DENSMOKB] CHIPPEWA MUSIC II 77 



part in the fight and together they related its story, Niski'gwiin 

 also singing two of the songs. 



Regarding this fight Folwell gives the following information:^ 



The lower Sioux, who late in 1853 reluctantly retired to their reservations on the 

 upper Minnesota, were wont to return in summer weather in straggling companies to 

 their old homes. . . . Shakopee and his band of 150 had early in the summer of 1858 

 come down and gone into camp near the town which bears his name. One of his 

 braves, fishing in the river (the Minnesota) at an early hour, was fired upon. Shako- 

 pee's men instantly recognized the sound as coming from a Chippeway gun. They 

 gathered at Murphy's Ferry and, presuming that the hostile shot came from one of 

 some very small party, they let their women put 30 or 40 of them across. They did 

 not suspect that back of the timbered bluff a mile distant there lay in hiding 150 or 

 more Chippeway warriors. . . . They were wary, however, and placed themselves in 

 ambush in a narrow space between two lakelets. The Chippeways . . . charged down 

 from the bluff twice or more, without dislodging the Sioux. The day was not old 

 when they gave up the effort and departed in haste for their homes, carrying their 

 wounded and perhaps some dead. Four of their corpses were left to the cruel mercies 

 of the Sioux. . . . Such was the so-called "Battle of Shakopee," May 27, 1858. 



An account of the fight from the standpoint of the native his- 

 torian is given by Warron.^ Odjib'we's narrative is given below in 

 connection with song No. S, which concerns the death of a warrior in 

 the engagement. 



The first song of the group has reference to the war charm worn by 

 the warrior, the song being sung shortly before a fight to make the 

 charm more effective.^ Niski'gwtin said that he sang this song before 

 the battle at Ca'gobens' village. The last two words were sung with 

 the repetition of the song, the melody remaming the same. The word 

 "balls" was said to refer to the heads of the enemy, which the warrior 

 would cut off and toss about. Reference is made to No. 35, in which 

 war is compared to a game, the bodies of the dead benig its score. 

 The charm usually worn by the Chippewa warrior consisted of the 

 skm of a bird, dried and filled with a medicine known only to the 

 wearer, probably an herb or other substance suggested to him m a 

 dream. (See No. 28.) This charm was hung around the neck of the war- 

 rior, who believed in its power to protect him. It was said that if, by 

 any chance, a bullet struck this charm it would kill the man. Accord- 

 ing to Ma'djigi'jig (see p. 84), who made a duplicate of the old war 

 charm (})1. 12), the bird used in preparing this charm was "the 

 smallest of a kind of bird that flies at evenmg;" it was itlentified by 

 ;Mr. Henry Oldys, of the Biological Survey, as the kuigbird,or bee mar- 

 tin ( Tyrannus tyrannus) . The characteristics of this bird may explain 

 its use by Indian warriors m preparmg a charm. ''Nothing can be 

 more strikmg than the intrepidity with which one of these birds will 

 pounce upon and harass birds vastly larger and more powerful than 



» W. W. Folwell, Minnesota, the North Star State, Boston, 1908, pp. 157-158. 



2 History of the Ojibway, in Colls. Minn. Hist. Soc, vol. v, 1885, pp. 502, 503. 



3 other songs connected with the use of "medicine" are Nos. 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 32, 36, 141, 

 142, 143. 



