I Am Algonquin Read online

  Mitigomij and the twins kept pace with me, Miskwì, and Kinòz-i Ininì. The wolf and small dog lay in the bottom of the canoe sound asleep. In the twins’ boat, the big cat sat and watched like a vigilant sentry. Nothing escaped this animal’s sight or senses. He was like the early morning mist — eerie, secretive, and dangerous. Like the mist, that has only one master, the sun, Makadewà Wàban only answered to Mitigomij. The panther would kill in defence of my brother without hesitation, but small children could pull on his tail and ears at will when on the rare occasion he would come into the village.

  The weather was being good to us as we started our voyage. Everyone on the river with us knew what lay ahead, and that we had to make quick time. The food that we brought would have to last the way, as there was no time for hunting. With no women and children to fish from the boats, the men dropped a fishing line and took their chances on catching something. Much to our surprise, Nokomis supplied us with enough fish to make good stews every night. Time was of the essence and everyone knew that we had to catch an enemy that had a substantial head start. In all probability, it would end at their village.

  What we had planned in the Ouendat Nation to be a two-pronged attack had developed into a revenge and rescue mission.

  My heart was still heavy from my loss, and I had a bitter taste in my mouth. My stomach was queasy and my mind reeled from what had happened. A strong and vibrant community now laid burnt and destroyed, most of my relatives and friends all dead or captured. The fire had prevented the Nation from gathering for the summer, and in turn weakened the Omàmiwinini. The Haudenosaunee had sensed this weakness and acted with a swift and decisive strike. When Mother Nokomis made the decision that my people were included with her plants and animals in this fire renewal, Kitchi Manitou could not protect us. Our lives seemed to be a never-ending cycle of survival against all the elements that Cluskap sent against us.

  The original plans that had been made in the Ouendat village was to arrive at my village, feast, hunt, and wait for the Nippissing and more of my Nation. During this time, we would acquire a store of food and make our weapons for the planned raid. However, the raid of the Haudenosaunee threw these plans to the wind. Though we had many warriors on this foray, we had planned on more, and we had a low supply of food and continually were working on making weapons during our nightly camps. The main makeup of our force was Ouendat and Nippissing, with hopefully a strong contingent of Omàmiwinini led by Pangì Shìshìb coming behind us.

  When Panther Scar’s scouts returned, they told him that they had travelled up the river a long way and had not seen any enemy action.

  “Thank you. Have something to eat, our hunters were successful,” he replied.

  We had made good time in the two days we had been on the Kitcisìpi. Mitigomij never fell off the pace. He was an excellent canoeist, and the warriors who were his aides moved him quickly through the portages on the litter. With no women and children along, everyone had jobs to do when making camp for the evening, such as gathering firewood, erecting cedar lean-tos, and cooking. The Ouendat warriors were young and eager, always taking responsibility for posting night guards.

  The third day started out very hot and humid. By mid-afternoon, the temperature rapidly dropped and the sky turned black, shutting out the sun, turning day into night. The wind came up so strong that it started to turn our boats. A sudden bolt of lightning struck so close that our boat could feel the heat and our hair stood up from the force. The sound was deafening and we were momentarily dazed. Our heads rang from the percussion. Looking around behind us, we saw that a canoe with Ouendat men had taken the full force of the blast. Their canoe was on fire and two of the warriors were floating face down in the water. The third man sat in the boat screaming in pain from the fire that was engulfing him. The boat then sank, taking the writhing warrior to a watery grave and in turn soothing his pain.

  Then the rain came with such a force that it threatened to swamp our boats if we did not make it to shore. Struggling to keep the winds and the rain from capsizing us, we frantically headed to land. All around us vessels were turning over and warriors were throwing ropes to the men in the water to help them to shore. Once onto shore we dragged the boats into the forest, tipped them, and crawled under for shelter.

  Everyone was sodden from the rain, making it a very uncomfortable day waiting out the storm. The rain kept on until just before nightfall. Then we all emerged from our birch bark shelters and hastily started fires. Once the men got fires going, we built them as large as we could, using the light to repair our canoes.

  Ojàwashkwà Animosh, Ozàwà Onik, and I then met to make plans after we were sure the camp was organized.

  “All my people survived,” I said. “Ozàwà Onik, I’m deeply sorry for the loss of your three warriors by the lightning strike.”

  “Thank you for your sorrow. They were three young men on their first war trail. Their families will mourn them for they were good providers and carried many promises as warriors.”

  Ojàwashkwà Animosh then said, “I lost two men when the boats started to capsize. In all the confusion, they disappeared into the water and were swept downstream. If we find their bodies I want to bury them.”

  Ozàwà Onik and I agreed to Ojàwashkwà Animosh’s request.

  We had lost valuable time and had no way of knowing if our quarry had suffered the same setback from the storm.

  The runners who had left the village were our fastest, and we anticipated that they would meet up with a Malecite or Innu hunting party. We needed a diversion at the rapids if there was any hope of slowing the Haudenosaunee down.

  Panther Scar had taken his time going downriver, even though all the time thinking that we were only a small force of thirty or forty pursuers behind them. The storm had caught them at a portage, and they sheltered themselves in relative comfort. He had wanted his friend Corn Dog to catch up before they reached the big rapids near where the two big rivers and large island converged on each other. They would reach this area in the next day or so, and there they could only wait for a maximum of two days for Corn Dog.

  When they reached the rapids Panther Scar’s force would only be two or three days from home. Little did Panther Scar know that a huge force was a day and a half behind and that there were also enemies coming down the river from the east. His men were well fed and rested; he had not pushed them hard at all on the river. The women and children captives fished from their boats with the understanding that if they were unsuccessful they would not be eating. At night they tied the women up and the young ones remained free. They would not go anywhere without their mothers or aunts.

  29

  Retribution

  OJÀWASHKWÀ ANIMOSH, OZÀWÀ Onik, and I had been sending scouts out ahead of the main force every day. We did not want to stumble onto a Haudenosaunee ambush.

  An ambush was a sign of clever fighting. To kill from a trap was a better-thought-out strategy than a frontal attack. A well-laid trap always had an enhanced success rate because of the advantage of surprise and the opportunity to kill and disable the enemy without significant losses on your side. Anterior attacks that resulted in hand-to-hand battles never ended well for either side; casualties were always high for both sides. Those who killed from safety always showed superior strength and to be merciful was a sign of weakness, unless it was to make a point to the enemy. An enemy who you let live would always come back with revenge in his heart.

  At the end of the fourth day, I called my small force of fifteen Omàmiwinini warriors together.

  “My fellow warriors, when the battle starts I want all of you to be with me. I hope that Pangì Shìshìb and Minowez-I will eventually catch up, but for now, this is all we have to represent our Nation. I want us to fight together as one unit among the Ouendat, Nippissing, and whoever else joins us from the east. If I am to die in the future it has to be among Omàmiwinini warriors.”

  I then turned to the four young warriors who were responsible for Mitigom
ij and said, “If the enemy escapes from us at the rapids we will have to chase them to the south into their lands. Mitigomij will not be left behind; you have a great responsibility to help him keep up to us. We need the fighting abilities of him and the black one. He is great medicine and Kitchi Manitou has always smiled upon Mitigomij.”

  “Mahingan, Mitigomij will keep up. You have our word,” replied my nephew Wàbek.

  On their last portage, they had seen where their enemy had camped. The signs showed they were only a day ahead. They would reach the rapids in the next day or so and then the final battle would start.

  Kàg had travelled this way a long time ago when he was a young warrior. They had raided a summer fishing camp of Haudenosaunee east of the rapids, and he had captured a beautiful woman he called Kinebigokesì. She became his wife and bore him the twin sons who now travelled with him as warriors. Now, after all these years, her own people had recaptured her, and by now they have probably come to realize that she was one of them. If this had happened, they would return her to her family unharmed.

  Kàg had told his sons who their mother was and that the enemy would not harm her. This calmed their fears, but they still had other relatives with the enemy and their fate would depend on many things. One was that if our war party pressed them too hard they would start killing the captives who slowed them down.

  The pursuers paddled through the next day and that night. When they camped they prepared themselves for the oncoming battle. Everyone filled their food pouches full of Ouendat corn and whatever dried meat that they could find. If during a battle a warrior separated from his people, he would then have to survive on what he carried to evade capture or death at the hands of his foe. That night we danced and drummed to ask our ancestors and Kitchi Manitou for guidance and protection. The next morning we adorned ourselves with paint to put fear into our enemies and to give us courage.

  When we reached the rapids at noon the next day we knew we were closing in. The cooking fires we found were from the previous day. The Haudenosaunee would now travel east toward the river (present-day Richelieu River) that would take them to their homeland. Here would be the chance we would need to catch them. If the Innu and the Malecite had answered our call and come down the big river from the east, they could intercept them before they reached the waterway to their homelands.

  Panther Scar’s men were nearing the last leg for home. They were hugging the shoreline, staying in the small bays and avoiding the open water. This kept them from detection if there were any of their enemies in the vicinity. If discovered, they could quickly reach shore and the cover of the forest.

  It was now past noon that day, and they had been making good time away from the rapids. They had lingered close to two days waiting for Corn Dog to show; by then the risk was too high to remain any longer. Corn Dog would have to catch up with his group when he could. Panther Scar thought that his friend might have come across the small band of warriors that he was sure were trailing them.

  “Panther Scar,” a voice from one of his scouts woke him from his thoughts.

  “Yes,” he replied.

  “Just before the entrance of the river we are travelling to, we sighted over twenty boats with just warriors and a few women. They are mostly Innu and a few Malecite.”

  “How close are they to us?” asked the Haudenosaunee chief.

  “They are on the opposite side of the river and travelling fast!” replied the scout.

  Panther Scar had his warriors hurry to shore, pulling the boats up and hiding them. The captives were then bound, gagged, and placed under guard. He would not risk a battle here. The enemy numbers were close to his, and he would suffer losses that would greatly hinder their chances of getting home safely.

  From the cover of the thick forest, Panther Scar and his warriors had waited for the enemy’s boats to pass. After a half hour the canoes came into sight. He could make out a few Algonquin and Malecite warriors, but the main body was Innu. He counted sixty-two warriors and five women in nineteen boats. He did not think they were a hunting party as there were too many. Seeing the Algonquins made him suspect that these men were somehow tied in with the village that he and his men had destroyed. Noticing also that they had no advance scouts and the urgency that they were paddling made him think that they were travelling to meet someone. Now he was sure he had made the right decision to hide.

  The Haudenosaunee waited in the forest for a half hour or so to make sure the enemy had long gone. It had been very hard to stay still for the hour they were in the thick stand of pine, cedar and underbrush. The biting insects were feasting on their bare skin. Because the captives had all their limbs tied, they were in intense agony from the biting, with their faces and bodies starting to swell from the stings. They had run out of goldenseal mixture to repel their swarms and had to put the smudges out when they entered into hiding in the forest. Once back on the river they relit the fungi smudges and alleviated the hordes of bugs that had trailed them out of the woods.

  Panther Scar now knew that this escape had become a race against time. He would have to make the river that would take them south and then after a day and a half enter the forest for the final leg home. Speed was of the essence now; any faltering on their part could mean an all out battle with our oncoming force. He told his warriors that once they landed again on shore, to kill any captives that could not keep up.

  Meanwhile, behind the Haudenosaunee the Algonquins and our allies portaged around the rapids and struck out to the east on the river. We had not gone far when we joined the Innu, Malecite, and our runners, who days before had left our village to find these allies. They told us that they had not come across the Haudenosaunee. We knew that they were not far ahead of us, and that they could not have reached the southbound river before the Innu group had travelled past there. That meant they had seen our allies coming upriver and had been able to hide while they passed. We were close and they knew it. We made the decision to double time our paddle strokes until nightfall; we had to catch them before they went ashore and headed into the forest and to their hunting trail home. We would be at a disadvantage once they reached the forest and were able to lay a Haudenosaunee ambush.

  Our war party now numbered over three hundred warriors. There still was no sign of Pangì Shìshìb and Minowez-I, who could add another one hundred warriors to the group.

  That night we camped about a half-day’s travel west of the river. The chiefs made a decision to send a dozen men ahead to try to find the enemy. We would find out tomorrow how close we were to them.

  First dawn found all the boats in the water striving for the Haudenosaunee southern escape route with hope that this would be the day that we could wreak revenge on them.

  Toward midday, the lead canoes yelled back that the scouts were in sight and travelling in haste toward us.

  The scouts who had been Ouendat and Innu reached the boat of Ozàwà Onik and relayed the news to him.

  Ozàwà Onik turned and said, “The scouts have sighted our adversaries, and they are only a short distance ahead. We are very close to the northern flowing river of the Haudenosaunee. My men tell me that the enemy has already reached there and are heading down it as I speak. We all know that they will have to portage past the rapids and the waterfall. This is where we have to catch them before they make their break to the forest down river from the falls.”

  In no time at all, the massive cavalcade of canoes and warriors headed for the Haudenosaunee River. We reached the mouth of the river and sped toward the falls and the battle that we knew would happen there. If our enemy escaped from us there, the chase would become dangerous, with us having to pursue them into their homeland. The fall season was coming on and we could find ourselves caught in an early snow.

  “Panther Scar, we have just come from our back trail and we are being followed by an immense force,” said Long Arm, one of his scouts. “We are outnumbered at least five to one and they will be upon us in less than an hour. The main parts of
the force are dogs of the Ouendat Nation. We have fought them many times, and they are relentless.”

  Panther Scar replied, “They have caught us here at the portage and we cannot make it above the falls before they get here. Hurry to the front and tell the first boat through that they have to go now. They will have to travel as fast as they can to our nearest village, bringing back as many warriors as they can to hold off this force from entering our lands.”

  Panther Scar then turned to his remaining sixty or so warriors. He told them to take the captives and tie them to trees near the end of the portage.

  He needed ten men to come with him; they had less than an hour to set some traps to slow the enemy down once they hit the shore. The rest of his men were to prepare an ambush to repel over three hundred of us. He hoped beyond hope that the lame one was with them, and if he were, he would get his retribution.

  I kept my warriors close. With the addition of the three runners who had found and persuaded the Innu and Malecite to come to our aid, I now had eighteen in my small force along with a dog, wolf, and a hell cat. They would make their mark on the enemy. I had no doubt about this.

  The canoes landed on the portage shore with no resistance. The men disembarked in droves, with my small band of warriors and me in the middle.

  Then without warning men started screaming and dropped to the ground in agony with blood coming out of their feet and their hands as they tried to stop themselves falling to the ground. The Haudenosaunee had buried small wooden stakes in the earth with just the points sticking out and also had laid thorns among the forest cover of leaves. This ruse had been designed to slow us down, and it worked very well. Over twenty warriors had stepped on the stakes and then fallen into the thorns. It would now slow the whole force down looking for the remainder of the traps on the trail. This wasted time would help our rivals set their ambush. They knew they were outnumbered, but they were not going to die easily.