Omaha war club
The Omahas, or, as some erroneously call them, Mahas, were formerly a numerous tribe, but have been much reduced by frequent wars with their neighbours; the smallpox, too, has committed dreadful ravages, and there are now but few vigorous young men among them. Their language differs from that of the Otos, Missouris, and Joways; there is, however, an affinity between them. The best and most complete accounts of the Omahas are given by Mr. Say in his Narrative of Major Long's "Expedition to the Rocky Mountains," to which I would refer my readers.[232]
On the 5th of May, the Yellow Stone left Cabanné's trading house; the weather was warm 133 and serene; we passed the mouth of Boyer's Creek on the east bank, where the Missouri makes a bend, and saw the ruins of the former cantonment, or fort, at Council Bluffs.[233] This military post was established, in the year 1819, for 1,000 men, but, in fact, there were now only 500 men of the regiment in garrison at Jefferson barracks. In the year 1827, these troops were withdrawn and stationed at Leavenworth; the fort, or, rather, the barracks, formed a quadrangle, with a bastion or blockhouse, in two of the angles. At present there were only the stone chimneys, and, in the centre, a brick storehouse under roof. Everything of value had been carried away by the Indians. We were told that numerous rattlesnakes are found among the ruins. The situation of Council Bluffs is said to have been much more favourable for observing the Indians than that at Leavenworth; and it was even conjectured that this post will be again occupied. The military station was at first placed a little further inland, but the scurvy carried off 300 of the garrison in one winter. Mr. Sandford, who had rejoined us, once found here the large grinders of a mastodon, which are now in the possession of General Clarke, at St. Louis.
At twelve at noon, we ran aground, but happily sustained no damage, at a dangerous place, where the left bank was blocked up with many snags, and which is called the Devil's Race-ground. The country was low and uniform till we again reached the hills, which were rather bare of wood, but of grotesque form, and covered with a fine verdant carpet. Near the mouth of the Soldier River, an engagé met us, who brought letters from the Assiniboin steamer. We went on pretty well till the evening, when we got upon a sand bank, and then made the vessel fast for the night; after which our people exerted themselves to get off the bank, in the midst of a storm of thunder and lightning.
The steamer was got afloat by daybreak on the 6th. On both sides there was alluvial soil, thickly covered with willows and poplars, mixed, in some places, with other trees. Here we saw, on a sand bank, two large wolves, which seemed to look at us with surprise. The Omaha Indians hunt on both banks of this part of the river; they are said to be the most indolent, dull, unintellectual, and cowardly of the Missouri Indians. At two in the afternoon we landed on the prairie, which was covered with tall trees, and forty or fifty of our men immediately began to hew down wood for fuel; there was abundance of grass, but not a single flower, which was caused by the prairie having been set on fire; black burnt wood was scattered about, and the ground itself was discoloured in places by the effects of the fire.
From this place the country becomes more and more level, and bare of wood, and the eye roves over the boundless prairie. Behind a willow-tree I saw some remains of Indian huts, in front of one of which a pole was set up, with a piece of red cloth attached to the top. The forest, which had been inundated, was likewise destitute of flowers; numerous traces of stags were everywhere seen. During the night a man deserted, whom Mr. Mc Kenzie had some time before put under arrest for having uttered vehement threats. The 7th day of May, the anniversary of our 134 departure from Germany, was very fine. We soon reached the chain of hills on the left bank, at a place where the yellow limestone rock was nearly perpendicular, and in which innumerable swallows had built their nests; these are called Wood's Hills, and do not extend very far. On one of them we saw a small, conical mound, which is the grave of the celebrated Omaha chief, Washinga-Sahba (the blackbird). In James's Narrative of Major Long's Expedition, is a circumstantial account of this remarkable and powerful chief, who was a friend to the white man: he contrived, by means of arsenic, to make himself feared and dreaded, and passed for a magician, because he put his enemies and rivals out of the way when it suited him. An epidemical smallpox carried him off, with a great part of his nation, in the year 1800, and he was buried, sitting upright upon a live mule, at the top of a green hill on Wakonda Creek. When dying, he gave orders that they should bury him on that hill, with his face turned to the country of the white men.[234] The Omahas have been since so reduced by their enemies, the Sioux, Saukies, and Foxes, that they are now quite powerless and insignificant, not being able to muster above 300 or 400 warriors. Washinga-Sahba was so feared by his own people, that nobody ventured to wake him when he slept: it is said that they used then to tickle his nose with a blade of grass. The present chief of the Omahas is Ongpa-Tanga (the great elk), of whom Godman, in his Natural History, has given a good portrait. He lives on the Horn River, which falls into the La Platte, about twenty miles above its mouth.[235]
On the following day (the 8th of May) we came to Floyd's Grave, where the sergeant of that name was buried by Lewis and Clarke. The bank on either side is low. The left is covered with poplars; on the right, behind the wood, rises a hill like the roof of a building, at the top of which Floyd is buried. A short stick marks the place where he is laid, and has often been renewed by travellers when the fires in the prairie have destroyed it. A little further up is Floyd's River, and on Floyd's Hills there were a few fir trees, over which the kite hovered in the air.[236] About half a league beyond Floyd's River is the mouth of the Big Sioux River, interesting from the circumstance of its being the boundary of the territory of the Dacota, or Sioux nation. Its breadth, at the mouth, is about sixty paces, and it is said to be navigable by Mackinaw boats for 100 miles. About 120 miles up this river, a tribe of the Sioux reside, which is known by the name of Wahch-Pekuté; this, and another tribe of this people on the Mississippi, and near Lake Pepin, are the only ones of their nation who plant maize; all the other hordes of the Sioux are hunters. The territory of these people formerly extended further to the south, till the before-mentioned treaty for the purchase of land was concluded with the Indians.[237]
At noon, with a temperature of 75°, there was such a violent wind, that the fine sand from the banks penetrated into the innermost parts of our vessel; the broad river was so agitated by the wind, that the pilot could not distinguish the sand banks, and we were obliged to lie to. In a small meadow in the woods we saw the giant footsteps of the elks, and likewise of the common 135 stag, which we would willingly have followed had not a rising tempest compelled us to return on board. Vivid lightning flashed in the horizon, the rain soon poured down in torrents, and at night a storm arose which, at midnight, raged with such fury, that we might have felt some alarm, had not our vessel been so well protected by the bank. The storm frequently forced open the doors of the upper cabin, and the rain beat into the room. Towards daybreak the tempest returned with increased violence; the flashes of lightning and the claps of thunder were incessant during the twilight, and everybody thought that the vessel must be struck.
The 9th of May set in with rain, a cloudy sky, and high wind; the thermometer, before so high, fell, at half-past seven o'clock, to 56°. When the storm had passed over, our vessel quitted the place where it had taken shelter. We passed along wild, desolate banks, then a green prairie, by a chain of steep hills, partly bare, partly covered with forests, or with isolated fir trees and picturesque ravines, with dark shadows, into which the close thicket scarcely allowed the eye to penetrate. We here saw, for the first time, a plant which now became more and more common; namely, the buffalo-berry-bush (Sheperdia argentea, Nutt.), with pale, bluish-green, narrow leaves. At the mouth of the Joway River, which runs into the Missouri, on the south bank, at a very acute angle, clay-slate appeared to stand out on the bluffs, divided into narrow, horizontal strata, the lower of which were blackish-blue, and those above of yellowish-red colour.[238] Our hunters and wood-cutters landed, on which occasion we lost a hound, which had strayed too far into the forest. Five or six hundred paces further up, we saw, among the thickets of willow and poplar, an old Indian wigwam,[239] near which the red willow, mixed with the common willow, was in blossom. The thermometer, which had been at 56° in the morning, rose at ten o'clock, when the sun broke through the clouds. We frequently observed the wild geese, which endeavoured to take their young, of which they never had more than four or six, to some place on shore, where they would be safe from us. When we came very near, the mother fluttered anxiously to a little distance, and called them to her.
We continued our voyage, but soon lay to at the prairie, on the right bank, because Mr. Mc Kenzie wished to form a plantation at this place. The whole plain was covered with high, dry grass. On the bank of the river there was a fine border of tall timber trees, in which the turtle-dove cooed, and flocks of blackbirds were flying about. The hills of the prairie were covered with the finest verdure, and the singular forms of the hills afforded us an interesting subject of observation on the otherwise uniform appearance of the country. We halted for the night near the high trees that bordered the prairie, where there were numbers of ducks and plovers. As soon as it was dark, the young men set fire to the dry grass of the prairie, to give us the pleasure of seeing how the fire spread, but the attempt did not fully succeed, because there was 136 no wind. Mr. Mc Kenzie left some men here, with agricultural implements, to make a plantation; among them was one François Roi, of Rheims, whose name gave occasion to many innocent jokes, and we deliberated what name should be given to the kingdom he was going to found.