Each band of Chippewas has yet many stories to tell of the terrible battles with the “nadoway-sioux,” as the French trappers and hunters call the Algonquin word which means “hidden enemies.” This warfare began years before the time of our war of the Revolution and did not end for nearly a century. The Chippewas fought for their new home very bravely, and the Sioux were just as brave in trying to hold what they believed to be the center of the world and nearest like the Happy Hunting Grounds of the future life. There is a very extensive view of the Mississippi at its junction with the Minnesota which is called by the Indians Mendota, or the “gathering of the waters.” The contending tribes fought fiercely to hold or to obtain this place, for here these red men, with their love for the beautiful in nature, had decided was where many of their gods liked best to stay. The building of Fort Snelling at this point and the arrival of white men put a stop to the battles, and neither tribe could claim Mendota. The Great Father in Washington made a treaty with the Chippewas whereby they hold much of their hard-won lake region as long as they keep their treaty promises; now that there is peace between the Indian nations they are willing to admit that each had many heroes in war and council. During the conflict a trader attempted to bargain with the Sioux for furs, after having had dealings with a band of Chippewas. This band, wild with fury at what they called the trader’s treachery, broke open his storehouse and destroyed or took all his stores of furs and other articles. They were called Pillagers by the French and other bands, and hold the name yet and are proud of it, for the deed was done openly and for the sake of their nation. The Pillagers are nearly all Blanket Indians. They live in wigwams in summer and cover these with bark huts in winter for greater warmth. The wigwams are covered with woven mats made of reeds or grass and birch bark. The huts are like a one-room house and are covered also with pine or birch bark. Each spring these Indians make large quantities of maple sugar, which they pack in mokuks, or birch-bark baskets, and sell or exchange at the stores in towns. During the summer they pick and sell the berries which grow near the woods and lakes. They have gardens of maize, squash, pumpkins, beans, and onions, and some raise potatoes. Their meat supply is getting scarce, as the deer, moose, and bear are being hunted so freely by white men. The men often dress in true Indian costumes, with buckskin leggings, beadwork ornaments, blankets, and a feather in their scalp lock if they have killed an enemy; this honor is hard to give up, and even a murderer of one of his own tribe has dared to wear the eagle feather.