Marcelo Calbucci is working on a geo-database project and came across a weird line of text in a database. He hopes a reader can solve the mystery:
I found a bizarre data on an official USGS database. It points to a place on Minnesota and the text says:
'Tell Him I Blame Him for the Children We Have Lost…' Aish-Ke-Vo-Go-Zhe
It would be interesting to figure out this puzzle.
Reader comments:
Jay has solved the mystery. The coordinates indicate where Aish-Ke-Vo-Go-Zhe (AKA, Aysh-ke-bah-ke-ko-zhay or "Flat Mouth" ca.1774–ca.1860) perished.
A powerful Ojibwa, or Chippewa, chief in the Leech Lake area of present-day Minnesota, Aysh-ke-bah-ke-ko-zhay, or Flat Mouth, visited the nation's capital in 1855 as a member of the Indian delegation from the Midwest. The tribal leaders were brought to Washington to negotiate land treaties. Aysh-ke-bah-ke-ko-zhay spoke on behalf of his people in negotiating the cession of more than ten million acres in north-central Minnesota—a land package that included the headwaters of the Mississippi River. The Native Americans received more than one million dollars in funds and services, but aspects of this cession and others in the region continued to figure in government discussions with Native Americans for the next hundred years.
Aysh-ke-bah-ke-ko-zhay (other English spellings are also known) means "bird with the green bill" in the Ojibwa language. "Flat Mouth" did not derive from this native name but was instead an English translation of the nickname "Gueule Platte," applied by early French traders. In 1911 Smithsonian Institution ethnologist James Moody characterized the great leader as "probably the most prominent Ojibwa chief of the upper Mississippi region from at least 1806, when he held council with Lieutenant [Zebulon] Pike…probably to his death, which seems to have occurred about 1860."
Jane McG says:
"This mystery was just solved in the comments of the original blog post- woo hoo! The strange database entry apparently refers to an annual commemorative event remembering a tragic native american relocation effort.
Here is the full text found on the Web"
Mikwendaagoziwag— They are remembered
Sandy Lake ceremonies set for July 28To remember those who perished at
Sandy Lake during a failed attempt to remove Ojibwe bands from Wisconsin and Michigan in 1850, GLIFWC sponsors annual ceremonies at the Sandy Lake site near McGregor, Minnesota.
Ceremonies are slated for noon at the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) site on Sandy Lake. Ceremonies will be preceded by a paddle across Sandy Lake to the ACOE site. The paddle will begin at 9:00 a.m. Following the noon ceremonies, all will
join in a feast.
Everyone is welcome to attend and to
participate in the paddle across the lake. For more information, please contact GLIFWC
at (715) 682-6619 or GLIFWC's website at
www.glifwc.org."Tell him I blame him for the children we have lost, for the sickness we have suffered, and for the hunger we have endured. The fault rests on his shoulders."
—Flat Mouth, Leech Lake Ojibwe
speaking of Territorial Governor Alexander Ramsey
