[94] Ensyla (Insula), sometimes called Little Chief because of his station, also named Red Feather from his official emblem, and christened Michael because of his faithfulness, was one of the most influential of the Flathead chiefs, and figures prominently in De Smet's work among the Indians of his tribe. In 1835 he had visited the rendezvous in Green River Valley, in the hope of securing missionary aid, and there met Samuel Parker and Marcus Whitman. See Samuel Parker, Journal of an Exploring Tour among the Rocky Mountains (Ithaca, 1838), p. 77. According to L. B. Palladino, Indian and White in the Northwest (Baltimore, 1894), Insula was disappointed not to find a "black robe," and preserved his tribe for Catholic missionaries. His integrity, judgment, and bravery made him highly esteemed.—Ed.
[95] For sketches of the Arikara and Sioux, see Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, pp. 113 and 90, notes 76 and 55 respectively; for the Assiniboin, see Maximilian's Travels, in our volume xxii, p. 370, note 346; for the Gros Ventres, see Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, p. 114, note 76.—Ed.
[96] For a more complete account of John de Velder, see succeeding letter.—Ed.
[97] For sketches of Fort Union and James Kipp (not Kipps), see Maximilian's Travels, in our volume xxii, pp. 373, 345, notes 349, 319 respectively.—Ed.
[98] "He has given his angels charge of thee, that they guard thee in all thy ways."—De Smet.
[99] For a sketch of the Mandan Indians, see Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, p. 114, note 76; for an account of their burial customs, see p. 160, in the same volume; and for the location of their villages, see Maximilian's Travels, in our volume xxiii, p. 234, note 192. The smallpox scourge occurred in 1837.
In reference to buffalo-boats or skin-boats, see Maximilian's Travels, in our volume xxiii, p. 279, note 246.—Ed.
[100] For the original location of the Arikara villages, see our volume xxii, pp. 335, 336, notes 299, 300. At the time of the great small-pox scourge (1837), the Arikara were encamped near the Mandan village. The latter tribe abandoned their villages, and the small remnant moved some three miles up the Missouri, where they erected fifteen or twenty new huts; while the Arikara took possession of their old villages, where De Smet found them. For their location see our volume xxiii, pp. 254, 255. When the missionary in the succeeding sentence speaks of starting from the "Mandan village," he means the former Mandan village, now inhabited by the Arikara. The latter tribe remained at this site until their removal to Fort Berthold, about 1862.—Ed.
[101] In reference to Fort Pierre, see Maximilian's Travels, in our volume xxii, p. 315, note 277. For a description of the Little Missouri River, more frequently known as Teton or Bad, see our volume xxiii, p. 94, note 81.—Ed.
[102] The reference is to the various divisions of the Dakota or Sioux; but the classification is unsatisfactory. For recent classification, see J. W. Powell, U. S. Bureau of Ethnology Report, 1885-86, pp. 111-113; also Maximilian's Travels, in our volume xxii, p. 326, note 287. By the "Jantonnais" and "Jantons," De Smet intends the modern Yanktonai and Yankton.—Ed.