Henry Schoolcraft is considered to be the discoverer of the source of the Mississippi River, but which Native American guide, who had long known the place, led him to Lake Itasca?

When a group of Leech Lake Ojibwe left to attack the Dakota on the prairies in 1832, Ozaawindib headed to Fort Brady at Michilimackinac to inform the Americans. On the way along the Brule River, she met Henry Rowe Schoolcraft's expedition. Interested in finding the headwaters of the Mississippi River, Schoolcraft hired Ozaawindib as a guide. She led them to a lake known in Ojibwe as Omashkoozo-Zaaga'igan (meaning Elk Lake-not to be confused with the lake known in English as Elk Lake). Schoolcraft decided to rename the lake after the Latin words "veritas" (truth) and "caput" (head), creating the name Lake Itasca-the "true source" of the Mississippi. After returning with Ozaawindib to the village where she lived on Cass Lake, Schoolcraft gave her a medal. This was a symbol indicating that she would be recognized by the United States government as a chief of her band.