pigs, but as soon as it squealed the mother ran furiously after
them. He kept the pig and fled with it, still laughing; but his
friend was soon compelled to run up the conveniently inclined trunk
of a fallen tree, while our hero reached the shore of a lake near
by, and plunged into the water. He swam and dived as long as he
could, but the beast continued to threaten him with her sharp
teeth, till, almost exhausted, he swam again to shore, where his
friend came up and dispatched the vicious animal with a club. On
account of this watery adventure he was at once called Tamahay,
meaning Pike. He earned many other names, but preferred this one,
because it was the name borne by a great friend of his, Lieutenant
Pike, the first officer of the United States Army who came to
Minnesota for the purpose of exploring the sources of the
Mississippi River and of making peace with the natives. Tamahay
assisted this officer in obtaining land from the Sioux upon which
to build Fort Snelling. He appears in history under the name of
"Tahamie" or the "One-Eyed Sioux."

Always ready to brave danger and unpopularity, Tamahay was the
only Sioux who sided with the United States in her struggle with
Great Britain in 1819. For having espoused the cause of the
Americans, he was ill-treated by the British officers and free
traders, who for a long time controlled the northwest, even after
peace had been effected between the two nations. At one time he
was confined in a fort called McKay, where now stands the town of
Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. He had just returned from St. Louis,
and was suspected of exciting his people to rebel against British
subjects. His life was even threatened, but to this Tamahay merely
replied that he was ready to die. A few months later, this fort
was restored to the United States, and upon leaving it the British