BUSHNELL] VILLAGES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 45 
conical skin tipi of the plains. There appears to have been very little 
variation in the form of structure as erected by the widely scattered 
bands. 
MpbpEWAKANTON. 
When preparing a sketch of the villages and village sites of the 
Mdewakanton, it is quite natural to begin with a brief description of 
the site of the village to which Father Hennepin was led captive, 
during the early spring of the year 1680. On the afternoon of April 
11 of that year, while ascending the Mississippi with two companions, 
he was taken by a war party of the Sioux, and after much anxiety 
and suffering reached the Falls of St. Anthony, which he so named. 
Thence, going overland through the endless forests, they arrived at 
the village of their captors. Soon Indians were seen running from 
the village to meet them, and then it was that “ One of the principal 
Issati chiefs gave us his peace-calumet to smoke, and accepted the 
one we had brought. He then gave us some wild rice to eat, presenting 
it to us in large bark dishes.” From this place they were later taken 
in bark canoes “a short league . .'. to an island where their cabins 
were.” (Shea, (1), pp. 224-225.) 
The Mdewakanton “ mystery lake village,’ of the Santee or east- 
ern division of the Dakota, were considered by some as “ the only 
Dakota entitled to the name Isanyati (‘Santee’), given them from 
their old home on Mille Lac, Minnesota, called by them Isantamde, 
‘Knife Lake.’” There is no doubt of the Mdewakanton being the 
Issati of Hennepin, to whose principal village he was taken, and 
where he remained for some: weeks during the year 1680. It has 
always been acknowledged that the village stood on or near the shore 
of Mille Lac, but riot until 1900 was a site discovered which appears 
without doubt to indicate the position of that ancient settlement. 
The outlet of Mille Lac is Rum River, which enters the Mississippi 
at Anoka. The stream soon after leaving the lake expands into a 
series of small lakes, usually designated as the First, Second, and 
Third Lake, from the outlet at Mille Lac. Rum River leaves Mille 
Lac near the southwest corner, but soon turns eastward, therefore 
the three lakes are rather parallel with the south shore of the great 
lake. At the upper end of Third Lake is an isolated mass, rising 
some feet above the highest stage of water, and having a superficial 
area of several acres. On May 29, 1900, this spot was surrounded by 
a marsh, in places overgrown with rushes, with pools of water, more 
numerous on the north side. But a short time has elapsed since all 
the lakes were somewhat deeper and more water flowed in Rum 
River. And at that time the waters surrounded this elevated mass 
and it stood as an island at the head of Third Lake. When the surface 
