Ojibwe

“ The Ojibwe have always lived far from the haunts of civilization. They were too far in the back country to participate in the colonial and pre-colonial wars. They have always preferred to live where game is abundant, and even today they are still able to subsist partly on deer and fish. The products of the hunt were very important to them, and they possess a very large number of hunting charms, which are roots, seeds or blossoms that are used as good luck omens or actual lures in trapping and fishing. ”

“ According to the Pillager Ojibwe, this bark is an emetic or a purgative, depending upon how it is prepared for use. It is a last resort purgative to be used when other remedies for the same complaint are of no avail. It may be said that the Ojibwe have more plants for physic than for any other purpose, thus the Red Elder will be seen to be their most important one. ”

“ 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 [338] 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. ”

“ The Ojibwe are the most numerous of any of our tribes and as long as they live in the northern forest and lake district of Wisconsin, so long will the older Indians continue to explain the natural history of their environment to the young men and women of the tribe. ”

“ The Pillager Ojibwe story of this plant is practically the same as that of the Menomini, as given in Museum bulletin Vol. IV, No. 1, pp. 63-64. Bittersweet is fairly abundant around Leech Lake, and is found in dense hardwood forests climbing to tops of trees thirty feet or more in height. When food is unobtainable in the winter, because the snow is too deep and game is scarce, the Ojibwe gather this bark and separate the inner bark to make a thick soup for a meal. ”

“ Many Milwaukee sportsmen have much appreciated friends among the Ojibwe, who have ever been strict and upright in their dealings with them.
There remains a considerable amount of folk lore or ethnology to be studied and recorded, and since it is easy to find well educated men and women among them, who still recall the traditions and stories of their early life, it should prove a fertile field of investigation for some student. ”

“ The tough fibrous bark of young basswood trees furnishes all Ojibwe with ready cordage and string in the woods, but it is also prepared by the women for future use. They strip the bark and peel the outer edge from the inner fiber with their teeth. The rolls are then kept in coils or are boiled and kept as coils until needed, being soaked again when used, to make them pliable. While they have countless uses for this cordage perhaps the most important is in tying the poles together for the framework of the wigwam or medicine lodge, as shown in plate 46, figure 2. ”

“ The old idea of fighting other tribes was forgotten long ago and they feel that all red men are their brothers. Those Ojibwe who have visited the Winnebago Indians in Wisconsin have been especially influenced to adopt the peyote cult. This rarely happens where the Ojibwe live in close contact with their tribesmen on reservations. But several live as isolated families on the shores of our northern lakes, and when they adopt the peyote religion they throw overboard all of their medicine lodge paraphernalia and beliefs. ”

“ The Ojibwe gather goodly quantities of the large underwater stems; which we are prone to call roots, dry them and reduce them to powder. The powder alone is supposed to heal cuts and swellings. The roots have been used by white men in the treatment of diarrhea, dysentery and leucorrhea.
OLEACEAE (OLIVE FAMILY)
Red Ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh) , “aˈ gîmaˈk” [snow-shoe wood] . The Pillager Ojibwe use the inner bark in combination with other things for a tonic. The inner bark is official with white men as a bitter tonic and astringent. It is also said to be valuable as an antiperiodic. ”

“ Instruction to boys and girls usually comes from the uncle or aunt, and if they have no natural uncle or aunt, then one is assigned to them. This is considered the closest relationship among Wisconsin Indians, and when one is adopted into the tribe and given a medicine bag, it will be through the sponsorship of an uncle for his nephew. Among the Ojibwe, both at Lac du Flambeau and at Lac Court Oreilles, the writer is known as Shagashkandawe “Flying Squirrel,” which they say was the name of a famous old chief and medicine man. ”

“ Anawabi, the medicine man, was credited with powers of witchcraft as well as healing. A young Ojibwe boy sick with pneumonia, told his parents in a delirium that Anawabi had come and was [347] taking his breath away. His parents believed him, and he eventually died, but before he did, some friend hastened to Anawabi and Anawabi stood not on the order of his going, but left at once for Oklahoma where he stayed two years. He probably witnessed the modern two step among the Oklahoma Indians, which they called the “Squaw Dance.” It is distinctly opposed to the Indian way of dancing. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Every crevice in the cliffs where the battle had been fought, contained a dead or wounded enemy. The Ojibways suffered a severe loss in the death of a large number of their bravest warriors. The brother of Waub-o-jeeg was numbered among the dead, and the war-chief himself carried on his person the marks of the sanguinary fight, in a wound on his breast. But a few of the Odugamies escaped, and from this time they forever gave up the contest with the victorious Ojibways. ”

“ Marie, accompanied by the trader Alexander Henry, and by way of Lake Simcoe and Toronto, reached Niagara and attended the grand council. On the 6th of August, Henry and his Ojibway companions, accompanied General Bradstreet's army on the way to Detroit. At this point Bradstreet, on the 7th of September, made a treaty with the Ojibways and some other tribes. The principal speaker of the Indians was Wasson, an Ojibway chief, who said to Bradstreet, "My brother, last year God forsook us. God has now opened our eyes, and we desire to be heard. It is God's will, our hearts are altered. ”

“ His father was a member of the Reindeer Clan, and belonged to the northern division of the tribe. He moved from Grand Portage on the north shore of Lake Superior when a young man, to the main village of his tribe at Shaugha-waum-ik-ong. Becoming noted as an active and successful hunter, and having distinguished himself at the battle of Point Prescott, where the Ojibways destroyed so many of their enemies, he married a woman of the La Pointe village, who had been the wife of a Dakota chief of distinction during the late term of peace which the French traders had brought about. ”

“ Going a little further east we find the Ojibwa, who live in Minnesota and around the shores of Lake Superior with a myth of the thunderer which makes it entirely a good spirit, a sort of servant of the medicine man, shaman or priest, and who helps them to work cures, find good medicine plants, and many other things which have a good influence. ”

“ The Great Spirit has placed these men in our hands that we might do with them as we please. Do, therefore, as you wish, only do not shed blood on the steps of these white men, nor in their presence. Though it is my doing, yet I shall not be with you."
The Ojibways waited till the Dakotas left the shelter of the trading post, and escorting them out on the prairie, towards their country, they shot them down, and cutting off their heads, they caught up with their chief, who had gone on his road homewards, unwilling to witness the scene which he knew his warriors were determined to perpetrate. ”

“ Prior to this event, the dignity and influence of the Cranes had been upheld by Keesh-ke-mun (Sharpened Stone) , the son of Sha-da-nish, the first Ojibway pioneer towards the Wisconsin. He is first mentioned by the old men and traders of the tribe, as having attained a prominent position as chief, between forty and fifty years ago. He made it his home, or permanent village, at Lac du Flambeau, and from this point he ruled over that division of his tribe, who occupied the midland country, between Lake Superior, southwest to the Mississippi. ”

“ The Ojibways, anxious for a fight, made a stand, and a fierce fight ensued in the darkness, the combatants aiming at the flashes of their enemies' musketry. The bravest warriors gradually approached to within a few feet of one another, in the midst of the darkness, when a Dakota chief was heard to give orders to his people in a loud voice, to divide into two parties, and making circuits to the right and left, surround the enemy and cut off their retreat. ”

“ While still living in their large and central town on the Island of La Pointe, a principal and leading Me-da-we priest, whose name was Ma-se-wa-pe-ga (whole ribs) , dreamed a dream wherein he beheld spirits in the form of men, but possessing white skins and having their heads covered. They approached him with hands extended and with smiles on their faces. This singular dream he related to the principal men of the Ojibways on the occasion of a grand sacrificial feast to his guardian dream-spirit. ”

“ The men of the Ojibways were seated on one side of this lodge, while the more numerous Foxes occupied the other. A red stake was planted in the centre, near which was also planted a war-club, with which each warrior, wishing to relate his exploits, was to strike the red stake, as a signal for the music and dancing to cease. The dancing commenced, and as the warriors circled the stake, occasionally yelling their fierce war-whoop, they soon became excited, and warrior after warrior plucked the club and told of bloody deeds. ”

“ Everything, therefore, favored the scheme which the Ojibway chieftain had laid to ensnare his confident enemies. On the eve of the great English king's birthday, he informed the British commandant that as the morrow was to be a day of rejoicing, his young men would play the game of ball, or Baug-ah-ud-o-way, for the amusement of the whites, in front of the gate of the fort. In this game the young men of the Osaugee tribe would play against the Ojibways for a large stake. ”

“ On the 15th of September, 1801, Henry arrived at his post on Pembina River near its junction with the Red River, from his annual trip to the Grand Portage of Lake Superior, and here he found sixty Saulteaux camped, anxiously waiting to taste some new milk, as rum was called, and the next month the chief Le Sucre, and ten other Ojibways from Leech Lake arrived. In January, 1804, Cameron, Cotton, Hesse, and Stitt were trading with the Red Lake Ojibways. ”

“ An individual of any one of the several Totems belonging to a distinct tribe, as for instance, the Ojibway, is a close blood relation to all other Indians of the same Totem, both in his own and all other tribes, though he may be divided from them by a long vista of years, interminable miles, and knows not even of their existence. ”

“ If you are in trouble, you, the Crane, must arise in the skies and cry with your 'far sounding' voice, and I will hear you. The fire of your French father shall last forever, and warm his children." At the end of this address a gold medal shaped like a heart was placed on the breast of Ke-che-ne-zuh-yauh, and by this mark of honor he was recognized as the chief of the Lake Superior Ojibways. ”

“ The Ojibway chieftain meanwhile looking steadfastly at the trader, made various inquiries of his head boatman, a Canadian. He then coolly observed that "the English were brave men and not afraid of death, since they dared to come thus fearlessly among their enemies."
When the Indians had finished smoking their pipes, the chief took a few wampum strings in his hand and commenced the following harangue:—
"Englishman! It is to you that I speak, and I demand your attention!
"Englishman! You know that the French king is our father. He promised to be such ”

“ For the space of three generations, or one hundred and twenty years, the Ojibways remained congregated on the island of La Pointe, in one extensive town.
At the end of this period, we come to a dark chapter of their history, on which the old men dislike to linger. ”

“ No incident which the old men related as connected with the whites, is worthy of mention, till a messenger of the "Great French King" visited their village at Shag-a-waum-ik-ong, and invited them to a grand council of different tribes to be held at Sault Ste. Marie. Some of the words of this messenger are still recollected and minutely related by the Ojibways. ”