In the recent report of the Commissioner for Indian Affairs, he says, “The agent states that the Omahaws waited on him, previous to their starting on their summer hunt, and most earnestly begged for arms and ammunition to enable them to defend themselves against their enemies, declaring, ‘If our great father will now furnish us arms and ammunition, we will defend ourselves.’ The agent remarks, further, ‘The Sioux, from all that we can learn, are resolved on exterminating this little band of Indians. Some few days after the visit of the Omahaws, above spoken of, I was called on by an express from the Omahaw camp, asking for the assistance of the troops to defend them against their enemies, and to retake thirty-six horses, which the Sioux had taken in a skirmish, a few days previous.’ He adds, that, ‘until the fierce and bloody war now prosecuted by the Sioux shall subside, it will be in vain to try to prosper the Omahaws in agricultural pursuits.—Owing to the game receding, the Omahaws have to seek food in the more distant prairies, which makes them the more accessible; and unless they can be provided for in agricultural pursuits, where they will be more remote from their harassing enemy, the same fierce and cruel war, in all probability, will continue. The Omahaws have this season returned to their old village, near the Missouri River, and, from present appearances, they will have to abandon it again.’”
The Pawnees own an extensive country on the Great Platte River, lying west of the Otoes and Omahaws. They still retain their fondness for savage life, and keep up among them many of their old customs. Various treaties have been formed with them, but, as yet, they evince no desire for civilization. They are divided into the Grand Pawnees, the Tapage Pawnees, the Wolf Pawnees, or Pawnee Loups, and the Republican Pawnees. They were formerly a numerous nation; but the small-pox being introduced in 1832, by the fur-traders and whisky-sellers, swept off ten thousand or more of them, in a few months, so that they do not now number more than ten or twelve thousand. They are a warlike people, and live in four villages, several miles apart, having their allies, the Omahaws and Otoes, so near them, that they may act in concert in case of invasion. The Pawnee chief who visited Washington, at the time before alluded to, in company with Major O’Fallon, like the Omahaw chief, declined the offer of teachers, on the ground that the Great Spirit made them for the chase, and intended them “to go to war, to take scalps, steal horses, and triumph over their enemies.”
One of the delegation, at this time, was a Pawnee brave, of a noble size, figure, and countenance. At the early age of twenty-one, his heroic deeds acquired for him the rank of the “bravest of the braves.” The following incident was related of him. An unfortunate female of the Paduca nation, as the Camanches are called by them, having been taken prisoner, was destined to torture. The fatal hour arrived; the trembling victim, far from her home and her friends, was fastened to the stake; the whole tribe was assembled on the surrounding plain to witness the awful scene. Just when the funeral pile was to be kindled, and the whole multitude of spectators were excited with expectation, this young warrior, having prepared two fleet horses, with the necessary provisions, sprang from his seat, rushed through the crowd, liberated the victim, seized her in his arms, placed her on one of the horses, mounted the other himself, and made the utmost speed towards the nation and friends of the captive. The multitude, struck dumb and nerveless by the boldness of the deed, made no effort to rescue their intended victim from her deliverer. They viewed it as the immediate act of the Great Spirit, submitted to it without a murmur, and quietly retired to their village. The young chief accompanied the released captive three days, through the wilderness, towards her home. He then gave her the horse on which she rode, with sufficient food for the remainder of the journey, and they parted. On his return to the village, no inquiry was made into his conduct, and no censure was passed on it. Since this transaction, no human sacrifice has been offered in this or any other of the Pawnee tribes, and the practice has been thus abandoned.
On the occasion of the visit of this Pawnee chief to Washington, the young ladies of a seminary in that city, having heard of the anecdote just related, presented him a handsome silver medal, in token of commendation of his noble act in rescuing one of their sex from a cruel death, closing their address with these words:—“Brother, accept this token of our esteem; always wear it for our sakes; and when again you have the power to save a poor woman from death and torture, think of this and of us, and fly to her relief and her rescue.”
His reply was to this effect:—“Sisters, I am glad you have heard of the good deed I have done. I did it partly in ignorance; but your gift makes me feel happy, and enables me more fully to see that I did right. I shall now be even more ready to listen to the words of the white man, for they tell me what is good.”
The following speech of a Pawnee chief was made at Fort Gibson in 1833, and addressed to Mr. Ellsworth, the United States commissioner, on taking leave of him to return home, after having accompanied him on a part of his tour.
“I have travelled with my grandfather many miles on foot. He came to our village. We ran to meet him. We followed him here. We came through many villages of hostile bands, whom we never have met before. All treated us kindly, and peace is made. My heart is glad. I am a wild man, and come naked to follow my grandfather; but I am not ashamed. A bird hovers over her young, and takes care of them; so does our Great Father pity and care for us. I feel now as though I was born again. I used to worship the Great Spirit as my forefathers did; but now I will worship him as the white men do. Every day, when I speak to you, I look to the Great Spirit to help me speak the truth, and what I say is true. I go out alone and speak to the Great Spirit, and ask his aid; but we now look to him together. I am now going home. The wild Indians will be glad to hear how we have been treated by our enemies, and how our great father has spoken to us. Our ears are bored out, and nothing shall be forgotten.”
Mr. Murray, an English gentleman, who travelled among the Indians about eight years since, gives us the following sketch.
“Within twenty or thirty miles of Fort Leavenworth are settled a great variety of Indian tribes, most of them emigrants from the country now inhabited by the whites, especially from the States of Illinois and Michigan. The nearest to the fort are the Kickapoos, who are settled in a village distant from it about four miles. They are a weak and daily decreasing tribe; their natural properties are much changed by constant communication with the whites. There is a Methodist missionary resident among them.
“The fort is supplied with beef and other meat, chiefly by a farmer who lives in the Great Bottom, immediately opposite to it. Among other articles for the supply of the table, one of the most abundant to be met with here, is the cat-fish. I found it somewhat coarse, but not unpalatable eating. These fish are caught, of a most enormous size, and in great quantities, by the settlers on the banks of the river; one of whom told me that he caught four in the course of one morning, weighing above fifty pounds each.