twenty-two years old, the priest, Aulneau, and nineteen Cana- 

 dian voyageurs set out for Michlimacknac, now Mackinac, 

 Mich., to obtain food and powder. On June 8, 1736, after pad- 

 dling from fifteen to eighteen miles through the mist they 

 were attacked by a band of Sioux and finally killed on Mas- 

 sacre Island. The priest was killed by an arrow, young Jean 

 falling with him by a body blow. The elder La Verendrye 

 returning in the fall found the remains and removed all of 

 the party to Fort St. Charles. Several expeditions in the last 

 few years have attempted to discover the remains of the old 

 fort and other historical data. It remained for a party of 

 Catholic priests to gain that distinction in the summer of 

 1908. This party left Kenora on July 10th, arriving at Ameri- 

 can point about two o'clock in the afternoon. While pitching 

 a tent one of the priests injured his foot which necessitated 

 his remaining in camp the next day. In this predicament he 

 carefully went over La Verendrye's memoirs, the testimony of 

 an old chief of the Chippewas, Andagamigowinini, and came 

 to the conclusion that the three chimneys spoken of by the 

 old chief were on the south side of the inlet. 



The rest of the party, following his advice, found first two 

 Indian caches, a path leading to an old Indian hut and then 

 various articles such as old nails, keys and a buckle, and 

 lastly the almost obscure ruins of the palisades of the fort. 

 This expedition returned home but returned in a few days 

 for further explorations and succeeded in unearthing the 

 bodies of the explorers. Besides scattered fragments, five 

 whole skeletons were discovered. Two were in one box and 

 were identified as those of Jean La Verendrye and the priest 

 Aulneau. Massacre Island, where the tragedy took place, 

 had been previously explored in 1902 and 1905. In the latter 

 year a small memorial chapel was erected. In 1911 the Cana- 

 dian government placed the island under the Jesuit Historical 

 Society of St. Boniface, Manitoba. This same society bought 

 American Island early last winter (1914). 



The Indians regard this lake with great favor, the Chip- 

 pewas or Ojibaways having a number of villages upon its 

 shores. Their enemies, the Sioux or the prairie Indians, had a 

 war path from where Pembina, N. D., now stands to what we 



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