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Biauswah (Bayaaswaa in Ojibwe, meaning "The Dry-one") was the name of two different Ojibwa chiefs. The name Bayaaswaa refers to jerkied meat, dried either by smoke or by sun.[1]
Biauswah (I)
Bayaaswaa was a Ojibwa Chief of a village on the south shore of Lake Superior, located about 40 miles west of La Pointe, Wisconsin, in the late 1600s. According to William Whipple Warren, based on oral history regarding Bayaaswaa, he was known for his prowess and wise counsel. Warren continues that when Bayaaswaa returned from a day's hunting, he found his villagers massacred by the Fox. Upon tracking the Fox, he found they had two captives: an old man that was tortured to death and a boy that was just about ready to be tortured. Warren then states:
| “ | As Biauswah looked upon the scene from his hiding-place he recognized in the lad his own son. His heart was filled with strong affection for the youth, and knowing how helpless he was to rescue him single-handed, he stepped forth from his place of safety as the Indians were about to light the faggots. Much to the amazement of his enemies he bravely strode among them, until he stood near the lad, and then addressing them, said, "My little son, whom you are about to burn with fire, has seen but a few winters; his tender feet have never trodden the warpath, he has never injured you. But the hairs of my head are white with many winters, and over the graves of my relatives I have hung many scalps, which I have taken from the heads of the Foxes. My death is worth something to you. Let me, therefore, take the place of my child, that he may return to his people. His enemies listend in astonishment, and having long desired his death, accepted his proposal. They allowed the young lad to return to his people, and the father was burned in his stead. A terrible revenge was meted out to the Foxes when the lad told his sad tale, for a large war party fell upon the Foxes, destroying so many of them that the remainder left the district and made their home in Wisconsin.[2][3] | ” |
Biauswah (II)
Bayaaswaa (recorded variously in English as Biauswah, Bajasswa, Byianswa or Biaswah) was the principle Chief of the Sandy Lake Ojibwa, whose village was located at either terminous of the Savanna Portage (Sandy Lake & opposite the mouth of the East Savanna River) in Minnesota.
According to William Whipple Warren, based on oral history regarding Bayaaswaa, as a child Bayaaswaa was captured by the Fox and whose father Bayaaswaa (I) traded his life for his son's. Bayaaswaa and few other survivors went to Fond du Lac, and the Fond du Lac Band drove the Fox out of northern Wisconsin.
The oral history, Warren continues, recalled a major battle with the Dakota at the mouth of the Crow Wing River. Sixty Ojibwa led by Bayaaswaa engaged three hundred Dakota who they said had destroyed their village at Sandy Lake. Supposedly, the battle lasted for three days. The Ojibwa established their village at Sandy Lake, establishing the Sandy Lake Band, and then ventured to Red Lake and Pembina.[2] Other oral history accounts, however, suggest the Cree aided the Ojibwa against the Dakota. According to Richard Alan Nelson, Bayaaswaa was a jiisakiiwinini (Shaking-tent Seer) and lived to the age of 109.[4]
Bayaaswaa's son Gaa-dawaabide ("Broken Tooth") later becomes Chief of the Sandy Lake Band.
Biauswah Lake in Itasca County, Minnesota, is named after him, as is the Biauswah Bridge, a bridge for the Minnesota State Highway 23 over the St. Louis River out of the Fond du Lac neighbourhood of Duluth, Minnesota.
References
- ^ Hodge, Frederick Webb (1907). Handbook of American Indians, Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulliten 30, Washington: Government Printing Office.
- ^ a b Warren, William W. [1851] (1985). History of the Ojibway People. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press (Borealis Books). ISBN 087351162X 9780873511629.
- ^ MacLean, John (1896). Canadian Savage Folk: The Native Tribes of Canada. Toronto: William Briggs.
- ^ Nelson, Richard Alan. "Parent & Related Families in Britain, Québec, Europe and USA (Godden, Edwin, Hedges, Lavoie, Miersch, Valyer, etc.)". RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project. Retrieved on 2007-09-08.
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- This page was last modified on 13 August 2008, at 14:07.
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