1040 WILD RICE GATHERERS OF UPPER LAKES [ETH. ANN. 19 
Assiniboin and the Kinisteno or Cree, and from there joined their 
southern kinsmen against the latter’s enemies, the Dakota. The second 
or southern division, after leaving Sault Ste Marie, pushed westward 
along the south shore of Lake Superior, stopping temporarily at 
Grand island, L’Anse, and finally at *‘Shaug-ah-waum-ik-ong” or 
Chequamegon bay. 
Warren says that it was while the Ojibwa were still at Sault Ste 
Marie that they and the Dakota first met, as is seen in the name which 
the latter gave the Ojibwa—* Ra-ra-to-oans,” or ‘* The-people-of-the- 
falls.” In all this westward movement south of Lake Superior the 
Ojibwa were surrounded by the fierce **‘ O-dug-aum-eeg,” or ** Opposite- 
side people” (the Fox Indians), and also by the Dakota, who claimed 
the southern and western sides of the lake. Every foot of ground was 
valiantly contested, until at last the invaders halted near La Pointe, 
where they were compelled to seek safety on La Pointe island. It is 
clear, from Indian tradition, and the evidence seems trustworthy,’ that 
it was about three hundred and sixty years previous to 1852, the year 
in which Warren wrote, that the Ojibwa assembled on La Pointe 
island. This would be about 1492. There they built a village and 
cultivated extensive gardens of pumpkins and maize. They also occa- 
sionally hunted on the mainland along the headwaters of St Croix 
river. They lived about a hundred and twenty years on La Pointe 
island, from which, after a signal victory over a war party from both 
of their western enemies, the Dakota and the Fox, they gained a last 
ing foothold on the mainland and spread to the south and west. 
From early in the seventeenth century they had ascended St Law- 
rence river with canoe loads of furs for the French. Then they 
acquired firearms and the primitive man’s craving for strong drink, 
and learned the exchange value of peltries in satisfying their new 
wants; with a force at once rapid and irresistible they plunged into 
the land of small lakes to the south and west, where the small 
furred animals were the most abundant. They destroyed the Fox 
villages about the headwaters of the St Croix and forced the inhabit- 
ants to desert their rice lakes in the midland country between St 
Croix and Chippewa rivers, the ejected people fleeing to Wisconsin 
river. The invading Ojibwa also planted a village on an island at 
the mouth of St Louis river at Fond du Lac. Warren places the 
date of these inland movements between the years 1612 and 1671. In 
1746 the Fox Indians again incurred the hatred of the Ojibwa, who, 
with the assistance of the French, dislodged them from Wisconsin 
river and Lake Michigan, and drove them to the Mississippi. 
The Dakota of Mdewaka" (‘Spirit lake,” Mille Laces), were at 
peace with the Ojibwa of Fond du Lae, but having treacherously 
1Warren, op. cit., pp. 89-90. 
