Original - North Central Michigan College Library

Chapter 2THE WINTER AT CHEQUAMEGONor Chagouemigon, mightatCHAGOUEMIG,this period be regarded as the metropolisof the Chippewa, of whom thetrue name is O'chibbuoy. The chiefs informedme that they had frequently attacked theNadowessies (by the French called Sioux orNadouessioux) with whom they are alwaysat war, with fifteen hundred men includingin this number the fighting men from Fond duLac, or the head of Lake Superior. The causeof the perpetual war carried on between thesetwo nations, is this, that both claim as theirexclusive hunting ground the tract of countrywhich lies between them, and uniformly attackeach other when they meet upon it.77This immemorial warfare between the Chippewaand the Sioux was continued until almost our own day.In August, 1919, there died at Beaulieu, Minnesota, aChippewa chief (Mayzhuckegeshig) who in earlier lifehad repeatedly led his braves to battle against theSioux. When a warrior distinguished himself in battleby killing and scalping his foeman he was usuallydecorated with a feather from a war eagle. Someindication alike of the prowess and of the manner of lifeof Mayzhuckegeshig in his earlier years is afforded bythe fact that he had accumulated some twenty of theseprized trophies. In 1825 Governor Cass met the Siouxand the Chippewa in council at Prairie du Chien,189