300 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. VI. 
At the treaty of Fort Wayne September 30th, 1809, a medal was given © 
by General Harrison to the Black-Bird. An engraving of this is given 
at page 306 of Lossing’s Pictorial History of the war of 1812. It is en- 
titled the “Black Partridge Medal,’ by which name the Black-Bird was 
sometimes known. His Indian name was Maka-de-benessi or Black- 
Bird. 
On the prairie, now included in the city of Chicago, there was a 
stockade built by Durantaye in 1685, and in 1804 called Fort Dearborn. 
Here John Kenzie from Quebec opened a trading post, and for twenty 
years was the only white man beyond the limits of the Fort. Captain 
Heald was in charge in 1812 when a band of Indians, mostly Potawahto- 
mees surrounded Fort Dearborn, and it was soon apparent that the gar- 
rison could not hold their own. Makadebenessi, the Black-Bird, then 
appeared and warned them, saying to Mr. Griffith, the interpreter, in 
Indian fashion, “Linden birds have been singing in my ears to-day ; be 
careful on the march you are going to take.’ He then gave to the 
officer the medal referred to, whether to prove his identity or for some 
other reason does not appear. 
On August 15th the garrison marched out, but were soon cruelly 
attacked by the Indians as they passed along the shore. The Black-Bird 
restrained the red men as far as he could; and personally saved Mrs. 
Helm, step-daughter of Mr. Kenzie, from the scalping-knife. An 
engraved stone set in the wall of a warehouse near the banks of the 
Chicago river marks the site of the fort. 
The garden of the late George M. Pullman’s residence encloses’ the 
spot where Mrs. Helm was rescued by our hero. Here in 1893 Mr. 
Pullman erected in bronze a group representing the brave Black-Bird in 
the act of throwing up the arm of the savage whose tomahawk would 
in a moment have ended the woman’s life. She lived to bless her brave 
benefactor, and Chicago honours him under the name of the Black-Bird, 
not knowing that in so doing our worthy Makadebenessi was the hero. 
ASSIKINACK is the name of the next of the Black-Bird warriors to 
whom we refer. It signifies the Black-Bird with red wings, and some- 
times appears as Assignac, Siginoc or Sackanough. Macinac was 
captured on June 2nd, 1763, when Sacs and Chippewas attacked and 
massecred the unwary garrison. Assikinack was there as a boy with 
his mother. He was again, under Shinguacongse, at Macinac when it 
was captured by thé British in 1812. The Commissioner of Indian 
affairs at Washington furnished me with a copy of the petition of two 
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