THE WIFE WHA-ZEE-YAN

ANOTHER OF THE GIANT GODS OF THE DAHCOTAHS

STORMS IN LIFE AND NATURE; OR, UNKTAHE AND THE THUNDER BIRD HAOKAH OZAPE

THE DANCE OF THE GIANT U-MI-NE-WAH-CHIPPE; OR, TO DANCE AROUND




INTRODUCTION.

The materials for the following pages were gathered during a residence
of seven years in the immediate neighborhood--nay--in the very midst of
the once powerful but now nearly extinct tribe of Sioux or
Dahcotah Indians.

Fort Snelling is situated seven miles below the Falls of St. Anthony, at
the confluence of the Mississippi--and St. Peter's rivers--built in
1819, and named after the gallant Colonel Snelling, of the army, by whom
the work was erected. It is constructed of stone; is one of the
strongest Indian forts in the United States; and being placed on a
commanding bluff, has somewhat the appearance of an old German castle,
or one of the strongholds on the Rhine.

The then recent removal of the Winnebagoes was rendered troublesome by
the interference of Wabashaw, the Sioux chief, whose village is on the
Mississippi, 1800 miles from its mouth. The father of Wabashaw was a