[343] The post at Bellevue, for which see our volume xxii, p. 267, note 221.
Pierre Labbadie Sarpy, better known as Colonel Peter, was born in St. Louis in 1805 of a prominent French Creole family. About 1822 he went to the frontier as a trader, and thereafter preferred the free life of the West to a conventional career in St. Louis. Upon the retirement of Cabanné, Sarpy became the American Fur Company’s agent at Bellevue, where he autocratically ruled for many years. His Indian wife Nekomi was a woman of influence with the neighboring tribes. Colonel Sarpy aided the Mormons on their emigration and assisted in building up the new territory of Nebraska, establishing ferries, and maintaining several trading posts. He removed from Bellevue to St. Mary’s, Iowa, later (1861) to Plattsmouth, where he died in 1865.—Ed.
[344] For Laforce Papin see our volume xv, p. 143, note 44.—Ed.
[345] For these streams see our volumes v, p. 72, note 40; and xiv, pp. 219, 221, notes 170, 173. Table Creek is a small run in Otoe County, Nebraska, at whose mouth is situated Nebraska City.—Ed.
[346] The site of St. Joseph was early known as Blacksnake Hills, where Joseph Robidoux had a trading post—see our volumes xxii, p. 257, note 210, and xxiv, p. 121, note 102. After the Platte purchase (1836) settlers began flocking in, and in 1843 the town was platted, being named St. Joseph for its founder. By the close of the year 1846, when De Smet passed, the place had a population of nearly a thousand.—Ed.
[347] For the early history of Westport (Kansas City) see De Smet’s Letters, our volume xxvii, p. 135, note 2.—Ed.
[348] For the Pawnee and their four great divisions see our volume xiv, p. 233, note 179. See illustration of interior of a Kansa lodge, built in a manner similar to the Pawnee, in ibid., p. 208.—Ed.
[349] See our volume xxvii, p. 208, note 82.—Ed.
[350] See on this subject of human sacrifice note 83 in De Smet’s Letters, our volume xxvii, p. 210.—Ed.
[351] A name which they give to the Great Spirit.—De Smet.