History of Nebraska - Chapter 2



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CHAPTER II
ABORIGINAL OCCUPANTS -- SPANISH AND FRENCH EXPLORERS -- AMERICAN 
EXPEDITIONS -- FUR TRADE -- FIRST SETTLEMENTS -- EARLY TRADERS -- 
AUTHENTIC EXPLORATIONS

   THE natural tendency of migration since history began has been 
westward; and the movements of the Amerind are not an exception to this 
general rule. As the streams which drain North America have a general 
trend from north to south, and as the rule for human activity is to 
proceed along the lines of least resistance, it might be supposed that the 
Amerind would follow up these streams and change the general order by 
moving forward from south to north or from north to south. There was a 
stronger influence than the mere contour of the land which drew the tide 
of emigration, although this had its effect to such an extent that the 
route of travel had a west-by-northwest trend. The food supply became the 
main factor in determining the direction of migration. The buffalo, which, 
though indigenous to the whole central region of North America, were 
partial to the open country, enticed the Indian to the Nebraska plains, 
which they possessed in vast herds. This useful animal was the source of 
supply for every want: food from his flesh, raiment and shelter from his 
hide, implements from his bones, vessels for holding liquids from his 
intestines, and fuel from his dung. The buffalo made it possible for great 
numbers of Indians to subsist in comparative ease on the treeless plains 
of Nebraska. How much of the food supply of the aborigines, before the 
advent of the buffalo, may have been derived from agricultural pursuits is 
unknown; but it is certain that as the tribes spread westward and the 
buffalo became more numerous, agriculture decreased, until, when white 
settlers first came in contact with the tribes of Nebraska, little 
attention was given to it.

   By far the greater number of Indian tribes, which have inhabited the 
territory that now comprises Nebraska, followed this general rule of 
migration from east to west. These tribes belonged to two linguistic 
families, the Algonkian(2) and Siouan. Both of these great families sprang 
from the region east of the Appalachian mountains and in turn occupied 
nearly the whole of the Mississippi valley.

   The first occupants of Nebraska did not follow this rule. The Caddoan 
linguistic family had its home in the South near the banks of the Red 
river, and migrated northward, occupying the valleys of the Kansas river, 
and reaching northward to the valley of the Platte river and westward to 
the foothills of the mountains. Two other linguistic families, the 
Shoshonean and Kiowan, encroached on our territory from the west. They 
hunted along the headwaters of the Republican and Platte rivers, and 
claimed part of the territory of this state, although few, if any, ruins 
of their permanent homes are found within its present limits. Only these 
five linguistic families were found in Nebraska, and but two of them, the 
Caddoan and Siouan, are of importance to our history. Tribes of these two 
families had their permanent habitat within the state, and fought with one 
another and among themselves for su-

(1. This classification of Indian tribes and bands should be credited to 
Mr. E. E. Blackman, archaeologist of the Nebraska State Historical 
Society; and the particulars as to the numbers and location of certain 
tribes, before the organization of Nebraska territory, to a paper by Clyde 
B. Aitchison.)

(2. In the spelling of the names of Indian tribes it has been found more 
practicable to follow the Standard dictionary than the diverse and 
contradictory usage of scientific writers in the reports of the Bureau of 
Ethnology.-ED.)

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[image caption: CHIEF WOLF ROBE Cheyenne]

[image caption: CHIEF BLACK BEAR Sioux]

[image caption: BLUE WINGS Winnebago]

[image caption: EAGLE FEATHER & PAPOOSE Sioux]

[image caption: CHIEF RED BEAR Arapahoe. HOWARD FROST INTERP. Omahas]

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premacy on our eastern border and along the Platte valley.

   The original home of the Caddoan linguistic family was on the Red river 
of the south. Prior to the year 1400, one band, known as the Skidi, 
branched off from the main stock and drifted to the Platte valley. The 
exact line of migration is difficult to determine, but a tradition says 
this tribe lived as allies of the Omahas near the mouth of the Ohio river. 
It is not impossible that they may have followed up the Missouri river in 
coming to the Platte valley, where, according to Dunbar,

[image caption: From a photograph owned by Mr. A. E. Sheldon. MARPIYA LUTA
(RED CLOUD) Chief of the Ogallala Sioux, at the age of seventy years]

they were located in 1400. Prior to 1500, another band branched off from 
the main stock and drifted northward to a point near the present Kansas-
Nebraska line. Here the Wichitas turned back and went south, while the 
Pawnees moved northward and occupied the Platte valley and intervening 
country. In 1541 Coronado found the Wichitas near the Kansas river and 
sent a summons to the "Lord of Harahey" (the Pawnee) to visit him, which 
he did with two hundred naked warriors. This is the earliest authentic 
record of Indian occupancy of Nebraska. This is the first time civilized 
man (if we can call Coronado's followers civilized) ever saw an Indian 
from what is now Nebraska. All history before this is legendary, and 
legendary history is so conflicting that we may only say that it is 
possibly true.

   How far Onate penetrated in his trip northeastward from New Mexico, in 
1599, is difficult to determine. He says he visited the city of Quivera, 
which was on the north bank of a wide and shallow river (very like the 
Platte). He says he fought with "Escanzaques" and killed "a thousand." 
This battle may have been in Nebraska. Penalosa also claims to have 
visited the same locality in 1662, to have met the "Escanzaques," and to 
have beaten them in a like encounter.

   When these brief glimpses into Spanish history are substantiated by 
further research we may be able to add some early data bearing on Indian 
occupancy of Nebraska.

   The Pawnees (proper), consisting of three main tribes, the Choui (or 
Grand), the Pitahow-e-rat (or Tapage), and the Kit-ke-hak-i (or 
Republican) emigrated to the Platte valley prior to 1500. They held the 
country fifty miles west of the Missouri river, and eventually conquered 
the Skidi band, which had come here a hundred years before, and adopted it 
into their own tribe. Before the Pawnees came, however, a band called 
Arikara had drifted away from the Skidi band and established itself on the 
Missouri river, but out of the bounds of Nebraska. The Arikaras came into 
Nebraska and lived with the Skidi tribe for three years, from 1832 to 
1835, when they returned home.

   In the Huntsman's Echo of February 21, 1861, the editor thus 
perspicuously describe, the condition of the Pawnees on their reserve at 
Genoa, as he had ascertained it by a visit there a few days before:

   The Pawnees number at present about four thousand souls and a fraction 
over, and when "at home" live in a cluster of huts built with crotches and 
poles, covered, top and sides,

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with willows, then with grass and dirt, giving the appearance at a little 
distance of an immense collection of "potato hills," all of a circular 
shape and oval. The entrance is through a passage walled with earth, the 
hole in the center at top serving both for window and main room by 
partitions of willow, rush or flag, some of them being neatly and tidily 
constructed, and altogether these lodges are quite roomy and comfortable, 
and each is frequently the abode of two or more families. In these 
villages there is no regularity of streets, walks, or alleys, but each 
builds in a rather promiscuous manner, having no other care than to taste 
and convenience.

   The tribe is divided into five bands, each being under a special chief 
or leader, and the whole confederation being under one principal chief. 
Each band has its habitation separate and distinct from the other, three 
bands living in villages adjoining and all composing one village, the 
other two villages, some little distance. There is frequently some 
considerable rivalry between the several bands in fighting, hunting, and 
other sports, and not infrequently one band commits thefts upon the 
effects of another.

   At this time, we are told, the Pawnees had several thousand horses, but 
owing to the hard winter hundreds had died from sore-tongue and other 
diseases. The animals lived out all the winter upon the dry grass; but if 
the snow was too deep for them to reach it, cottonwood trees were cut down 
and the horses would subsist upon the bark. These horses were above the 
luxuries of civilized life, and refused to eat corn when it was placed 
before them. They were valued at from thirty to sixty dollars each.

   The Pawnees at this time usually took two general hunts each year in 
which all the people, old and young, great and small, participated, 
abandoning their villages to go to the buffalo range. From the spoils of 
the summer hunt they made jerked meat and lodge skins; and from those of 
the fall hunt, in October and November, they made robes, furs, tanned 
skins, and dried meat. These Indians had a field of considerable extent 
near each village where the land was allotted to the various families, and 
goodly quantities of corn and beans were grown. With these and a little 
flour and sugar they managed to eke out a miserable existence, sometimes 
full-fed and sometimes starved.

   The females are the working bees of the hive; they dig up the soil, 
raise and gather the crops, cut timber and build the lodges, pack wood and 
water, cook, nurse the babies, carry all the burdens, tan the skins and 
make the robes and moccasins. The lords of the other sex recline by the 
fire or in the shade, kill the game and their enemies, do the stealing and 
most of the eating, wear the most ornaments, and play the dandy in their 
way to a scratch. They are of a tall, graceful, and athletic figure, as 
straight as an arrow and as proud as a lord, whilst the squaws are short, 
thick, stooping, poorly clad, filthy, and squalid. Parentless children and 
the very aged are sometimes left behind, or by the wayside, to perish as 
useless.

   Pike visited the Republican Pawnees in 1806; they dwelt near the south 
line of the state until about 1812, when they joined the rest of the band 
north of the Platte river. Dunbar(3) gives the location of the various 
tribes in 1834; the Choui band resided on the south bank of the Platte, 
twenty miles above the mouth of the Loup; the Kit-ke-hak-i lived eighteen 
miles northwest, on the north side of the Loup; the Pita-how-e-rat, eleven 
miles farther up the Loup, and the Skidi, five miles above these; and he 
says they changed their villages every eight or ten years. In 1833 the 
Pawnees ceded the territory south of the Platte to the United States. In 
1857 they ceded the territory north of the Platte, except their 
reservation in Nance county. The territory ceded, according to Chas. C. 
Royce,(4) embraced the central third of the entire state. The reservation 
above mentioned was ceded in 1876, and the Pawnees were taken to Indian 
Territory, where they now have a reservation.

   The various branches of the Siouan linguistic stock have come to this 
state at five different times. The first were the Mandans, whose coming is 
shrouded in antiquity. Catlin claims to have traced their earthworks and 
habitat down the Ohio river and up the Mis- 

(3. Mag. Am. Hist., vols. 4 and 5.)

(4. 18th Rept. Bureau of Ethnology, pt. 2.)

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ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN HOUSE ARCHITECTURE AMONG THE PLAINS TRIBES

[image caption: Photos 1, 2, by Melvin R. Gilmore, Bethany, Nebraska; 4, 
by U. G. Cornell, Lincoln, Nebraska; 5, A. E. Sheldon, Lincoln, Nebraska.
1. Pawnee earth lodge circular in form, supported by a circle of heavy 
upright pillars, the wall formed of upright, slightly inclined poles 
covered with earth; the roof, dome-shaped, with an opening at the apex for 
ventilation and light. At the left of the engraving is a summer or 
temporary lodge. In the foreground is seen the framework of a sweat lodge. 
2. West side of interior of Pawnee earth lodge. Fireplace in center, the 
smoke from which is directed by a skin blanket, supported on the windward 
side of the roof by three sticks. In the background is seen the family 
altar made of sod, near which stands the sacred drum; above the altar 
generally hung the sacred bundle. The beds are arranged about the wall. 3. 
Omaha earth lodge. This particular lodge existed some years ago twelve 
miles north of Omaha. 4. Santee Sioux tepee. 5. Rear view of Winnebago 
bark lodge.]

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souri.(5) McGee says the Siouan family began to cross the Appalachian 
mountains one thousand years ago. The Mandans were among the first to 
break off from the parent stock, and the only excuse we have for including 
them in our history is the probability that they crossed our borders on 
their way up the Missouri river some time prior to the coming of the Skidi 
band in 1400.

   McGee says the Omaha tribe was near the mouth of the Ohio river in 
1500, so its coming to Nebraska must have been after that date. It is 
traced quite accurately up the Missouri and Des Moines rivers to its 
present home in the northeast part of Nebraska. The Osage tribe branched 
off and remained at the Osage river. The Kansas tribe came on to the 
Kansas river, and there established its permanent habitat. The date of the 
arrival of the Kansas tribe is sufficiently early to allow the 
"Escanzaques" of Onate to be regarded as Kansas Indians. The Omahas and 
Poncas remained together until about 1650, when the latter moved northward 
and occupied the country from the mouth of the Niobrara west to the Black 
Hills. By the treaty of March 16, 1854, the Omahas ceded the northeast 
third of the present state to the United States, excepting that part north 
of a line drawn due west from the mouth of the Aoway river. That tongue of 
land which was added to Nebraska in 1890, by authority of the act of 
Congress of March 28, 1882, and which lies between the Niobrara, Keya 
Paha, and Missouri rivers, was ceded by the Poncas in 1858, except a small 
reservation. In 1877 the Poncas were moved to Indian Territory.

   The Dakota City Herald,(6) in noting that the Omahas had just received 
their annuity on their reservation from Captain Moore, Indian agent, makes 
the following observation as to their condition: "They are being gathered 
to their fathers fast, very fast, as they now number only 964 savage 
souls. The amount of their payment was $23,000 and averaged about $24 a 
head. Since Uncle Sam supplied them with a few 'scads' they have paid 
frequent visits to our town, and laid something out for the purpose of 
laying something in." From the observant editor's remarks it appears that 
the Indians did not confine their inebriety to alcoholic drinks. He 
relates that "five of these red sons of the forest, two red squaws in red 
blankets, and one pale red papoose put up at the Bates house on Sunday 
night for supper." They had a table by themselves, by courtesy of the 
landlord, and, "in the language of the Arkansas bride, 'they sot and sot' 
until they stowed away everything eatable within reach or sight. Seventy-
seven cups of coffee were drank at the sitting, and but one, a young 
squaw, gave out. After getting down seven cups she failed on coffee; the 
others kept on until the kettle gave out. When the meal was over they paid 
the landlord two bits apiece and departed."

   The third detachment of the Siouan family to occupy Nebraska consisted 
of three tribes, the Otoe, Missouri, and the Iowa. The Otoes and lowas 
have always been closely related. They were first seen at the mouth of the 
Des Moines river by Marquette in 1673. They are said, by tradition, to 
have sprung from the Winnebago stock. It is stated that in 1699 they went 
to live near the Omahas. The Missouris have had a very checkered career. 
They were first seen in 1670 at the mouth of the Missouri river. Soon 
after 1700 they were overcome by the Sac and Fox and other tribes. Most of 
them joined the Otoe tribe, but a few went with the Osage and some joined 
the Kansas tribe. They have never ceded land to the United States except 
in company with the Otoes, but they have been a party to every Otoe 
transaction. To all intents and purposes the Otoes and Missouris have been 
as one tribe during their occupancy of this state.

   The Otoes and Missouris ceded the southeast portion of the state to the 
United States in 1833; this cession embraced the land south and west of 
the Nemaha. The remaining portion of land which they claimed, lay between 
the Nemaha, Missouri, and Platte rivers, reaching as far west as Seward 
county. This last tract was ceded in 1854, when they returned to their 
reservation south of Beatrice. 

(5. Catlin, North American Indians.)

(6. November 19, 1859.)

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[image caption: Engraving from a photograph taken in New York City in 
1866, and owned by the Nebraska State Historical Society. A GROUP OF 
WINNEBAGO INDIAN CHIEFS, WITH THEIR AGENT, ROBERT W. FURNAS, TRADER MAJOR 
F. J. DEWITT, AND INTERPRETERS]

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This they relinquished in 1881, and they now live in Oklahoma. Most of the 
Iowas remained east of our border until 1836, when they were given a tract 
of land along the south bank of the Nemaha. This they retained in part in 
individual allotment, but they remained under the Great Nemaha agency. 
This tribe was always closely associated with the Otoe, but was never 
under the same tribal organization as was the Missouri tribe. All three 
tribes belonged to the same branch of the Siouan family as the Winnebago.

   These cessions gave the United States title to the east two-thirds of 
the state. The earliest treaty by which they acquired title to land in 
this state was made with the Kansas in 1825; by this treaty the Kansas 
ceded a semicircular tract along the south line, reaching from Falls City 
to Red Willow county and nearly as far north as Lincoln. So it seems that 
the Kansas laid claim to at least part of our territory.

   The next detachment of the great Siouan family to invade Nebraska was 
from the northern branch of this tribe which dwelt along the Great Lakes. 
The Assiniboins had separated from this branch as early as 1650, and, 
according to McGee, were near the Lake of the Woods in 1766, so they had 
not long wandered over our soil when written history began.

   The Pawnees and Omahas joined in repelling the advance of these 
northern tribes and held them well back front the waterways for many 
years, but they hunted on the head-waters of the Platte and Republican and 
even as far south as the head-waters of the Smoky Hill and Solomon rivers.

   The Crows were doubtless the first to encroach on the Platte valley; 
they drifted to the Black Hills in an early day and hunted on the Platte 
from the northwest. The Blackfeet, a branch of the Saskatchewan tribe, 
came later. The Yankton, Santee, Brulé Sisseton, Ogallala, Teton, 
Minnetaree, and parts of other tribes from time to time hunted or fought 
on the head-waters of the Platte. They joined in ceding the northwest part 
of the state to the United States in 1868, reserving for themselves a 
common hunting right, which they relinquished in 1875. They are now on the 
various reservations in Dakota and Indian Territory.

   The Winnebagoes were the last of the great Siouan family to come; they 
were moved from Minnesota to a part of the Omaha reservation in 1862, 
where they still reside. Schoolcraft says this tribe once lived on a 
branch of the Crow Wing river in Minnesota. Some of the Santee Sioux were 
moved to Nebraska at the same time, but many of both tribes came across 
the country before.

[image caption: Photograph owned by the Nebraska State Historical Society. 
SENTEGALESKA (SPOTTED TAIL) Hereditary Chief-of the Sioux]

   To the Algonkian family belong the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Atsina, who 
wandered over the western part of Nebraska, as did the Sac and Fox tribe, 
which had a reservation in the extreme southeast part of the state from 
1836 to 1885. The Algonkian family once occupied the greater part of the 
Mississippi valley. At a very early date the Cheyennes drifted westward 
through the Dakotas and gave their name to one of the important streams. 
Later they drifted southward. Lewis and Clark mentioned this tribe as 
occupying a

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position on the Cheyenne river in 1804, while Long in his expedition of 
1819 found a small band which had seceded from the main stock on the 
Cheyenne river, and had roamed with the Arapaho along the Platte river, 
There is a record, by Fremont, of this tribe being on the Platte above 
Grand Island in 1843. They ceded the southwestern portion of Nebraska in 
1861.

   The Arapahos, like the Cheyennes, occupied Nebraska as a roaming tribe. 
The impression left by the very limited number of writers who have spoken 
of them, seems to be that they came from the north. They were pressed by 
the Sioux from the east and by the Shoshoneans from the west. The date of 
their coming to Nebraska is obscure. The time of their separation from the 
eastern parent stock is shrouded in antiquity; and as early travelers 
found them a wild race, and not easy to study, little of their early 
history is recorded. They joined the Cheyenne and Arkansas Indians in 
ceding to the United States government the extreme southwest portion of 
Nebraska. So far as can be learned the Arkansas never occupied any part of 
Nebraska. The Atsinas were closely allied to the Blackfeet (Siouan) and, 
since whites have known them, have affiliated with that tribe. They are 
distinctly Algonkian, however, and have a legend telling how they came to 
separate from the Arapahos.

   As stated above, the Algonkian stock occupied most of the Mississippi 
valley at one time. The United States purchased all of Missouri north of 
the river, most of Iowa, and a part of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota 
from the Sacs and Foxes. They seem to have been the original owners of the 
Mississippi and Missouri front, and the Siouan tribes as they drifted 
westward doubtless had them to deal with. This may account for the 
movement westward of the Otoe and the Kansas tribes across the river. The 
Sacs and Foxes relinquished their possessions and retired to a southern 
reservation, excepting a band which took a reserve on the Great Nemaha 
river, partly in Nebraska and partly in Kansas, and which remains in the 
Great Nemaha agency.

   Powell(7) does not believe that the Shoshonean family occupied a part 
of Nebraska, and it is doubtful whether any part of this family had more 
than a transient home within the state. It is certain that the Comanches 
roamed over our territory, and doubtless the "Padoucas" once had a more or 
less permanent home here; at least the north fork of the Platte river was 
known in the early days as the Padouca fork. Mooney(8) says: "In 1719 the 
Comanche were mentioned under their Siouan name of Padouca as living in 
what is now western Kansas. It must be remembered that five hundred to 
eight hundred miles was an ordinary range for a Plains tribe, and the 
Comanches were equally at home on the Platte or in Chihuahua (Mexico)." 
The great Shoshonean family occupied the mountain country from the south 
line of Oregon to the north line of Arizona, and extended from the Pacific 
coast at the southwest corner of California, nearly to the west line of 
what is now Nebraska. It was a powerful and numerous people. Later the 
Siouan bands drove the Comanches south and the other branches of the 
Shoshonean family west and north. Lewis and Clark, in 1805, mention the 
Padoucas as extinct except in name. Bourgmont visited the Padoucas on the 
head-waters of the Kansas in 1724. The Comanches and the Kansas were close 
associated for one hundred and fifty years says Mooney. There is no record 
that the Comanches ever ceded any part of this state to the United States.

   About 1700 a tribe of the Kiowan family migrated from the far northwest 
and took up a residence in the vicinity of the Black Hills. From there it 
was driven by the Siouan tribes, and Lewis and Clark mention it as 
residing on the north fork of the Platte in 1805, and numbering seventy 
tepees. It slowly drifted southward until it occupied the country south of 
the Arkansas river. As this tribe never lived far from the mountains, its 
occupancy of Nebraska was but transient. Powell shows this linguistic 
family as occupying the extreme southwest part of Nebraska, but there is 
no 

(7. 7th Ann. Rept. Bureau of Ethnol., p. 109.)

(8. 14th Ann. Rept. Bureau of Ethnol., pt. 2, p. 1044.)

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record that it ever ceded any part of the state. There was a "half-breed" 
tract situated between the Nemaha and Missouri rivers set apart in 1830, 
intended for the home of civilized Indians belonging to the Omaha, Iowa, 
Otoe, Yankton, and Santee Sioux half-breeds. The Pine Ridge and Rosebud 
agencies are located just north of the north line of Nebraska, in South 
Dakota, and the Indian title to a

[image caption: From a photograph owned by Mrs. Harriet S. MacMurphy, 
Omaha. HENRY FONTENELLE United States interpreter to the Omaha Indians]

narrow strip adjoining in this state is not yet extinguished. There are 
titles in the old Sac and Fox and Iowa reservation, in Richardson county, 
still vested in Indians, and a few live there. The Santee agency, near 
Niobrara, still maintains an agent who reports to the commissioner of 
Indian affairs for this tribe and also for the Ponca subagency, situated 
twenty miles west between the Niobrara and Missouri rivers. The Indians at 
these agencies, together with the Omahas and Winnebagoes, in Thurston 
county, are the only Indian wards of the government in Nebraska at the 
present time. According to the census of 1900 there were 3,322 Indians in 
the state, against 2,685 in 1890. An Indian school is maintained by the 
federal government in this state, on the Santee, the Winnebago, and the 
Omaha reservations, while a boarding school for Indians is situated at 
Genoa, in Nance county.

   All tribal lands, except a small part of the Omaha reservation, have 
been allotted in severalty, and all Indians are taxed as citizens of the 
state. The Omahas now number twelve hundred and the Winnebagos eleven 
hundred. The Omahas are of a higher grade of development and civilization 
and are slowly increasing in numbers. In their married relations they 
observe the principle of monogamy with creditable faithfulness, and they 
are inclined to hold on to and to cultivate their lands. The Winnebagos, 
on the other hand, live much more loosely in this respect; comparatively 
few of them are lawfully married, and they have but little regard for the 
marriage bond. They are much less persistent than the Omahas in holding on 
to their lands, and less regular and industrious in their habits. All the 
lands of the reservation, except a few hundred acres of a very poor 
quality, have now been allotted. Under the law, lands which have been 
allotted can not be alienated by the original grantees nor by their 
inheritors as long as there are minor heirs. Thus far this class of lands 
amounts to about ten per cent of the total allotment, or about fifteen 
hundred acres. As late as 1846 there were only a very few white settlers, 
scattered here and there, in that part of southwestern Iowa bordering on 
the Missouri river. By the treaty of September 26, 1833, five million 
acres of land in southwestern Iowa, extending north to the mouth of Boyer 
river, south to the mouth of the Nodaway river, and east to the west line 
of the Sac and Fox lands, were granted to the Pottawatomie tribe of 
Indians, numbering about twenty-two hundred and fifty. Some Ottawas and 
Chippeways, living with the Pottawatomies were participants in this grant. 
All of these Indians had been removed from the vicinity of Chicago. A 
subagency and trading post was established at Traders Point (or at St. 
Francis), Iowa. By a treaty with

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[image captions: Alice A Minick -- Jno. S. Minick]

NOTE -- John S. Minick was one of the incorporators of the Nemaha County 
Agricultural Society, incorporated by act of the territorial legislature, 
February 9, 1857, and was elected president of the board September 12, 
1857. He was for a number of years a merchant at Nemaha City and at 
Aspinwall and was in business at the former place as late as 1885. He was 
an active worker in the Good Templar organization. According to the 
Brownville Advertiser, Mr. Minick had his entire claim of 160 acres fenced 
and under cultivation in June, 1857, fourteen months after he had located 
upon it.

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the United States, made "at the agency near Council Bluffs," June 5, 1846, 
the Pottawatomies relinquished these Iowa lands. The agency at Bellevue, 
on the opposite side of the Missouri river, had jurisdiction over the 
Omahas, Otoes, Poncas, and Pawnees. The Council Bluffs subagency on the 
Iowa side of the river was subject to the agency at Bellevue.

   As has already been indicated, Council Bluffs, was as shifting as the 
great river whose shores its various sites adorned. It was first applied 
to the Lewis and Clark encampment, eighteen miles north of Omaha; then, by 
reflection and by a sort of evolutionary southward movement, to Bellevue; 
still later, to the subagency on the Iowa border opposite Bellevue. In 
1853 -- January l9th -- Council Bluffs was substituted for Kanesville, 
which was the original name (after a brother of Kane, the arctic explorer) 
of the hamlet on the site of the present city of Council Bluffs. 
Thereafter the place was known by its present name by designation of the 
postoffice department; and it was formally incorporated by act of the Iowa 
assembly, February 24, 1853. According to the Frontier Guardian of 
September 18, 1850, a census taken at that time yielded a population of 1,
103 for Kanesville and 125 for Trading Point or Council Bluffs; so that as 
late as that date the migratory name of Council Bluffs had not reached the 
northern settlement of Kanesville, but by local usage was confined to 
Traders, or Trading Point.

   The domain of the Omahas lay to the north of the Platte river, and that 
of the Otoes about its mouth -- both, along the Missouri river. A strip of 
land intervening was a source of chronic dispute between these tribes. At 
the time of the Louisiana Purchase the Otoes numbered about two hundred 
warriors, including twenty-five or thirty Missouris. A band of this tribe 
had been living with the Otoes for about twenty-five years. In 1799 the 
Omahas numbered five hundred warriors; but as the Mormons found them in 
1846 this tribe, and the Otoes as well, had been reduced by the scourge of 
smallpox to a mere remnant of their former numbers. These Indians are 
described by their white neighbors of that time as being almost destitute 
of martial spirit and not viciously inclined, but naturally ready to rob 
and steal when prompted by hunger, which, unfortunately for their white 
neighbors, was their nearly chronic condition. Orson Hyde, editor of the 
Frontier Guardian, in its issue of March 21, 1849, inspired by the

[image caption: From a photograph in the Coffin collection, in the Museum 
of the Nebraska State Historical Society. PIT-A-LE-SHAR-U (MAN CHIEF) Head 
chief of the Pawnees]

wisdom of Solomon, advised the use of the rod, and a real hickory at that, 
on the thieving Omahas and others. It is said that the Omahas were 
exceptionally miserable. "Unprotected from their old foes, the Sioux, yet 
forbidden to enter into a defensive alliance with them, they were reduced 
to a pitiable handful of scarcely more than a hundred families, the

Page 36

prey of disease, poverty-stricken, too cowardly to venture from the shadow 
of their tepees to gather their scanty crops, unlucky in the hunt, slow in 
the chase, and too dispirited to be daring or successful thieves."

   In the region between the Niobrara and Missouri rivers were the Poncas, 
some five hundred or six hundred in number, and but little better than the 
Omahas and Otoes in condition and circumstances. According to Lewis and 
Clark, the Grand Pawnee and Republican Pawnee, numbering respectively five 
hundred and two hundred and fifty men, dwelt in 1804, on the south side of 
the Platte opposite the mouth of the Loup; the Pawnee, Loup or Wolf 
Pawnee, comprising two hundred and eighty men, on the Loup fork of the 
Platte about ninety miles above the principal Pawnee; and a fourth band of 
four hundred men on the Red river. Clayton's Emigrant's Guide, in 1848, 
finds the old Pawnee Mission station at Plum Creek, latitude 41o 22' 37"; 
nine and a quarter miles east of the Loup Fork ford (latitude 41o 22' 37"; 
longitude 98o 11'); and the old Pawnee village, formerly occupied by the 
Grand Pawnee and Tappa, half a mile west of the Loup Fork. This village 
was burned by the Sioux in the fall of 1846. In the spring of 1847 the 
Pawnee were found on the Loup Fork, about thirty miles east of the old 
village, according to the same authority.

   Celebrated Chieftains. Among the Indians distinction was won through 
heroism upon the battlefield; consequently, their great men are warriors. 
No doubt many of the great Indian chieftains would rank among their own 
people with the great generals of the civilized nations. Indeed none could 
be more brave nor exercise greater fearlessness and courage upon the 
battlefield. They had no use for a coward, and deeds of bravery were 
greatly prized. A history of the Plains country would be incomplete 
without mention of a number of distinguished chieftains:

   Marpiya Luta (Red Cloud), chief of the Ogalalla Sioux, was one of the 
great generals in various wars against the United States. He was born in 
1821 in Deuel county, Nebraska. Red Cloud earned distinction and the name 
he bore at the age of sixteen, and for twenty years was a successful 
leader against other Indian tribes. He planned the fight against Fort Phil 
Kearney in 1866 in which nearly one hundred soldiers were slain. He 
abandoned the war path in 1869. He prominent in all the councils and 
treaties of his tribe after that date. In a tribal feud Red Cloud slew 
Bull Bear, a prominent Sioux chief. His home for many years was in small 
frame house near Pine Ridge agency. He visited Washington sixteen times. 
spent his last years in total blindness.

   Sentegaleska, (Spotted Tail), a Brule Sioux came up from the ranks and 
became one of the most distinguished of the red men. He gained prominence 
when only eighteen years old through deadly combat with a sub-chief, and 
rose rapidly in the councils of his people until he was chosen hereditary 
chief of the entire Sioux nation. He went to Washington as delegate in 
1872, and was crowned "King the Sioux" in 1876 by General Crook.

   Spotted Tail was not only a warrior of courage, but was unusually 
trustworthy and was respected by the white men with whom he was always 
friendly. He was killed in 1881 by Crow Dog, one of his sub-chiefs whom he 
sought to discipline. The tragedy occurred at Rosebud agency as Spotted 
Tail was preparing to visit Washington

   Pit-a-le-shar-u (Man Chief) approaches more nearly a type of Indian 
statesman than a warrior. He was of commanding presence, over six feet 
tall and had an expressive face. He obtained the chieftainship of the 
Pawnees in 1852, and lived in the vicinity of Fremont and Genoa. Man Chief 
delighted in dress and wore a showy head-dress of eagle's feathers of 
which he was extremely proud. He was in every way worthy of his high 
office. He was a great orator and ruled his people wisely through 
persuasion rather than by force. He was a delegate to Washington when the 
treaty of 1858 was ratified. In 1874 a pistol wound in the thigh proved 
fatal; the shot, though reported to be accidental, was probably fired 
intentionally by someone who

Page 37

differed from him on the removal of the Pawnees to Indian Territory.

   Logan Fontenelle (Shon-ga-ska), chief of the Omahas, was born near Fort 
Calhoun in 1825. His father was a Frenchman of nobility and his mother an 
Indian woman of the Omaha tribe. He was educated in St. Louis, but, upon 
the death of his father in 1840, he returned to Nebraska and became an 
interpreter. He was elected a chief of the Omahas in 1853 and retained the 
position until his death in 1855. He was respected and honored by the 
whites and had absolute control over his tribe. He was killed in battle 
with the Sioux.

   Ta-ta-nka-i-yo-ta-nke (Sitting Bull) was born in the spring of 1834 on 
the banks of Grand river near the mouth of Stonewall creek in South 
Dakota. This continued to be his habitat during the greater part of his 
life. At the age of fourteen he achieved distinction on the war-path, and 
his father bestowed upon him his own name, Sitting Bull. He was a priest, 
or "medicine man," rather than a chief, but was a natural leader and 
gained much power and influence among his people by organizing and leading 
war parties. He came into special prominence by his participation in the 
battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana, June 25, 1876, in which Custer's 
entire command was slaughtered. Sitting Bull then made his escape into 
Canada, where he remained five years, and finally surrendered to the 
United States on promise of pardon. He was held a prisoner of war until 
1883, when he again went to reside on Grand river. He continued, however, 
to lead the opposition to the government and for seven years steadily 
opposed the treaty which was finally executed in 1889. He continued to be 
the center of Indian hostility until December, 1890, when he was killed 
during an attempt to place him under arrest.

   Expedition of Coronado. Spain was preeminently the seat of chivalry at 
the time of the discovery of America and during the following centuries, 
while the country now comprising the United States was being discovered 
and colonized in detail -- until it was laughed out of her by Cervantes 
and knocked out of her by the practical and prosy peoples of the more 
northern countries and of the Teutonic race. But the spirit of chivalry 
was prolific of adventurous discoverers, through whose valorous 
enterprise, Spain had come to possess, at the time the little strip along 
the Atlantic comprising the Americain colonies was ready for political 
separation from Great Britain, the whole territory west of the Mississippi 
river now comprised in Mexico and the United States, except that portion 
within the limits of the states of Washington and Oregon. That part of 
these Spanish domains north of the present boundary line of Mexico, 
comprised more than two-thirds of the present area of the United States. 
At this time Spain also dominated Central and South America. Though Spain 
was the first discoverer of America, and established the first permanent 
colony within the territory of the United States, she no longer owns a 
foot of the continent; and she became so weak that she lost all her 
holdings through force. It was of the spirit of Spanish chivalry to seek 
success by the royal road. Her explorers and discoverers were either 
animated by the search for gold -- like De Soto and Coronado -- or for 
more illusive treasure, such as Ponce de Leon's elixir of life. But the 
ultimate race was not to the swift nor the final battle to the strong. The 
continent came to the men who knew how to wait.

   While it is still an unsettled and perhaps not very important question 
whether the Spanish Coronado was the first white man to set foot in 
Nebraska, there is no doubt that he was the first white discoverer of whom 
there is any account of the great Plains tributary to the Missouri river, 
and that he came very near to the southern border of the state.

   In 1539 a Franciscan friar, Marcos de Niza, whom Don Antonio de 
Mendoza, viceroy of Mexico, had sent to investigate reports of populous 
settlements in the region now comprized in Arizona and New Mexico, brought 
stories of vast wealth in the Seven Cities of Cibola. An army of about 
three hundred Spanish soldiers and one thousand Indians and

Page 38

servants was raised and equipped for the conquest of the new country, and 
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, governor of New Galicia, a western border 
province of Mexico, was placed in command of the expedition. Coronado 
appears to have been a bold and venturesome cavalier -- a fit lieutenant 
of the ambitious viceroy. The expedition started from Compostela -- the 
capital of Coronado's province, about three hundred and seventy-five miles 
northwest from the city of Mexico February 23, 1540. On the 7th of July 
Coronado, with an advanced detachment of the main army, captured one of 
the seven small Zuni villages, which, situated near the present western 
border of New Mexico, in about the latitude of 35o, and within a radius of 
five leagues, constituted the Seven Cities of Cibola. These villages were 
composed of small storehouses, three or four stories high, but the 
disappointed Spaniards found in them poverty instead of the fabled riches. 
On an expedition from this point, Coronado was partly compensated for his 
disappointment, though doubtless in a way which he did not fully 
appreciate, by discovering the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.

   It was found that the riches lay far beyond, in the land of Quivera; 
and probably, through a strategem to get rid of their cruel and oppressive 
visitors, the story of the New Eldorado was told by a native of Quivera 
who was met with as a captive of the natives of Cicuye, a fortified 
village east of Cibola on the Pecos river. The "Turk," as the Spaniards 
called the slave, on account of his appearance, told more stories of large 
towns with hoards of gold and silver and vast herds of buffalo in his 
country to the east. The greedy credulity of the Spaniards again listened 
to these fabulous tales, and in April or May, 1541, the army took up its 
eastward march with the Turk for its guide. The slave intentionally led 
them by a wandering course far to the south, and, provisions becoming 
scarce in the neighborhood of the head-waters of the Colorado river of 
Texas, Coronado sent back all of the army excepting from twenty-six to 
thirty-six soldiers, with whom he pushed northward on his journey of forty-
two days to Quivera, now under the guidance of a good Indian, Ysopete, 
also a native of the Plains, the perfidious Turk having been taken into 
custody. The party crossed the Arkansas in the neighborhood of its 
southern bend, not far from the present site of Dodge City. Thus the first 
white man's crossing of the Arkansas was at a place which, two hundred and 
sixty years later, was to become an angle in the division between the 
Louisiana Purchase ceded to the United States, and the residue of 
territory still held by Spain. At this point the boundary line changed 
from its northern course to the west along the Arkansas river. About 
eighty miles to the northwest, at the site of the present town of Great 
Bend, Coronado found the first Quivera village. He first met Indians of 
that name beyond the crossing, not far from Kinsley and Larned. Here 
imminence of his exposure seems to have moved the Turk to confession that 
his people were strangers to the precious metals as well as to other 
riches, and he was straightway strangled by enraged Spaniards. There was 
now nothing for them to fall back upon, but appreciation of the richness 
of the soil; for Jarmillo, one of their chroniclers, says: "Some 
satisfaction was experienced on seeing the good appearance of the earth;" 
and Coronado himself writes that the soil of Quivera was "fat and black," 
and "the best I have ever seen for producing all the products of Spain." 
The buffalo is described by these travelers in a very naive and realistic 
manner. Like the reindeer to Laplander, this beast was food and raiment 
for the Indian natives, and it is curious to note that buffalo "chips" 
were used for fuel then as they were until recent days by our own 
pioneers. "One evening there came up a terrible storm of wind and hail, 
which left in the camp hailstones as large as porringers, and even larger. 
They fell thick as raindrops, and in some spots the ground was covered 
with them to the depth of eight or ten inches. The storm caused many 
tears, weakness, and vows." Making a moderate allowance for the quickened 
imagination of the belated Spaniards, these stories of what they saw, 
indicate that

Page 39

they journeyed not far from Nebraska. The substantial agreement of the 
conclusions drawn by Mr. Hodge of the ethnological bureau, of the accounts 
of their journey by the Spanish travelers themselves, with the actual 
field work of Mr. J. V. Brower, leaves little room for doubt that these 
adventurers reached the neighborhood of junction City, or perhaps 
Manhattan, Kansas. Mr. Hodge, writing as late as 1899, observes that the 
common error in determining latitude in the sixteenth century was about 
two degrees; therefore when Coronado said that Quivera, "where I have 
reached it, is in the 40th degree," that means that it was in fact in the 
38th degree; and Mr. Hodge adds: "Nothing is found in the narratives to 
show positively that either Coronado or any member of his force went 
beyond the present boundaries of Kansas during their stay of twenty-five 
days in the province of Quivera." Mr. E. E. Blackman of the Nebraska State 
Historical Society, thinks that the statements accredited to the Indians 
by Jaramillo, that there was nothing beyond the point reached by the 
Spaniards but Harahey -- the Pawnee country -- coupled with his own 
demonstrations that the Quivera village extended into Nebraska, show that 
the Spaniards crossed our border; and Simpson's studies led him to the 
conclusion that it is "exceedingly probable that he (Coronado) reached the 
40th degree of latitude (now the boundary between the States of Kansas and 
Nebraska) well on towards the Missouri river." Bandelier; George Winship 
Parker, Hodge, and Brower all substantially agree with H. H. Bancroft's 
earlier statement (1899) that, "there is nothing in the Spaniards' 
descriptions of the region or of the journey to shake Simpson's conclusion 
that Quivera was in modern Kansas."

   The writings of the Spaniards referred to are, in the main, Coronado's 
letters and formal accounts of the journey by Jaramillo, a captain in the 
expedition, and of Castaneda who went back with the main body of the army, 
but industriously collected his material from hearsay, The latest and 
perhaps the most thorough manuscript work has been done by Parker in The 
Coronado Expedition, and Hodge in Coronado's March, and the results of 
their researches substantially accord with the field work of Brower and 
Blackman, which is still under prosecution, and may yet show that Coronado 
was the discoverer of Nebraska proper.

   While this expedition appears to have been barren as to practical 
results, yet it has been said of it that "for extent in distance traveled, 
duration in time, extending from the spring

[image caption: From photograph owned by E. E. Blackman, vice. president 
Quivera Historical Society. QUIVERA MONUMENT Near Junction City, Kansas]

of 1540 to the summer of 1542, and the multiplicity of its coöperating 
branch explorations, it equaled, if it did not exceed, any land expedition 
that has been undertaken in modern times." Another writer observes that "a 
bare subsistence and threatened starvation were the only rewards in store 
for the volunteers upon this most famous of all the Spanish explorations, 
excepting those of Cortez. They discovered a land rich in mineral 
resources, but others were to reap the benefits of the wealth of the 
mountain. They discovered a

Page 40

land rich in material for the archaeologist, but nothing to satisfy their 
thirst for glory or wealth." But this erudite author, like his Spaniards, 
has missed, the main point. For they discovered the future granary of the 
world; and the fact they were oblivious or disdainful of their main 
discovery, pointed the moral of future Spanish history. The Spaniards took 
nothing and they gave little -- two friars left as missionaries at Cibola 
who soon wore the crown of martyrdom.

[image caption: JACOB V. BROWER Archaeologist and explorer -- rediscoverer 
of Quivera and Harahey]

To Spain, from the first, nothing in her new-world conquests was gold that 
did not glitter; and for this she disdained to dig -- it was easier and 
more chivalrous to rob. She of course made pretense of having substituted 
for this mere material good, the priceless but easy gift, religion. A 
shrewder if not a juster race came after who were able to discern the true 
and inexhaustible body of gold hidden in the dull-hued soil; and they 
tilled and patiently waited nature's reward. And lo, to them is the 
kingdom. And Spain has her due reward. Driven from all her vast outlying 
domains by the relentless force of the modern industrial spirit, which she 
could neither assimilate nor entertain, into a little corner of Europe, 
there she lies, oblivious to progress, surviving chiefly as an echo, and 
consequential merely as a, reminiscence of the dead past.

   Expedition of the Mallet Brothers. The earliest authenticated 
exploration by white men on Nebraska soil was that of two brothers, Pierre 
and Paul Mallet, and six other Frenchmen in June, 1739. The Mallet 
brothers had probably come up from New Orleans the year before, and had 
wintered near the mouth of the Niobrara river. An account of their journey 
from that neighborhood to Sante Fe forms a part of the Margry papers, 
which consist of reports of early French explorers of the Trans-
Mississippi country to the French authorities at New Orleans and which 
have been printed by Margry in Paris.

    Lewis and Clark Expedition. In 1804, following the purchase of 
Louisiana, the Lewis-Clark expedition was sent out by President Jefferson 
for the purpose of gaining knowledge of the new and almost unknown 
territory.

   Following is a description of the company and outfit taken from the 
journal of Lewis and Clark:

   The party consisted of nine young men from Kentucky, fourteen soldiers 
of the United States army, who volunteered their services, two French 
watermen, an interpreter and hunter, and a black servant belonging to 
Capt. Clark -- all of these, except the last, listed to serve as privates 
during the expedition, and three sergeants appointed from amongst them by 
the captains. In addition to these were engaged a corporal and six 
soldiers and nine watermen to accompany the expedition as far as the 
Mandan nation, in order to assist in carrying the stores, or repelling an 
attack, which was most to be apprehended between Wood River and that 
tribe. The necessary stores were subdivided into seven bales and one box, 
containing a small portion of each article in case of accident. They 
consisted of a great variety of clothing, work utensils, locks, flints, 
powder, ball, and articles of the greatest use. To these were added 
fourteen bales and one box of Indian presents, distributed in the same 
manner, and composed of richly laced coats and other articles of dress, 
medals, flags, knives, and tomahawks for the chiefs -- ornaments of 
different kinds, partic-

Page 41

ularly beads, looking glasses, handkerchiefs, paints, and generally such 
articles as were deemed best calculated for the taste of the Indians.

   The party was to embark on board of three boats; the first was a keel 
boat fifty-five feet long, drawing three feet of water, one large square 
sail and twenty-two oars, a deck of ten feet in the bow and stern formed a 
forecastle and cabin, while the middle was covered by lockers, which might 
be raised so as to form a breast work in case of attack. This was 
accompanied by two perioques or open boats, one of six and the other of 
seven oars. Two horses were at the same time to be led along the banks of 
the river for the purpose of bringing home game, or hunting in case of 
scarcity. . . All

[image captions: Wm. Clark -- Meriwether Lewis]

the preparations being completed, we left our encampment on Monday, May 
14, 1804. This spot is at the mouth of Wood river, a small stream which 
empties itself into the Mississippi, opposite to the entrance to the 
Missouri.

    The expedition, following up the Missouri river, came in sight of the 
present Nebraska on the afternoon of July 11, 1804. It camped In the 
Missouri side, immediately opposite the mouth of the Big Nemaha, and the 
next day some members of the company explored the lower valley of that 
river.

   This expedition is of particular importance as it gives the first 
historical glimpse of the eastern border of Nebraska. From the point where 
it first touched the present state at the southeast corner to the point at 
the northeast corner, where the Missouri river reaches its borders, the 
distance is 277 miles as the bird flies. According to the government 
survey, the distance between these two points is 441 miles, following the 
meanderings of the river. The Lewis-Clark expedition recorded 556 miles of 
river front for the state in 1804. On the 8th of September the explorers 
left the present limits of Nebraska and continued their voyage up the 
Missouri, then crossed the dividing mountain chains, and launched their 
boats on the swift Columbia, following it to its mouth. Two years later 
they returned over the same route and gave a graphic description of the 
vast country they had traversed.

   The explorers first camped on Nebraska soil July 15th, near the mouth 
of the Little Nemaha. The camp of July 18th was not far from the present 
site of Nebraska City. According to Floyd's journal, the camp of July 20th 
was on the Nebraska side, and under a high bluff, three miles north of 
Weeping Water creek. On the 21st of July the party passed the mouth of the 
Platte river and encamped on the Nebraska side (probably not far from the 
southeast corner of section 31, township 13, range 14 E). They passed on 
up the river for a dis-

Page 42

tance of ten miles the next morning and then camped on the eastern shore. 
Here they remained for five days. They explored the country in all 
directions and sent for the surrounding Indians to meet them in a council 
at a point farther up the river. While they were here dispatches and maps 
were prepared to be sent to the president. July 27th they swam their 
horses to the Nebraska side and continued the journey northward.

   The camp of July 30th was at Council Bluff, This is the most important 
camp-ground of the Lewis-Clark expedition within the state. Subsequently 
(1819) it became the site of the first military post established in 
Nebraska. There is no doubt that the recommendation of this site by the 
captains, Lewis and Clark, determined the location of what was afterward 
known as Camp Missouri, Fort Atkinson, and finally Fort Calhoun. The 
importance of this camp warrants a quotation from that part of the journal 
describing Council Bluff:

   . . . The land here consists of a plain, above the high water level, 
the soil of which is fertile, and covered with a grass from five to eight 
feet high, interspersed with copses of large plums and a currant like 
those of the United States . . . Back of this plain is a woody ridge, 
about seventy feet above it, at the end of which we formed our camp. This 
ridge separates the lower from a higher prairie, of a good quality, with 
grass, of ten or twelve inches in height and extending back about a mile 
to another elevation of eighty or ninety feet, beyond which is one 
continued plain. Near our camp we enjoy from the bluffs a most beautiful 
view of the river, and the adjoining country. At a distance varying from 
four to ten miles, and of a height between seventy and three hundred feet, 
two parallel ranges of high land afford a passage to the Missouri which 
enriches the low grounds between them. In its winding course, it nourishes 
the willow islands, the scattered cottonwood, elm, sycamore, lynn and ash, 
and the groves are interspersed with hickory, walnut, coffeenut and oak. 
The meridian altitude of this day (July 31) made the latitude of our camp 
41o 18' 1.4" . . . We waited with much anxiety the return of our messenger 
to the Ottoes . . . Our apprehensions were at length relieved by the 
arrival of a party of about fourteen Ottoe and Missouri Indians, who came 
at sunset, on the 2nd of August, accompanied by a Frenchman who resided 
among them and interpreted for us. Captain Lewis and Clark went out to 
meet them, and told them that we would hold a council in the morning . . . 
[Here follows an account of the council in detail.] The incidents just 
related, induced us to give this place the name of the Council-bluff; the 
situation of it is exceedingly favorable for a fort and trading factory.

   There were fourteen Indians present at this council, six of whom were 
chiefs. They were all Otoes and Missouris who formed one tribal 
organization at a later date, and presumably at that time.

   After concluding the council they moved up the river five miles and 
encamped August 3d. On the 4th of August they continued the voyage and 
came to "a trading house on the south, (Nebraska side) where one of our 
party passed two years trading with the Mahas." This too brief paragraph 
is important in disclosing that there were white traders in Nebraska prior 
to 1804. The camp of August 4th was also on Nebraska soil, but the exact 
point is not determined.

   The next sojourn in Nebraska was on the 11th of August, when they 
paused to examine "Blackbird's grave." The description given is worthy of 
repetition here:

   We halted on the south side, for the purpose of examining a spot where 
one of the great chiefs of the Mahas, named Blackbird who died about four 
years ago of the small-pox, was buried. A hill of yellow soft sandstone 
rises from the river in bluffs of various heights till it ends in a knoll 
about three hundred feet above the water; on the top of this a mound of 
twelve feet diameter at the base, and six feet high, is raised over the 
body of the deceased king, a pole of about eight feet high is fixed in the 
center; on which we placed a white flag, bordered with red, blue and white.

   August 13th they reached a spot on the Nebraska side where "a Mr. 
Mackay" had a trading house in 1795 and 1796 which he called Fort Charles. 
This same day men were sent out to the old Maha village with a flag and a 
present, in order to induce them to come and hold a council with us. They 
returned at twelve o'clock next day, August 14. After crossing a prairie 
covered with high grass, they reached the Maha

Page 43

[image caption: LEWIS AND CLARK MONUMENTS Engravings from Photographs by 
A. R. Sheldon. in upper right-hand corner appears the monument erected by 
order of the legislature of Tennessee, over the grave of Captain Lewis, 
Lewis county, Tennessee. Reproduced from The Trail of Lewis and Clark, by 
courtesy of Olin D. Wheeler, editor. In the center and upper left hand 
corner are three views of the monument of Captain Clark in Belle Fontaine 
cemetery, St. Louis. The two lower cuts represent the bowlder at Fort 
Calhoun, Nebraska, commemorating the first council with the Indians on 
Nebraska soil.]

Page 44

creek, along which they proceeded to its three forks, which join near the 
village; they crossed the north branch and went along the south; the walk 
was very fatiguing, as they were forced to break their way through grass, 
sunflowers, and thistles, all above ten feet high, and interspersed with 
wild pea. Five miles from our camp they reached the position of the 
ancient Maha village; it had once consisted of three hundred cabins, but 
was burnt about four years ago, soon after the small-pox had destroyed 
four hundred men, and a proportion of women and children. On a hill in the 
rear of the village, are the graves of the nation; to the south of which 
runs the fork of the Maha creek; this they crossed where it was about ten 
yards wide, and followed its course to the Missouri, passing along a ridge 
of hill for one and a half miles, and a long pond between that and the 
Missouri; they then recrossed the Maha creek, and arrived at the camp, 
having seen no tracks of Indians or any sign of recent cultivation.

   Probably the first large Nebraska "fish story" originated on August 
16th, when a seine was improvised with which over four hundred fish were 
taken from the Omaha creek. August 13th they made a camp near the old 
Omaha village and remained until August 20th. At this point another 
council was held with the Otoes and Missouris, who were then at war with 
the Omahas and very much afraid of a war with the Pawnees. After 
concluding this council they continued their journey, and the next day 
(August 20th) Sergeant Floyd, died and was buried on the Iowa side near 
the Floyd river.

   On August 21st the camp was made on the Nebraska side; also on the 23d. 
On the 24th of August they came to the Nebraska volcano, a bluff of blue 
clay where they say the soil was so warm they could not keep their hands 
in it. These volcanic phenomena were probably due to the action of water, 
at times of inundation, on iron pyrite, setting free sulphuric acid, which 
in turn attacked limestone, producing heat and steam. Similar phenomena 
have been observed in the same locality in very recent years. This night 
camp was made in Nebraska, and mosquitoes were numerous. On August 25th 
camp was made very near the Cedar-Dixon county line. August 28th a camp 
was made in Nebraska, a little way below where Yankton now stands. The 
Yankton Sioux had been called here for a council, and on August 31st the 
council was concluded. While the expedition was in camp here a number of 
Sioux chiefs arranged to accompany Mr. Durion to Washington.

   On the 1st of September they again set sail; on the 2d they stopped to 
examine an ancient fortification which must have been on section 3, 10, or 
11, in the bend of the river and quite near the bank. September 3d they 
camped again on Nebraska soil, and the next day they reached a point just 
north of the Niobrara river. September 7th the last camp in Nebraska was 
pitched six miles south of the north line.

   On the return trip down the Missouri river the expedition reached the 
northeastern corner of the present Nebraska on Sunday, August 31, 1806, 
and left the southeast corner on the 11th of September, having made the 
uneventful journey in twelve days. The up-stream passage of this part of 
the route had required fifty-seven days.

   Pike's Explorations. On the 15th of July, 1806, Lieutenant Zebulon M. 
Pike's party consisting of two lieutenants, one surgeon, one sergeant, two 
corporals, sixteen privates, and an interpreter, sailed from Belle 
Fontaine, four miles above the mouth of the Missouri river on the famous 
expedition which resulted in the discovery of Pike's Peak. The object of 
the expedition, which was sent out by General James Wilkinson, then 
commander-in-chief of the army of the United States, and also governor of 
the territory of Louisiana, was ostensibly, and in fact partially, to 
establish friendly relations with the Indians of the interior, but it is 
supposed also to gain information about the Spaniards, who, since our 
acquisition of Louisiana, out of which they felt they had been cheated by 
Napoleon, had been in a menacing attitude towards the Americas.

   The route of Pike's expedition was up the Missouri river to the mouth 
of the Osage river, then up this stream to the Osage village at a point 
near its source. Here the party abandoned their bateau and took a 
northwesterly course across the country, reaching the

Page 45

[image caption: From photograph, copyrighted by P. C. Waltermire, Sioux 
City. FLOYD MONUMENT NEAR SIOUX CITY, IOWA, SHOWING BRONZE TABLETS 
ATTACHED TO THE EAST AND WEST FACES OF THE SHAFT. Sergeant Charles Floyd, 
the first soldier of the United States to die west of the Mississippi 
river, was a son of Chas. Floyd, Sr., a grandson of Wm. Floyd, and was 
born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, between 1780 and 1785. He was one of 
the "nine young men from Kentucky" who joined Lewis and Clark at 
Louisville in the fall of 1803, was formally enlisted April 1, 1804, and 
appointed one of the three sergeants of the expedition. Sergeant Floyd was 
taken ill August 19, 1804, died the following day, and was buried on 
"Floyd's Bluff," on the Iowa side of the Missouri river near the place of 
his death. His grave was marked by a cedar post properly inscribed. In 
1857, when Floyd's grave was endangered by the river, his remains were 
removed 600 feet farther east. In 1895 the Floyd Memorial association was 
organized, and a monument erected at a cost of about $15,000, which was 
dedicated May 30, 1901. The shaft occupies a commanding position, three 
miles southeast of Sioux City, on the top of Floyd's Bluff -- the highest 
of the range of hills -- about 600 feet from the Missouri river, and 115 
feet above low-water mark. The monument is of the style of an Egyptian 
obelisk; the underground foundation is a monolith of concrete 22 feet 
square at the base, 13 feet 6 inches at the top, and 11 feet deep. This is 
surmounted by a base course of solid stone 2 feet high, and 10.92 feet 
square. The shaft is 100 feet 2 1/2 inches in height 9.42 feet square at 
the bottom, and 6.28 feet square at the top. It is a masonry shell of 
Kettle river sandstone, the core of solid concrete.]

Page 46

Republican river at a point which has not been determined even 
approximately; and that interesting question is now the subject of 
investigation by specialists. The party camped on an eminence on the north 
side of the river, opposite the Pawnee village, and circumstances favor 
the conclusion that they were within the present bounds of Nebraska, 
notwithstanding that in 1901, a monument to mark the northern limit of 
Pike's route, was erected within the Kansas line about four miles south of 
Hardy, Nebraska. Pike's visit to the Republican Pawnees had been preceded 
a short time before by the expedition of the Spanish Lieutenant Maygares, 
who had traveled from Santa Fe with about six hundred soldiers and over 
two thousand horses and mules; but Pike says that about two hundred and 
forty men and the horses that were unfit for service were left at the 
crossing of the Arkansas river. The beaten down grass plainly disclosed to 
Pike their line of march in the Pawnee neighborhood. This Spanish 
expedition had been sent to intercept Pike and also to establish friendly 
relations with the Indians, and the American party found a Spanish flag 
flying over the council lodge of the Pawnees. These incidents, together 
with the fact that Pike was detained in New Mexico, virtually a prisoner, 
illustrates the indefiniteness of the boundary of the Louisiana Purchase 
at the time and the insolence of Spain, not yet conscious of her decaying 
condition, toward the young republic. The contrast between Pike's little 
party and the considerable Spanish army which had just passed, inspired 
insolent behavior on the part of the Pawnees, which led the intrepid 
American explorer to give vent to his feelings in his journal: "All the 
evil I wished the Pawnees was that I might be the instrument in the hands 
of our government to open their eyes and ears, and with a strong hand 
convince them of our power." It would no doubt have given the indomitable 
but persecuted Pike much satisfaction to know that within a very few years 
the insolent Spaniard, then invading American territory, would be pushed 
off the continent finally by American aggression. Pike himself was killed 
in battle in our war of 1812, but his services had been recognized and 
rewarded by promotion in 1795.

   Explorations of Crooks and McLellan. In 1807 Ramsey Crooks and Robert 
McLellan, two of the most famous and intrepid explorers of the Northwest, 
formed a partnership, and in the fall of the year started up the Missouri 
river with an expedition comprising eighty men fitted out on shares by 
Sylvester and Auguste Chouteau. On the return of Lewis and Clark in 1806, 
they brought with them to St. Louis, Shahaka, the chief of the Mandans, on 
the way to Washington for consultation with President Jefferson and under 
promise of safe escort back to his home. The next summer Ensign Nathaniel 
Pryor, who had been a sergeant in the Lewis and Clark party, undertook to 
escort the chief up the river. The command consisted of fourteen soldiers 
in all, but it was united with a party of thirty-two men led by Pierre 
Chouteau. When they attempted pass the lower Arikara village, the Indians 
attacked them and drove them back, and on their return they met Crooks and 
McLellan, who then turned back and established a camp probably near 
Bellevue, where they remained until the spring of 1810. Lisa had safely 
passed the Arikaras before these parties arrived, and whether true or not, 
the charge that he inspired the Arikara attack is a concession to his 
ability and influence as well as an illustration of his reputation for 
intrigue.

   Astorian Expedition. Commerce led to the first exploration and 
civilized occupation in the Northwest, including Nebraska. The French had 
led in exploration and fur trade until the British wrested Canada from 
them in 1762, and Frenchmen continued to carry active commercial traffic 
in this region, St. Louis, then a French town, as their principal base. 
But about the beginning of the nineteenth century there was a state of 
actual hostility between English and American traders. The discovery of 
the mouth of the Columbia river in 1792 by Captain Gray of the American 
trading ship Columbia, was an important factor in the long dispute over 
the Oregon boundary. In 1810, John Jacob Astor, of New York, organized the 
Pacific Fur Compa-

Page 47

ny, a partnership including himself, Alexander McKay, Duncan McDougal, 
Donald McKenzie, David Stuart, Robert Stuart, and Wilson Price Hunt, for 
the purpose of colonization and trade at the mouth of the Columbia river. 
Astor was encouraged in his enterprise by the federal government. The 
partners named with the exception of Hunt, sailed in the ship Tonquin in 
September, 1810, and founded Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia river 
in the spring of the following year. In October of 1810 Mr. Hunt started 
up the Missouri river with a party in three boats to reach Astoria by the 
overland route. The expedition came to the mouth of the Nodaway river in 
November, and went into winter quarters, though Hunt returned to St. 
Louis, where he spent the winter. He reached the winter camp again on the 
17th of the following April, and a few days later the party set sail. It 
consisted of about sixty men, five of them partners in the enterprise, and 
they embarked in four boats. On the 28th of April they breakfasted on an 
island at the mouth of the Platte river, and they halted for two days on 
the bank of the Missouri, a little above the mouth of Papillion creek, and 
therefore on or near the site of Bellevue. In Irving's account of this 
journey no mention is made of any settlement at this point; but he set the 
example of writing enthusiastically of the beauty of the landscape, which 
has been assiduously practiced by travelers and settlers over since. On 
the 10th of May the party arrived at the Omaha Indian village, situated, 
by their measurement, about two hundred and thirty miles above their 
Bellevue encampment. On the 12th of June they arrived at the village of 
the Arikara Indians, about ten miles above the mouth of the Grand river, 
now in northern South Dakota. From this point they proceeded by land to 
the Columbia river, which they reached some distance below the junction of 
the Lewis and Clark river. They followed down the Columbia in canoes, and 
reached Astoria on the 15th of February.

   Lisa, who represented the Missouri Fur Company, jealously watched the 
operations of the new Pacific Fur Company, and his successful attempt to 
overtake Hunt resulted in a famous keel boat race. Lisa explains that this 
desperate exertion was caused by a desire to pass through the dangerous 
Sioux country in Hunt's company for greater safety; but it seems likely 
that his primary object was to prevent Hunt from establishing advantageous 
trade relations with any of the Indians on the upper river. Lisa traveled 
with great rapidity, at an average rate of eighteen miles a day, and 
overtook Hunt's party.

   There were twenty-six men on Lisa's boat and it was armed with a swivel 
mounted at the bow. Twenty men were at the oars.

[image caption: PIERRE CHOUTEAU, JR. A master mind in the early fur trade]

   Brackenridge, who, according to Irving, was "a young, enterprising man, 
tempted by motives of curiosity to accompany Mr. Lisa," gives an account 
of the starting of the party:

   We sat off from the village of St. Charles on Tuesday, the 28th of 
April, 1811. Our barge was the best that ever ascended this river, and 
manned with stout oarsmen. Mr. Lisa, who had been a sea captain, took much 
pains in rigging his boat with a good mast and main top sail, these being 
great helps in the navigation of this river . . . We are in all twenty-
five men, and completely pre-

Page 48

pared for defense. There is besides, a swivel on the bow of the boat, 
which in case of attack would make a formidable appearance; we have also 
two brass blunderbusses. . . These precautions are absolutely necessary 
from the hostility of the Sioux bands . . . It is exceedingly difficult to 
make a start on these voyages, from the reluctance of the men to terminate 
the frolic with their friends which usually precedes their departure. . . 
The river Platte is regarded by the navigators of the Missouri as a point 
of as much importance as the equinoctial line amongst mariners. All those 
who had not passed it before were required to be shaved unless they would 
compromise the matter by a treat.

   On the 28th of June, 1812, Robert Stuart started from Astoria with five 
of Hunt's original party on a return overland trip. At Fort Henry on the 
north fork of Snake river, now in southeastern Idaho, he was joined by 
four of the five men who had been detached by Hunt on the 10th of the 
previous October. After a journey of terrible hardships they established 
winter quarters on the North Platte river not far east of the place where 
it issues from the mountains. At the end of six weeks they were driven out 
by the Indians and proceeded three hundred and thirty miles down the 
Platte; and then, despairing of being able to pass safely over the desert 
plain covered with deep snow, which confronted them, they went back over 
seventy-seven miles of their course until they found a suitable winter 
camp in what is now Scotts Bluff county, where they went into winter 
quarters on the 30th of December, 1812. On the 8th of March they tried to 
navigate the stream in canoes, but found it impracticable, and proceeded 
on foot to a point about forty-five miles from the mouth of the Platte, 
where they embarked, April 16th, in a large canoe made for their purpose 
by the Indians.

   The Yellowstone Expedition. Such importance in Nebraska annals as may 
be attributed to what is known as Long's expedition in 1819 is due to the 
fact that it was the occasion of the passage of the first steamboat up the 
Missouri river, and the establishment of the first military post within 
the limits of the territory. This post, at first called Camp Missouri, was 
developed into a fort of the regular quadrangular form and named Fort 
Atkinson after its founder, General Atkinson, the commander of the 
Yellowstone expedition. It was occupied until 1827 in the main by the 
Sixth regiment of infantry, and was abandoned, June 27, 1827, when Fort 
Leavenworth was established and to which the furnishings of Fort Atkinson 
were transferred. A reason assigned for the abandonment of Fort Atkinson, 
namely, that the site was unhealthy, does not seem plausible. A better, 
and probably the real reason is that, owing to the insignificance or 
failure of the up-river fur trading enterprise, this fort was nowhere and 
protected nothing, while the new site chosen by Colonel Leavenworth was 
virtually at the beginning of the Sante Fe and Oregon trails, where 
traffic was of considerable and growing importance. The failure of Astor's 
attempt to effect stable American lodgment on the Columbia, of the 
Missouri Fur Company and other private enterprises to overcome or 
successfully compete with British influence and trade aggression in this 
new, northwest, stimulated the federal government to send out what was 
intended to be a formidable military and scientific expedition for the 
purpose of establishing a strong post at the mouth of the Yellowstone 
river, to ascertain the natural features and resources of the country, 
and, if practicable, the important line between United States and the 
British possessions. There were dreams, if not practical intentions, of 
establishing a trade with the Orient by way of the Columbia river, across 
the mountains to the Missouri, and down that stream to Mississippi, but 
which were to be realize through the steam railroad across Nebraska 
instead of the steamboat up the Missouri. Five steamboats were provided 
for the transportation of the military arm of the expedition, comprising 
about a thousand men under command of Colonel Henry Atkinson. management 
and miscalculation chiefly distinguished this pretentious enterprise from 
first to last. The waste of time and money -- except as the latter 
provided a substantial lining

Page 49

for the pocket of the contractor -- in attempting to navigate the Missouri 
with vessels not specially adapted to its very peculiar demands, the lack 
of proper provisions for the, troops at their winter quarters at Council 
Bluffs, resulting in appalling sickness and death, the entire abandonment 
of the original and important design of the enterprise -- to obtain a sure 
footing or control in the upper Missouri -- and the failure of Major Long 
to reach the Red river at all seem to justify the criticism which the 
expedition has received. Two of the five boats were not able to enter the 
Missouri at all; and "the Jefferson gave out and abandoned the trip thirty 
miles below Franklin. The Expedition and the Johnson wintered at Cow 
Island, a little above the mouth of the Kansas, and returned to St. Louis 
in the following spring."(9) The troops did not reach Council Bluff, where 
they established Camp Missouri, till the 26th of September, 1819. Their 
condition in the spring, March 8th, is shown in the journal of Long's 
expedition:

   Camp Missouri has been sickly, from the commencement of the winter; but 
its situation is at this time truly deplorable. More than three hundred 
are, or have been sick, and nearly one hundred have died. This fatality is 
occasioned by the scurvy (scorbutus). Individuals who are seized rarely 
recover, as they can not be furnished with the proper aliments; they have 
no vegetables, fresh meat, nor antiscorbutics, so that the patients grow 
daily worse, and entering the hospital is considered by them a certain 
passport to the grave.(10)

   The scientific and exploring division of the party, under Major Long, 
left St. Louis on the 9th of June, 1819, on the steamboat Western 
Engineer, which is said to have been the first stern-wheel steamboat ever 
built. This vessel appears to have been well adapted to its purpose and, 
proceeding by easy stages, reached the mouth of the Platte river on the 
15th of September, Fort Lisa on the 17th, and on the 19th anchored at the 
winter camp, half a mile above Fort Lisa and five miles below Council 
Bluff, and which they called Engineer Cantonment. According to one writer, 
the vessels which attempted to transfer Atkinson's soldiers in the early 
winter of 1818 were the first steamboats to enter the Missouri river; but 
the statement that two of them went as far as Cow Island, above the mouth 
of the Kansas, is contrary to an account of the arrival of the 
Independence at Franklin, contained in the Franklin Intelligencer of May 
28, 1819:

   With no ordinary sensation of pride and pleasure we announce the 
arrival this morning of the elegant steamboat, Independence, Capt. Nelson, 
in seven sailing days (but thirteen from the time of her departure) from 
St. Louis with passengers and a cargo of flour, whiskey,

[image caption: BENJAMIN LOUIS EULALIA BONNEVILLE]

iron castings, etc., being the first steamboat that ever attempted 
ascending the Missouri, The grand desideratum, the important fact is now 
acknowledged that steamboats can successfully navigate the Missouri.

  Major Long started to Washington after a sojourn of two weeks at 
Engineer Cantonment and returned in the spring by land from St. Louis. On 
account of mismanagement of the expedition and the scandals arising from 
it the necessary appropriations were stopped and Major Long was authorized 
to lead an exploring party "to the source of the river Platte and thence 
by way of the Arkanasas and Red rivers to the Mississippi." The party 
consisted of S. H. Long, major United States topographical engineers, six 
regular soldiers, and eleven oth- 

(9. History of American Fur Trade, vol. ii, p. 569.)

(10. Long's First Expedition, vol. i, p. 195.)

Page 50

er men, most of them such specialists as were needed in a scientific 
exploration. They started from Engineer Cantonment on the 6th of June, 
following the Pawnee path southwesterly to the Platte valley, then, 
proceeding along the north side of the river, crossed the forks a short 
distance above their junction, and followed the south bank of the South 
Platte. By the end of June they came in sight of the mountains and 
discovered the great peak which they named after Major Long.

   In May, 1832, Captain Nathaniel J. Wyeth, with a party of eighteen, 
intent on Astor's original plan of establishing trade on the Columbia 
river, passed through Nebraska on the Oregon trail. He traveled in company 
with William L. Sublette's expedition to the mountains. On his return by 
way of the Missouri river he passed Council Bluff on the 21st of 
September, 1833. In 1834, Wyeth, with a party of seventy men, traveled 
over the same route again from Independence to the Columbia.

   Captain Bonneville was a diligent wanderer rather than an explorer, and 
he owes his fame largely to the fact that the fascinating Irving was his 
historian. He took a party of about one hundred men over the Oregon trail 
in the spring of 1832, and traveled over the whole northwest mountain 
region, including the Columbia river country, until the spring of 1835. In 
the year last named Colonel Henry Dodge, who afterwards became the first 
governor of Wisconsin, and after whom Nebraska's brilliant son, Henry 
Dodge Estabrook, was named, led an expedition from Fort Leavenworth up the 
Platte and along its south fork to the mountains, thence south to the 
Sante Fe trail, returning by that route.

   Fremont's Expedition. The federal government had indirectly encouraged 
the expeditions set on foot by Astor and others and had directly sent the 
Long expedition, but the most important explorations of the Northwest, 
under the auspices of the government, were those of Fremont. The first 
party passed through Nebraska by the Oregon trail in the summer of 1842. 
This expedition, composed of twenty-seven men, mostly Creole Canadian 
frontiersmen, included the famous Kit Carson as its guide and a son of 
Thomas H. Benton, a boy of twelve years, whose sister Lieutenant Fremont, 
the leader of the expedition, had recently married. This expedition 
started from Cyprian Chouteau's trading post on the Missouri river, a 
little over twelve miles above the mouth of the Kansas, on the 10th of 
June, 1842. Fremont's orders were, "to explore and report upon the country 
between the frontiers of Missouri and the south pass in the Rocky 
mountains and on the line of the Kansas and Great Platte rivers." This was 
accomplished by the middle of August, and the party returned by the same 
route, reaching the junction of the north and south forks on the 12th of 
September. Here Fremont also was tempted to undertake the navigation of 
the river. His own account of the remainder of the journey through 
Nebraska is a pertinent and interesting story:

   At this place I had determined to make another attempt to descend the 
Platte by water, and accordingly spent two days in the construction of a 
bull boat. Men were sent out on the evening of our arrival, the necessary 
number of bulls killed, and their skins brought to camp. Four of the best 
of them were strongly sewed together with buffalo sinew, and stretched 
over a basket frame of willow. The seams were then covered with ashes and 
tallow and the boat left exposed to the sun the greater part of one day, 
which was sufficient to dry and contract the skin and make the whole work 
solid and strong. It had a rounded bow, was eight feet long and five 
broad, and drew with four men about four inches of water. On the morning 
of the 15th we embarked in our hide boat, Mr. Preuss and myself with two 
men. We dragged her over the sands for three or four miles, and then left 
her on the bar, and abandoned entirely all further attempts to navigate 
this river. The names given by the Indians are always remarkably 
appropriate; and certainly none was ever more so than that which they had 
given to this stream -- "the Nebraska, or Shallow River." Walking steadily 
the remainder of the day, a little before dark we overtook our people at 
their evening camp, about twenty-one miles below the junction. The next 
morning we crossed the Platte, and continued our way down the river bottom 
on the left bank, where we found an excellent plainly beaten road.

   On the 18th we reached Grand Island, which

Page 51

is fifty-two miles long, with an average breadth of one mile and three 
quarters. It has on it some small eminences and is sufficiently elevated 
to be secure from the annual floods of the river. As has already been 
remarked, it is well timbered, with an excellent soil, and recommends 
itself to notice as the best point for a military position on the Lower 
Platte.

   On the 22nd we arrived at the village of the Grand Pawnees, on the 
right bank of the river, about thirty miles above the mouth of the Loup 
fork. They were gathering in their corn, and we obtained from them a very 
welcome supply of vegetables.

   The morning of the 24th we reached the Loup fork of the Platte. At the 
place where we forded it, this stream was four hundred and thirty yards 
broad, with a swift current of clear water; in this respect differing from 
the Platte, which has a muddy yellow color, derived from the limestone and 
marl formation of which we have previously spoken. The ford was difficult, 
as the water was so deep that it came into the body of the carts, and we 
reached the opposite bank after repeated attempts, ascending and 
descending the bed of the river in order to avail ourselves of the bars. 
We camped on the left bank of the fork, in the point of land at its 
junction with the Platte. During the two days that we remained here for 
astronomical observations, the bad weather permitted us to obtain but one 
good observation for the latitude -- a meridian altitude of the sun, which 
gave for the latitude of the mouth of the Loup fork 41o 22' 11'.

   Five or six days previously, I had sent forward C. Lambert, with two 
men, to Bellevue, with directions to ask from Mr. P. Sarpy, the gentleman 
in charge of the American Company's establishment at that place, the aid 
of his carpenters in constructing a boat, in which I proposed to descend 
the Missouri. On the afternoon of the 27th we met one of the men who had 
been dispatched by Mr. Sarpy with a welcome supply of provisions and a 
very kind note which gave the very gratifying intelligence that our boat 
was in rapid progress, On the evening of the 30th we encamped in an almost 
impenetrable undergrowth on the left bank of the Platte, in the point of 
land at its confluence with the Missouri -- three hundred and fifty miles, 
according to our reckoning, from the junction of the forks, and five 
hundred and twenty miles from Fort Laramie.

   From the junction we had found the bed of the Platte occupied with 
numerous islands, many of them very large, and well timbered; possessing, 
as well as the bottom lands of the river, a very excellent soil. With the 
exception of some scattered groves on the banks, the bottoms are 
generallly without timber. A portion of these consist of low grounds, 
covered with a profusion of fine grasses, and are probably inundated in 
the spring; the remaining part is high river prairie, entirely beyond the 
influence of the floods. The breadth of the river is usually three 
quarters of a mile, except where it is enlarged by islands. That portion 
of its course which is occupied by Grand Island has an average breadth 
from shore to shore of two and a half miles. The breadth

[image caption: JOHN C. FREMONT]

of the valley, with the various accidents of ground -- springs, timber, 
and whatever I have thought interesting to travelers and settlers -- you 
will find indicated on the larger map which accompanies this report.

   October 1. -- I arose this morning long before daylight, and heard with 
a feeling of pleasure the tinkling of cow bells at the settlements on the 
opposite side of the Missouri. Early in the day we reached Mr. Sarpy's 
residence, and in the security and comfort of his hospitable mansion felt 
the pleasure of again being within the pale of civilization. We

Page 52

found our boat on the stocks; a few days sufficed to complete her; and in 
the afternoon of the 4th we embarked on the Missouri. All our equipage -- 
horses, carts, and the materiel of the camp -- had been sold at public 
auction at Bellevue. The strength of my party enabled me to man the boat 
with ten oars, relieved every hour; and we descended rapidly.

   On his second expedition the following year, Fremont passed up the 
Kansas river to the mouth of the Republican. He then proceeded 
northwestwardly, leaving the Republican valley on his right or to the 
north. Soon after crossing and naming the Prairie Dog river he again 
entered the Republican valley. He crossed the present Nebraska line not 
far from the western boundary of Hitchcock county, and, crossing Dundy 
county diagonally to the northwest, entered the valley of the South 
Platte, which he followed to the mountains. Fremont complains on this trip 
of the difficulty of traveling on account of heavy rains, which is another 
indication of the fallacy of the popular notion that rainfall has 
increased in this portion of the plains since its occupation and 
cultivation by white men.

   John C. Fremont. John C. Fremont was born January 21, 1813, in 
Savannah, Georgia, and died July 13, 1890. He was the son of a French 
immigrant who married into one of the most prominent families of Virginia. 
John C. Fremont distinguished himself as statesman, soldier, and explorer. 
After completing his work in Charleston College, he taught mathematics for 
a time, and later became a civil engineer. He married the daughter of 
Colonel Thomas H. Benton. Fremont gained the recognition of the United 
States government, which supported his ambitions in explorations extending 
across the continent to the Pacific coast. As a recognition of his 
services he was rewarded with a brevet captaincy. In California, he 
protected the settlers from the Mexicans, and in 1846 was appointed 
governor of California. He received the commission of lieutenant-colonel. 
Fremont organized an expedition to find a southern route to California 
and, while the attempt was somewhat disastrous, he succeeded in reaching 
California by that route in 1849. He was elected United States senator 
from that state and took his seat when the state was admitted in 1850. His 
term expired in 1851, and the following year was spent in Europe. In 1856 
he was the republican nominee for president of the United States, but was 
defeated by James Buchanan, the democratic nominee. Fremont was appointed 
major-general in the Federal army, and later was made commander of the 
mountain district of Virginia and Kentucky. He resigned when Major General 
Pope was assigned to the command of the Army of Virginia. The failure of 
his project to build the El Paso and Pacific railroad reduced him to 
poverty. He was appointed governor of Arizona territory and served four 
years.

[image caption: Manuel de Lisa.]


   Manuel de Lisa. It is probable that there was a trading post called 
Fort Charles, about six miles below Omadi, kept by one McKay as early as 
1795. In 1802, Cruzatte's post,

Page 53

also a trading establishment, was situated two miles above old Council 
Bluff. In 1807, Crooks and McLellan established a post not far above the 
mouth of the Papillion; but they abandoned it in 1810 when they formed the 
Pacific Fur Company. This was probably the first settlement on the site, 
or in the immediate neighborhood, of Bellevue. The tradition that Manuel 
Lisa made a settlement at Bellevue in 1805 is probably groundless. He 
established his post, known as Fort Lisa, at a point between five and six 
miles below the original Council Bluff -- where Lewis and Clark had a 
council with the Missouri and Otoe Indians, August 3, 1804, and now the 
site of the town of Fort Calhoun -- as early as 1812. Manuel Lisa was 
doubtless the most remarkable man among the early explorers and traders of 
the Missouri river. "In boldness of enterprise, persistency of purpose and 
in restless energy, he was a fair representative of the Spaniard of the 
days of Cortez. He was a man of great ability, a masterly judge of men, 
thoroughly experienced in the Indian trade and native customs, intensely 
active in his work, yet withal a perfect enigma of character which his 
contemporaries were never able to solve."(11) He was selected to command 
in the field, nearly every expedition sent out by the St. Louis companies 
of which he was a member. Lisa was born of Spanish parents, in Cuba, in 
1772. The return of Lewis and Clark excited his ambition to establish 
trade on the upper Missouri, and in 1807 he led an expedition as far as 
the Bighorn where he established a post called Fort Lisa. The Missouri Fur 
Company of St. Louis, in which he was a partner, was organized in 1808-
1809. In the spring of 1809 he went up to the Bighorn post with a party of 
one hundred and fifty men, but returned to St. Louis for the winter. Every 
year, from 1807 to 1819, inclusive, possibly with one exception, he made 
the upper Missouri trip -- twice to the Bighorn, a distance of two 
thousand miles, several times to Fort Mandan, fifteen hundred miles, the 
rest of the journeys being to Fort Lisa at Council Bluff, six hundred and 
seventy miles. After the establishment of this post he spent most, 
probably all of the winters there, returning to St. Louis in the spring 
each year. His last sojourn in his Nebraska home was in 1819, and this 
time his wife, whom he had recently married in St. Louis, was with him. He 
had kept at least one woman of the Omahas as wife or mistress, and there 
is a tragic story of his final separation from her before his last trip 
back to St. Louis, and of her giving up their two children to him because 
she thought it would be best for them. As is often the case

[image caption: MARY MANUEL LISA First white woman to live in Nebraska]

with original and adventurous spirits, in a commercial sense Lisa sowed 
that others might reap, and he died at St. Louis, in August, 1820, leaving 
little of the material gain for which he had striven with wonderful energy 
and at such great risks. While McKay and Cruzatte, and perhaps others of 
the white race may have had lodgment in Nebraska before Lisa, yet it seems 
fair to call him the first real white settler. Thomas Biddle, the 
journalist of the Yellowstone expedition, in a report to Atkinson, 
commandant at Camp Missouri, dated October 29, 1819, says that Lisa's 
party went 

(11. Chittenden, History of American Fur Trade, p. 113.)

Page 54

to the mouth of the Bighorn in 1809 and that they wintered there that 
year, and on the waters of the Columbia in 1810-1811; but Lisa, himself, 
returned to St. Louis in the fall of 1809. By Biddle's showing the 
Missouri river fur trade was on the whole unprofitable, and the various 
companies or partnerships were short-lived, and according to his 
statement, the Missouri Fur Company expired in 1814 or 1815; by other 
accounts it dissolved between 1828-1830, Joshua Pilcher remaining its 
president after Lisa's death. Biddle tells us also

[image caption: Engraving from a photograph owned by John Q. Goss, 
Bellevue, Nebraska. LOGAN FONTENELLE (SHON-GA-SKA) Elected principal chief 
of the Omahas, September, 1853]

that after the dissolution of the Missouri company, Lisa, Pilcher, and 
others bought a new company for $10,000, and they added goods to the 
amount of $7,000. As Lisa died in 1820, he could not have joined Pilcher 
in his last enterprise after the expiration of the Missouri company, if it 
had lived until 1828 or 1830. The confusion must be accounted for by the 
fact that another company of the same name was organized after the 
dissolution of the first, and it is to that doubtless that some writers 
refer. Long notes that Major Pilcher and Lucien Fontenelle were in the 
employ of the Missouri Fur Company at the beginning of the year 1820. Not 
long after Lisa's death, the company, now in charge of Pilcher, moved its 
post from Fort Lisa down to the site of Bellevue. Chittenden states that 
Lucien Fontenelle and Andrew Drips bought the post soon after this time 
and retained it many years, though in another place this author says that 
they built a post at Bellevue. It is probable that this Fontenelle was 
connected with one of the numerous French royal families, and it is stated 
that he committed suicide at Fort Laramie; but reliable local accounts say 
that he left his mountain trading post in 1839 and came to Bellevue where 
he lived with his family until he died, from intemperate habits, in 1840. 
He married a woman of the Omaha tribe and they had five children.

   Logan Fontenelle. Logan Fontenelle became a chief of the Omahas and a 
man of much note among the Indians and the earliest white settlers. Henry 
Fontenelle, a brother of this Omaha chief, has given the following account 
of his death:

   In June, 1855, Logan went with the tribe as usual on their summer 
buffalo hunt, and as usual their enemies, the Sioux, laid in wait for the 
Omahas in vicinities of large herds of buffalo, The first surround they 
made on the buffalo the Sioux made a descent upon them in overwhelming 
numbers and turned the chase into battle. Four Omahas were killed and 
several wounded. In every attempt at getting buffalo the Sioux charged 
upon them. The Omahas concluded it was useless to try to get any buffalo, 
and retreated toward home. They traveled three days, and, thinking they 
were out of danger, Logan, one morning, in company with Louis Saunsoci and 
another Indian, started on ahead of the moving village and were about 
three miles away when they espied a herd of elk in the distance. Logan 
proposed chase, they started, that was the last seen of him alive. The 
same moment the village was surrounded by the Sioux. About ten o'clock in 
the morning a battle ensued and lasted until three o'clock, when they 
found out Logan was killed. His body was found and brought into Bellevue 
and buried by the side of his father. He had the advantage of a limited 
education and saw the advantage of

Page 55

it. He made it a study to promote the welfare of his people and to bring 
them out of their wretchedness, poverty and ignorance. His first step to 
that end was to organize a parole of picked men and punish all that came 
home intoxicated with bad whiskey. His effort to stop whiskey drinking was 
successful. It was his intention as soon as the Omahas were settled in 
their new home to ask the government to establish ample schools among 
them, to educate the children of the tribe by force if they would not send 
the children by reasonable persuasion. His calculations for the benefit of 
the tribe were many, but, like many other human calculations, his life 
suddenly ended in the prime, and just as he was ready to benefit his 
people and sacrifice a life's labor for helpless humanity. After Logan was 
killed the Omahas went back to Bellevue instead of coming back to the 
reservation whence they started, and wintered along the Missouri river 
between Calhoun and the reservation, some of them at Bellevue. In the 
spring of 1856 they again went back to their reservation, where they have 
been since.

   Between the years 1822 and 1826, J. P. Cabanne established a post for 
the American Fur Company at a point nine or ten miles above the later site 
of the Union Pacific bridge at Omaha. It is probable that Joshua Pilcher 
succeeded Cabanne in the management of the post in 1833, and between that 
year and 1840 it was moved down to Bellevue and placed under the 
management of Peter A. Sarpy. Pilcher succeeded General Clark, of the 
Lewis and Clark expedition, as superintendent of Indian affairs at St. 
Louis in 1838. The Rev. Samuel Allis, a missionary to the Pawnee Indians 
and who was frequently at Bellevue as early as 1834 and thereafter, states 
that in the year named, his party camped at the fur company's fort and 
that Major Pilcher was in charge of the post; also that soon after Peter 
A. Sarpy came into that part of the country he was clerk for Cabanne. 
Chittenden says that "Fontenelle and Drips apparently bought Pilcher's 
Post and established it in their own name which it retained for many 
years." Thus both the Missouri Fur Company's post and the American Fur 
Company's post appear to have been transferred to Bellevue, the one from 
Fort Lisa and the other from Cabanne's, The Rev. Moses Merrill, a Baptist 
missionary to the Otoe Indians, who came to Bellevue on his mission in the 
fall of 1833, speaks in his diary of visiting Cabanne's post as late as 
April 1, 1839, so that it could not have been removed to Bellevue before 
that time; and Mr. Merrill, whose diary comes down to August 18, 1839, 
makes no mention of the removal. In this diary Mr. Merrill frequently 
speaks of riding from Bellevue to "the trading post," eighteen miles, 
which was in charge of Major Pilcher, and evidently the old Cabanne post. 
On the 7th of March, 1834, Merrill makes the following entry in his diary: 
"Sublette and Campbell have established a trading post here in opposition 
to the American Company." On the 10th of May, 1834, he records that he set 
out from the trading post eighteen miles above Bellevue, which must have 
been Cabanne's, to the Otoe village which he says was twenty-five miles 
distant. After Mr. Merrill had established himself at the Otoe mission 
house on the south side of the Platte, he records, May 30, 1836, that he 
rode to Cabanne's post, thirty miles. Mr. Merrill repeatedly states that 
he and the women who assisted him in his mission work, went backwards and 
forwards daily between the mission house and the Otoe village, so that 
they could have been only a short distance apart. The permanent Otoe 
villages were on the west side of the Platte river forty miles from its 
mouth, not far from the present village of Yutan. The Merrill mission 
establishment was about eight miles above the month of the Platte where a 
chimney still marks its site. Merrill's diary tells us in a vague way that 
the Otoe villages were moved down the Platte from the site in question 
during the summer of 1835. Merrill gives the distance from the trading 
post to the villages and to the mission as the same, showing that they 
were very near together; and his diary gives other ample evidence of that 
fact. Allis says that Merrill's establishment was on the Platte, six miles 
from Bellevue.

   In a paper by the Rev. S. P. Merrill, the missionary's son, the 
following statement is made: "A few miles from Bellevue, just below 
Boyer's creek, was the trading post of Cabanne. This post was sold about 
this time to a fur

Page 56

[image captions: MONUMENT OF JOHN B. SARPY, CALVARY CEMETERY, ST. LOUIS.
MONUMENT OF MANUEL DR. LISA, BELLEFONTAINE CEMETERY, ST. LOUIS. MONUMENT 
OF PETER A. SARPY, CALVARY CEMETERY, ST. LOUIS. Photographs by A. E. 
Sheldon]

Page 57

company, and in 1834 was occupied by Major Pilcher." This agrees with 
another statement that Pilcher succeeded Cabanne as manager of the post in 
1833. Mr. Merrill states that at Bellevue was a government agency for the 
Otoes, Pawnees, Omahas, and Missouris. "Bellevue," he says. "was at first 
a trading post of the Missouri Fur Company. They had sold out to 
Fontenelle, and he had disposed of a part of his holdings to the 
government. Here Major John Dougherty was government agent and Major 
Beauchamp was assistant. There were here now but few men. During the 
summer before, the cholera had carried off seven out of ten in twenty-four 
hours. On the bank of the river were the poorer huts, while higher up were 
the agency buildings. A quarter of a mile below were the buildings of 
Fontenelle. Mr. Merrill says that under Major Dougherty were "his brother, 
Hannibal, assistant, a teacher, an assistant teacher, two blacksmiths to 
care for the farming tools, and one or two farmers to teach the Indians 
how to make their crops." The missionary, the Rev. Moses Merrill, 
unfortunately for the cause of accurate history, was an almost morbid 
religious devotee, and his diary is so largely given up to recording his 
devotions and varying religious moods as to leave too little room for 
intelligible historical data.

   Peter A. Sarpy. P. A. Sarpy, born 1804, was a son of Gregoire Berald 
and Pelagie (Labadie) Sarpy. His father is said to have been the first man 
to attempt the navigation of the Missouri river in a keel boat. But little 
is known of his early life except that he was of French extraction and was 
educated in St. Louis where his relatives, the Chouteaus and others, 
occupied high social position. His elder brother, John B. Sarpy, was an 
important factor in the fur trade and the general commercial life of St. 
Louis. He was born in that city January 12, 1798, and was first employed 
as a clerk for Berthold and Chouteau, with whom he was associated in 
business for the balance of his life. His first wife was the eldest 
daughter of John P. Cabanne. About 1823 Peter A. Sarpy came to Nebraska as 
a clerk for the American Fur Company under John P. Cabanne, and in 1824 
succeeded him as manager of the post at Bellevue. Shortly after, he 
established a post on the Iowa side of the Missouri river which he called 
Traders Point; this was used for the accommodation of the whites, while 
Bellevue catered chiefly to the Indian trade. On account of the 
encroachments of the river, Traders Point was abandoned in 1853 and a new 
location established at St. Mary, four miles down the river. In 1853 
Colonel Sarpy established flat-boat ferries across the Elkhorn river near 
where Elkhorn

[image caption: From an old daguerreotype taken in 1855 at Council Bluffs, 
Iowa, and given to the Nebraska State Historical Society by J. Sterling 
Morton. PETER A. SARPY]

City was afterwards located, and on the Loup Fork near the present site of 
Columbus. He was a man of peculiar temperament, kind at heart, but in the 
pursuit of his business enterprises he spared no one. He was small and 
wiry in build, possessing great physical endurance. He loved the freedom 
of the West and was intimately associated with the Indians, being honored 
with the title of "white chief" by the Omahas. He married, according to 
Indian custom, Ni-co-mi, a woman of the Iowas, to, whom he was greatly 
attached, and whom he as greatly feared. Ni-co-mi had been the wife of Dr. 
John Gale, who had deserted her and their child. In 1854 Mr. Sarpy was a 
member

Page 58

[image caption: EARLY MISSOURI RIVER STEAMBOATS. The lower view represents 
a steamboat wreck on the Missouri river, copied from Early Steamboat 
Navigation on the Missouri River, Chittenden. The others are from 
photographs owned by the Nebraska State Historical Society.]

Page 59

of the Old Town company which laid out the town of Bellevue, and in 
company with Stephen Decatur and others laid out the town of Decatur, 
where he had maintained a trading post. In 1862, he moved to Plattsmouth, 
where he died January 4, 1865. Sarpy county was named in his honor. The 
St. Louis relatives of Colonel Sarpy deny that he left any considerable 
estate. He provided, however, for the payment of an annuity of $200 to Ni-
co-mi, his Indian wife, which amount was paid regularly until her death.

   EARLY TRADERS. A number of the hardy traders of the early days in the 
Plains country deserve special attention and, briefly sketched, their 
lives throw a ray of light into those early days and present an 
understanding of the loneliness of the lives they led, as nothing else can.

   Manuel de Lisa. Manuel de Lisa, Spanish fur trader of Nebraska, was 
born in Cuba, September 8, 1772. He came to this country about the time 
the Spanish took possession of Louisiana. His father was in the service of 
the Spanish government during most of his life time. Manuel de Lisa went 
to St. Louis about the year 1790, when he became interested in the fur 
business. In 1800, he secured from the Spanish government the exclusive 
right to trade with the Osage Indians. In 1807, he came up the Missouri 
river and established a post and began the fur trade at the mouth of the 
Bighorn and also at Fort Lisa, near the present site of Fort Calhoun. He 
returned to St. Louis and organized the St. Louis Fur Company. Lisa, was 
made subagent for all of the Indian tribes along the Missouri north of 
Kansas. He was beyond question the most active and successful man who ever 
entered the Indian country in the early days, and rendered great service 
to the government. He was a prominent citizen of St. Louis and was one of 
the incorporators of the Bank of St. Louis in 1813.

   Manuel Lisa was married twice among his own people, and also had a wife 
from the Omaha tribe. It is said this marriage was for the purpose of 
ingratiating himself into the Indian favor and to hold a commericial 
advantage over his rivals in the fur trade.

   Two children were born of this union and were recognized in his will as 
his "natural children." Lisa provided for the education of these children 
before his death. Little is known of his first wife who favored him with 
three children. The second wife of his own people was Mary Hampstead 
Keeny, of St. Louis, whom he married August 5, 1818. Mrs. Lisa spent the 
winter of 1819-1820 with her husband at his post in Nebraska and was 
probably the first white woman to ascend the Missouri river.

   Major Joshua Pilcher. Major Joshua Pilcher, pioneer Indian trader, was 
born in Virginia, March 15, 1790. He entered business pursuits in St. 
Louis in 1812, and in 1820 entered the fur trade as a member of the 
reorganized Missouri Fur Company, of which he became president in 1821, 
upon the death of Manuel Lisa. He remained at the head of this company 
until its dissolution about 1830. For a time he transferred his services 
to the American Fur Company and had charge of their post at Council Bluff. 
In 1838, he was appointed by President Van Buren as superintendent of 
Indian affairs at St. Louis, which was made vacant by the death of General 
William Clark, the associate of Meriwether Lewis. As did a large number of 
these early pioneers, he married