A Narrative of The Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner Part 5

Having ascertained who it was that had wounded me, these two traders agreed to take me immediately to the village of Ome-zhuh-gwut-oons, and they were determined, in case of discovering and taking him, to aid me in taking my revenge by putting him immediately to death. They therefore concealed me in the canoe, and on landing near the lodges, an old man came down to the sh.o.r.e, and asked them, "what was the news in the country they came from?" "All is well there," answered Mr. Stewart; "we have no other news." "This is the manner," said the old man, "in which white people always treat us. I know very well something has happened in the country you have come from, but you will not tell us of it. Ome-zhuh-gwut-oons, one of our young men, has been up the river two or three days, and he tells us that the Long Knife, called Shaw-shaw-wa-ne-ba-se, (the falcon,) who pa.s.sed here a few days since, with his wife and children, has murdered them all; but I am fearful that he himself has been doing something wrong, for he is watchful and restless, and has just fled from this place before you arrived." Mr. Stewart and Mr. Grant, notwithstanding this representation, sought for him in all the lodges, and when convinced that he had indeed gone, said to the old man, "It is very true that mischief has been done in the country we come from; but the man whom Ome-zhuh-gwut-oons attempted to kill is in our canoe with us; we do not yet know whether he will live or die." They then showed me to the Indians who had gathered on the sh.o.r.e.

We now took a little time to refresh ourselves and examine my wounds. Finding that the ball had entered my body, immediately under the broken part of my arm, and gone forward and lodged against the breast bone, I tried to persuade Mr. Grant to cut it out; but neither he nor Mr. Stewart being willing to make the attempt, I was compelled to do it myself, as well as I could with my left hand. A lancet which Mr. Grant lent me was broken immediately, as was a pen knife, the flesh of that part of the body being very hard and tough. They next brought me a large white handled razor, and with this I succeeded in extracting the ball. It was very much flattened, and the thong of deer's sinew, as well as the medicines Ome-zhuh-gwut-oons had inserted in it, were left in my body. Notwithstanding this, when I found that it had not pa.s.sed under my ribs, I began to hope that I should finally recover, though I had reason to suppose that the wound being poisoned, it would be long in healing.

After this was done, and the wound in my breast taken care of, we went on to Ah-kee-ko-bow-we-tig, (the Kettle Fall,) to the village of the chief Waw-wish-e-gah-bo, the brother of Ome-zhuh-gwut-oons. Here Mr. Stewart used the same precaution of hiding me in the canoe, and then giving tobacco, which he called every man in the village, by name, to receive; but when there appeared no prospect of finding him, they made me again stand up in the canoe, and one of them told the chief that it was his own brother who had attempted to kill me. The chief hung his head, and to their inquiries about Ome-zhuh-gwut-oons he would make no answer. We, however, ascertained from other Indians, that my daughters and their mother had stopped here a moment in their way towards Rainy Lake.

When we arrived at the North West Company's house at Rainy Lake, we found that my daughters and their mother had been detained by the traders on account of suspicions arising from their manifest agitation and terror, and from the knowledge that I had pa.s.sed up with them but a few days before. Now when I first came in sight of the fort, the old woman fled to the woods taking the two girls with her. But the Company's people sent out and brought them in again. Mr. Stewart and Mr. Grant now left it to me to say what punishment should be inflicted on this woman, who, as we all very well knew, had been guilty of aiding in an attempt to kill me. They said they considered her equally criminal with Ome-zhuh-gwut-oons, and thought her deserving of death, or any other punishment I might wish to see inflicted. But I told them I wished she might be sent immediately, and without any provisions, away from the fort, and never allowed to return to it. As she was the mother of my children, I did not wish to see her hung, or beaten to death by the labourers as they proposed; but as the sight of her had become hateful to me, I wished she might be removed, and they accordingly dismissed her without any punishment.

Mr. Stewart left me at the Rainy Lake trading house in the care of Simon M'Gillevray, a son of him who many years ago was so important a partner in the North West Company. He gave me a small room where my daughters cooked for me, and dressed my wounds. I was very weak, and my arm badly swollen, fragments of bone coming out from time to time. I had lain here twenty-eight days when Major Delafield, the United States commissioner for the boundary, came to the trading house, and having heard something of my history, proposed to bring me in his canoe to Mackinac. But I was too weak to undertake such a journey, though I wished to have accompanied him. Finding that this was the case, Major Delafield gave me a large supply of excellent provisions, two pounds of tea, some sugar and other articles, a tent, and some clothing, and left me.

Two days after this, I pulled out of my arm the thong of deer's sinew which had been attached, as I have before stated, to the bullet. It was still about five inches long, but nearly as large as my finger, and of a green colour. Ome-zhuh-gwut-oons had two b.a.l.l.s in his gun at the time he shot me; one had pa.s.sed near my head.

Immediately after the departure of Major Delafield, the unfriendly disposition of Mr. M'Gillevray made itself manifest; it had been only fear of Major Delafield that had induced him hitherto to treat me with some attention. Insults and abuses were heaped upon me, and at last I was forcibly turned out of the house. But some of the Frenchmen had so much compa.s.sion as to steal out at night, and without Mr. M'Gillevray's knowledge, furnish tent poles and set up my tent. Thanks to the bounty of Major Delafield, I had a supply of every thing needful, and my daughters still remained with me, though Mr. M'Gillevray repeatedly threatened that he would remove them. His persecutions did not abate when I left the fort, and he went so far as to take my daughters from me, and send them to sleep in the quarters of the men; but they escaped, and fled to the house of an old Frenchman, near by, who was Mr. M'Gillevray's father-in-law, and with whose daughters mine had become intimate.

Forty-three days I had lain in and near this trading house, and was now in a most miserable condition, having been for some time entirely deprived of the a.s.sistance of my daughters, when my former acquaintance and friend, Mr. Bruce, unexpectedly entered my tent late in the evening. He was with Major Long and a party of gentlemen then returning from Lake Winnipeg, who, as Mr. Bruce thought, would be willing and able to afford me some a.s.sistance in taking my daughters out of the hands of Mr. M'Gillevray, and perhaps in getting out to Mackinac.

Three times I visited Major Long at his camp at that late hour of the night, though I was scarce able to walk, and each time he told me that his canoes were full, and that he could do nothing for me; but at length becoming a little acquainted with my history, he seemed to take more interest in me, and when he saw the papers I had from Governor Clark and others, he told me I was a fool not to have shown him these before. He had, he said, taken me for one of those worthless white men who remain in the Indian country from indolence, and for the sake of marrying squaws, but now that he understood who I was, he would try to do something for me. He went himself, with several men, and sought in the trading house for my daughters. He had intended to start early the next morning after his arrival, but having been stirring nearly all night in my affairs, he determined to remain over the next day, and make farther exertions for the recovery of my children. All the search we could make for my daughters at and about the trading house resulted in the conviction, that through the agency of Mr. M'Gillevray, and the family of his father-in-law, they had fallen into the hands of Kaw-been-tush-kwaw-naw, a chief of our village at Me-nau-zhe-tau-naung. This being the case, I was compelled to relinquish the hope of bringing them out the present year, and miserably as I was situated, I was anxious to come to my own people, and to my three children at Mackinac, to spend the winter.

I knew the character of Mr. M'Gillevray, and also that the traders of the North West Company generally had less cause to feel friendly towards me than they might have had if I had not concerned myself with Lord Selkirk's party in the capture of their post at Red River. I knew also that my peculiar situation with respect to the Indians would make it very difficult for me to gain permission to remain at or near either of the houses of the North West, or of the American Fur Company. I had been severely and dangerously wounded by an Indian, and according to their customs, I was bound, or at least expected, to avenge myself on any of the same band that might fall in my way; and should it be known that I was at either of the trading houses, very few Indians would venture to visit it. Taking these things into consideration, I determined to accept the friendly offer of Major Long to bring me to the States, and accordingly took a place in one of his canoes. But after proceeding on our way an hour or two, I became convinced, as did Major Long and the gentlemen with him, that I could not safely undertake so long and difficult a journey in my present situation. Accordingly they put me in charge of some people belonging to the traders, and sent me back to the fort.

I knew that the doors of the North West Company's house would be closed against me, and accordingly made application to my late employers, the American Fur Company. Young Mr. Davenport, in whose care the house then was, granted a ready compliance with my request, and gave me a room; but as provisions were scarce on that side, I was supplied daily by Dr. M'Laughlin of the North West, who had now taken the place of Mr. M'Gillevray. He sent every day as much as sufficed to feed me and Mr. Davenport, together with his wife.

I had not been long here when Mr. Cote arrived, and took charge of the house in place of Mr. Davenport. Mr. Cote came to my room, and seeing me on the bed, only remarked, "Well, you have been making a war by yourself." That night he allowed my supper to be brought me, and early next morning turned me out of doors. But he was not content with driving me from the house; he forbade me to remain on the United States side of the boundary, and all my entreaties, together with the interference of Dr. M'Laughlin, could not influence Mr. Cote to change his determination. In this emergency, Dr. M'Laughlin, though he knew that the success of his post in the winter's trade must be injured by the measure, consented to receive me on the British side where he fed and took care of me. Early in the winter, my wounds had so far healed that I could hunt a little, holding my gun in my left hand. But about new-years, I went out one evening to bring water, slipped and fell on the ice, and not only broke my arm in the old place, but also my collar bone. Dr. M'Laughlin now took the management of my case into his own hands, it having been left entirely to my own treatment before, and I was now confined as long as I had been in the fall.

In the spring, I was again able to hunt. I killed considerable numbers of rabbits, and some other animals, for the skins of which the Doctor paid me in money a very liberal price. As the time aproached for the traders to leave the wintering grounds, he told me the North West had no boats going to Mackinac, but that he would oblige Mr. Cote to carry me out. It was accordingly so arranged, and Mr. Cote promised to take me to Fond Du Lac in his own canoe. But instead of this, he sent me in a boat with some Frenchmen. In the route from Fond Du Lac to the Saut De St. Marie, I was dependent upon Mr. Morrison; but the treatment I received from the boatmen was so rough that I induced them to put me on sh.o.r.e, to walk thirty-five miles to the Saut. Mr. Schoolcraft now wished to engage me as an interpreter, but as I heard that the little property I had left at Mackinac had been seized to pay my children's board, and as I knew their situation required my presence, I went thither accordingly, and was engaged by Col. Boyd as Indian interpreter, in which situation I continued till summer of 1828, when being dissatisfied with his treatment, I left Mackinac, and proceeded to New-York for the purpose of making arrangements for the publication of my narrative; and upon my return to the north, was employed by Mr. Schoolcraft, Indian agent at the Saut De St. Marie, as his interpreter; to which place I took my family, and have since resided there.

Three of my children are still among the Indians in the north. The two daughters would, as I am informed, gladly join me, if it were in their power to escape. The son is older, and is attached to the life he has so long led as a hunter. I have some hope that I may be able to go and make another effort to bring away my daughters.

notes.

Notes for the Text.

Sa-gui-na. The word Sau-ge-nong, appears to mean, "the town of the Saukees."

Tanner has much of the Indian habit of concealing emotion; but when he related the above to me, the glimmering of his eye, and a convulsive movement of his upper lip, betrayed sufficiently, that he is not without the enduring thirst for revenge which belongs to the people among whom he has spent his life. "As soon," said he, in connection with this anecdote, "as I landed in Detroit on my return from Red River, and found a man who could speak with me, I said 'where is Kish-kau-ko?' 'He is in prison.' 'Where is Manito-o-geezhik, his father?' 'Dead two months since.' 'It is well he is dead.'" Intimating that though more than thirty years had elapsed, he intended now to have avenged himself for the injury done him when a boy not eleven years of age. a" Ed.

War-gun-uk-ke-zeemeans, as Tanner says, the bent tree; and the pine, which gave name to the place called by the French L'Arbre Croche, was standing when he first visited that village. He spoke with great indignation of the Indian who, through mere wantonness, cut down this remarkable tree.

Sug-gus-swaw-waw a" the Smoker, in Ojibbeway.

Pe-twaw-we-ninne. a" This, however, is a Cree word; the name among the Ojibbeways, is Sug-guo-swaw-we-ninne. Muskegoe is from Mus-keek, a swamp, and is applied to a band of the Ojibbeways, enjoying in general no very good name.

This word, Win-ne-peg, is derived from win-ne-be-a, "dirty water," or ween-au-gum-ma, which has nearly the same meaning. The lake is called by the Indians Win-ne-be-a Sau-gie-gun, "Dirty Water Lake."

a.s.sinneboins, Stone Roasters, from using heated stones to boil their provisions.

Puk-kwi, the cat-tail flag, (Typha Latifolia,) of which we made the coa.r.s.e mats called by the Menomonies (O-pah-keuk, by the Ojibbeways of the Upper Mississippi, O-pah-kwi-wuk. There is a lake on the route from Green Bay to the Wisconsan, called on the maps Puckaway, but the word is, in the country, p.r.o.nounced Puk-kwi.

Gah-menomonie gah-wun-zhe-gaw-wie see-bee, (the river of the wild rice straw.) Gaw-wun-je, or Gaw-wunzk, is applicable to the stalks or trunks of many plants, shrubs, etc. as Mee-na-gaw-wunge, (whortleberry bush,) or, in the plural, Mee-na-gaw-wa-cheen, (whortleberry bushes.)

Lakes of the largest cla.s.s are called by the Ottawwaws, Kitchegawme; of these they reckon five; one which they commonly call Ojibbeway Kitchegawme, Lake Superior, two Ottawwaw Kitchegawme, Huron and Michigan, and Erie and Ontario. Lake Winnipeg, and the countless lakes in the north-west, they call Sahkiegunnun.

Nebeninnah-ne-sebee a" High Craneberry River; since called Pembinah. The Indian name is derived from that of the viburnum, with large red edible berries, somewhat resembling the craneberry; thence called v.oxycoccus. "Red River" is from the Indian Miskwawgummewesebee.

p.r.o.nounced by the Indians, We-ge-wham.

A-gutch-a-ninne-wug, the settled people, called by the white Minnetarees.

Jebiug-neezh-o-shin-naut a" Two dead lie there.

From tub-buz-zeen, imperative, "Do thou dodge down."

Naw-we-sah-ki-e-gun.

An-nim-me-keeg wus-re-tah goos-e-wuk, (Ottawwaw,) it thunders. a" na-mah-ke-wuk kau-ke-to-wuk, (Menomine,) it thunders. a" they are both, however, plural nominations, and have verbs in the plural.

The name of this distinguished chief is spelt in "Major Long's Second Expedition," Wa-no-tan. To an English reader, this orthography conveys as incorrect an idea of the sound of his name, as the engraved portrait in that work, does of his handsome face and person.

The name of this man Tanner p.r.o.nounces Gish-gau-go. He has subsequently been well known in Michigan, and other portions of the north-western frontier, by his numerous murders and depredations. He died in prison at Detroit, as lately as the fall of 1825.

Or Spit Roasters, so called from their roasting meats on wooden spits.

This is one of the species of Psoralea, so abundant in the open countries of the Missouri. When boiled or roasted, the roots are exceedingly palatable and nutritious; but the exclusive use of them commonly occasions derangement of the bowels.

Muz-zin-ne-neen, muz-zin-ne-neen-sug a" singular and plural. Meshe-nin-ne-shah, Meshe-nin-ne-shuk a" Menomonie dialect. These little images, or drawings, for they are called by the same names, whether of carved wood, or rags, or only rudely sketched on birch bark, or even traced in sand, are much in use among several, and probably all the Algonkin tribes. Their use is not confined to hunting, but extends to the making of love, and the gratification of hatred, revenge, and all malignant pa.s.sions.

It is a prevailing belief, to which the influence of established superst.i.tion has given an astonishing power, that the necromancers, men and women of medicine, or those who are acquainted with the hidden powers of theirwusks, can, by practising upon the Muz-zin-ne-neence, exercise an unlimited control over the body and mind of the person represented. As it may have been, in former times, among the people of our race, many a simple Indian girl gives to some crafty old squaw her most valued ornaments, or whatever property she may possess, to purchase from her the love of the man she is most anxious to please. The old woman, in a case of this kind, commonly makes up a little image of stained wood and rags, to which she gives the name of the person whose inclinations she is expected to control; and to the heart, the eyes, or to some other part of this, she, from time to time, applies her medicine, or professes to have done so, as she may find necessary to dupe and encourage her credulous employer.

But the influence of these images and conjurations, is more frequently tested in cases of an opposite character; where the inciting cause is not love, but hatred, and the object to be attained, the gratification of a deadly revenge. In cases of this kind, the practices are similar to those above mentioned, only different medicines are used. Sometimes the Muz-zin-ne-neence is p.r.i.c.ked with a pin, or needle, in various parts, and pain or disease is supposed to be produced in the corresponding part of the person practiced upon. Sometimes they blacken the hands and mouth of the image, and the effect expected,is the change which marks the near approach of death.

In the sanguinary chapter of the Calica Puran, we find reference to a similar superst.i.tion among the Asiatics.

"Let a figure be made, either of barley meal or earth, representing the person with whom the sacrificer is at variance, and the head of the figure struck off. After the usual texts have been used, the following is to be used in invoking the axe on the occasion: Effuse, effuse blood! be terrific, be terrific! seize, seize! destroy, for the love of Ambica, the head of this enemy. Having struck off the head let him present it, using the texts laid down hereafter for the occasion, concluding with the word PHAT. Water must be sprinkled on the meal or earthen victim, which represents the sacrificer's enemy, using the text commencing with Racta draibaih, (i. e. by streams of blood,) and marks must be made on the forehead with red sanders; garlands of red flowers must be put round the neck of the image, and it must be dressed in red garments, tied with red cords, and girt with a red girdle. Then placing the head towards the north, let it be struck off with an axe, using the Scanda text."

So general and prevalent, among the Indians, is the confidence in the efficacy of these charms, and of those practised by means of a hair from the head of the intended victim, that the belief in them has extended to many of the more ignorant of the Canadians who reside with the Indians, and even to some of the traders. Instances in which a hair is used in place of the image, or mus-zin-ne-neence, are frequently those of young women; and various, and sometimes dreadful, are the consequences supposed to result. So confident are the representations of whites, and those even of some shrewdness, and so strong the belief of the Indians, in the power of these drawings, as to enforce the conviction that effects have been produced in connection with these mummeries, either by the influence of imagination, or the still more powerful and certain operation of poison, administered secretly. Poisoning is a crime of perhaps greater frequency among the Indians than could have been expected from their situation; and they attribute equal guilt to the poisoner, whether he actually and craftily administers some powerful drug, or whether, at the distance of one or two hundred miles, or at any place, however remote, he so applies medicine to the Muz-zin-ne-neence, or to a hair, as to produce pain, sickness, death, or other suffering, in his enemy. The influence of these superst.i.tions and absurd fears is boundless, and would, perhaps, surpa.s.s comprehension and belief if we could not look back to the time when the minds of our own race were similarly enthralled, and when the dread of supernatural powers in the hands of the malicious or the envious, formed one among the most serious and real evils in the life even of the most enlightened and independent. Many cases of sudden sickness occur among them, and many deaths happen entirely in the way of nature, which they, being ignorant of the true cause, attributeto poison, or more frequently to bad medicine; but enough of well authenticated instatnces exist to prove that they, in some cases, practice upon each other by poison; sometimes using such noxious plants, or other substances as their own country affords, and in other instances procuring a.r.s.enic, or other drugs, from the whites. To destroy life in this way is perfectly in accordance with their ideas of bravery, or toughness of heart, (Soug-ge-da-win;) he being often esteemed the bravest man who destroys his enemy with least risk to his own life.

The Chippewyans, whose bleak and inhospitable country, affords neither birch bark nor other similar article, indeed nothing from the vegetable kingdom to serve as a subst.i.tute for the birch bark, and whose extreme rudeness has left them ignorant of any method of preparing from stones or earth any things suitable to write or delineate figures upon, use, in their preparations for the medicine hunt, the scapular bone of the rein deer, or such other animals as are found in their country. With an apparent poverty of language, corresponding to the meagerness of their soil, and the bluntness of their intellects, they denominate the drawing used in this kind of hunting, El-kul-lah ke-eet-ze, (the shoulder blade bone.) It would appear, also, that the accompanying ceremonies of this superst.i.tion are prorportionately rude and inartificial. After awkwardly sketching the rein deer, or whatever animal they may happen to consider as indicated to them by their dream, they cast the bone on which the drawing is made into the fire, if, by chance, they happen to have one, and this fulfills all those important ends, which, in the imagination of the Ojibbeway hunter, are dependent upon the proper application of his medicines, and the patient chanting of his prayers.

Match-a-to-ge-wub , (in the Cree, Mait-cha-to-ke-wub,) in the Ojibbeway, means nearly "Many Eagles sitting."

Ne-je, my friend, used to males; and nin-dong-gwa, used by females to one another.

Needjee a" my friend, is commonly used in friendly conversation; but, as in our language, is often used with a peculiar tone and manner, when a threat is intended.

Many of the names of white men in the northwest and in other parts of the country, which are mentioned in this narrative, are grossly misspelt; the same principle having been followed in writing both foreign and Indian names, in all instatnces where the name the narrator intended to mention did not immediately recur to the recollection of the writer. Thus Codman is here written for Coltman : in other places, Maveen for Mainville; Tussenon for D'Orsonnens, etc. It is also not improbable that names may have become confounded in the mind of our hunter himself, who appears to have been more conversant with Indians than white men. Thus, in his account of the murder of a governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, of the name of M'Donald, or M'Dolland, he may possibly have used one of these names in place of that of Mr. Semple, who was one of the victims to that spirit of b.l.o.o.d.y rivalry which occasioned these troubles between the trading companies. This want of precision, particularly in the spelling of names, will not, with the candid, impair the credibility of this humble narrative.

Some of the circ.u.mstances of this murder seem to identify it with that of Keveny, for which Charles De Reinhard and Archibald M'Lellan were tried at Quebec, in 1818, and the former condemned to death. De Reinhard, Mainville, and Jose, or Joseph, an Indian, otherwise called the Son of the White Partridge, seem to have been the immediate actors in this affair. It is not surprising that Tanner, who was then, as far as opportunities for particular information on this subject were concerned, on a par with the wildest Indian, should have mistaken foreign names, as well as the comparative rank and importance of foreigners in the country.

O-poih-gun a" pipe; O-poih-gun-nun a" pipes.

Ka-gah-gum-ming, almost water.