Note 64 — {93} CHAPTER VII {V}

The text does not make clear the route of the party through Carroll County, especially as Doe Creek cannot be identified. If this stream was a tributary of Grand River, the party could not have crossed a branch of the Wahconda in a course north, 45° west; for Big Creek, a tributary of the Grand, which flows southeasterly through the eastern half of the county, would have separated them from the Wahconda basin. It seems likely that they ascended the watershed between Big Creek and the Wahconda, and that Doe Creek was a small branch of the former. The two tributaries of the Grand which were crossed may have been Big Creek and one of its large branches, probably the Little Wahconda, which flows south through the centre of the county. The journey of twenty-two miles must have brought them near the northern line of Carroll County.

Wahconda (sometimes Wakanda and Wakenda) is, as the text has explained, the Indian name for the supreme being (Master of Life). The stream pursues an eastward course across Carroll County. Its waters abounded in fish and its banks in game; to the Indians such abundance seemed to betoken the presence of the deity, and the stream was regarded as sacred. Another legend concerning the name is, that two Sioux died while passing a night upon its bank, and as they bore no marks of violence, the Indians attributed their death to the Master of Life.—Ed.