In the course of the conference at this place, I obtained the particulars of a dispute which had arisen between the Chippewas of this quarter, which now added to their alarm, as they feared the latter would act in coincidence with their ancient enemies, the Sioux. The reports of this disturbance had reached me at the Sault, and they continued, with some variations, until my arrival here. The following are the material facts in relation to this new cause of disquietude: In the summer of 1827, Okunzhewug, an old woman, the wife of Kishkemun, the principal chief of Torch Lake, a man superannuated and blind; attended the treaty of Butte des Morts, bearing her husband’s medal. She was treated with the respect due to the character she represented, and ample presents were directed to be given to her; among other things a handsome hat. The latter article had been requested of her by a young Menomonie, and refused. It is thought a general feeling of jealousy was excited by her good reception. A number of the Menomonies went on her return route as far as the Clover Portage, where she was last seen. Having never returned to her village, the Chippewas attributed her death to the Menomonies. Her husband died soon after; but she had numerous and influential relatives to avenge her real or supposed murder. This is the account delivered by the Chippewas, and it is corroborated by reports from the traders of that section of the country. Her singular disappearance and secret death at the Clover Portage, is undisputed; and whether caused or not by any agency of the Menomonies, the belief of such agency, and that of the most direct kind, is fixed in the minds of the Chippewas, and has furnished the basis of their subsequent acts in relation to the Menomonie hunting-parties who have visited the lower part of Chippewa River. Two women belonging to one of these parties were killed by a Chippewa war-party traversing that part of the country the ensuing year. The act was disclaimed by them as not being intentional, and it was declared they supposed the women to be Sioux.35 On a close inquiry, however, I found the persons who committed this act were relatives of Okunzewug, which renders it probable that the murder was intentionally perpetrated. This act further widened the breach between the two hitherto fraternal tribes; and the Chippewas of this quarter began to regard the Menomonie hunting-parties, who entered the mouth of the Chippewa River, as intruders on their lands. Among a people whose means of verbal information is speedy, and whose natural sense of right and wrong is acute, the more than usual friendship and apparent alliance which have taken place between the Menomonies and Sioux, in the contest between the Sacs and Foxes, and the murder by them jointly of the Fox chief White Skin and his companions at a smoking council, in 1830, have operated to increase the feeling of distrust; so much so, that it was openly reported at Chegoimegon, at Yellow River, and Ottowa Lake, that the Menomonies had formed a league with the Sioux against the Chippewas also, and they were fearful of an attack from them. A circumstance that had given point to this fear, and made it a subject of absorbing interest, when I arrived at Ottowa Lake, was the recent murder of a Menomonie chief by a Chippewa of that quarter, and the demand of satisfaction which had been made (it was sometimes said) by the Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, and sometimes by the commanding officer, with a threat to march troops into the country. This demand, I afterward learned from the Indians at Rice Lake, and from a conversation with General Street, the agent at Prairie du Chien, had not been made, either by himself or by the commanding officer; and the report had probably arisen from a conversation held by a subaltern officer in command of a wood or timber-party near the mouth of the Chippewa River, with some Chippewas who were casually met. Its effects, however, were to alarm them, and to lead them to desire a reconciliation with the Menomonies. I requested them to lose no time in sending tobacco to the Menomonies, and adjusting this difference. Mozojeed observed that the murder of the Menomonie had been committed by a person non compos, and he deplored the folly of it, and disclaimed all agency in it for himself and his band. The murderer, I believe, belonged to his band; he desired a reconciliation. He also said the measures adopted at Yellow River, to bring about a firm peace with the Sioux, had his fullest approbation, and that nothing on his part should be wanting to promote a result in every view so wise and so advantageous to the Indians. In this sentiment, Wabezhais and Odabossa, who made distinct speeches, also concurred. They confirmed their words by pipes, and all the assembly made an audible assent. I invested Mozojeed with a flag and a medal, that he might exert the influence he has acquired among the Indians beneficially for them and for us, and that his hands might thus be officially strengthened to accomplish the work of pacification. I then distributed presents to the chiefs, warriors, women, and children, in the order of their being seated, and immediately embarked, leaving them under a lively and enlivened sense of the good-will and friendship of the American government, on this first official visit to them, and with a sincere disposition, so far as could be judged, to act in obedience to its expressed and known wishes.
The Indians at Torch Lake being dispersed, and my message to them not having been delivered, from this uncertainty of their location, I should have found reasons for not proceeding in that direction, independent of the actual and known difficulties of the route at that time. I was still apprehensive that my appearance had not wholly disconcerted the war-party of Neenaba, and lost no time in proceeding to his village on the Red Cedar fork. We found the village at Lake Chetac, which in 1824 was 217 strong, almost totally deserted, and the trading-house burnt. Scattering Indians were found along the river. The mutual fear of interruption was such that Mr. B. Cadotte, sen., the trader at Ottowa Lake, thought it advisable to follow in our train for the purpose of collecting his credits at Rice Lake.
While at breakfast on the banks of Sapin Lake, a returning war-party entered the opposite side of it: they were evidently surprised, and they stopped. After reconnoitring us, they were encouraged to advance, at first warily, and afterward with confidence. There were eight canoes, with two men in each; each man had a gun, war-club, knife, and ammunition bag: there was nothing else except the apparatus for managing the canoe. They were all young men, and belonged to the vicinity of Ottowa Lake. Their unexpected appearance at this place gave me the first information that the war-party at Neenaba had been broken up. They reported that some of their number had been near the mill, and that they had discovered signs of the Sioux being out in the moose having been driven up, &c. In a short conference, I recited to them the purpose of the council at Ottowa Lake, and referred them to their chiefs for particulars, enjoining their acquiescence in the proposed measures.
I found at Rice Lake a band of Chippewas, most of them young men, having a prompt and martial air, encamped in a very compact form, and prepared, at a moment’s notice, for action. They saluted our advance with a smartness and precision of firing that would have done honour to drilled troops. Neenaba was absent on a hunting-party; but one of the elder men pointed out a suitable place for my encampment, as I intended here to put new bottoms to my bark canoes. He arrived in the evening, and visited my camp with forty-two men. This visit was one of ceremony merely; as it was late, I deferred any thing further until the following day. I remained at this place part of the 7th, the 8th, and until 3 o’clock on the 9th of August. And the following facts present the result of several conferences with this distinguished young man, whose influence is entirely of his own creation, and whose endowments, personal and mental, had not been misrepresented by the Indians on my route, who uniformly spoke of him in favourable terms. He is located at the most advanced point towards the Sioux borders, and, although not in the line of ancient chiefs, upon him rests essentially the conduct of affairs in this quarter. I therefore deemed it important to acquire his confidence and secure his influence, and held frequent conversations with him. His manner was frank and bold, equally free from servility and repulsiveness. I drew his attention to several subjects. I asked him whether the sawmill on the lower part of the Red Cedar was located on Chippewa lands? He said, Yes. Whether it was built with the consent of the Chippewas? He said, No; it had been built, as it were, by stealth. I asked him if any thing had been subsequently given them in acknowledgment of their right to the soil? He said, No; that the only acknowledgment was their getting tobacco to smoke when they visited the mill: that the Sioux claimed it to be on their side of the line, but the Chippewas contended that their line ran to a certain bluff and brook below the mill. I asked him to draw a map of the lower part of Chippewa River, with all its branches, showing the exact lines as fixed by the treaty at Prairie du Chien, and as understood by them. I requested him to state the facts