I asked him if any of the relatives of
Gitche Naigow, of whom tradition spoke, yet lived. He pointed to his
wife, and said she was a daughter of Gitche Naigow. I asked her her age.
She did not know (probably fifty-five to sixty). She said her father
died and was buried at the Manistee River (North), that he was very old,
and died of old age--probably ninety. She said he was so old and feeble,
that the last spring before his death, when they came out from their
sugar camp to the open lake shore, she carried him on her back.
He had not, she said, been at the massacre of old Mackinack (described
by Henry), being then at _L'Arbre Croche_, but he came to the spot soon
afterwards. She had heard him speak of it. Says she was a little girl
when the British, in removing the post from the main land, first brought
over their cattle, and began to take possession of the present island of
Mackinack.
The old fort on the peninsula was called _Bik-wut-in-ong_ by the
Indians, but the island always had the name of _Mish-in-e-mauk-in-ong_.
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