NARRATIVE, to. Tl 



M My intercourse with the Indians at this lake occupied the day 

 after my arrival. The population was reported at eight hun- 

 dred and thirty-two BOllls. Seven eight! of this number, are of 

 the hand called Mukkundwais, or Pillagers, a term derived from 



occurrences in their early history. The remainder are locally 

 denominated tin" Bear Island Indians. The principal chiefs arc 

 Aish Kibug Ekozh,or TheGuella Plat, and The Elder Brother, 

 and Chianoquot. This hand appear to have separated themselves 

 from the other Chippewas, at an early day, and to have tak< n 

 upon themselves the duty which Ilcubcn, Gad, and Menasa h 

 assumed, when they crossed the Jordan. They hive "parsed 

 armed before their brethren," in their march westward. Their 

 geographical position is one, which imposes upon them the de- 

 fence of this portion of the Chippewa frontier. And it is a de- 

 fence in which they have distinguished themselves as brave and 

 active warriors. Many acts of intrepidity are related of them 

 which would be recorded, with admiration, had white men been 

 the actors. Perfectly versed in the arts of the forest, they have 

 enjoyed the advantage of concealment in the progress of a war, 

 which has been directed against the Sioux, a powerful assem- 

 blage of tribes, who live essentially in plains, but who aim to 

 make up the disadvantage of this exposure, by moving habitually 

 in larger bodies. It seems, however, indisputable, that, with 

 fewer numbers, the Chippewas have not hesitated to fall upon 

 their enemies, and have routed them, and driven them before 

 them, with a valor and resolution, which in any period of writ- 

 ten warfare, would have been stamped 'as heroic. It is not 

 easy, on the part of government, to repress the feelings of hos- 

 tility, which have so long existed, and to convince them, that 

 tiny have lived into an age when milder maxims famish the 

 basis of wise action. Pacific counsels fall with little power 

 upon a people situated so remotely from every good influence, 

 and who cannot perceive io the restless spirit of their enemk I, 

 any safeguard for the continuance of a peace, however formally 

 it may have been concluded. This fact was adverted to by one 



