🧚 Ojibwa and Mohawk. (no. 1.)

Told by Peter York.1

Long years ago there were two Ojibwa boys who lived so close together that they called each other “Brother,” and one time when they got to be big boys they talked about getting married, so they went away to an Indian (Ojibwa) village not far away and got girls to marry them.2 When they got married they wanted to know what to do to make a living.3 One said “We will go a long ways up the river to hunt and stay there for a good while and will be able to get enough to keep us during the winter months.”4 They got ready for the trip and started with a good supply.5 They stayed a long time till they got enough (furs and meat) and then started to come home.6

On their way home they came to a place where there were a lot of stumps and snags, and one of them struck a stump and made a big hole in his canoe.7 He had to go to shore to fix his canoe, whilst the other canoe went on ahead.8 When the canoe was mended they started on again and when they came to a little lake they saw their comrade just about the other side of the little lake going into a river where there were lots of other Indians (Mohawks, their enemies) waiting for them to come home with their catch of fur and meat.9 The man in the second canoe said to his wife, “Well, my brother is going to get killed, as he goes into the river, you watch!”10 And when the first canoe was just going into the river there was smoke of gunfire from both sides.11 The wife (in the second canoe) said, “We will be killed the same way.”12 The husband replied, “Well, no. If I get mad (angry) there is no shot that could hit me.13 I will go alone to see, and you stay here till I come back.”14 “No,” she said, “You can’t go, you will be shot too.”15 “Well,” said he, “let them shoot, they can’t hit me.16 I had a dream in my early days that no gun could hurt me, and if my dream is no good I won’t come back.”17 So they got everything out of the canoe and he started in the canoe with his gun for the same place where his comrade got shot.18 When he got there the gunfire started from both sides of the river and kept up for a long time, till after a while the fire was not so bad, after another while the fire ceased and the wife looked and looked and after a short time she saw something coming straight to where she was waiting.19 She knew the canoe but there was a different man in it.20 She hid herself in the bush till she heard her man calling to her and then she came out.21 Her man was all black, and it was because he had so many close shots fired at him that the gunpowder blackened him up, so that the wife only knew him by his voice when he called her.22 They got ready and crossed the lake to where the fight took place.23 They got out of the canoe and he showed his wife where there were a good many dead Indians (Mohawks) on both sides of the river.24 They went to work to see if they could find their friends’ bodies.25 It did not take them long to do so and to bury them the best way they could.26 They then started on their way home and upon arrival spread the story and went to see the parents of the dead ones.27 This ends this story.28

NO. 9.29