First Across the Continent | Page 8

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. Near here was a quarry of red
pipestone, dear to the Indian fancy as a mine of material for their pipes;
traces of this deposit still remain. So fond of this red rock were the
Indians that when they went there to get the stuff, even lifelong and
vindictive enemies declared a truce while they gathered the material,

and savage hostile tribes suspended their wars for a time.
On the north side of the Missouri, at a point in what is now known as
Clay County, South Dakota, Captains Lewis and Clark, with ten men,
turned aside to see a great natural curiosity, known to the Indians as the
Hill of Little Devils. The hill is a singular mound in the midst of a flat
prairie, three hundred yards long, sixty or seventy yards wide, and
about seventy feet high. The top is a smooth level plain. The journal
says:--
"The