616 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



claimed and occupied this region, and who were driven southward by 

 the Ojibway during the first half of the eighteenth century. A large 

 group of burial mounds marks the site of this ancient settlement; 

 these are recognized by the Ojibway to have been the work of the 

 Sioux and to have been erected over the remains of their dead, and it 

 is of interest to know that the summits of the mounds were utilized 

 as places of burial by newcomers. In the view of Sagawa' mick 

 many Indians are shown standing on the summit of a mound ; on the 

 same mound are visible logs covering recent graves. The photo- 

 graph was made from the top of another mound. The region is one 

 of much interest, for less than 5 miles away stood the village where 

 Father Hennepin, in 1680, was held captive by the Sioux. The site 

 was discovered and identified in 1900. 



The small sweat house, plate 6, figure 1, stood on the margin of the 

 lake at Sagawa' mick. The frame of saplings was covered with sev- 

 eral old blankets. The ground within was strewn with balsam boughs 

 and in the center was a small heap of sand. Stones about 6 inches in 

 diameter v^ere heated in the fire just outside. The person to receive 

 the treatment would enter the inclosure, several heated stones being 

 placed on the heap of sand and a quantity of water provided. The 

 blankets were then closely wrapped about the frame so as to retain 

 the heat and vapor. The one within would then sprinkle water over 

 the hot stones and steam would soon fill the small space. After a 

 given time the person would rush from the house and plunge into the 

 cold waters of the lake. Similar baths have been in use since the 

 earliest times and the custom was followed by all the eastern tribes. 

 A description of a sweat house used by the Iroquois in the northern 

 part of New York during the year 1652 would easily apply to the one 

 employed at Mille Lac two and one-half centuries later. 



In tliis place our wild people sweated after tlie maner following: first 

 heated stones till they weare redd as fire, then they made a lantheme w*"" 

 small sticks, then stoaring the place w*" deqle trees, saving a place in the 

 middle whereinto they put the stoanes, and covered the place w*'' severall 

 covers, then striped themselves naked, went into it. They made a noise as 

 if y® devil weare there; after they being there for an hour they came out of 

 the watter, and then throwing one another into the watter, I thought veryly 

 they weare insensed. It is their usual Custome.* 



The most interesting of the Mille Lac structures remains to be 

 mentioned, the council house, wliich in May, 1900, was still standing 

 in the dense woods, on high ground near the southwestern corner 

 of the lake, about 1 mile north of the outlet and 200 yards from 

 the shore. Two years later it had disappeared and no trace of it 

 could be found. As shown in plate 6, figure 2, it was oriented with its 

 sides facing the cardinal points, about 20 feet square, with walls 



1 Radisson. Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson. Prince Society, Boston, 1885, p. 36. 



