[4] Nez Percés, or Pierced Noses, lived about the waters of the Kooskooskee and Lewis, next north of the Shoshones.
[5] Cascade Mountains take their name from the cascades formed by the Columbia in its passage through them.
PIKE EXPLORES THE ARKANSAS VALLEY.
PIKE'S PEAK A LANDMARK.
In the course of an expedition made to the Upper Mississippi, in the years 1805 and 1806, Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike[1] had shown such aptitude for the work of an explorer, that he was immediately chosen to lead another to the sources of the Arkansas. Pike was directed to go through the country of the Osages, with whom the Kansas nation was then at war, and, after effecting a peace between them, "to ascertain the direction, extent, and navigation of the Arkansas and Red Rivers."
In pursuance of these orders Pike left St. Louis in July, 1806, for the Osage villages, in row-boats which made about fifteen miles a day, his men living on the bears, deer, and turkeys killed along the banks. Turning into the Osage River, the Indian villages were reached about the middle of August, and Pike here began mounting his party for the long land journey before him.
Having accomplished this, the party set out for the Pawnee villages on the Platte. Near the Grand Osage Village, Peter Chouteau,[2] a French trader, had a trading-house, which was the last sign of civilization the explorers would see until the Spanish settlements of New Mexico were reached.
Tents were struck Sept. 1. The exploring party rode away in high spirits, accompanied by a numerous train of warriors who, in this way, did honor to those whom they considered their guests.
