DENSMORE] CHIPPEWA MUSIC II 61 



On August 19, 1825, a treaty was negotiated at Prairie du Cliien, 

 Michigan Territory,^ in which the Chippewa and the Sioux agreed 

 on a line of demarkation between their territories. This line (sur- 

 veyed in 1835) extended diagonally across what is now the State of 

 Minnesota from near the site of the present town of Moorhead to a 

 point on the Saint Croix River a few miles above Stillwater .^ In spite 

 of the agreement, however, the war parties of both tribes continued 

 to range freely across the boundary line. The last great fight took 

 place in the Minnesota Valley, May 27, 1858, near the site of the 

 present town of Shakopee (see p. 76), but minor encounters between 

 warriors of the two tribes are said to have occurred for some years 

 afterward. Brower makes the following statement: ^ 



The last formidable Sioux war party, precipitated against the Ojibway nation of 

 Indians, of which there is definite knowledge, proceeded from the Valley of Minnesota 

 River to the Valley of Crow Wing River via Long Prairie, Minn., in June, 1860. 

 • • • There were about 150 painted, bedecked, and ornamented Indians in the 

 party. 



War between Indian tribes was an occupation rather than a calamity. 

 It can not be said to have been strictly tribal in character, according 

 to our understanding of the term, since any prominent warrior might 

 persuade his comrades to join him and organize an expedition. 

 There were periods of peace, but as the maintenance of peace depended 

 largely on the self-control of the individual warrior, outbreaks were 

 of frequent occurrence. Often one fight ended an expedition, the 

 warriors returnuig satisfied if they had taken even one or two scalps. 

 The motive for organizmg a war party was usually revenge for a 

 kinsman's death. This motive is inadequately expressed by the 

 word "revenge," for it involved the idea that the death of a Sioux 

 "restored" the man who had been killed by a Sioux. Underneath 

 all other motives lay tribal pride. War was a game whose terrible 

 tally must be kept in favor of the Chippewa. To this end war 

 parties were planned and for this purpose they went forth to strike 

 the quick blow, departing as stealthily as they had come. 



Odjib'we was leader of the Chippewa warriors during the time of 

 Bu'gonegi'jig (Hole-in- the-day), plate 4,* the last great chief of the 

 tribe, who was assassinated in 1868. The two men were cousins and 

 theirs was an alliance of the second generation, as the father of 

 Odjib'we was brother of the first Bii'gonegi'jig and led his warriors 

 against the Sioux. Bows and arrows were used in Odjib'we's earlier 

 battles and neither Sioux nor Chippewa rode upon horses. 



1 statutes at Large, vol. 7, p. 272. 



2 Eighteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethn., part 2, map 33. 



3 J. V. Brower and D. I. Bushnell, jr., Mille Lac, St. Paul, Minn., 1900, p. 97. 



< From picture (numbered 67) in collection of photographs of North American Indians, in Descriptive 

 Catalogue of the Photographs of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories for the years 1869 to 

 1873, inclusive, by W. H. Jackson, Washington, 1S74. 



