Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/345

Rh ered great danger in attempts to make peace with the Dakotas. He was also noted for great oratorical powers, and he is mentioned by some of the old traders who knew him as being the most eloquent man the Ojibways have ever product. No-din, his son, succeeded him in his rank as chief of a portion of the St. Croix district. He is also dead, and none are now living to perpetuate the chieftainship of this family.

Buffalo, of the Bear Clan, also became noted as a chief of the St. Croix Ojibways, in fact superseding in importance and influence the hereditary chiefs of this division. Having committed a murder, he originally fled from the Sault Ste. Marie and took refuge on the St. Croix. The traders, for his success in hunting, soon made him a chief of some importance. His son, Ka-gua-dash, has succeeded him as chief of a small band.

The descendants of the hereditary chief of the Wolf Totem, are, Na-guon-abe (Feather End), and Mun-o-min-ik-a-sheen (Rice Maker), chiefs of Mille Lac; I-aub-aus (Little Buck), chief of Rice Lake, and Shon-e-yah, (Money), chief of Pokaguma.

As has been remarked in a former chapter, the Ojibway pioneers on the St. Croix first located their village at Rice Lake, and next at Yellow Lake. The villages at Pokaguma and at Knife Lake are of comparative recent origin, within the memory of present living Indians.

About thirty years ago [1820] the Ojibways were, many of them, destroyed by the measles, or the "great red skin," as they term it, on the St Croix; whole communities and families were entirely cut off, and the old traders affirm that at least one-third of the "Rice Makers," or St. Croix Indians, disappeared under the virulence of this pestilence. Other portions of the tribe did not suffer so much, though some villages, especially that of Sandy Lake, became nearly depopulated.