All Was In Vain; They Obstinately Persisted In Their
Resolution; Whereupon, Mr. Hunt, Partly Incited By Indignation,
Partly By The
Policy of deterring others from desertion, put his
threat into execution, and left them to find their way back to
The settlements without, as he supposed, a single bullet or
charge of powder.
The boats now continued their slow and toilsome course for
several days, against the current of the river. The late signs of
roaming war parties caused a vigilant watch to be kept up at
night when the crews encamped on shore; nor was this vigilance
superfluous; for on the night of the seventh instant, there was a
wild and fearful yell, and eleven Sioux warriors, stark naked,
with tomahawks in their hands, rushed into the camp. They were
instantly surrounded and seized, whereupon their leader called
out to his followers to desist from any violence, and pretended
to be perfectly pacific in his intentions. It proved, however,
that they were a part of the war party, the skeleton of whose
canoe had been seen at the mouth of the river Platte, and the
reflection of whose fires had been descried in the air. They had
been disappointed or defeated in the foray, and in their rage and
mortification these eleven warriors had "devoted their clothes to
the medicine." This is a desperate act of Indian braves when
foiled in war, and in dread of scoffs and sneers. In such case
they sometimes threw off their clothes and ornaments, devote
themselves to the Great Spirit, and attempt some reckless exploit
with which to cover their disgrace. Woe to any defenseless party
of white men that may then fall in their way!
Such was the explanation given by Pierre Dorion, the half-breed
interpreter, of this wild intrusion into the camp; and the party
were so exasperated when appraised of the sanguinary intentions
of the prisoners, that they were for shooting them on the spot.
Mr. Hunt, however, exerted his usual moderation and humanity, and
ordered that they should be conveyed across the river in one of
the boats, threatening them however, with certain death if again
caught in any hostile act.
On the 10th of May the party arrived at the Omaha (pronounced
Omawhaw) village, about eight hundred and thirty miles above the
mouth of the Missouri, and encamped in its neighborhood. The
village was situated under a hill on the bank of the river, and
consisted of about eighty lodges. These were of a circular and
conical form, and about sixteen feet in diameter; being mere
tents of dressed buffalo skins, sewed together and stretched on
long poles, inclined towards each other so as to cross at about
half their height. Thus the naked tops of the poles diverge in
such a manner that, if they were covered with skins like the
lower ends, the tent would be shaped like an hour-glass, and
present the appearance of one cone inverted on the apex of
another.
The forms of Indian lodges are worthy of attention, each tribe
having a different mode of shaping and arranging them, so that it
is easy to tell, on seeing a lodge or an encampment at a
distance, to what tribe the inhabitants belong. The exterior of
the Omaha lodges have often a gay and fanciful appearance, being
painted with undulating bands of red or yellow, or decorated with
rude figures of horses, deer, and buffaloes, and with human
faces, painted like full moons, four and five feet broad.
The Omahas were once one of the numerous and powerful tribes of
the prairies, vying in warlike might and prowess with the Sioux,
the Pawnees, the Sauks, the Konsas, and the Iatans. Their wars
with the Sioux, however, had thinned their ranks, and the small-
pox in 1802 had swept off two thirds of their number. At the time
of Mr. Hunt's visit they still boasted about two hundred warriors
and hunters, but they are now fast melting away, and before long,
will be numbered among those extinguished nations of the west
that exist but in tradition.
In his correspondence with Mr. Astor, from this point of his
journey, Mr. Hunt gives a sad account of the Indian tribes
bordering on the river. They were in continual war with each
other, and their wars were of the most harassing kind;
consisting, not merely of main conflicts and expeditions of
moment, involving the sackings, burnings, and massacres of towns
and villages, but of individual acts of treachery, murder, and
cold-blooded cruelty; or of vaunting and foolhardy exploits of
single warriors, either to avenge some personal wrong, or gain
the vainglorious trophy of a scalp. The lonely hunter, the
wandering wayfarer, the poor squaw cutting wood or gathering
corn, was liable to be surprised and slaughtered. In this way
tribes were either swept away at once, or gradually thinned out,
and savage life was surrounded with constant horrors and alarms.
That the race of red men should diminish from year to year, and
so few should survive of the numerous nations which evidently
once peopled the vast regions of the west, is nothing surprising;
it is rather matter of surprise that so many should survive; for
the existence of a savage in these parts seems little better than
a prolonged and all-besetting death. It is, in fact, a caricature
of the boasted romance of feudal times; chivalry in its native
and uncultured state, and knight-errantry run wild.
In their most prosperous days, the Omahas looked upon themselves
as the most powerful and perfect of human beings, and considered
all created things as made for their peculiar use and benefit. It
is this tribe of whose chief, the famous Wash-ing-guhsah-ba, or
Blackbird, such savage and romantic stories are told. He had died
about ten years previous to the arrival of Mr. Hunt's party, but
his name was still mentioned with awe by his people. He was one
of the first among the Indian chiefs on the Missouri to deal with
the white traders, and showed great sagacity in levying his royal
dues.
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