisoners; and, after detaining them nine days, sent them away without arms, food, or canoes. This attack caused much alarm in Canada; and Du Luth, who appeared to have been in command at Green Bay, was ordered by the Governor of Canada to come and state the number of allies he could bring.
Perrot, who happened to be engaged in trade among the Outagamis (Foxes), not very far distant from the bay, rendered him great assistance in collecting allies.
With great expedition he came to Niagara, the place of rendezvous, with a band of Indians, and would alone have attacked the Senecas, had it not been for an express order from De La Barre, the governor, to desist.
When Louis XIV. heard of this outbreak of the Iro- quois, he felt, to use his words, "that it was a grave misfortune for the colony of New France," and then, in his letter to the governor, he adds : "It appears to me that one of the principal causes of the war arises from one Du Luth having caused two Iroquois to be killed who had assassinated two Frenchmen in Lake Superior, and you sufficiently see how much this man's voyage, which cannot produce any advantage to the colony, and which was permitted only in the interest of some 1
private persons, has contributed to distract the repose of the colony."
The English of New York, knowing the hostility of the Iroquois to the French, used the opportunity to trade with the distant Indians. In 1685, one Roseboom, with
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DU LUTH .- ENGLISH CAPTURED.
7. 141 some young men, had traded with the Ottawas in Michi- gan.
In the year 1686, an old Frenchman, who had lived among the Dutch and English in New York, came to Montreal, to visit a child at the Jesuit boarding-school ; and he stated that a Major McGregory, of Albany, was contemplating an expedition to Mackinac.
Denonville having declared war in 1687, most of the French left the region of the Mississippi. Perrot and Boisguillot, at the time trading near the Wisconsin, leaving a few " coureurs des bois" to protect their goods from the Dahkotahs, joined Du Luth, who was in com- mand at Green Bay.
The Governor of Canada ordered Du Luth to proceed to the present Detroit river, and watch whether the Eng- lish passed into Lake St. Clair. In accordance with the order, he left Green Bay. Being provided with fifty armed men, he established a post called Fort St. Joseph, some thirty miles above Detroit.
In the year 1687, on the 19th of May, the brave and distinguished Tonty, who was a cousin of Du Luth, arrived at Detroit, from his fort on the Illinois. Duran- taye and Du Luth, knowing that he had arrived, came. down from Fort St. Joseph with thirty captive English. Here Tonty and Du Luth joined forces and proceeded toward the Iroquois country. As they were coasting Lake Erie, they met and captured Major McGregory, of Albany, then on his way with thirty Englishmen, to trade with the Indians at Mackinac.
Du Luth having reached Lake Ontario, we find him engaged in that conflict with the Senecas of the Gene- see valley, when Father Angleran, the superintendent of the Mackinac mission, was severely but not mortally
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
wounded. After this battle, he returned, in company with Tonty, to his post on the Detroit river.1
1 Baron La Hontan speaks of been tormented by the gout for the Grisolon de la Tourette being at Niagara in August, 1687, and calls him a brother of Du Luth.
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him fighting the Iroquois"in the neighbourhood, and there is reason to suppose that he was engaged in the midnight sack of that town. As late as the year 1696, he is on duty at Fort Frontenac; but after the peace of Ryswick, which occa- sioned a suspension of hostilities, we hear but little more of this man, who was the first of whom we have any account, who came by way of Lake Superior to the upper Missis- sippi.
The letter of one of the Jesuit fathers, shows that in some things he was as superstitious as the Dah- - kotahs, with whom he once traded. While in command of Fort Fronte- nac, in 1696, he gave the following certificate :
"I, the subscriber, certify to all whom it may concern, that having
space of twenty-three years, and with such severe pains that it gave me no rest for the space of three months at a time, I addressed myself
In 1689, immediately previous to the burning of Schenectady, we find to Catherine Tegahkouita, an Iro- quois virgin, deceased at the Sault Saint Louis, in the reputation of sanctity, and I promised her to visit her tomb if God should give me health through her intercession. I have been so perfectly cured at the end of one novena which I made in her honour, that after five months I have not perceived the slightest touch of my gout.
"Given at Fort Frontenac, this 18th day of August, 1696.
"J. DE LUTH, Capt. of the Marine Corps, Commander Fort Frontenac."
He died in 1710. The despatch announcing the fact to the Home Government, is expressive in its sim- plicity : Capt. Du Luth is dead, "he was an honest man." Who would wish more said of him ? His name is spelled Du Luth, Du Lut, Dulhut, and De Luth, in the old documents.
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FORMAL OCCUPANCY OF MINNESOTA.
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CHAPTER VII.
ALTHOUGH Du Luth and Hennepin had visited Minne- sota, France laid no formal claim to the country, until the year 1689, when. Perrot, accompanied by Le Sueur, Father Marest, and others, planted the cross and affixed the arms of Frances
The first official document pertaining to Minnesota is worthy of preservation, and thus reads :-
". "Nicholas Perrot, commanding for the King, at the post of the Nadouessioux, commissioned by the Marquis 4 Denonville, Governor and Lieutenant Governor of all. New France, to manage the interests of commerce' among all the Indian tribes, and people of the Bay des Puants,1 Nadouëssioux,' Mascoutins, and other western nations of the Upper Mississippi, and to take possession in the King's name of all the places where he has here- tofore been, and whither he will go.
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