382 Hennepin at the Falls of St. Anthony 



trimmed with porcupine quills, which this savage was offering as a 

 sacrifice to the falls, which is in itself admirable and frightful. T 

 heard him, while shedding copious tears, say, addressing this great 

 cataract: 'Thou who art a spirit, grant that the men of our nation 

 may pass here quietly without accident, that we may kill buffalo in 

 abundance, conquer our enemies, and bring slaves here, some of whom 

 we will put to death before thee; the Messenecqz (Saulis and Foxes) 

 have killed our kindred, grant that we may avenge them.' " 



The significance of this prayer is understood when we recall the 

 statements of Rev. S. W. Pond, long a missionary amongst the Sioux. 

 According to Mr. Pond the dwelling place of the god of the waters was 

 beneath the falls of St. Anthony. He had the form of .a monster ox, 

 and his spirit permeated all streams and lakes. He was called 

 Oanktehi, and as his bones wer occasionally found in bogs and 

 swamps by the superstitious natives Mr. Pond says the Indians wor- 

 shipped the mastodon (or the manfmoth) whose skeletons are still 

 found in such positions. Oanktehi was the evil god, and needed to 

 be propitiated by gifts and sacrifices. He was always contending 

 with the thunder-bird who was the good god and presided over every- 

 thing. This conflict is brought out vividly by Huggins and by Gor- 

 don in their legendary poems "Winona," and "The Feast of the Vir- 

 gins." 



What a setting for some painter to put upon the canvas! 



Two wandering, half-starved Frenchmen portaging an old canoe 

 along the east bank of the river. 



The falls of St. Anthony just above them to the right. 



The foaming rapids just below^ them. 



A superstitious savage offering a beautiful beaver robe to Oank- 

 tehi, displaying it on the branches of an overhanging oak tree. 



The rising sun in the morning sky. 



The scant-forestetd hills and undulating prairies stretching from 

 both banks into the limitless distance. 



That is the psychological moment that awaits some skilful artist 

 to be portrayed on the canvas. That is the conjunction in one great 

 scene of the most prophetic and momentous elements in the his- 

 tory of Minnesota. 



There is native, original Minnesota in all its untrod magnificence, 

 pregnant with all its potential promise. There is the wild man, its 

 sole occupant, with his feeble energy and superstitious faith. 



Conjoined to these in the same scene is the tread of the first 

 European, with all that his civilization implies. In that footstep is 

 the embodiment of geographic exploration prompted by commerce and 

 Christianity, the intelligence and education of Hennepin contrasted 

 with the degradation of the savage. All the art which has followed 

 after that scene, all the manufactures, the science, all the education, 

 all the improved methods of human livelihood are foreshadowed and 

 concentered in the discovery of the falls of St. Anthony. No single 

 individual scene, no event in all our history, carries with it so much 

 of the natural and so much of the possibility of the artificial in our 



