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prologue The Long Invisibility of the Native New World Eshkibagikoonzhe felt anger, betrayal, and a deep sense of disappointment. He sat behind a table in his home at Gaazagaskwaajimekaag (Leech Lake), an immense lake with nearly two hundred miles of shoreline. Five medals, several war clubs, tomahawks, spears, all splashed with red paint, lay on the table before him. Eshkibagikoonzhe painted his face black for this council session. The Bwaanag (Dakota) had recently killed his son and he mourned his loss. All of the people, the Anishinaabeg (Ojibweg), felt the pain of this death, the loss of a future leader. Eshkibagikoonzhe summoned the man he held responsible for his son’s death to join him at council in his home. Now he waited. The man he waited for came from a new power that had risen in the east. It had been a little over three decades since Eshkibagikoonzhe (Bird with the Leaf-Green Bill) began to hear about this new people. They were called Gichimookomaanag (the Long Knives/Americans), and they had a reputation as ruthless killers with a hunger for Native land. The Long Knives had been part of the Zhaaganaashag (British), but they shape-shifted, and now the Gichimookomaanag and the Zhaaganaashag formed two rival peoples. The new people, the Gichi-mookomaanag, began to travel into Anishinaabewaki , the lands of the Anishinaabeg. Shortly after they had separated from the Zhaaganaashag, a young warrior from the Gichi-mookomaanag named Zebulon Pike visited Eshkibagikoonzhe at Gaazaskwaajimekaag. The young man came to find the source of the Gichi-ziibi (Mississippi), the massive river that flowed from the heartland of the continent all the way to its southern shore. He also wanted to establish a relationship between his people and the Anishinaabeg in this region. He sat at council with Eshkibagikoonzhe and gave him a Gichi-mookomaanag flag.1 Shortly after Pike’s visit, a few of the Long Knives managed to insert themselves into the fur trade that was 2 Prologue an integral part of Anishinaabe life. These Long Knife traders wanted what the Zhaaganaash and the Wemitigoozhig (French) before them wanted—to claim a place in the villages of Anishinaabewaki where they might forge relationships and live among the hunters and traders who brought pelts out of the western interior. In spite of their fierce reputation only a few of the Gichimookomaanag moved through Anishinaabewaki, and they brought valuable trade goods that sparked a healthy competition with the Zhaaganaash traders who manned posts in the north. Along with their trade, however, the Gichi-mookomaanag made demands , insisting the Anishinaabeg end their conflict with the Bwaanag. They promised to be the arbiters of this new peaceful relationship, which they promised would improve hunting and trade for both the Anishinaabeg and the Dakota. The man summoned to council by Eshkibagikoonzhe had been chosen to live among the Anishinaabeg. He was to be the voice of the Gichi-mookomaanag. The Americans called Eshkibagikoonzhe Flat Mouth, a translation of Gueule Platte, the name by which he was known among the French-speaking traders. Flat Mouth had been waiting patiently as the American Indian agent for the Anishinaabeg slowly made his way west. The agent, Nawadaha (Henry Rowe Schoolcraft), finally arrived at Flat Mouth’s village on July 17, 1832, after an arduous journey. He departed from his post at Bow-e-ting (Sault Sainte Marie), an important Anishinaabe village at the eastern end of Gichigamiing (Lake Superior), the greatest body of water in Aishinaabewaki. He traveled along the southern shore of the great lake for approximately five weeks, and then made his way inland by a series of river systems. Schoolcraft traveled with a small party of ten American soldiers , Methodist missionary William Boutwell, and a mixed-blood fur trader. The trader, named George Johnston, operated out of the American post at La Pointe on the southwestern end of Gichigamiing. The son of a British-born Canadian fur trader and a prominent Anishinaabe woman, Johnston acted as guide and interpreter for the Americans. He was also the brother-in-law of Schoolcraft, who had married his sister. It was rare for any American official , even an Indian agent, to make his way this far into the west. It was even rarer for American soldiers to travel this far into the northwest interior of the continent. American missionaries, similarly, were unheard of among the Anishinaabeg in the west. The violence between the Anishinaabeg and the Dakota that took the life of Flat Mouth’s...

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