Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/366

356 regions in great abundance. Thus, a formidable body of the tribe had gradually congregated on this remote northwest frontier, who flourished under the alliance of the Kenisteno and Assineboin tribes, to whom, properly, the country belonged. They joined their wars against the Yancton Dakotas; and thus, on an uninterrupted line from Selkirk's settlement to the mouth of the Wisconsin River, over a thousand miles in length, the Ojibways and Dakotas carried on against one another their implacable warfare, and whitened this vast frontier with each other's bones.

For a number of years, on the headwaters of Thief River (which empties into Red River below Otter Tail Lake), a camp of ten Dakota lodges, succeeded in holding the country by evading or escaping the search of the Ojibway war parties. Here, loth to leave their rich hunting grounds, they lived from year to year in continual dread of an attack from their conquering foes. They built a high embankment of earth, for defence, around their lodges, and took every means in their power to escape the notice of the Ojibways—even discarding the use of the gun on account of its loud report, and using the primitive bow and arrows, in killing such game as they needed. They were, however, at last discovered by their enemies. The Crees and Assineboines, during a short peace which they made with the Dakotas, learned of their existence and locality, and informing the Ojibways, a war party was raised, who went in search of them. They were discovered encamped within their earthen inclosure, and. after a brave but unavailing defence with their bows and arrows, the ten lodges, with their inmates, were entirely destroyed. The embankment of earth is said, by Wa-won-je-quon, the chief of Red Lake (who is my informant on this subject), to be still plainly visible. From this circumstance, the Ojibways named the stream (the headwaters of which the Dakotas had so long