[65] From _ka_, an affirmative particle; _webeed_, teeth; and _eda_, a transitive objective inflection.
[66] _Ba_, a repeating particle; _besaw_, fine, curly; and _kundib_, the human head.
It was determined to encamp the heavy part of the expedition at this place, and to organize a sub-expedition of two light canoes, well manned, to explore the sources of the Mississippi River. While these arrangements are in progress, it may be proper to state something more respecting the condition and history of the Chippewa nation. And first, they are Algonquins, having migrated, at ante-Cartierian[67] periods, from the vicinity of Lake Nippesing, on the Outawis summit. Anterior to this, their own traditions place them further eastward, and their language bears evidence that the stock from which they are sprung, occupied the Atlantic from the Chesapeake, extending through New England. The name Chippewa is derived from the term Ojibwa. The latter has been variously, but not satisfactorily derived. The particle _bwa_, in the language, signifies voice. They are a well-formed, active race of men, and have the reputation of being good hunters and warriors. They possess the ordinary black shining eyes, black straight hair, and general physiological traits of the Indian race; and do not differ, essentially, from the northern tribes in their manners and customs. Pike, who was the first American officer to visit them, in this region, estimates the whole number seated on the Upper Mississippi, and northwest of Lake Superior, in the year 1806, at eleven thousand one hundred and seventy-seven. This estimate includes the entire population, extending south to the St. Croix and Chippewa valleys, below St. Anthony's Falls. It is believed to be much too high, for which it can be plead in extenuation, that it was the rough estimate of foreign traders, who were interested in exalting their importance to the United States. Certain it is, there are not more than half the numbers, in this region, at present. The number which he assigns to the Sandy Lake band is three hundred and forty-five.
[67] Cartier discovered the St. Lawrence in 1534.
The Chippewas of the Upper Mississippi are, in fact, the advanced band of the widespread Algonquin family, who, after spreading along the Atlantic from Virginia, as far as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, have followed up the great chain of lakes, to this region, leaving tribes of more or less variation of language on the way. There may have been a thousand years, or more, expended on this ethnological track, and the names by which they were, at various ages and places, known, are only important as being derivatives from a generic stock of languages whose radicals are readily recognized. Furthest removed, in the line of migration, appear the Mohicans, Lenno Lenawpees, Susquehannocks, and Powatans, and their congeners. The tribes of this continent appear, indeed, to have been impelled in circles, resembling the whirlwinds which have swept over its surface; and, so far as relates to the mental power which set them in motion, the comparison also holds good, for the effects of their migrations appear, everywhere, to have been war and destruction. One age appears to produce no wiser men than another. Having no mode of recording knowledge, experience dies with the generation who felt it, all except the doubtful and imprecise data of tradition; and this is little to be trusted, after a century or two. For the matter of exact history, they might as well trace themselves to the moon, as some of their mythological stories do, as to any other planet, or part of a planet. Of their language, the only certainly reliable thing in their history, a vocabulary is given in the Appendix. To the ear, it appears flowing and agreeable, and not of difficult utterance; and there is abundant reason, on beholding how readily they express themselves, for the plaudits which the early French writers bestowed on the Algonquin language.