the Red River and to the east of Lake Winnipeg had come many of the
Chippewas. They were known on the Red River as Sauteurs, or Saulteaux,
or Bungays, because they had come to the West from Sault Ste. Marie,
thinking nothing of the hundreds of miles of travel along the streams.
They were sometimes considered to be the gypsies of the Red men. It was
they coming from the lucid streams emptying into Lake Superior and
thence to Lake Winnipeg, who had called the latter by its name "Win,"
cloudy or muddy, and "nipiy" water. When the Colonists arrived, the
leading chief of the Chippewas, or Saulteaux, was Peguis. He became at
once the friend of the white man, for he was always a peaceful, kindly,
old Ogemah, or Chieftain.

All the Indians were, at first, kindness itself to the new comers, and
they showed great willingness to supply food to the hungry settlers, and
to assist them in transfer and in taking possession of their own homes.

The Saulteaux Indians while active and helpful were really intruders
among the Crees, a great Indian nation, who in language and blood were
their relations. As proof of this the Crees at this time used horses on
the plains. The horse was an importation brought up the valleys from the
Spaniards of Mexico. Seeing his value as a beast of burden, more fit
than the dog which had been formerly used, they coined the word
"Mis-ta-tim," or big dog as the name for the horse. Their Chiefs were,
with their names translated into pronounceable English, "the Premier,"
"the Black Robe," "the Black Man," while seemingly Mache Wheskab--"the
Noisy Man"--represented the Assiniboines. The Crees, so well represented
by their doughty Chiefs, are a sturdy race. They adapt themselves
readily enough to new conditions. While the northern Indian tribes met
the Colonists, yet in after days, as had frequently taken place in days
preceding, bands of Sioux or Dakotas, came on pilgrimages to the Red