History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan | Page 3

time thanking them for their humane action
upon those British remnants of the massacre. She promised them that
her long arms will perpetually extend around them from generation to
generation, or so long as there should be rolling sun. They should
receive gifts from her sovereign in shape of goods, provisions, firearms,
ammunition, and intoxicating liquors! Her sovereign's beneficent arm
should be even extended unto the dogs belonging to the Ottawa tribe of
Indians. And what place soever she should meet them, she would freely
unfasten the faucet which contains her living water--whisky, which she
will also cause to run perpetually and freely unto the Ottawas as the
fountain of perpetual spring! And furthermore: she said, "I am as many
as the stars in the heavens; and when you get up in the morning, look to
the east; you will see that the sun, as it will peep through the earth, will
be as red as my coat, to remind you why I am likened unto the sun, and
my promises will be as perpetual as the rolling sun!"
Ego-me-nay--Corn-hanger--was the head counselor and speaker of the
Ottawa tribe of Indians at that time, and, according to our knowledge,
Ego-me-nay was the leading one who went with those survivors of the
massacre, and he was the man who made the speech before the august
assembly in the British council hall at Montreal at that time. Ne-saw-
key--Down-the-hill--the head chief of the Ottawa Nation, did not go
with the party, but sent his message, and instructed their counselor in
what manner he should appear before the British Government. My
father was a little boy at that time, and my grandfather and my great-
grandfather were both living then, and both held the first royal rank
among the Ottawas. My grandfather was then a sub-chief and my great-
grandfather was a war chief, whose name was Pun-go-wish: And

several other chiefs of the tribe I could mention who existed at that
time, but this is ample evidence that the historian was mistaken in
asserting that there was no known Ottawa chief existing at the time of
the massacre.
However it was a notable fact that by this time the Ottawas were
greatly reduced in numbers from what they were in former times, on
account of the small-pox which they brought from Montreal during the
French war with Great Britain. This small pox was sold to them shut up
in a tin box, with the strict injunction not to open the box on their way
homeward, but only when they should reach their country; and that this
box contained something that would do them great good, and their
people! The foolish people believed really there was something in the
box supernatural, that would do them great good. Accordingly, after
they reached home they opened the box; but behold there was another
tin box inside, smaller. They took it cut and opened the second box, and
behold, still there was another box inside of the second box, smaller yet.
So they kept on this way till they came to a very small box, which was
not more than an inch long; and when they opened the last one they
found nothing but mouldy particles in this last little box! They
wondered very much what it was, and a great many closely inspected to
try to find out what it meant. But alas, alas! pretty soon burst out a
terrible sickness among them. The great Indian doctors themselves
were taken sick and died. The tradition says it was indeed awful and
terrible. Every one taken with it was sure to die. Lodge after lodge was
totally vacated--nothing but the dead bodies lying here and there in
their lodges--entire families being swept off with the ravages of this
terrible disease. The whole coast of Arbor Croche, or Waw-gaw-naw-
ke-zee, where their principal village was situated, on the west shore of
the peninsula near the Straits, which is said to have been a continuous
village some fifteen or sixteen miles long and extending from what is
now called Cross Village to Seven-Mile Point (that is, seven miles from
Little Traverse, now Harbor Springs), was entirely depopulated and laid
waste. It is generally believed among the Indians of Arbor Croche that
this wholesale murder of the Ottawas by this terrible disease sent by the
British people, was actuated through hatred, and expressly to kill off
the Ottawas and Chippewas because they were friends of the French

Government or French King, whom they called "Their Great Father."
The reason that to-day we see no full- grown trees standing along the
coast of Arbor Croche, a mile or more in width along the shore, is
because the trees were entirely cleared away for this famous long
village, which existed before the small-pox