EXPLANATORY NOTES.
(A) Michilimackinac is the seat of justice for Mackinac county, Michigan Territory, is 300 miles NW. of Detroit, has a U. S. circuit court, a population of 1053, by the census of 1830, has a military post, an Indian agency, a collector’s office, a flourishing missionary school, &c.
(B) This river enters the head of Muddy Lake, and is partly the boundary between Michilimackinac and Chippewa counties.
(C) This is a tributary of the south branch of the St. Mary’s, and is much resorted to by the Indians in their periodical fishing and hunting excursions.
(D) Indian gardens at this place, two miles below St. Mary’s.
(E) This place is the site of Fort Brady, is ten miles below the foot of Lake Superior, and ninety by water NW. of Mackinac. The Indian Agency of Vincennes, Indiana, was removed to this place, in 1822, and consolidated with the agency of Mackinac, in 1832. It is the seat of justice for Chippewa county, M. T. and has a population, by the census of 1830, of 918.
(F) The trading post, at this place, is occupied as a fishing station, during the autumn, by persons who proceed with boats and nets, from St. Mary’s. Bonds are taken by the Indian Office, and licences granted in the usual manner, as a precaution against the introduction of ardent spirits.
(G) It is thirty leagues from Keweena Post to Ontonagon, by the most direct water route, but seventy-five leagues around the peninsula.
(H) The population enumerated at this post, includes the villages of Ocogib, Lake Vieux Desert, Iron River and Petite Peche Bay.
(I) The Chippewas of La Point have their gardens on this river, and reside here periodically. This is a good fishing station. A mission family has recently been located here.
(K) This is the most western bay of Lake Superior.
(L) Replaces the post of the Isle des Corbeau, which is abolished.
(M) The route of Rainy Lake, begins at the post on this lake, which is an expansion of the channel of the Mississippi, about ten miles across. Clear water and yields fish.
(N) This lake has been so named in honor of the present Secretary of War, who terminated his exploratory journey there, in 1820.
(O) Itasca Lake is the actual source of the Mississippi, as determined by myself, in the expedition, which furnishes occasion for this report.
(P) This is a very large expanse of water, clear and pure in its character, and yields fine white fish. It was deemed the head of the Mississippi by Pike, who visited it in the winter of 1806, but it is not even one of the sources, as it has several large tributaries.
(Q) Named Rum River by Carver, but called spirit river by the Indians, not using this word in a physical sense.
(R) This route from Old Grand Portage to the Lake of the Woods, is chiefly used by the British traders, and the gentlemen connected with the Hudson’s Bay government; but has fallen into comparative disuse, as a grand channel of traders since the introduction of goods direct from England into the Hudson Bay.
(S) The estimate of population at Pembina, includes all who are believed to be south of latitude 49 deg. and therefore within the limits of the United States.
(T) Embraces all the population of the Fork of St. Croix, connected by a portage with the Brulé River of Lake Superior.
(U) The Indians on these streams, rely much on wild rice. Their encampments are temporary. They come into contact with the Winnebagoes and Monomonees, who are their neighbors on the south.
(V) The Indian population of the peninsula of Michigan, consists of Ottawas, Chippewas and Pottawattomies, who are not widely separated by language and habits. The Ottawas are however the most agricultural. No Pottawattomies are included in the estimate, and only that portion of Ottawas and Chippewas living north of Grand River, and northwest of Sagana, as the limits of the Mackinac and St. Mary’s joint agency, do not extend south of these places.
☞ The data respecting the fur trade, in the schedules, excludes the business transacted on the Island of Michilimackinac, and the village Sault Ste. Marie, these places being on lands ceded to the United States, and over which the laws of the Territory of Michigan, operate. They also exclude any amount of trade that may have been carried on, by the white inhabitants of Red River settlement, who may be located south of the national boundary on the north, as this place is too remote to have been heretofore brought under the cognizance of our Intercourse laws.
Office of Indian Agency, Sault Ste. Marie,