Volume 1

,
BUFFALO AND WILD RICE RIVERS.
I47
On leaving Riviere des Schians we soon reach Riviere
aux Boeufs [now Buffalo river"] from the E. This has two
principal branches ; one from the S. E. and the other from
the N. E.; they both take their water out of a number of
small lakes in the strong wood, and, after a long winding
course through the open plain, join within about five
leagues of Red river. This river is also navigable for small
canoes, and large ones have been known to ascend the E.
branch in the spring, when the waters were high.
About seven leagues by land beyond this river, Riviere
aux Oiseaux Puants or Vulture river^* comes in from the W.
'^'
The reader will remember that Henry is not traveling now—he has stopped
in his camp on Goose r., and is only going on paper. Buffalo r. is a large
forked stream, whose main course flows from Buffalo 1. and others in the maze
of lakes in Becker Co., Minn., in and near the southern part of the White
Earth Indian reservation, runs N. W., turns S. W. into Hawley Tp. of Clay
Co. , continues nearly W. till it receives its main fork from Otter Tail Co.
through Clay Co., and from their junction flows about N. W. into Red r. at
Georgetown, Clay Co., Minn., opp. Trysil, Cass Co., N. Dak. The N. P.
R. R., going E. from Moorhead, crosses the S. fork of Buffalo r. atTenny, and
afterward crosses and re-crosses the main or E. fork at or near Stockwood,
Muskoda, Hawley, and Winnipeg Junction. The mouth of Buffalo r. is a few
miles lower down Red r.
than that of the Cheyenne, instead of being higher up,
as Henry's text implies in saying that we reach Buffalo r. after leaving the Cheyenne.
Nicollet marks Buffalo r. with the alternative name Pijihi.
^^
The "stinking birds" here said are turkey-buzzards {Catkartgs aura).
This
river is now called Wild Rice r.—to be distinguished from all those so named in
Minnesota. Nicollet uses the alternative name Psihu ;
this is the same Sioux
word as the Pse of note ^^ \ Keating calls it Pse r., p. 39. Tanner, p. 142,
speaks of " the Gaunenoway, a considerable river which heads in the Chief
Mountain, and runs into Red River, several days' journey from Lake Traverse."
This " Gaunenoway " stands for Manominee. Tanner also has, p. 140 "
: Due
west from Lake Traverse, and at the distance of two days' travel, is a mountain,
called Ogemahwudju (chief mountain)," i. e., Henry's Montague de Chef, given
as source of this Wild Rice r. The stream flows mainly in Richland Co., N.
Dak., where for a long distance it
C, M., and St. P. R. R. between the two. It enters Cass Co., and falls into
Red r. a few miles above Fargo ; town or sta. Wild Rice at its mouth.
Above the mouth of Wild Rice r. , Fort Abercrombie was established pursuant
closely hugs the W. side of Red r.—with the
to A. of C, March 3d, 1857, and orders from hdqrs. of the army, June 24th,
1857, at a point on the W. bank of Red r. 12 m. N. of the confluence of Bois
des Sioux and Otter Tail rivers, the intention being to build near the head of