The Two Principal
Chieftains Present Were Shongotongo, Or Big Horse, And Wethea,
Or Hospitality; Also Shosguscan, Or White Horse, An Ottoe;
The First An Ottoe, The Second A Missouri.
The incidents just related
induced us to give to this place the name of the Council Bluffs:
the situation
Of it is exceedingly favorable for a fort and
trading factory, as the soil is well calculated for bricks,
and there is an abundance of wood in the neighborhood, and the air
being pure and healthy."
Of course the reader will recognize, in the name given
to this place by Lewis and Clark, the flourishing modern city
of Council Bluffs, Iowa. Nevertheless, as a matter of fact,
the council took place on the Nebraskan or western side of the river,
and the meeting-place was at some distance above the site
of the present city of Council Bluffs.
Above Council Bluffs the explorers found the banks of the river to be
high and bluffy, and on one of the highlands which they passed they
saw the burial-place of Blackbird, one of the great men of the Mahars,
or Omahas, who had died of small-pox. A mound, twelve feet in diameter
and six feet high, had been raised over the grave, and on a tall
pole at the summit the party fixed a flag of red, white, and blue.
The place was regarded as sacred by the Omahas, who kept the dead
chieftain well supplied with provisions. The small-pox had caused
great mortality among the Indians; and a few years before the white
men's visit, when the fell disease had destroyed four hundred men,
with a due proportion of women and children, the survivors burned
their village and fled.
"They had been a military and powerful people; but when these warriors
saw their strength wasting before a malady which they could not resist,
their frenzy was extreme; they burned their village, and many of them put
to death their wives and children, to save them from so cruel an affliction,
and that all might go together to some better country."
In Omaha, or Mahar Creek, the explorers made their first experiment
in dragging the stream for fish. With a drag of willows, loaded
with stones, they succeeded in catching a great variety of fine fish,
over three hundred at one haul, and eight hundred at another.
These were pike, bass, salmon-trout, catfish, buffalo fish, perch,
and a species of shrimp, all of which proved an acceptable
addition to their usual flesh bill-of-fare.
Desiring to call in some of the surrounding Indian tribes,
they here set fire to the dry prairie grass, that being the customary
signal for a meeting of different bands of roving peoples.
In the afternoon of August 18, a party of Ottoes, headed by Little Thief
and Big Horse, came in, with six other chiefs and a French interpreter.
The journal says: -
"We met them under a shade, and after they had finished a repast with which we
supplied them, we inquired into the origin of the war between them and
the Mahas, which they related with great frankness. It seems that two of
the Missouris went to the Mahas to steal horses, but were detected and killed;
the Ottoes and Missouris thought themselves bound to avenge their companions,
and the whole nations were at last obliged to share in the dispute.
They are also in fear of a war from the Pawnees, whose village they entered
this summer, while the inhabitants were hunting, and stole their corn.
This ingenuous confession did not make us the less desirous of negotiating
a peace for them; but no Indians have as yet been attracted by our fire.
The evening was closed by a dance; and the next day, the chiefs
and warriors being assembled at ten o'clock, we explained the speech
we had already sent from the Council Bluffs, and renewed our advice.
They all replied in turn, and the presents were then distributed.
We exchanged the small medal we had formerly given to the Big Horse for one
of the same size with that of Little Thief: we also gave a small medal
to a third chief, and a kind of certificate or letter of acknowledgment
to five of the warriors expressive of our favor and their good intentions.
One of them, dissatisfied, returned us the certificate; but the chief,
fearful of our being offended, begged that it might be restored to him;
this we declined, and rebuked them severely for having in view mere traffic
instead of peace with their neighbors. This displeased them at first;
but they at length all petitioned that it should be given to the warrior,
who then came forward and made an apology to us; we then delivered it
to the chief to be given to the most worthy, and he bestowed it on
the same warrior, whose name was Great Blue Eyes. After a more substantial
present of small articles and tobacco, the council was ended with a dram
to the Indians. In the evening we exhibited different objects of curiosity,
and particularly the air-gun, which gave them great surprise. Those people
are almost naked, having no covering except a sort of breech-cloth round
the middle, with a loose blanket or buffalo robe, painted, thrown over them.
The names of these warriors, besides those already mentioned, were Karkapaha,
or Crow's Head, and Nenasawa, or Black Cat, Missouris; and Sananona,
or Iron Eyes, Neswaunja, or Big Ox, Stageaunja, or Big Blue Eyes,
and Wasashaco, or Brave Man, all Ottoes."
Chapter IV
Novel Experiences among the Indians
About this time (the nineteenth and twentieth of August), the explorers lost
by death the only member of their party who did not survive the journey.
Floyd River, which flows into the Upper Missouri, in the northwest corner
of Iowa, still marks the last resting-place of Sergeant Charles Floyd,
who died there of bilious colic and was buried by his comrades near
the mouth of the stream.
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