Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/369

Rh On the day appointed, the Dakota chief, with a large number of his people, made his appearance, and the Red River Ojibways accepted his offers of peace. At the same time the Sisseton, Warpeton, and M'dewakanton Dakotas, in a large camp, approached the Ojibways of the Mississippi and Sandy Lake, and Mille Lac. The two parties met on the banks of Platte River, near its junction with the Mississippi,and the peace pipe was formally smoked between them, and games of various kinds was played between the young men of the two camps. The feeling of hatred, however, which rankled in the breasts of the Dakotas against the Ojibways, could not altogether be restrained. At a grand game of ball, or Baug-ah-ud-o-way, played between the young men of either tribe for a large stake, a disturbance nearly leading to a scene of bloodshed occurred.

One of the seven Dakota warriors who had survived the battle at Long Prairie, picked a quarrel with an Ojibway, by striking him for some trivial cause, with his ball-stick. The blow was returned, and the fight would soon have become general, had not the young Wa-nah-ta, son of Shappa, rushed in, and forcibly separated the combatants, inflicting a summary punishment and scolding on his fellow Dakota who had commenced the fight. This is the first occasion in which Wa-nah-ta is mentioned by the Ojibways. He afterwards became celebrated as a warrior, and a chief of vast influence over the wild Yankton Dakotas.

While peace parties thus met above and below him, Flat Mouth, the Pillager chief, quietly hunted beaver on Long Prairie River. The peace pipe had been sent to him, but he had not as yet determined to accept it, for he mistrusted the intentions of the Dakotas in thus unusually making the first advance to bury the war-club. The wary chieftain could not think them sincere in their proffers of