Some represent the maiden as
delivering an oration from the top of the rock, long enough for an
address at a college celebration. It has been stated that she fell into
the water, a circumstance which the relative situation of the rock and
river would render impossible.
Writers have pretended, too, that the heroine of the rock was a
Winnebago. It is a mistake, the maiden was a Dahcotah.
It was from the Dahcotahs that I obtained the incident, and they believe
that it really occurred. They are offended if you suggest the
possibility of its being a fiction. Indeed they fix a date to it,
reckoning by the occurrences of great battles, or other events worthy
of notice.
But to the story--and I wish I could throw into it the feeling, and
energy of the old medicine woman who related it.
About one hundred and fifty years ago, the band of Dahcotahs to which
Wenona belonged, lived near Fort Snelling. Their village was on the site
now occupied by Good Road's band.
The whole band made preparations to go below Lake Pepin, after
porcupines. These animals are of great value among the Dahcotahs; their
flesh is considered excellent as an article of food, and the women stain
their quills to ornament the dresses of the men, their mocassins, and
many other articles in use among them.
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