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Before the white man arrived here in the fur trading era, the native American tribes came here in their last migration. They were led by the spirit of the sacred otter. I taped and recorded this story from an elder who lived on Gunflint Lake. He told me the story of “Otter Track” Lake; on the cliff are rocks where one can see the familiar sliding down movement of the otter. The otter who led the Ojibwe on the last migration.
How long have people lived in the Northland?
Cook County has scientific findings of native relics that are eight to nine thousand years old. At “Minong” Isle Royale, the good place of the berries, pottery was found that was over two thousand years old. Historians do not know whose items they were. The people today known as Ojibwe were led by their clan leaders. Only a few tribes in the midwest of North America still have seasonal feasts of their clan war bundles. Some are over five hundred years old. Those war bundles still retain their pipes, flutes, and clan feasts. A Grand Portage girl was married into that tribe and traditionally lives there today.
When I give a speech, I try to lead into it by saying that the victor writes the history. Consequently, we do not hear true history.
At Isle Royale, where I was told many stories by the elders, there is much older history being discovered. Television programs have shown stone tablets with writing on them. The people of the Greek islands allegedly showed maps of Isle Royale with their travels to the island where they took copper over one thousand years ago.
This was one hundred percent pure copper along with wild rice of North America; both were allegedly found in Egypt in the Pharoh tombs.
Where the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers come together was a huge village of over twenty thousand natives who spoke a similar language. Their mounds were destroyed by the white man, but some remain and are protected in a national park. The village once known as “Ka ho ki a,” is now called St. Louis.
This huge village was strong until 1,000 A.D.
What does that have to do with us?
Isle Royale copper was taken to that large village in Missouri and traded to the largest seafaring people of the world at that time, the Phoenicians who hailed from the Mediterranean Sea.
The Sac Fox tribes of present-day Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa (all of these states are native American words), allegedly went with the Phoenicians on huge water vessels to assist them in war. A book was written about their adventures which I have given to tribal leaders.
Gold, silver, ore, and later uranium and many other minerals were searched for and fought over. From present day Thunder Bay, Ontario, to Beaver Bay, Minnesota, and deep into the forest area, these minerals and hidden history still remain.
Now let’s go back hundreds of years to something the Ojibwe and Sioux fought over that was of high value to them: Flint. The flakes from flint were pounded and made into cutlery, spears, and arrowheads, which could be lit into flame and shot at warring tribes. Flint was only located in a few places. It was of high value to those people.
Chief Blackdog, of the Sioux, and his people had been defeated and forced to leave “Dog Lake” village which is 30 miles north of present day Thunder Bay, Ontario. A large effigy cut into a hill, in the shape of a dog, was destroyed by the white people in the 1930s.
Hundreds of years ago Chief Black Dog and his Sioux, Arikara, and Mandan people traveled west. They took over the valuable lake, with the cliffs full of flint, and the lake was called “Flint Lake”.
Using smoke fumed messages and scout runners, Oibwe war parties drove the Sioux out of Flint Lake. Hoping the Ojibwe could not find them, Chief Black Dog and his people moved not too far to the west on Saganaga Lake islands. At some point Chief Black Dog and a large war party with their spiritual powers took back “Flint Lake.”
The Ojibwe were led by “Ba Gwadj a nini” which means “Wild man of the Bush.” He was a powerful medicine man chief. “Ba Gwadj a nini” sent messages to the Ojibwe village to meet at the sacred rock of the Nipigon River coming out of Kitchi Kami, Lake Superior. This was a spiritual area where many fasted and sought high powers. The native populations at that time were low because of fierce winters, cold winds, and the wrath of old man winter. The Ojibwe decided to bring a large war party to take over the valuable lake near the flint. They did so and for a time retained their right to the valuable flint.
After several years the Sioux brought most of their warriors together as a final attempt to take back the flint.
In meetings with scouts and sub-chiefs, the Ojibwe called out for help. They piled trees, boulders, and everything into a huge area. Chief Black Dog led the Sioux attack. With war hoops, they shot flint tipped arrows which were on fire into the Ojibwe and were slowly winning the battle.
“Ba Gwadj a nini” (who still has family in Grand Portage) took out his powerful pipe and as the sacred tobacco given by the Anishinaabe by Nanabozho, came from his pipe he called on the spirits of the wind to take tobacco to the powerful Lake Superior Water Lion Rock on Thunder Cape, near present day Thunder Bay.
“Ba Gwadj a nini” called out for help from the great Thunder Eagle who resided on top of the mountain. He cried out from his suffering days of fasting and asked the spirits for help.
Answering him, the great Thunder Eagle called on this war hawk and war red eagles. They came to Flint lake and taunted the Sioux with their fierce cold rain and ice water. The Ojibwe hid under the barricades of trees until the crackling thunder and icecold rain stopped and the weather calmed.
The Sioux tried to retreat but were surrounded by the Ojibwe. Most were killed, but some escaped to Saganaga Lake and their island mounds. From that time on, the Ojibwe were sole proprietors of Flint Lake. Later, when the white man arrived in the free trading years, they took great amounts of flint.
The flint, of course, was for their guns and from then on Flint Lake became Gunflint Lake.
George Plummer and his sister Lillian Plummer, Charlie Cook, and Jimmy Spoon showed me on the United States side of the lake where the villages and battles were. I taped most of this for history.
Ontario archival history and two ladies: Tania Saj and Elle Andrq-Warner, redid much of the writings of the 1800s.
In my next story, I will try to tell of the Sioux Mounds and battles of Saganaga Lake.
Miigwitch, William (Billy) Blackwell, Grand Portage
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