Volume 1

A HENRY AND TANNER CONCORDANCE. 263
horse and lay bleeding for some time, but the body of this
Sioux could not be found.'
On my return all was grief and lamentation ;
and at sight
of me it broke out afresh with such sobs and cries that I
almost wished I had not been so expeditious on my voyage.
The Saulteurs were assembled, preparing for war and only
waiting for the Assiniboines and Crees to join them ; a
number of Saulteurs are also awaiting them above this
place ; they will form a party of about 300 men, mostly
mounted. I gave them a nine-gallon keg of gunpowder
* Tanner tells the identical story unmistakably, p. 137 seq. We thus get an
exact date to check his narrative, and can even identify some of the Sioux who
'
fell upon Henry's Indians. Tanner begins with : ' After we had killed and
dried large quantities of meat, we erected a sunjegwun, or a scaffold, where we
deposited as much as we thought would supply the wants of
our women in our
absence. Before we had entirely finished the preparations for our journey, we
were fallen upon by a war-party of about 200 Sioux, and some of our people
killed." Tanner then speaks of a certain "chief of the Ojibbeways," saying
that " he went up into an oak tree that stood near his lodge, to look out over
the prairie for buffaloe, and in descending he was shot from below by two young
men of the Sioux." " Now," continues Tanner, " the trampling of horses was
heard, and the men who were with the chief had scarce time to run out of the
lodge, when the 200 Sioux, on their horses, were at the door. One of the two
runners who had come forward, and had been concealed in the hazle bushes,
was an uncle of Wah-ne-taw, at present \i. e. , when Tanner was telling the story
to Dr. James, many years afterward] a well-known chief of the Yanktongs, .and
the party was led by his father. Wah-ne-taw himself was of the party, but was
then less distinguished than he has since become." This is the Wanotan of
whom we hear so much in Long, and whose portrait forms the frontispiece of
Keating's Vol. I. 1824. Tanner goes on to say :
" The fight continued during
the day ; all the Ojibbeways, about 20 in number, were killed, except Ais-ainse
(the little clam,) a brother of the chief, two women, and one child. Mr. Jf.,
the trader at Pembinah, gave the Ojibbeways a ten gallon keg of powder, and
100 pounds of balls, to pursue after the party that had killed the chief, his
father-in-law." This establishes the identification of the two stories, and we
see that Henry and Tanner corroborate each other in every essential particular.
As to the war party raised to avenge the massacre, Tanner was a member of it,
and tells about it more particularly than Henry does (Sept. 4th and 27th, p.
265). He says it started 400 strong, but that 100 Ojibbeways deserted the first
day out from Pembinah ; and that by the time they reached Lake Traverse, the
number was diminished to about 120—three half-breed Assinneboins, about
20 Crees, as many Ottawwaws (Tanner's own band, under Peshauba), and the
rest Ojibbeways. His story continues, pp. 140-43, q. v.