Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1891 — FAMOUS INDIAN FIGHTS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FAMOUS INDIAN FIGHTS.

BLOODY ENCOUNTERS OF LONG AGO. Rival Tribes Contending for the Rich Hunting Grounds ot Wisconsin Engage in a Merctless and Exterminating War.

IF an account of the tfierce and bloody Jbattles which took £place between the [Chippeway or •more properly, the <Ojibway—l ndi ans land the tribes from Jwhich they wrested |the Lake Superior and Upper Missis.ssippi country,could be adequately written, it would form la most thrilling 'chronicle of savage I perseverance, craft and daring, not unsighted by many instances of heroic fortit ;de and genuine romance.

By dint of perpetual warfare, the Ojibways extended their territory from their ancient island home at La Fointe, and about the close of the e ghteenth century secured possession of the beautiful groupds about the head waters of the Wisconsin and Chippeway Rivers. Through the efforts of the famous trader, Michael Cadotte, and a hunter named La Roque, peaceful relations were estab ished between the Lac de Flambeau and the Waoosa and Red Wing Dakotas, who pitched their winter hunting camps on the lower course of the Chippeway River. The relat ons between the two camps were very cordial during the winter’s hunt, but when summer came, and the warriors were no longer engrossed in hunjting for pelts, they inevitably put on the war-paint and hunted for each other’s scalps, with even greater fervor than they had exchanged courtesies while in winter camp When the hunting season came again, all the disagreeable events of the summer would be thrust aside, and the Dakotas and Ojibways would hunt on the same grounds In one of these famous summer battles the Dakotas killed a favorite relative of “Big Ojibway,” war chief of the Lac de Flambeau Ojibways. He announced his determination to have revenge, and twenty-three faithful warriors took the trail under his command. As they did not succeed in finding any Dakotas in the Upper Chippeway country, they passed down that stream to where it empties futo the Mississippi. There their quest was more than satisfied, for the western bank of that great river was spotted with the lodges of their enemies, and they listened in ambush, to the wild music of the Dakota war dance. Leaving scouts at the immediate junction of the rivers, the main body of the Ojibways returned a short distance up the Chippeway, and secieted themselves in a thick wood that came close down to the river’s edge ...... . The scouts soon brought word that 200 Dakota warriors were crowing the Mississippi to go up the Chippeway. For a party of twenty-thi-ee tb attack a band of 200 was a desperate undertaking, even in Indian warfire. Realizing this, “Big Ojibway” gave any of his followers who did not wish to join in so hazardous an enterprise opportunity to withdraw, but none of the warriors would leave him. when they could not be dissuaded from the attack. The old chief planned that his braves could pick off twenty-three of the Dakotas’ leading warriors at the first vo ley and then make a successful flight before the Dakotas recovered from the surpr.se of the attack sufficiently to reach shore and overtake them. The first “Big Ojibway’s” plan was successful and the retreat might have been as successfully executed as the attack if the chief had not been so big. Unfortunately he was quite rotund and was easily outstripped by hjs fleeing warriors and pursu.ng enemies. But be was as magnanimous and brave as he was portly. On seeing that escape lor himself was hopleless, he urged hjs warriors, who had slackened their pace preparatory to rallying around him, to leave him and save themselves, telling them that he had a presentment in a dream of his approaching death. His warriors left him most unwillingly, and would have scarcely made good their escape had it not been for the quick forethought and strategy of their doomed chief, an account of which was after-

ward given by the Dakotas at a friendly gathering of the Ojibways. As soon as he persuaded his warriors to leave him, he deliberately lighted his pipe and seated himself on the prairie. • When • the foremost of the Dakotas came within shot of the chief, they followed their usual tactics, and began to .leap from side to side, in.azig zag coarse, lo'lessen their chances of being Mt- by his shots. They were dnmfounded when they perceived that Le made no move to fire at them, but sat puffing his pipe as quietly as though he had just finished his midday meal and was surrounded by peaceful solitude, instead of by a posse ; of his enemies who were ready to scalp him. He even pretended not to notice I them. i So confounded were they by this conduct that those in the lead, fearitv: that Big Ojibway was p aying them a bold

game, by drawing them into the fire of a large body of ambushed Ojibways, waited for the entire party of Dakotas to come up before they ventured to surround the chief, who had accomplished his object in drawing them off from further pursuit of his braves. He feigned to fall dead at the first shot, and they approached to scalp him. Suddenly jumping to his feet, he

plunged into the closing ranks of the Dakotas, shooting the nearest warrior, felling the next with his clubbed gun, anu then stabbing with his knife all who came in his way. He fought so desperately and effectually that, for several minutes, the Dakotas were repulsed. But he was riddled with wounds, from which he bled so profusely that a Dakota warrior finally won great fame by cutting the old chief's head off at a single blow.

Hon. William W. Warren, himself part Ojibway, is authority for the statement that Big Ojibway’s bravery so impressed the Dakotas that they cut out his heart and chopped it into small pieces, which they swallowed in order to inoculate themselves with the invincible courage that nerved the heart of -their dead enemy. The Lae Coutereille band was no less active and daring in frontier warfare upon the Dakotas than the Lac de Flambeaus. An instance of the reckless daring of this band, under Yellow Head, a war chief of considerable renown, is furnished by their encounter with the Dakotas, at Prairie Rice Lake, in the fall of 1798. Rice and Pelican Lakes are drained by the Menominee River. Rice Lake is a dense bed of wild rice, and was almost invaluable to the Indians, not only as a hunting ground for wild fowl, which fed, in enormous flocks, upon the rice, but as a natural harvest field, from which they could reap abundantly without having expended labor in cultivation. In the center of the lake is a large island, heavily timbered An extensive village of Dakotas was located near the lake, and comparatively few seasons of rice gathering passed in which these Dakotas did not succeed in killing some of the Ojibways. notwithstanding the fact that the women who came to do the harvesting were accompanied by a band of braves, who hunted while their squaws worked. Yellow Head became oppressed one night by a dream that the Dakotas were about to attack him. Early in the morning he requested his warriors to assemble at his lodge. They di<f*!jo, ana two scouts were detailed to examine the shore in search of Dakotas. Rapid firing soon told the Ojibways that their scouts had been attacked. About twenty-five braves, including old men and boys, led by Yellow Head, swiftly paddled their bark canoes towards where their scouts were being fired upon. They were heading for a spot which presented a favorable landing. The Dakotas anticipated and sent a portion of their warriors to give the Ojibways a bloody reception. This strategy would probably have been successful and, very disastrous to the Ojibways had it not been for the fact that the maneuver was discovered by the Ojibway women. Instead of landing where they first intended, warned by their squaws, the Ojibways touched at a nearer point of the main shore and sent their canoes back to camp. Between this point and the Dakotas was a dense thicket, through which Yellow Head was swiftly leading his party, when tjqey suddenly stumbled upon a Lakota woman and her little son, whom Yellow Head, by their dress, at once recognized as the family of a Dakota chief whose scalp had been added to the .bloody trophies of Ojibway bravery some time before. Yellow Head did not deign to kill the child, but tossing it aside, pursued'the woman, who fled through the thicket, mingling her screams for help with his war-whoop. Her swiftest pursuer, however, was a young warrior who outstripped his chief in the chase. A hundred sturdy Dakota warriors were hastening to protect the woman, but still the young warrior continued tne pursuit.

As the woman was alme<et within th 4 protecting range of Dakota rifles, the young Ojibway plunged a knife into her back. An Indian will not only risk his life, but tortures at the stake, to secure the scalp of a dead victim. Although the Dakotas were sweeping down upon him, he would not leave without taking her head with him. As he was securing this bloody trophy, Yellow Head warned him to flee. He did so, but his speed was somewhat impeded by the burden of the woman’s head. The chief of the Dakotas, who was armed with only a spear, pressed him closely. The Dakota warriors dare not.fire upon the fugitive for fear of killing their chief instead. Finally the young Ojibway felt the spear of the Dakota chief pressing into his back Then he called to Yellow Head for help. The latter dispatched the Dakota chief with a single shot, thus saving his young warrior’s life. Yellow Head then called upon his little band of warriors to turn and withstand the Dakotas. Only ten responded to this call. But from behind an ambush of trees these ten braves and their chief kept the Dakotas at bay all day. At night the Dakotas retreated to their village, and the Ojibways secured several scalps. This daring battle and brilliant victory over such tremendous odds gained Yellow Head a great repute among the entire Ojibway nat on. At the beginning of the present century, Waub-o-jeeg and She-shebe, who were camping, with their families, ai Mille Lac, were surprised and massacred by a large party of Dakotas. They were both Ojibway warriors of repute, and their death could not be allowed to

pass unavenged by their tribe. Curly Head, chief of the Gull Lake band, and Flat Mouth, chief of the Pillagers, enlisted 160 warriors. With these they surrounded a camp of forty Dakota lodges, at Prairie River. Just before daybreak they raised the war-whoop and riddled the lodge $ with bullets. So effective was their opening fire that only sixty Dakota warriors lived to rush out of their lodges and make a stand against the Ojibways. The battle rased all day. At sunset only seven of their number were living, but those seven warriors, from the cover of their lodges, kept the Objibways at bay and saved their own lives and also the scalps of their fallen brethren. The only Objibway who won enduring fame in this battle was a very young warrior named String Ground. Having slain a Dakota brave, this lad leaped into the very midst of the Dakota lodges and ■snatched his victim’s scalp under a running fire. These instances are only a few of the best-authenticated accounts of the fierce battles which once took place in these biorthwestern States between the once

savage tribes, the remnants of which are now leading a .quiet life on their, reservations, some of which are situated on the very spots in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Dakota where their bloodiest battles have been, fought- A very cursory glance Into the actual history of Indian Vmrfare is sufficient to show that the most sensational story writers who treat of these savage conflicts have I ardly exaggerated the craft, cruelty or bravery of the participants. Forrest Crissky. Geneva, HL It is said that au electric shock is one form of punishment in the Ohio Penitentiary.

THE OJIBWAYS ATTACK THE DAKOTAS.

THE YOUNG OJIBWAY FLED FOR HIS LIFE.

THE OLD CHIEF SAT QUIETLY AND PUFFED HIS PIPE.

BRAVERY OF AN OJIBWAY WARRIOR.