Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/109

Rh it sacred, they used it only for medicinal rites, and for ornament on the occasion of a grand Me-da-we.

They are not therefore, the people whose ancient tools and marks are now being discovered daily by the miners on Lake Superior; or, if they are those people, it must have been during a former period of their ancient history; but their preserving no traditional account of their ancestors ever having worked these copper mines, would most conclusively prove that they are not the race whose signs of a former partial civilized state, are being daily dug up about the shores of the Great Lake.

During this era in their history, some of their old men affirm that there was maintained in their central town, on the Island of La Pointe, a continual fire as a symbol of their nationality. They maintained also, a regular system of civil polity, which, however, was much mixed with their religious and medicinal practices. The Crane and Aw-ause Totem families were first in council, and the brave and unflinching warriors of the Bear family, defended them from the inroads of their numerous and powerful enemies.