SOURCE OF ST. PETEr's RIVER. 401 



been related to us under circumstances, which have al- 

 most banished scepticism, although it at first appears mi- 

 raculous. 



Her name was Sh^n^nska, or the White Buffalo Robe. 

 When we saw her, she was about seventy years of age. 

 She relates that, in her youth, while yet under twenty, she 

 was taken captive by a party of Chippewas ; the man to 

 whose lot she fell was cruel and relentless ; among other 

 hardships, he obliged her to walk naked, for three days, be- 

 fore the whole party ; and whenever, from fatigue, she 

 slackened her pace, she was scourged by her captors. At 

 last, on the third day, they reached a streanx where, fan- 

 cying themselves secure from all pursuit, they prepared to 

 sojourn some time, and that evening she was doomed to 

 undergo a still more barbarous treatment, when a Chippe- 

 wa warrior came in, whose mind was more generous than 

 that of the others ; he declared himself her protector, an-d 

 said he would adopt her as his daughter. Whether from 

 his influence as a brave man, or from his decisive manner, 

 or from some other motive she knows not, but she was re- 

 linquished, though reluctantly, by her former master; and 

 her adopted father conveyed her to his family, which was 

 far to the north. In the autumn they returned towards 

 the Dacota lands in pursuit of buffalo. Although the treat- 

 ment which Shenanska had received from her adopted fa- 

 ther was mild, yet her life was rendered unpleasant by 

 his wife, who used her in an unfeeling manner. Con- 

 sidering the infant child of the Chippewa mother to be, in 

 part at least, the cause of her troubles, Shenanska deter- 

 mined to destroy it, and on one occasion, while both parents 

 were away, she stabbed it in the side with a moccassin 

 awl. The infant immediately expired ; she replaced it in 



Vol. I. 51 



