Editor's Note:
Though Doty did not comment upon it, Schoolcraft left a long account of how their Indian guides made a record of the trip:
"On quitting our encampment this morning, the Indians left a memorial of our journey inscribed upon bark, for the information of such of their tribe as should happen to fall upon our track. This we find to be a common custom among them. It is done by tracing, either with paint or with their knives upon birch bark, (betula papyracea) a number of figures and hieroglyphics which are understood by their nation. This sheet of bark is afterwards inserted in the end of a pole, blazed, and drove into the ground, with an inclination towards the course of travelling.
"In the present instance the whole party were represented in a manner that was perfectly intelligible, with the aid of our interpreter, each one being characterized by something emblematic of his situation or employment. They distinguish the Indian from the white man, by the particular manner of drawing the figure, the former being without a hat, &c. Other distinctive symbols are employed, thus -- Lieut. Mackay was figured with a sword to signify that he was an officer, -- Mr. Doty, with a book, the Indians having understood that he was an attorney, -- myself, with a hammer, in allusion to the mineral hammer I carried in my belt, &c. The figure of a tortoise and prairy hen, denoted that these had been killed, -- three smokes -- that our encampment consisted of three fires, -- eight muskets, -- that this was the number armed, -- three hacks upon the pole, leaning N. W. that we were going three days N. W. -- the figure of a white man with a tongue near his mouth, (like the Azteek hieroglyphics) that he was an interpreter, &c.
"Should an Indian hereafter visit this spot, he would therefore read upon this memorial of bark, -- that fourteen white men and two Indians encamped at that place, -- that five of the white men were chiefs or officers, -- one an interpreter, -- and eight common soldiers, -- that they were going to Sandy Lake, (knowing three days journey N. W. must carry us there) -- that we were armed with eight guns, and a sword, -- that we had killed a tortoise, a prairy hen, &c.
"I had no previous idea of the existence of such a medium of intelligence among the northern Indians. All the travellers of the region, are silent on the subject. I had before witnessed the facility with which one of the lake Indians had drawn a map of certain parts of the southern coast of Lake Superior, but here was a historical record of passing events, as permanent certainly as any written record among us, and full as intelligible to those for whom it was intended.
Location: uncertain, though their route presumably roughly paralleled MN 210; this map shows the region
View Doty's handwritten manuscript of this page
View page in the 1895 printed edition
View this page in Schoolcraft's 1821 Narrative
Early in the morning we rose, shouldered our packs and commenced our route, which the whole of this day laid over wind-falls and through cranberry and tamerack Swamps. It is impossible to describe the fatigues of this day's march, and I believe there are even few savages who would for any consideration encounter them… — whole distance 15 miles. We encamped at sunset.
