History of the Ojibway People, Second Edition

7 Era of the Discovery

  Era of the Discovery The era of their first knowledge of, and intercourse with the white race, is one of the most vital importance in the history of the aborigines of this continent. So far as their own tribe is concerned, the Ojibways have preserved accurate and detailed accounts of this event; and the information which their old men orally give on this subject,is worthy of much consideration, although they may slightly differ from the accounts which standard historians and writers have presented to the world,and which they have gleaned from the writings of the enterprising and fearless old Jesuit missionaries, and from the published narratives of the first adventurers who pierced into the heart of the American wilderness. This source of information may be considered as more reliable and authentic than the oral traditions of the Indians,but as we have undertaken to write their history as they themselves tell it, we will do so without respect to what has already been written by eminent and standard authors.
The writer is disposed to consider as true and perfectly reliable, the information which he has obtained and thoroughly investigated, on this subject, and which he will proceed in this chapter to relate in the words of his old Indian informants. A few preliminary remarks are deemed necessary,before fully entering into the narrative of the Ojibway’s first knowledge and intercourse with his white brother. Those who have carefully examined the writings of the old Jesuit missionaries and early adventurers,who claim to have been the first discoverers of new regions,and new people,in the then dark wilderness of the west, or central America, have found many gross mistakes and exaggerations, and their works as a whole, are only tolerated and their accounts made matters of history, because no other source of information has ever been opened to the public. 71 1. More reliable and authentic in the sense that it could be dated and had not been transmitted by multiple narrators. Schenck bk p i-xxiv 1-318_Layout 1 5/13/11 10:54 AM Page 71 It is a fact found generally true, that the first adventurer who is able to give a flaming account of his travels,is handed down to posterity as the first discoverer of the country and people which he describes as having visited, when mayhap, that same region, and those same people had been, long previous,discovered by some obscure and more modest man,who,because he could not blazon forth his achievements in a book of travels, forever loses the credit of what he really has performed. Many instances of this nature are being daily brought to light, and might be enumerated.Among others,Mr.Catlin claims in his book (and is believed by all who do not know to the contrary), to have been the first white man who visited the Dakota pipestone quarry, when in fact, that same quarry had been known to, and visited by white traders for nearly a century before Catlin saw it and wrote his book. In the same manner also, Charles Lanman, of later notoriety, claims to have been the first white man who visited the Falls of the St. Louis River, when in fact Aitkin, Morrison, Sayer, and a host of others as white as he, had visited, and resided for fifty years within sound of those same falls. It is thus that a man who travels for the purpose of writing a book to sell,and who, being a man of letters, is able to trumpet forth his own fame, often plucks the laurels due to more modest and unlettered adventurers. Mr.Bancroft in his standard “History of the United States,” mentions that in the year , the enterprising and persevering Jesuit missionary, Claude Allouez,with one companion,pushed his way into Lake Superior and discovered the Ojibways congregated in a large village in the Bay of Shag-a-waum-ik-ong,and preparing to go on a war party against the Dakotas ; that he resided two years among them, and taught a choir of their youths to chant the Pater and Ave. This is the first visit made by white men to this point on Lake Superior, of which we have any reliable written testimony. The account as given in 72 · history of the ojibway people 2. George Catlin was told by one of the Dakota he met on the Minnesota River that “no white man has been to...