Note I-57 — Chapter I · ITINERARY: ST. LOUIS TO ST. PAUL, AUGUST 9TH-SEPTEMBER 21ST, 1805.

A meaningless phrase as it stands, and one open to various rendering, as L'Aile, L'Ail, or L'Île. Pike's text of 1807, p. 12, has L'aile; Long's of 1807, as printed in Minn. Hist. Coll., II. Part 1, 2d ed. 1890, p. 175, has Aux Aisle; Beltrami's, II. p. 180, gives aux Ailes. "The site of Winona was known to the French as La Prairie Aux Ailes (pronounced O'Zell) or the Wing's prairie, presumably because of its having been occupied by members of Red Wing's band," Hist. Winona Co., 1883. It is easily recognized by Pike's vivid description: see next note. Long, l. c., calls it "an extensive lawn," and notes the situation on it in 1817 of an Indian village, whose chief he calls Wauppaushaw by a rather unusual spelling of the native name of La Feuille. Forsyth, 1819, names it Wing prairie.