SHING-GAA-BA-WOSIN or the FIGURED STONE.

A Chippewa Chief.

Taken at the Treaty of Fond du Lac (on Lake Superior, North America. 1826 by J.OLewis

MA-KO-ME-TA,

OR

BEAR'S OIL.

(A MENOMOMIE. )

THIS chief resides to the south of the Fox river, in the territory of Michigan, in North America, where he is much respected on account of his friendly disposition towards the white settlers, his character being peaceable and mild. In the war between Great Britain and the United States, in 1812, he maintained a system of rigid neutrality, aiding neither of the belligerent parties; which, however, frequently exposed him to circumstances of difficulty. His brother, called the "Walking Thunder," took an active part in favor of the British, and was present at the siege of Fort Miegs, on the Miami river; at the battle of the river Raisin, in Michigan; and, finally, at the engagement on the river Thames, in Upper Canada, where he was killed. Ma-ko-me-ta has three wives, by whom he has a family of six children, who, with his aged father and sister, comprise his household.

In his early youth, Ma-ko-me-ta narrowly escaped death under the following circumstances: A destructive war had for some time been pending between the Menomomies and the Winnebagoes, in which his father took an active part. The former being defeated in an active engagement, fled precipitately from the battle; but, being pursued by the enemy, they were overtaken, when a savage slaughter of the vanquished party ensued. Amongst those who were saved on the field and made prisoners, but only to be reserved for more signal punishment, from their consequence in the tribe, were the subject of this sketch and his father. The arms of the latter were bound, and, thus disabled, he was driven before the band of the victorious Winnebagoes, the son, who was mounted on a horse, following behind one of the chiefs. When evening approached, the party halted to encamp, where, having made a large fire and partaken of food, they lay down to rest, enveloped in their blankets, first securing the prisoners by tying their arms together, and attaching the cord which bound them to the foot of the guard, Ma-ko-me-ta, then only twelve years of age, being placed betwen his father and the sleeping savage. In the middle of the night, the youth weeping and complaining bitterly of the pain which he suffered from the tightness of the cord which bound his arms, the guard granted him some indulgence by loosening it, and setting one arm at liberty. Ma-ko-me-ta looking upon this as a chance by which he might aid the escape of his father as well as himself, kept awake until a short time before day-break, when, finding the Indian soundly enveloped in sleep, he softly took from him his tomahawk,

with which severing the remaining cord which bound himself, he next released his father. They then both made a hasty retreat, and long before the Indians were aware of their loss, were far beyond the reach of pursuit.

The brother of Ma-ko-me-ta's father, whose name was Man-o-que-o-waa, was, under circumstances of less apprehension, not so fortunate as his nephew, meeting his death from the hands of a female prisoner whom he had charge of. He was of a very opposite disposition to the latter, being of a cruel and savage temper, and was an object of terror to the white settlements, from his depredations and atrocities, in company with other chiefs as unprincipled and cruel as himself. On one occasion he had, along with seven other chiefs, been engaged in a series of robberies, and after a long journey up the Mississippi, attacked a farm-house belonging to a settler of the name of Burns, whom they killed along with his wife, and after rifling and then setting fire to the house, took away his two daughters as prisoners, one of whom was about fifteen, and the other about eighteen years of age. On their retreat, they compelled the young women to walk, treating them with great cruelty, until, having marched a distance of upwards of twenty miles through a very dreary country, the Indians resolved upon separating, leaving the two sisters and the spoils with Man-o-que-o-waa, whilst they took an opposite direction in search of more plunder. Man-o-que-o-waa was mounted on a horse having a bag of wheat-flour behind him, taken from the farm-house. Shortly after the other Indians had left, he dismounted, and placing the bag on the ground, sat down near it, took out his tobacco pouch, and began smoking, at the same time ordering the girls, whose hands were bound, to sit opposite to him. It soon after commenced raining, when the eldest daughter intimated, by signs to the chief, that the flour would get wet, but that if he would unbind her arms, and let her have the use of his tomahawk, she would cut some branches of trees and place over it to protect it. Unconscious of any danger to be apprehended from such a feeble enemy, he consented to her proposals, and she went and cut some, until getting unseen and unsuspectingly behind the chief, she raised the heavy axe with both her hands over his devoted head, looking for seeming approbation at her sister, who sat opposite. It was a moment of intense anxiety for both, when the latter, in terror and fright, but with ideas of sweet revenge for the murder of their parents, nodded her consent, and the next instant the uplifted tomahawk sunk deep in the skull of the miscreant chieftain, who, uttering a loud cry, sunk inanimate to the ground. The intrepid avenger of her parents' death quickly unbound her sister, when, mounting the horse, they both swiftly fled, nor stopped in their career until they arrived at a small village at a distance, where they gave an alarm. Pursuit was immediately made after the other Indians, but without success.

Ma-ko-me-ta is five feet eight or nine inches in height, and very robust. He wore on his head a black handkerchief and eagle's feathers. From his neck was suspended a scalping-knife. He constantly wore a blanket.