NAMES OF INDIAN MOONS

January--Wi-tehi--the hard moon.
February--Wicata-wi--the raccoon moon.
March--Is-lawi-cayazan-wi--the sore eye moon.
April--Magaokada-wi--the moon in which the geese lay eggs, also called 
Wokada-wi, and sometimes Watopapi-wi--the moon when the streams are 
again navigable.
May--Wazupi-wi--the planting moon.
June--Wazustexasa-wi--the moon when the strawberries are ripe.
July--Canpasapa-wi, and Wasun-wi, the moon when the choke-cherries are 
ripe, and when the geese shed their feathers.
August--Wasuton-wi, the harvest moon.
Sept.--Pinsnaketa-wi, the moon when rice is laid up to dry.
Oct.--Wi-wazupi-wi, the drying rice moon. 
Nov.--Takiyuda-wi, the deer rutting moon.
Dec.--Tahicapsun-wi, the moon when the deer shed their horns.
	
The following description of the effect upon the Indians produced by the 
sight of the first steamer on the Missouri, by Mr. Catlin, the great 
Indian delineator, we copy from Armstrong's work: "If anything did ever 
literally astonish and astound the natives, it was the appearance of our 
steamer, puffing and blowing, and rushing by their villages which were 
on the banks of the river. These poor and ignorant people, for the 
distance of two thousand miles, had never before seen or heard of a 
steamboat, and in some places they seemed at a loss to know what to do, 
or how to act. They could not, as the Dutch did at Newburgh on the 
Hudson River, take it to be a 'floating saw-mill,' and they had no name 
for it, so it was like anything else (with them) which is mysterious and 
unaccountable, called medicine (mystery). We had on board one twelve 
pounder cannon and three or four eight pounder swivels, which we were 
taking up to arm the Fur Company's fort at the mouth of the Yellowstone; 
and at the approach to every village they were all discharged several 
times in rapid succession, which threw the inhabitants into utter 
confusion and amazement--some of them laid their faces to the ground and 
cried to the Great Spirit--some shot their horses and dogs and 
sacrificed them to appease the Great Spirit, whom they conceived was 
offended--some deserted their villages and ran to the top of the bluff 
some miles distant; and others, in some places, as the boat landed in 
front of their villages, came with great caution and peeped over the 
bank of the river to see the fate of their chiefs, whose duty it was 
(from the nature of their office) to approach us, whether friends or 
foes, and to go on board. Sometimes, in this plight, they were instantly 
thrown, neck and heels, over each other's heads and shoulders--men, 
women, children and dogs--sage, sachem, old and young--all in a mass, at 
the frightful discharge of the steam from the escape pipe, which the 
captain of the boat let loose upon them for his own fun and amusement.

	There were many curious conjectures among their wise men with 
regard to the nature and power of the steamboat. Among the Mandans some 
called it the 'big thunder canoe' for when some distance below the 
village they 'saw the lightning flash from its sides, and heard the 
thunder roll from its big pipe.'  Others called it the 'big medicine 
canoe with eyes.' It was 'medicine' or mystery, because they could not 
understand it; and it must have eyes, said they, for it sees its own way 
and takes the deep water in the middle of the channel. They had no idea 
of the boat being steered by the 'man in the glass house at the top of 
the boat.'" This was probably about the year 1832.

From the journal of Major Stephen H. Long's expedition to the source of 
the Minnesota or St. Peter's River, and thence down the Red River of the 
North to Lake Winnepeg, in 1823, written up for publication by William 
H. Keating, A. M., geologist and historian of the expedition, we extract 
some very interesting and reliable information. Mr. Keating took great 
pains to obtain truthful information, and being a well-informed 
gentleman, his views and statements are carefully given and entitled to 
credence.

	The expedition found the Dakotas then living on the banks of the 
Mississippi about Lake Pepin, and distributed thence west over the 
country to the head of St. Peter's River.

	Major Long had visited the Upper Mississippi in 1817, and found a 
chief of the Dakotas, Wapasha, or Wabasha, then living on what has since 
been called Wabasha Prairie. The expedition of 1823 found him living in 
the same place.

	The Chippewas (Ojibwas) then inhabited the region around Lake 
Superior and the valley of the Chippewa River in Wisconsin. Between the 
two nations then existed a chronic state of war.

	The journal speaks of great boulders of granitic rocks in the 
valley of the Mississippi, which were regarded with such veneration by 
the Sioux or Dakotas as to be objects of worship. The early settlers in 
Minnesota found many of these great fragments of the northern drift 
objects of veneration by the Indians, and gave them the name of "God 
Rocks."

	At Fort Snelling the expedition exchanged the interpreter who had 
accompanied it from Fort Wayne, Ind., for a French half-breed named 
Renville, an active, intelligent man, who served both as guide and 
interpreter. His mother was a Dakota of the Little Crow (Petite Corbeau) 
tribe living on the Mississippi about Redwing. He had been a captain in 
the British army during the war of 1812-15, and later was in the employ 
of the Hudson Bay Fur Company. Subsequently he threw up his commission 
and returned to the country about the heads of the Minnesota and Red 
rivers. In 1823 he was the factotum of the Columbia Fur Company, having 
a trading post in Lake Traverse. He accompanied the party as far north 
as Pembina.

	Joseph Snelling, a son of Colonel Snelling, then in command of 
Fort Snelling, accompanied in expedition beyond that point. 

	In ascending the Minnesota River the party divided, on portion 
passing up the river in canoes, the other going by land and keeping near 
the river.

From the researches of Major Long we learn that as early as 1695 the 
French had been in the valley of the St. Peter. In that year one LeSeur 
had been sent by M. d'Iberville, Governor of Louisiana, to take 
possession of the country, and he constructed a fort near the mouth of 
the Blue Earth River, which he called Fort L' Huillier, in honor of M. 
L'Huillier, a French chemist who had made an assay of the "blue earth" 
of this region, which was believed to contain copper. The French called 
this affluent of the St. Peter's River "Le Riviere Verté." Charlevoix 
states that in the spring of 1702, 30,000 pounds of copper ore were 
taken out of a mine here, and 4,000 pounds of the best ore were sent to 
France.

	In 1695 the French built a fort on an island in the Mississippi 
River, 200 miles above the mouth of the Illinois River (probably Rock 
Island) to preserve peace between the Chippewas and the Sioux, and with 
the additional object of extending their trade to the head waters of the 
Mississippi.

M. Le Seuer had taken a Sioux chief named Ti-os-ca-té to Montreal in 
1695, and this was probably the first of the nation to visit Canada, 
unless we except occasionally a prisoner taken by the Chippewas.

	This chief had an interview will Count Frontenac, the Governor 
General, to whom he presented as many arrows as there were bands or 
villages of the Sioux nation. He asked the Governor to extend the 
protection of the French over the Dakotas. Le Seuer was to have returned 
with this chief to the Sioux country, but, unfortunately, the latter 
died in Montreal, and Le Seuer proceeded to France, where he obtained a 
grant from the French crown to visit the St. Peter country and work the 
mines. He was, however, captured by the English on his return voyage, 
and having thrown his commission overboard was obliged, after his 
release, to return to France and procure a new one, when he proceeded to 
the mouth of the Mississippi in company with d'Iberville, but seems not 
to have visited the St. Peter's country at that time. He was 
subsequently in Canada, and in 1701-2 again visited the St. Peter valley 
and did some mining. On the Blue Earth River Le Seuer met nine Sioux 
Indians, who told him that the St. Peter's River coursed through the 
country of the Sioux and the Otoetata (Otoes?), who dwelt farther back.

	The name, St. Peter's is supposed to have been bestowed by Le 
Seuer in 1695. It may have been a corruption of "Sans pierre" (without 
stones), in allusion to the absence of bowlders in the lover valley of 
the river. It may also have been given in honor of M. St. Pierre de 
Repentigui, a prominent Canadian official in 1689.

	Baron La Hontan's map makes the St. Peter's River to rise in the 
Rocky Mountains, and shows it much larger and more important than the 
Missouri. It passes through several large lakes which have no existence 
on modern maps.*

*Carver copies and exaggerates La Hontan, and both are unreliable.

	Major Long's party found the Sioux cultivating corn in the 
Minnesota valley in 1823. They also noticed their custom of placing 
their dead upon raised platforms, from which, after a time, they were 
taken down and buried with many ceremonies. At that date a tribe or band 
of Dakotas, called Miakechakesa, lived on the Blue Earth River.

	The historian speaks of Big Stone Lake as if it were only a marshy 
sheet of water, and says it is improperly called a lake. The Sioux 
Indian name of this lake is Ea-ta-ke-ka Lake of the big stones, or 
rocks. In this region they found the Wahk-pako-toan, or the people that 
shoot at leaves, a band of the Dakotas. Their main village was at the 
foot of Lake Traverse, where they cultivated a large island in the lake. 
In this vicinity they saw the buffalo for the first time.

	According to Mr. Keating the Dakotas in their own language 
sometimes style themselves "Ochente-Shakoan," or nation of seven fires, 
somewhat similar to that of the Six Nations or Iroquois of New York, who 
called themselves the "People of many fires," or "People of the long 
house." The following subdivisions and names are given:

1. Mende Wahkan-toan, or people of the Spirit Lake.
2. Wahkpa-toan, or people of the Leaves.
3. Sisi-toan, or Miakeckakesa.
4. Yank-to-awan, or Fern Leaves.
5. Yank-toan, or descended from the Fern Leaves.
6. Ti-toan, or braggers.
7. Wahkpako-toan, or the people that shoot at leaves.

The Assiniboines, or Hohas, as the designate them, meaning "the 
revolted," were claimed to be an offshoot from the Yanktoanan tribe.