LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS OF THE ODAHWAH INDIANS. 115 



No echo is given off from the ceihng, for this is also within the 

 limit of perceptibility, while it assists the hearing in the gallery by 

 the reflection to that place of the oblique rays. 



The architecture of this room is due to Captain Alexander, of the 

 corps of topographical engineers. He fully appreciated all the prin- 

 ciples of sound given by Professor Henry, as detailed in the former 

 paper on "Acoustics applied to Public Buildings," and varied his plans 

 until all the required conditions, as far as possible, were fulfilled. 



LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS OF THE ODAHWAH 

 INDIANS. 



BY F. ASSIKINACK, A WARRIOR OF THE ODAHWAHS.' 



Read before the Canadian Institute, December, 18.57. 



As it is my purpose to relate some Indian traditions, and make a 

 few general observations concerning the Indian race of America, it 

 may be propeir to state that the Odahwah Indians are the tribe to which 

 I myself belong. Some members of this tribe now reside on the 

 Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron ; others on the shores of Lake 

 Michigan, in the State of the same name. The Odahwah settlement 

 in that State is about forty miles in a south-westerly direction from 

 the strait of Michinimakinang, which unites Lakes Michigan and 

 Huron. That territory was wrested from the Mushkodensh tribe by 

 the Odahwahs some two hundred and fifty years ago, and held by 

 them until it was surrendered to the American government so recently 



* Prancis Assikinack, the author of this paper, is a full-blood Indian, and a son of one of 

 the Chiefs of the Odahwahs,— or Ottawas, as they are more generally designated, — now set. 

 tied on the Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron. In 1840, he was sent, at the age of sixteen, 

 to Upper Canada College, Toronto, by the late Samuel P. Jarvis, Esq., then Superintendent - 

 General of Indian affairs. At that time he was totally ignorant of the English language, 

 and after being about three months at the above institution, he got one of the boys (now the 

 Rev. G. A. Anderson of Tayendinaga,) to interpret for him, and solicit permission to return 

 home, as he thought he could never learn the English language. Fortunately his desire was 

 not complied with, and he remained long enough at Upper Canada College, not only to 

 acquire such a command of the English language as is evinced by this communication on the 

 Legends and Traditions of his Tribe, but also to obtain a familiar knowledge of Latin and 

 Greek. F. Assikinack now fills the office of Interpreter in the Indian Department at 

 Cobourg. So creditable and satisfactory a result of an experiment which at first seemed so 

 hopeless, ought surely to encourage its repetition, and that on a much more extended scale. 



