Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/353

Rh was returning to Leech Lake, after a long residence among his Cree relations in the north, and was stopping to hunt with some friends at Red Lake, when, about midwinter, the news of the above battle reached them. There being many relatives of the old man Uk-ke-waus and his sons residing at Red Lake, at the news of their death, a war party was immediately raised, consisting of one hundred and thirty warriors, who marched on snow shoes towards the hunting grounds of the Dakotas. The young Pillager chief joined this party, and proceeded with them to the southern base of O-ge-mah-mi-jew, or Chief's Mountain, where they made a night attack on a large camp of the enemy, consisting of over fifty lodges. Several volleys were fired into the defenceless lodges, and many of the inmates killed and wounded, when, the warriors of the Dakotas briskly firing back, the Ojibways retreated.

The young chief, with two others, remained for some hours in the vicinity of the camp, after their fellows had gone, and he vividly describes the plaintive wailing of those who had lost relatives in the late attack. There was deep mourning in the camp of the Dakotas that bloody night! Stealthily approaching the lodges in the darkness, the young chief, with his two companions, once more discharged their guns at their weeping enemies, then turning homewards, they ran all night to rejoin their fellows.

Esh-ke-bug-e-coshe relates as a curious fact, that this war party left Red Lake on snow shoes, the ground being covered with deep snow. They marched directly westward, and having reached the great western plains, they found bare ground, left their snow shoes, and walked whole days through immense herds of buffalo.