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156 therein. Connected with it is a string of marshy, or mud-bottomed, lakes in which the water is but a few feet deep, and wherein the wild rice of the north grows luxuriantly, and in the greatest abundance.

Possessing these and other advantages, there is not a spot in the northwest which an Indian would sooner choose as a home and dwelling place, than Mille Lacs. It is not then to be wondered at, that for nearly two centuries, it has formed a bone of strife and contention between the Ojibways and Dakotas.

The name of the still large and important band of Dakotas known as the Mdé wakantons, has been derived from this lake; they now dwell on the Mississippi and the lower portions of the Minnesota River. Their ancestors were dwellers on Spirit Lake, and their bones have enriched the soil about its shores.

I gather from "A sketch of the early trade and traders of Minnesota," by the Rev. Edward D. Neill, of St. Paul, published in the Annals of the Minnesota Historical Society for 1852, that in the year 1680, the Franciscan priest Hennepin, with two companions named Michael Ako and Picard du Gay, were taken captive by the Dakotas of Mille