Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/514

504 them down to Gull Lake, where they were released. Agent Walker, on his way to Saint Cloud, under excitement, committed suicide. U.S. Commissioner Dole abandoning his journey to Grand Forks, came to Fort Ripley, with a military escort. He proposed to Hole-in-the-Day that there should be a council at Fort Ripley, but the chief declined to come. It was then arranged that there should be a conference at Crow Wing. On the 12th of September, the house of Hole-in-the-Day was burned by two white men, who were indignant at his course. The same night, about ten o'clock, three Ojibway chiefs, and three warriors, from Leech Lake, left the hostile camp, crossed the river, and conferred with the acting Indian agent. The night of the 18th, they went back to Hole-in-the-Day's camp, and the morning of the 14th returned with their families.

In council with the authorities of the United States, Wasec, a Pillager brave, said: "My father, I am not afraid to tell you the name of the one who led us to do wrong to the whites. It was Hole-in-the-Day who caused us to go astray by his bad advice. He sent messengers through to the lake, saying that our Great Father intended to send men, and take all Indians and dress them like soldiers, and send them away to fight in the south; and if we wish to save ourselves we must rise and fight the whites, and take them and their goods from the lake. The next day, after we had robbed our traders, another messenger arrived from Hole-in-the-Day, saying the white soldiers had shot at him, and in revenge wished us to kill all the whites at the lake, but our chiefs said, No; if Hole-in-the-Day wishes to kill the whites, let him commence first."

After this defection, upon the part of the Pillagers, Hole-in-the-Day became quiet and reasonable.