PREHISTORIC ABORIGINES OF MINNESOTA 221 



in great fear. 6 The pursuers passed over a hard, stony and frozen 

 " sea/' and came to the land of fir trees, which they called " Shinaki." 



After the lapse of an indefinite time, during which they remained 

 in the land of firs and came into hostile contact with several of the 

 surrounding people, among whom are Chiconapi, Makatopi, Akonapi 

 and Assinapi, they passed " over a hollow mountain " and found food 

 in the plains of the buffalo land, along a yellow river, where they built 

 towns and raised corn, and remained for a long time, under a number 

 of different chiefs. 



Becoming dissatisfied, they " longed for the rich east-land," and 

 on moving in that direction they came into conflict with the Tallegewi. 

 " The Talamatan and the Nitilowan all go united " (to the war) ; and 

 fell upon and slew great numbers of the Tallegewi. Sometimes they 

 were repulsed by the Tallegewi, but finally all their towns were cap- 

 tured and they fled to the south, and the Talamatan (Hurons?) settled 

 north of the lakes, the Lenape on the south side, i. e., in the land of 

 the Tallegewi. 



The rest of the chronicle pertains to later movements in Pennsyl- 

 vania and New Jersey and their early dealings with the English. 



According to both these renditions, all those events preceding the 

 crossing of the Mississippi may have taken place, and probably did, 

 in the region extending from the Hudson Bay southward to the north- 

 ern boundary line of Iowa, or some miles farther south. The Snake 

 land is problematical, but seems to have been in Canada. The crossing 

 of the frozen water may have been the crossing of the Bainy Lake, or 

 some of the contiguous waters. Shinaki, the land of firs, is the pine- 

 clad region of northern Minnesota. The Assinapi could not have been 

 the Dakota Assiniboins, but may have been some Indians living in the 

 same rocky region. 7 The Buffalo land may have been the southern part 

 of Minnesota and northern Iowa. The " Yellow " Biver, where they 

 raised corn, may have been that which by the early French was called 

 " La Jaune riviere/' now known as Vermilion Biver, uniting with the 

 Mississippi a little below Hastings, and it is probable that the Talle- 

 gewi, as before, were the effigy-builders of the Wisconsin-Minnesota- 

 Iowa region of the old mound-builders. Their movements through the 



6 The term " Snake " here may mean nothing more than enemy. The 

 Algonquian termed the Iroquois snakes, also the Dakota, applying to them 

 the term Nadoue, or Nadoivay, or finally Nadouessi. The last became with the 

 French Nadouesioux and with the English Siovx. 



7 The Algonquian words asin and ovoan, from which the term Assiniboin is 

 derived, simply means stone people. It is commonly supposed to have reference 

 to the use of heated stones by which they made water sufficiently hot to cook 

 food. But instead it may more probably be referred to the characters of the 

 country in which they lived, which was called by Nicolut the " region of rocks 

 and water." The cooking of food by water heated by stones was not peculiar 

 to them. 



