Gage County, Nebraska - Chapter 12: Narrative of Major Albert Lamborn Green, 1918

[When Ulysses Grant became president of the United States in 1869 he adopted the policy of placing the Indian wards of the nation as far as possible in the hands of the Quakers, a policy to which he rigorously adhered during hte eight years of his incumbency in office. In June, 1869, Albert Eamborn Green, of Philadelphia, a young man affiliated with that sect, was placed in charge of the Otoe and Missouri tribes of Indians in Gage county, as the agent of the government and with the rank and title of a major in the federal army. Major Green served in that capacity several years, and became familiar with the history of these Indian tribes as well as with their manners and customs. At the request of the author of this book he has prepared the following reminiscent narrative illustrated by pen drawings prepared by himself. Those who may feel an interest in these aboriginal inhabitants of our county cannot fail to read with keen pleasure the following context:]

Man's earliest weapon was a stone, and later a rudely chipped flint, the acquisition and use of which ushered in the paleolithic age, - the initial period of all human culture and progress. It was during this earliest stage of human advancement that the region now embraced within the limits of Gage county, received its first inhabitants, - a race whose weapons and utensils, rudely chipped from the flints of the locality, still testify to its having existed. In the course of many generations, as greater skill became acquired, the paleolithic age of roughly chipped flints gradually merged into a neolithic age of finely wrought arrowheads and carefully finished weapons and utensils of stone. Such an age has. likewise left its scattered memorials throughout the region. Whether both periods pertain to an identical race may never be known, but archeologists regard it as almost a certainty that the period of roughly chipped flints long antedates the Pawnee occupancy of the region. To the period of Pawnee occupancy may confidently be attributed all fragments of pottery and possibly all relics of a neolithic character. Prof. E. E. Blackman has definitely located the sites of at least five prehistoric villages within the county, the most ancient of which undoubtedly belonged to the paleolithic age. One that is known to have been occupied by the Pawnees long after the invasion of Quivira by the French traders and explorers, is located about a mile north of Blue Springs. Another, that is evidently of much greater antiquity, has been found a short distance south of Holmesville. Other village sites, both east and west of the river, bear ample evidence of the fact, that, for untold centuries, the valley of the Blue has been the abode of man.

It may have been with a people whose ancestors were of the older, or paleolithic, period, that Coronado met in 1541, and of whom Castaneda, the chronicler of the expedition, has left us so graphic a description. It is from Castaneda's account, which historians have generally regarded as authentic, that we are led to believe that Coronado's horsemen crossed the Kansas river near the mouth of the Blue and followed the course of the latter stream northward. No other river or stream flowing into the Kansas so accurately meets the description given, and the fact that the principal villages and trails or routes of travel were undoubtedly along its course lends confirmatory evidence to this conclusion. Coronado was in search of cities and towns, and the great flint deposits near the present side of Wymore had attracted to their vicinity a population whose village sites are still traceable. Thus we may safely assume that Castaneda's graphic description of the people met with, applied to the aboriginal inhabitants of this vicinity, hence a few quotations from his narrative may be in place. He says "they are very intelligent," and "able to make themselves so well understood by signs that there was no need of an interpreter'' ; he speaks of them as "a kind people and faithful friends" ; he tells us that "the women are well made and modest," that "they cover the whole body and wear shoes and buskins made of tanned skins" ; he tells us that when away from their villages, they travel with troops of dogs loaded with poles and having Moorish pack-saddles with girths, and that when the loads become disarranged the dogs howl, calling some one to fix them aright." Two hundred years after this account was written this region was still a part of that mystical Quivira described by Spanish writers as bounded on the east by the "Mountains of the Sun" - -now known as the Missouri river bluffs. At that time the existence of the Blue river had become so well known to the French traders and explorers that when, in 1795, information was being obtained for the preparation of an up-to-date map of North America, showing all the latest discoveries, the Blue river was correctly located and named, at least so far as its course through Quivira was concerned, but the geographer evidently lacked information as to its further course and disposed of the problem by causing it to empty into the g^lf of California. The Otoe name of the river was Nee-haun-chee, but the Indians sometimes referred to it as Nee-haunchee-toe, Big Blue river.

This ancient map locates the "Otter Nation," probably intending it for the "Ottoe Nation" - that being an old-time way of spelling the name of the Otoe tribe. At the time the map was made the Pawnees occupied the valley of the Blue as well as that of the Republican, while the Otoes dwelt near the mouth of the Nebraithka (Platte) and included in their trapping grounds the Nemahas and bluff region of the Missouri as far south as the Great Nemaha. Tradition informs us that prior to about 1720 the natives of this region possessed no horses, their only domestic animal being a tamed descendant of the large gray wolf. But about that time an expedition set out from Santa Fe to conquer the Otoes and take possession of the region for the king of Spain, and thus head off the French, whose activities as traders and explorers had extended far up the Espiritu Santo, and Nebraithka rivers. It appears that the Spanish had learned of a chronic state of warfare existing between the Osages, who lived south of the Kansas river, and the tribe they were advancing against, and decided, if possible, to engage their assistance. As the Spanish cavalcade journeyed toward the Osage domain, it met a war party of Missouris, and, mistaking them for Osages, informed them of the purpose they had in view, which was nothing less than to surprise and destroy their own kindred. The Missouris, quick to perceive the blunder the Spaniards had made, conferred together and soon informed the Spaniards that they really were Osages returning from a war against the Otoes and that they would willingly accompany them on a war-path against their enemy. Then, secretly dispatching a courier to the Otoe village to acquaint their friends as to the situation, they conducted the Spanish party thither by slow stages, giving them to understand that they were conducting them to the town of the Osages, where they would be entertained before proceeding against their common enemy. It was customary with the Spaniards on all warlike expeditions to have a friar along to look after their spiritual interests and to act as a chronicler of their doings, and we are indebted to a friar's letter now in the archives of Spain for most of the particulars here given. The Otoes, posing as Osages at the village, received the visitors with a great show of hospitality. The interval that had elapsed between the arrival of the courier and that of the Spaniards had been employed in assembling warriors from every available source ; even a band of their hereditary enemies, the Pawnees had arrived, probably from the valley of the Blue. After a night spent in feasting and dancing, the assembled warriors fell upon the drowsy unsuspecting Spaniards and killed them all, except a monk. The horses and equipage of the invaders were secured by the Indians, and it afterward devolved upon the monk to teach them how to ride - an art in which they soon became adepts. Tradition informs us that the monk afterwards escaped on the fleetest of the animals. Thus it was that in the course of time ponies superseded dogs as beasts of burden in this region. As the pony herds multiplied they came to be regarded as synonymns of wealth. The war-path became no longer a mad adventure to secure scalps that had no economic value, for an enemy's ponies were worth more than his scalp, and it usually required as much risk and bravery to secure the one as the other. The Pawnees probably occupied the valley of the Blue until about the year 1825, when they went north to join their kindred whom the Delawares had driven from the valley of the Republican. During their occupancy of this region their principal village was situated about a mile north of the present town of Blue Springs, while their tepees were scattered up and down the river. The enmity between the Otoes and the Pawnees was hereditary; surprise attacks and bloody reprisals had kept alive a hatred that had been nursed' from generation to generation. The smoke-cured scalps of Pawnee warriors, hardened and faded with age, still adorned the Otoe medicine bags long after they had settled on their reservation.

The last attack made upon the village above mentioned by Otoe warriors occurred only a few years prior to the Pawnees' removal. A large band of Otoes were then encamped near the mouth of the Nemaha, and had cunningly timed their attack to take place at day-break of the day succeeding that on which the young braves of the Pawnee village had started on a buffalo hunt. The Otoes, bent on securing scalps as well as plunder, had killed a number of people and caused a frightful uproar and panic in the village, when a brave from the hunting party - which had encamped the evening before near the head of Indian creek - came riding into the village; he was at once killed by the Otoes, who also wounded the pony and frightened it so that it galloped back towards the camp ; its return, riderless and wounded, caused great alarm and called for instant action. All the braves of the hunting party, mounted on their swiftest ponies, started at once for the home village, on reaching which, they saw at a glance what had occurred. The enemy had left, but the avengers were not long in striking their trail, which was swiftly followed ; they were overtaken in a large draw near the east side of what is now Island Grove township, - a spot that was pointed out to the writer by old men of the Otoe tribe who related incidents connected with the affair as handed down to them. A fierce battle ensued - during which no quarter was given or asked. The Otoes, about thirty in number, were completely surrounded and fought desperately, but were outnumbered two to one ; only one was permitted to escape and report the fate of his companions ; the wounded were scalped, and both dead and wounded were burned, the Pawnees having fired the tall sloughgrass that grew in the draw.

After the Pawnees left the Blue, which is supposed to have been about 1825, the Otoes included the Blue valley in their hunting and trapping circuit, and it was seldom that the tepee of an Otoe family, or perhaps a group of tepees, might not be found somewhere along the river's course. In 1854 a reservation, comprising two hundred and fifty square miles, the greater part of which is now included within the limits of Gage county, was set apart for the Otoes, they having ceded, foi- a consideration to be paid in the form of an annuity, all their lands south of the Platte, except said tract. Of the one hundred and sixty thousand acres comprised in the area reserved, considerably more than one hundred thousand acres were included within the limits of the county. The site selected for their village and the agent's residence was a sightly elevation about half a mile east of the river, where a spring.

that issued from a limestone ledge, afforded an ample supply of pure water. The town of Barneston now occupies a part of the site. A residence for the government agent was built about one hundred feet north of the spring. It consisted of a one and a half story frame with an ell on the rear, and contained in all six rooms with large basement. There was a latticed porch in front, with a balcony over the same, that commanded a view of the whole village; near the agent's house was a large barn and other outbuildings. A steam grist cular opening in the roof. There were also a few bark lodges of a type that were common among the lowas and Sacs and Foxes, but they were of a less durable character than the Siouan type of habitation and were usually regarded as temporary. An agency farm of one hundred acres was. broken out adjacent to the village. The white employes included a farmer, carpenter, blacksmith, miller, physician, teachers, etc. All plowing was done with oxen. All supplies were hauled from Missouri river points, usually from Brown- mill, saw mill, blacksmith shop, and residences for the various white employes, were located on Plum creek, about a mile from the agency. The main village consisted of about forty large earth -covered lodges of the type commonly used by tribes of Sioux origin. Each lodge was circular in form, with an entrance through a projecting passageway opening towards the east, and was usually not less than about forty feet in diameter, inside measurement. Usually several closely related families occupied a single lodge - each having a sleeping booth on a raised platform that extended around the inside space. All cooking was done at a fire of small logs that blazed in the center, the smoke escaping through a cirville. A mission school, under Presbyterian auspices, was established near the reservation soon after the Indians removed there. It was established by the New York Home Mission Society of that denomination, on the north half of Section 1, township 1 south, range eight east, state of Kansas, which tract of three hundred and twenty acres the society had purchased, and on which it had caused to be erected a concrete building ninety by forty feet in size and three stories in height with an ell or wing two stories in height. The kitchen and dining room were in the latter and the school rooms and dormitories were in the main building. The buildings were about six miles from the agency and village, and about a mile and a quarter beyond 'the limits of the reservation. On May 10, 1857, the Rev. Daniel A. Murdock, with his wife, Prudence, and their seven children, arrived and assumed charge of the mission ; three teachers were engaged, as were also a farmer, a carpenter, and a teamster, as well as two interpreters. It was the benevolent design of the society that the education of both sexes should combine industrial features. Soon after Mr. Murdock's arrival a conference was held with the chiefs, which resulted in an agreement on their part that they would promote the attendance of all children of a proper age, and in due time the school opened with an attendance of seventy-two, of whom only two were females. This was very disappointing, as accommodations had been provided for as many girls as boys. All pupils arrived almost in a state of nudity, and they were generously supplied with clothing at the expense of the society. Each day was dvided into periods of hours for school-room study, for out-door play, and for farm work, and thus all was progressing favorably when the time arrived for the tribe to start on its annual fall buffalo hunt. The chiefs and heads of families then visited the mission and urgently requested that the boys be permitted to accompany their parents on the hunt, a request that could not be granted, inasmuch as it would practically break up the school for an indefinite time. It was supposed that the Indians had acquiesced in this refusal, when suddenly, on a Sabbath afternoon, all the boys disappeared and were soon en route with their parents to the buffalo region. The mission people were not only discouraged - but also dismayed, for there was no certainty as to when the children would return, and it was possible that they might be absent the greater part of the winter. A few weeks after the departure of the children an incident occurred that doomed the school to failure, through fear and distrust on the part of the Indians, causing their refusal to permit their children to attend. This incident was nothing less than a raid of hostile Sioux Indians upon the Otoe village and the mission property, during the tribe's absence on the hunt. The circumstances of their raid convinced the Otoes that their children would have been massacred if they had not accompanied them on the hunt. It seems that the Sioux, finding that the village was deserted, as any who had not gone on the hunt had fled or secreted themselves, ransacked such caches as they were able to find and then proceeded to the mission, evidently in search of the children. Finding none in sight about the premises, the leader of the band ascended the hall staircase, leading to a dormitory, when he encountered J. E. Tanner, overseer of the farm, who seized him and threw him to the bottom of the stairs, where he landed very heavily. Being unsuccessful in finding an}' of the children, the two girls having been secreted by the teachers, the Sioux angrily departed. This was the last time that a Sioux war-party ever ventured within the limits of the county. The following spring, finding that the Indians still refused to allow their children to attend the school, Mr. Murdock resigned his charge and left the mission in charge of a Mr. Guthery, but after vainly trying to win the favourable regard and confidence of the Indians he too resigned, and the society, thoroughly discouraged, concluded to abandon as a hopeless job all attempts to educate and civilize the Otoes. The society sold the mission property, and the building was afterward partially destroyed by a tornado.

No further attempt was made toward educating the Otoe children until the summer of 1869, when the administration of agency affairs was placed in the hands of a representative of the Society of Friends, by President Grant. At that time the Otoes and Missouris were, with very few exceptions, "blanket" Indians. Most of the men, both young and old, were accustomed during warm weather, to discard even the blanket and wear only a clout or breechcloth. Hats were never worn, except by the interpreter and occasionally by an Indian policeman. It was customary to shave the scalp, leaving only a lock from the center of the crown backward, to which an eagle's feather was frequently attached. They used much Vermillion, indigo, yellow ocher, and white clay in facial decoration, and necklaces of woven horsehair curiously wrought with many colored bead-work by the Indian women, were worn by both sexes almost universally. The Indian women were very skilful in embroidering and decorating moccasins and leggins of deer-skin with bead and porcupine quill work. Most of the older men and women had their ears lacerated with holes, often not less than a quarter of an inch in diameter, not only through the lobe, but also through the rim of the ear from the top downward. Such holes facilitated loading the ears with large clusters of bobs, - an article of adornment made of block tin and sold by all Indian traders. It was usual for the women and girls to put a line of Vermillion paint where their hair parted as well as to paint . with vermillion the inside of their ears, thus adding to the fine eflfect of the silvery bobs. Eagle feathers, red-stone pipes, wampum, and beadwork were among their most highly prized possessions - single specimens of either being frequently valued at more than a fine horse.

While the earth-covered lodges of the village were cool and pleasant as summer habitations, they were cold and draughty in winter, the heat from the central fire escaping too readily through the great circular opening in the roof. For that reason it was customary for all to live in tepees during the winter, each family selecting a sheltered spot where water and dead wood were obtainable, and where, though often surrounded by banks of drifted snow, they existed with some degree of comfort until spring. The Indian ponies sought shelter in the timber, where they often depended on the bark of the Cottonwood for sustenance. At the time the writer assumed management of the Indian agency, old Ar-kake-ta was the head chief and the other chiefs were Big Soldier, Wan-na-ga-he, Medicine Horse (Shunga-mon-co), Buffalo, Pipe Stem, and Little Pipe. Ar-ka-ke-ta was a polygamist, and regarded his wives as valuable assets on account of their usefulness in cultivating the ground, providing fire-wood, and otherwise contributing to his support. He was opposed to man-ual labor, and was what might be termed an obsthictionist, as he opposed all measures likely tO' promote the advancement of the tribe. In appearance he was decidedly unprepossessing and untidy; his usual facial adornment was a coating of soot mixed with mud, - which accorded well with a pessimistic state of mind that was natural to him. In 1867-1868 a party of the chiefs had visited Washington and negotiated a treaty, under the terms of which they agreed to sell the whole reservation of one hundred and sixty thousand acres at one dollar and fifty cents per acre, and Ar-ka-ke-ta posed on that occasion as a great man ; the mud and soot disappeared from his face; the pessimist became an optimist, for, in his mental visions of the future, he saw his people rescued from the shackels that civilization was weaving around them, and mingling once more with kindered tribes in the far off Indian territory. When the writer arrived at the agency in June, 1869, the treaty was awaiting ratification by the senate and the tribe was consequently in a very restless condition. It soon became obvious to him that the conditions of the treaty were very prejudicial to the best interest of the Indians and that the consideration was entirely inadequate, being less than half of what might be considered a fair valuation of the land at that time. He accordingly commenced taking measures to defeat ratification, by calling a council and persuading the head men and a few of the chiefs to sign a remonstrance against ratification, and a repudiation of the action of the party that had visited Washington. This, together with a carefully prepared;! statement, was taken to Washington by a committee of Friends, and the result was the defeat of the treaty. The lands afterward sold for nearly ten times what they would have brought under the terms of the treaty.

In 1870, as Indian agent, I removed Ar-kake-ta from the position of head chief and promoted Shunga-mon-co (Medicine Horse) to that position. This was done because of the old head chief's refusal to remove from the village and go to farming when a neat frame house and tract of choice land had been offered him. It was important that the head chief should set an example lo the young men of the tribe. Medicine Horse was a man of considerable influence and of very striking appearance, - -a natural orator whose flowery figures of speech always elicited cries of how 1 how ! how ! from the assembled council. He agreed that if appointed head chief he would occupy a frame house, open a small farm, and set a good example to others. When the matter was first broached to him he declared, with pretended seriousness, that he had never done

1870, 1871 and 1872 probably twenty-five families had tried the experiment of living in houses and cooking on stoves - at least during the summer months - the lure of tepee life proving too strong on the approach of winter for some of them. Next in importance to Medicine Horse was Big Soldier, who, in face and figure, was a replica of an ancient Roman senator. By means of facial, labial, and finger movements, he was always able to converse without an interpreter, although he a stroke of work in his life, but he was immediately contradicted by old Chief Buffalo, who affirmed that he remembered seeing him, when a boy, carrying a kettle of water for his mother. At this accusation Medicine Horse pretended to be very angry declaring that the charge was utterly false. In the course of a few days Medicine Horse, assisted by others, was busily engaged in cutting saw-logs and in due time he and his family were ensconced in a neat frame dwelling built of newly\ sawed Cottonwood lumber. Encouraged by his example others were also persuaded to cut logs, and the agency ox-teams were kept busy hauling them to the saw mill. During the years

Next in importance to the chiefs were the police, usually consisting of not more than fifteen individuals, chosen and appointed by the agent, whose duty it was to make arrests and otherwise assist in preserving order. They were commanded by a captain and lieutenant, and all provided with United States cavalry uniforms, which, however, were seldom worn except on important occasions, such as council meetings, and the. execution of orders that required them to leave the reservation. All of the chiefs were

Otoes except Eagle, who was a Missouri Indian and the recognized "war chief" of the combined tribes; for many years it had been his province to act as commander on all buffalo hunts or other adventurous enterprises. He was a man of commanding and dignified appearance, and despite his great age was straight as an arrow and active as a young man. An incident that came under the writer's observation while accompanying the Indians on a buffalo hunt in 1870, illustrates how punctilious old Eagle was in strictly enforcing an ancient tribal rule that forbids the killing of a straggling buffalo before the camp has been pitched and the hunters are all ready to participate in a combined attack upon the great herd. In this case it was a young chief. Little Pipe, who was the offender. Eagle's face was stern and unrelenting as he ordered the heavy pony lash applied to the culprit's naked back, but, before a blow descended the young chief's brother-in-law pushed him aside and presented his own back to receive vicariously the punishment that it was feared might degrade a chief. A bloody back soon showed that while the substitution had been accepted no mercy had been shown by the old war chief. This chief's name is worthy of a place in history as the last chieftain of that Indian nation whose name is more frequently mentioned than is that of any other aboriginal people on the continent; a people who have given name to one of earth's longest rivers and to one of our nation's greatest and richest commonwealths. In 1869 there were only about eighty Missouris living, and since that time the race has practically disappeared.

It was customary for the Otoes to go on a buffalo hunt twice a year, starting on the summer hunt about the last of June and getting back usually some time in August. Late in November they started on the winter hunt, the return from which was wholly dependent on weather conditions and their success in procuring hides and meat.. The depredations by hostile Indians on the Little Blue had made the settlers very distrustful of all Indians, and in order to allay fear on the part of the settlers, as well as to protect the Otoes from hostile Indians, the agent obtained from the war department an order directing General Augur to furnish an escort of cavalry for the winter hunt of 1869 as well as for the summer hunt of 1870. On the latter occasion the agent and a party of Philadelphians accompanied the expedition; they encountered a large herd of buffalo on the Sappa creek, in what is now Decatur county, Kansas.

It was an ancient Indian practice among the Nebraska Indians to make sugar from the sap of the box alder, - sl practice that the Otoes continued after their settlement on the reservation. Formerly they used no tobacco, ; but smoked a mixture of dried sumac leaves and red-willow bark that had been in common use among all the western tribes probably for centuries. This old Quivira mixture, with sometimes a little tobacco added but oftener without any, was always adhered to by the Otoes and Missouris. The smoke produced had an acrid though not altogether disagree- ' able odor and was usually exhaled through| the nostrils. The Indians obtained many fine fish from the Blue. They used no fishhooks, but shot the fish as they glided through the clear water, using only bow and arrows for the purpose. When heavy rains raised the water to flood tide they built . seine-like barriers of willow poles and rods across the mouths of bayous and draws so that the receding waters left many fish, usually of large size, stranded behind such barriers. As long as the waters of the Blue remained clear the river abounded with gars, which often attained a large size; specimens four feet in length being frequently caught. Although the white settlers did not consider them edible, the Otoes regarded them very favourably as food. As the country gradually settled up and sediment from plowed fields found its way into the river, the gars disappeared. As late as 1869 a beaver was occasionally caught, and the commoner fur-bearing animals, such as mink, skunk, raccoon, etc., were plentiful, their furs being quite a source of profit to the Indians.. The abundance and variety of plums gathered by the Indian women were surprising. They varied greatly in quality and size, a tree being occasionally found the fruit from which equalled the choicest sold in our markets to-day. There were still a few wild deer in the county as late as 1870, for at least two fawns were caught by the Indians during that year, and a large antlered buck was seen by the writer a few miles south of Beatrice.

The breaking of the prairie sod caused the total disappearance of a plant, once quite plentiful, whose bulbous root was eagerly sought for and highly prized as an article of food by the Otoes. In taste it slightly resembled a chestnut, and when divested of its thick, barklike skin, it was as large as a hulled walnut. This plant grew to a height of from eighteen inches to two feet and had a branching top. The settlers made no use of it, but to the Indians travelling on the war-path or the hunt, when short of other food, it afforded security from starvation. It was an emergency food supply that the Indians had no doubt availed themselves of from time immemorial. The Otoes at all times relished it highly, even when they had other food in abundance. The destruction of the origional sod has caused the disappearance from the county of other plants equally as interesting, but probably of none that occupied as high a place in the Indian's estimation as did this one..

For more than a decade prior to 1869 no missionary efforts had been made or religious services held among the Otoes and Missouris. They had a religion, if such it might be called, that was not based on creed, bible, or confession of faith, and that had come down to them as an inheritance from a far off past. It was the religion of ancient Quivira. The Great Spirit, Wa-con-da, - - the maker of all things was to them no far off deity dwelling in a far off heaven, but an ever present actuating and controlling force in nature and in all natural phenomena; they heard his voice in the thunder and saw the ashes of his wrath in the lightning ; the tornado showed his might and power; the sunshine and the gentle rain, the ripened corn, and every beneficent gift of nature, bore evidence to his favor. How many white professors of religion, seated at a loaded table, commence eating without giving a thankful thought to the Great Giver of all good : - and yet we have seen an Otoe chief, seated with his family on the ground around a pot of succotash, a mixture of boiled com and pumpkin, before dispensing it to the members of his family pour some of it on the ground and stir it into the dirt and ashes so that the dogs could not get it, calling on Wacon-da to accept it as a. thank offering. It was the universal custom in council to pass the pipe from chief to chief, each taking a whiff or two, and exclaiming, as he exhaled the smoke, words that signified an acknowledgment of Wa-con-da's presence, - the act being in reality a smoke offering. They knew nothing of the Mosaic law, but old Chief Wana-ga-he once declared, striking himself upon the breast, "We know that within us is peace if we do right, but if we do wrong Wa-con-da is displeased and we are unhappy." Kindness toward each other and harmony in families were notable traits of the Otoe character that remind one of Castaneda's statement already quoted - "they are a kind people." As the ancient Jews relied upon their tribal God to aid them in battle with their enemies, so the Otoes relied upon Wa-con-da to aid and protect them on the war-path.

In the fall of 1870 Agent Green discovered that a party of Otoes were preparing for a pony raid on a distant tribe a proceedure that was analagous to going on the war-path, so far as risk and excitement were concerned. The leader of the party, a notorious half-breed, known as Jim White-water (who afterward spent seventeen years in the state penitentiary for an atrocious double murder), had already nearly completed all preliminary arrangements when the discovery was made. For several days the braves whom he had selected for the party had been segregated in a tepee at some distance from the village, undergoing certain preparatory exercises, consisting mostly of chanting and drumming, while Jim sought seeluded places in the timber along Plum creek where he loudly wailed and called on Wa-conda to favour the enterprise. This segregation or separation of men from their wives for some days, before starting" on the war-path, the time being taken up with efforts to win the favour of Wa-con-da by chanting and drumming, is of great antiquity. On this occasion Wa-con-da failed to render protection, for the agent wrathfuUy descended on the band with his police and ordered their dispersal threatening imprisonment of their leader if he attempted to leave the reservation. The chiefs at once asked for a council and informed the agent that when a war-party had gone so far with the preliminaries they could not back out without disgrace, and that in order to look their friends in the face without shame it would be necessary to give them at least six ponies, and suggested that if the agent would give one they would make up the required number. This the agent refused to do, and the chiefs silently departed, but sent a messenger to inform the agent that they had bought the war-party off with ponies.

The medicine-bag, a bundle about two feet in length, containing a mysterious assortment of relics and charms, held an important place in what might be termed the religious psychology of the Otoes. In some mysterious way it was supposed to invite the presence or favour of Wa-con-da. There was usually one of these mysterious bundles suspended in every large lodge and all were supposed to be of great antiquity, having been handed down from generation to generation. Some of them were decorated with the scalps of enemies slain in battles fought so long ago that even tradition failed to recall their story. There was no tincture of idolatry connected with these objects; they were venerated very much as shrines have been venerated by Christians and were carried by war parties in a belief that Wa-con-da, the Great Medicine (Mystery), would favour them with his protecting presence.

The Otoes and Missouris believed in a universal immortality that included not only human souls but also spirits of all animals. They believed that a pony, strangled by the side of its owner's grave at the time of his burial, accompanied him as a spirit steed to the land of the immortals, and that a dog strangled beside the grave of a little child afforded it company and protection. It was not until I87O7 1871 that Agent Green succeeded in abolishing the practice of strangling ponies, but the strangling of dogs was permitted to continue during the Indians' sojourn in the county. It was not an uncommon sight to see the body of a dog, dried to a mummy, standing in an upright position with its back to a stake, to which it was tightly bound by a raw-hide thong passed around its throat.

The Otoes used no coffins, but placed their dead in a sitting posture in graves that were only about four feet in depth with an opening at the top only large enough to admit the body, - the cavity being from three to four feet in width at the bottom. The relatives, having taken a final farewell of the dead, all joined in load wailing, while the old women, whose province it was to dig graves and conduct burials, placed a layer of heavy sticks and a buffalo robe or blanket over the mouth of the grave and piled the excavated earth upon it. If a pony was to be strangled, a saddle and bridle was usually put beside its owner in the grave, and the chosen animal, having been decorated with hand-marks of vermillion, wasled to the grave-side with a lariat looped around its neck in a manner easily to produce strangulation when a squaw at each end pulled with all her strength. The pony having fallen beside the grave was allowed to remain there until dogs and wild animals had consumed itsflesh ; the skull was then placed as a decoration on the top of the mound, and its tail or a portion of the mane attached to a pole planted at the side of the grave. A well authenticated instance of the burial alive of an old man, with the body of his grandchild, occurred a few years prior to 1869. The story, as related by Battiste Deroin, was a very sad and pathetic one. It appears that the old man was greatly attached to the child and when it died was inconsolable ; his feeble condition indicated that his own departure was not far distant, and it was in accordance^ with his own desire that he was placed in the grave with the little one in his embrace, that he might be its caretaker and companion through the wilderness that alL must cross in order to reach the land of eternal rest. Food was placed beside him and the wailing sounded afar, as his kinsmen bade him farewell and the heavy earth was mounded above his head.

The Otoes did not always bury their dead, especially when the ground was deeply frozen. One of the strangest sights to be seen upon the reservation consisted of two ancient oaks, , standing within a few feet of each other, the nited and with their gruesome burden completely destroyed. What was probably the last instance of such disposal of the dead occurred during the winter of 1870, when the writer discovered the recently placed body of a child securely wrapped and tied far out on the limb of a very tall tree that stood on the bank of the Blue at a point about a mile south of the present town of Wymore.

limbs and forks of which were laden with the mummified remains of men women and children, each wrapped in skins, old blankets, bark, etc., and bound with raw hide thongs so securely that the most violent storms had never been able to dislodge them. The trees stood at the foot of a low bluff near the principal Indian burial ground, and at a point nearly midway between the present town of Barneston and Plum creek. During the fall of 1872 a great prairie fire swept the river bottom and there being much tall grass and dry trash beneath the partly decayed oaks, they were igcounty was on Plum creek, at a point about a mile west of the present town of Liberty, where, in a log cabin, one Gideon Bennett, an Indian trader, sold beads, calico and other Indian goods, taking in exchange furs and buffalo robes, as well as crediting the heads of families against the forthcoming annuity payments. The business afterward passed into the hands of Macdonald, of St. Joseph, who, in 1869, engaged Mrs. David Palmer to conduct the store. She understood and talked the Indian language and dealt fairly with the Indians. Mrs. Palmer and her husband were among the first settlers of the county and were typical pioneers. David was a stalwart mountainer, inured to hardships ; the advantages of an education had been denied him, but the book, of nature was ever open to his understanding. Mrs. Palmer was in many respects a remarkable woman, energetic and trustworthy in conducting Macdonald's business and quick to acquire a knowledge of the Otoe language that enabled her to transact business without an interpreter. As illustrating the versatility of her talents, the writer has in his possession a pair of heavy, gauntleted driving gloves made from a beaver skin that he obtained from an Otoe, - the palms and fingers being of deer skin, the cutting, fitting, and stitching all being the work of her hands and equal to any that are offered for sale. The vicinity of the store was settled by families from Tennessee, some of whom tried raising cotton, but soon discovered that the climate was not very well adapted to it; some of them did their own spinning and weaving of a sort of cloth, having brought the necessary apparatus with them from Tennessee. The writer remembers to have seen men's clothing made from this homespun cloth.

It was during the time that Bennett conducted the store on Plum creek that a band of Pawnees made a raid upon it. They had spent a part of the night watching for an opportimity to seize Otoe ponies, but finding them too securely corralled and guarded, had broken into the store instead. Naturally Bennett supposed that a party of Otoes must have been guilty of the affair, but investigation at the agency proved that such was not the case. The Otoes were greatly excited and their police were not long in discovering the trail of the I'obber band which they followed swiftly, overtaking them on the Little Blue, some miles above the present site of Fairbury. In the fall of 1869 the writer, while accompanying the Otoes on a hunt, encamped for a night near the spot where this encounter took place, at which time fragments of skulls and bones were found among the briars and underbrush that covered the spot where the Pawnees were overtaken. The Otoes claimed to have killed the entire party.

We have already referred to the hereditary hostility that existed between these Indians and the Osages, - - a hostility that is known to have existed as far back as 1720, if the writings of Spanish friars can be depended upon, and which appears to have been kept alive through all the intervening years, resulting in frequent ventures upon the war-path, reprisals for ponies stolen and sometimes in bloodshed. The last rsid made by Osage warriors upon the Indians of Gage county occurred in the fall of 1868; it resulted in the killing of a number of Otoe women who wereat work at some distance from the village, all of whom were scalped and otherwise mutilated. The Osages were a powerful tribe as compared with the Otoes, but a party of Otoe braves at once prepared to take the war-path, against them, determined either to inflict retribution or exact reparation. Having invoked the favour of Wa-con-da by chanting, drumming, and wailing, in a tepee apart from the village, the party set out on their perilous undertaking. They had been gone many days and great suspense and anxiety was felt in regard to them when a messenger, announcing their approach with a great herd of ponies, arrived at the village. The greatest excitement and rejoicing ensued; heralds cried the news from one end of the village to the other, and the women and children stationed theinselves on the tops of the lodges in order to get a view of the returning war party as it approached inthe distance. Soon, with beating drum and: loud war whoops, they filed into the village with a string of eighty ponies following in their train. Of these eighty ponies, it ap- ; pears that forty had been given by the Osages on presentation of the peace-pipe at a parley held at the Osage village, the other forty had been stolen from the Osages the following night. A great war dance followed ; the story ; of bravery and daring Avas loudly shouted by the heralds; feasting and rejoicing continued far into the night, but through it all a sense of hovering danger disquieted the old men of the tribe who were too well acquainted with the ways of the Osages to doubt for a moment that their painted warriors would lose little time in exacting reparation. Measures were at once taken to guard against a surprise raid. All ponies were securely corralled within the village every night and kept under watch both night and day.

It was during this period of fear and suspense, which extended into the summer of 1869, that the Pottawattamies turned a rather neat trick on the Otoes. A war-party of Pottawattamies had made a raid upon the Omahas and with thirty head of stolen ponies were on their homeward way, when, in order to mislead the Omahas and throw suspicion upon the Otoes, should the Omahas follow their trail, they made a detour through the Otoe reservation, passing in the night as near the village as possible without discovery by the Otoes. The war-party of thirty Omaha braves who a few days later, following their trail, naturally concluded that their ponies had been stolen by the Otoes and that the right thing to do would be to recoup themselves from the Otoe herds. Cautiously reconnoitering during the small hours of the night, they were greatly astonished at the unusual precautions that the Otoes had taken to protect their ponies from theft, not being aware of their recent trouble with the Osages. The ponies belonging to each family were enclosed in pens of heavy wickerwork close to the' lodge entrance and from sunset until daybreak a watchman was on guard.

The Omaha braves, secreted in the tall sunflowers and wild hemp that formed a rank growth in the vicinity of the lodges and corralls, received no attention from the Indian dogs, though if a white man had so hidden they would have announced his presence in the noisiest manner. Slowly the hours passed until, with the first streaks of dawn, the watchmen retired and then with swift movements the silent forms of thirty nearly naked men cut the withes of bark that held the wickerwork and poles of the corralls in place, each seized a choice animal, mounted it, and all rode swiftly away. The noise of clattering hoof-beats awakened the drowsy Otoes who came swarming from their lodges, sure that the feared and hated Osages had visited them at last. It was soon found that thirty head of the very best ponies were missing. In a very short time the women and children of the village were standing on the lodges gazing afar off on the prairie where a long line of Otoe horsemen were swiftly following the trail of the stolen ponies. By noon the thieves had be'fen overtaken and found to be Omahas instead of Osages. The entire party were taken prisoners and brought to the agency ; all were in war paint and heavily armed, each man having, besides a bow and quiver of arrows, a heavy revolver of the type used by cavalrymen during the Civil war. The leader carried a war-drum which the writer still retains as a memento of the occasion. Having disarmed them as they entered the council room in charge of the Indian police, all were seated on the floor while their leader and other principal men of the party were called upon to state the circumstances of their visit. The Otoes had been furiously angry at first, but on learning all the facts connected with the affair were rather inclined to view it as a "comedy of errors" and, on advice of the agent, smoked the pipe of peace with the captured men and invited them to partake of food, as they were nearly starved. They had traveled from their village one hundred and fifty miles away, afoot, expecting to return on horseback, but the fortunes of war compelled them to return as they came. The only blood shed upon their war-path was that of a hog belonging to Elijah Filley, whose farm lay in their course. Elijah brought the bloody arrow to the agency as evidence of what he supposed to have been an Otoe depredation.

The success of the Omaha raiders in taking ponies from the corralls did not lessen the feeling of uneasiness and dread that was felt in the direction of the Osages. In fact the expectation of an Osage attack kept the Otoes on the anxious seat until the spring of 1870, when Agent Green called a council and announced to the chiefs his intention of making an everlasting peace between the tribes. He informed them that he should at once invite the Osages to send representatives to a settlement of all differences; that forty head of ponies should be delivered to them, that being the number stolen ; and that the war-path between the Otoes and the Osages should be forever ended. In due course of time a band of Osage chiefs and braves, gorgeously painted and befeathered, arrived at the agency; a council was held and many speeches in both the Otoe and Osage language were made ; the g'reat red-stone peace pipe was smoked by all as it passed from hand to hand. The agent, whom the Indian chiefs always addressed as "Un-koe" (my father) when they were assembled in council, then emphasized the importance of at once forever ending a custom that civilization would no longer tolerate. All agreed that the words of the father were good, - a great feast followed the adjournment of the council, and the Osage warriors departed, leaving behind them a sense of peaceful security that the Otoes had not known for many long years.

After the destruction of the old mission building some years elapsed before any attempt was again made to educate the Indian children. During the fall and winter of 1869 Cottonwood and walnut logs were cut and the saw mill was kept busy preparing lumber for a school house and other needed buildings. A large one-story school building was completed in 1870 and all Indian children of school age were required to attend, attendance being made compulsory. Commencing with the fall of 1869 clothing of all kinds for children was abundantly furnished by the Indian Aid Association of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends, consequently the school children were all well clothed for the first time in their lives. The school was supplied with competent teachers from the start, - women whose faithful services entitle their names to laudatory mention in any historical account of our county's Indian population. Miss Maria VanDorn and Mrs. Nannie Armstrong were Virginians, while Mrs. Sallie Ely and Miss Elizabeth Walton were from Philadelphia. All were faithful and efficient workers in educational lines as well as in attending to the needs of the sick and aged, in distributing clothing, and in advising the Indian women in regard to sanitary living. Miss Phebe Oliver, a graduate of the Women's Medical College of Philadelphia, came to the agency as resident physician in 1870. She was very successful in the treatment of diseases of children, the prevalence of which diseases had caused many deaths previous to her arrival. Up to this time the Otoes had relied wholly on their own methods of treatment, the basic principle of which was the prevention of interference by evil spirits. Every case of sickness was supposed to result in accordance with the will of an evil spirit or influence that, unless frightened away, will interfere with the action of medicine and render a cure impossible. The course usually adopted in the case of desperate wounds or severe injuries was to shake rattles and to dance around the patient for six days and nights, fresh dancers taking the place of others from time to time. In the case of a sick or wounded horse a different method was pursued. At each administration of medicine or treatment of a wound a dififerent colored blanket was placed upon the animal, the supposition being that this would confuse or deceive the bad spirit that interfered with the curative process, so that it would be likely to pass without recognizing the animal.

As illustrative of Otoe methods in the successful treatment of a case that the agent and his employes all considered hopeless, that of Roc-co a young brave whose skull had been split by an axe so that a portion of the brain exuded, deserves recording in these pages. It seems that Roc-co was sitting on the ground close to where his wife was cutting down a tree, when her axe slipped or glanced and cut deeply into the top of his head. The horrified woman, believing that she had killed him and knowing that his blood relatives would lose no time in taking her life for his, at once fled and secreted herself in some far-off fastness. The unconscious Roc-co was found in due time and borne to the agency. It was the opinion of all the white employes that he could surviv«| but a short time and that he would never regain consciousness. Dr. Oliver not yet having arrived upon the reservation, the Otoe doctors begged for permission to try their skill upon him, which the agent granted. He was then taken to his own lodge and laid upon the ground with his head near a fire, beside which an Otoe drum was continuously beaten and around which a circle of Indians danced, each shaking a gourd rattle, the noise of which, together with the monotonous chanting of the relays of dancers, was kept up for six days and nights. At intervals one of dancers stepped from the circle and taking a mouthful of a dark liquid sprayed it upon the wound. Whether it was the alternate moistening of the wound with the liquid and drying by the warmth of the fire, or the incessant noise, acting curatively in awakening dormant faith, no one can tell, but the fact remains that after six days the tribe assembled to see him led forth, pale as a ghost, tottering and leaning on a staff. His complete recovery was a matter of only a few weeks.

In the meantime diligent search had been made for Roc-co's wife, and she was very liable to perish from cold and hunger, the nights being cold and she very thinly clad. It was many days before a trace of her could be found and when at last, emaciated and worn out with anguish and physical suffering, she was found in some far off ravine, the news of her husband's survival and possible recovery came to her as a message of great joy. She had carefully evaded and eluded all searching parties, supposing their intention was to put her to death.

Among the Otoes the doctors were usually women, whose duty it was to dig the grave and bury a patient whom they failed to cure, such termination of a case entitling them to act as administrators of the personal estate of the deceased, most of which became their perquisites. Bleeding and blistering were resorted to for many pains and aches. The bleeding was done by scarifying the spot in which the pain centered and then using a ' sort of a suction cup made from the horn of a young buffalo, the small end of which had been perforated. The blistering was a cruel infliction usually applied on the breasts of children by inserting a piece of dry pitch in a small cut and igniting it. As several such torches were scattered over a child's breast and burned

An ancient Indian custom, that survived until 1871-1872, was pony-giving and pipedancing. The lowas, Omahas, and Otoes had always been on visiting verms, and always owed each other visits, in order to get back as many ponies as had been given or more. It was nothing unusual for the Otoes to give from twenty-five to fifty head of ponies to a visiting band. A man's reputation for courage and his standing in the tribe was largely dependant on the number of ponies he had given away during his lifetime. In almost every lodge there was conspicuously displayed a bundle of small painted sticks, each of which represented a pony that the owner of the lodge had given away on the occasion of a pipedance. The larger the bundle the greater the honor due its possessor. The daughter of a man whose display of painted sticks indicated his having given away many ponies was entitled to bear the "Kra-kah" mark, - a blue spot tattooed midway between the eye brows. The possession of such a beauty-spot was evidence that she was the daughter of a very brave and honorable personage. Agent Green found that pipe-dancing and tribal visits with pony giving were very detrimental to the tribe's advancement toward a more civilized condition. They were customs that had been in vogue for untold centuries and were among the strongest ties binding the tribes to a past age of barbarism. At a conference of United States Indian agents, held in Omaha in 1870- 1871, he advocated a concerted action on the part of all the agents in the superintendancy, in putting a stop to tribal visiting, pipe-dancing and pony-giving. Each agent present agreed no longer to permit his Indians either to go on a pipe-dance visit, or to receive a visiting band from another tribe. It required' some time for the tribes to reconcile themselves to this abandonment of what for centuries had been one of their chief sources of pleasure and excitement, and it was not until after a few visiting bands had been sent to their homes pony-less that the custom was re- luctantly abandoned. The conclusion of a permanent peace with the Osages and the discontinuance of frequent tribal visits with their attendant excitement rendered it less difficult to induce the Indians to live in the small frame houses that the agent was building for -them, and to cultivate the land.

Gradually the men were induced to wear the clothing furnished by the Indian Aid Association, though many of the older men could never be persuaded to wear trousers and often mutilated or destroyed a new pair of trousers in order to use the legs as leggings; they objected to the rest of the garment for the reason that it made the lower part of the body too warm. Efforts were made by the ladies of the agency to introduce the use of soap and towels into the domestic economy of the Otoe lodges, and considerable quantities of these were supplied by the Indian Aid Association, all of which the Indians gladly received and at once established a lively commerce with their white neighbors, supplying them with soap and towels in exchange for fresh pork, chickens, butter, and other edibles. On one occasion the Indian Aid Association sent a very large box containing enough gay creations of the milliner's art to supply every woman in the tribe with a flower or feather bedecked headpiece, either a hat or a bonnet. The next day the young braves of the tribe had bedecked themselves with the whole of this supply of gay millinery ; the women had no use for it.

The Otoes and Missouris were of very pure Indian blood, except in the case of three or four individuals whose names indicated a French ancestry. Two of these men were of striking appearance and physique. Both were fairly well educated and they were of nearly the same age. One was Battiste Deroin the other Battiste Bameby. Battiste Deroin was an Otoe while his lifelong rival and competitor for the position of United States interpreter was an Omaha, married to an Otoe woman. The French blood in the veins of each had been diluted through so many generations of Indian ancestors that its existence was hardly apparent. For some reasons that had militated in his favour Deroin received the appointment as government interpreter from Agent Green, in 1869, - a position that he afterward held until the removal of the Indians from the county. Both men had great influence among the Indians and were highly regarded by many of the early settlers of the county. They were both most interesting conversationalists and well versed in all Indian lore. Battiste Deroin was a polygamist, his two wives being sisters, as he had availed himself of an Indian custom that permitted a man to take his wife's younger sister as a supplementary wife without ceremony or gift. The fact that this young woman was the beauty of the tribe and had a host of admirers and lovers caused him many a pang of jealousy that was far from being groundless. Battiste Barneby was among the first Indians on the reservation to build a frame house and occupy it as a dwelling place both wmter and summer. It was provided with a wide, open fire-place, within which a cheerful fire always blazed and beside which might be often seen a nearly full-grown wild cat, either asleep or engaged 1 in washing its face with its paw, just as an ordinary pussy does. Its sharp claws enabled it to exact due respect from the snarling dogs that tried to form its acquaintance. Mrs., Barneby wore the Kra-kah mark between her eyebrows, indicating that her father had been brave and honorable; a man of great liberality and generosity. A bundle of small painted sticks, each representing a pony given away, doubtless accompanied him to the grave. Battiste Barneby was accidentally killed, in Atchison, Kansas, in 1875 or 1876.

Perhaps no Indian was more widely known among the early settlers than old Medicine Jake, the snake doctor. Emaciated and entirely nude, except as to a breech cloth, his striking appearance was enhanced by a snaice^ skin bandaged around one of his skinny 1^5, just below the knee, as a sign or advertisement of his profession. Rattlesnakes and moccasins were quite plentiful and the Indian children were frequently bitten. It was claimed that old Jake had an inf.illible cure that nobody else knew how to prepare. Strange as it may seem, the Otoes were afraid to kjll snakes owing to a belief that if one was killed its kindred would seek until they found the killer and inflicted revenge. Their name for snake was "wah-cun," signifying something akin to a spirit. Another remarkable character was O-thro-kes-koo-nie, known among the white people as "Hog-Jaw" because of a deformity that caused his lower teeth and jaw to project in a frightful manner, - a malformation that made the poor fellows life miserable by creating fear and aversion whenever he appeared in the presence of strangers. Perhaps one of the strongest characters among the Otoes was Jo-John, captain of the Indian police. When Ar-ka-ke-ta was deposed and Medicine Horse made chief, Jo-John was promoted by the agent to a chieftainship, but alas, Beatrice whiskey was his undoing, - when under its influence, in a sudden fit of anger, he killed a companion by striking him on the head with a neckyoke. This act cost him his position as chief and, according to ancient custom, forfeited him his life, putting it absolutely at the disposal of the kindred of the - slain. In order to save him from summary execution he was lodged in jail at Beatrice. Eventually the relatives of the murdered man were appeased by a liberal gift of ponies, and Jo- John was restored to the bosom of his family. Physically Jo-John was a splendid specimen of his race. Having a mental capacity above the average, he possessed those ancient traits of Indian character that won the confidence and esteem of the early French traders, - honesty, integrity, and truthfulness. An incident illustrating this occurred shortly before the unfortunate homicide we have mentioned. It seems that he had borrowed a small sum of money from a person living near Blue Springs, promising to repay it within a certain time and when the time was near at hand he went to the house of the lender to repay it, only to find the premises occupied by strangers, who informed him that the party he sought had removed tu a distant part of Kansas. Jo-John knew nothing about bank drafts or money orders, so, mounting his pony, he set out on a long and wearisome journey to find his creditor. The trip required several days and involved much inquiry, for it was not known exactly where the party had located and an inability to clearly express ideas in English made the task he had undertaken all the harder. His perseverance, however, was rewarded by finding the party sought, who was greatly surprised by the payment of a small debt that he had forgotten all about.

The Otoes as a people were innately honest and generally careful to meet all their financial obligations. This characteristic was so well known to all Indian traders and agency employes that they never hesitated to extend them credit, knowing that on annuity payment, if not before, the debt would be paid. Perhaps next to Jo-John the finest looking and most typical specimen of an Indian warrioi was Har-ra-gar-rah, son of Chief Big Soldier. He was known among the white people by the name of "Hod-de-god-die." It was the chief hope and ambition of Big Soldier's life that Hod-de-god-die should succeed him as chief, and many were the interviews he sought with the agent on that account, but the old man's hopes were doomed to disappointment for Hod-de-god-die's mental equipment and calibre would have disqualified him even had a vacancy occurred. When arrayed in full Indian costume that included a very ancient necklace of bear's claws, ears loaded with silver bobs, and face bedecked with indigo and Vermillion, Hod-de-god-die presented a rather gorgeous spectacle, but the real Beau Brummel of the tribe, the acknowledged prince of all fops, was Jack Wild-Bird. To visitors he was a curiosity. He appeared to have only one serious occupation, aside from athletic games, and that was the beautification and decoration of his personality. Hours were spent in painting and decorating his face with Vermillion, indigo, yellow ocher, and white clay, and experience had taught him how to produce the most startling and inharmonious eflfect. His head was always kept shaved to a scalp-lock, from which floated a fine eagle's feather. And many hours of his time were occupied in the use of his beardpuller and in watching his face in a large handglass that was carried attached to his waist cord. The beard-pullers used by the Otoes consisted of a spring-like steel coil about three inches in length which, when pressed against the face, and tightly squeezed, caught and held the small hairs and eyebrows, thus enabling the operator to extract a large number at once. These instruments were sold by all Indian traders. During warm weather Jack's only raiment, aside from his scarlet breech cloth and heavy necklaces of wampum and beads, was similar to that possessed by Adam before the apple episode, but in cold weather he fairly bloomed in gay ribbands, deer-skin leggings decorated with the stained quills of the porcupine, and the handsomest scarlet blanket obtainable. He was undoubtedly the most accomplished' flute musician in the tribe, and during summer evenings the melodious strains of his flute, mingled with the far off wail of a mourner beside a lonely grave,, were, often aids in courting sleep. The never failing hospitality to be met with at , every lodge rendered the matter of sulDsistence a minor consideration with this gay idler. In the ancient athletic games of the tribe he was a leader and expert. The village play ground was a very important fea- ,ture of village' life. It consisted of. wellsmoothed and perfectly level space about five hundred feet in length by perhaps two hundred in width. It was there that many of the young men, nude except as to breech cloth, played from morning till night through the hottest days, exhibiting a wonderful dexterity in throwing. While running at great speed; a small flexible ring, causing it to spin along the ground while each runner essayed to catch it upon a sort of a javelin that he threw as he ran. This game was rendered very exciting by the betting that accompanied it, and it was from this source that Jack Wild-Bird acquired the means that enabled him to bedeck himself so gayly.

It was a custom among the' Indians to deprive a woman of the sight of one eye if she was known to have departed from the path of virtue. The writer was cognizant of a case of this kind in 1869, but occasions for the infliction of this severe punishment were very rare. Marital infelicity, caused by infidelity on the part of a wife, called for the blood of her paramour; or in lieu of that a gift of ponies proportionate to his wealth.

The adjudication and settlement of all troubles devolved upon the agent. In the course of administering justice and punishing delinquents he found it necessary on one occasion to convert the agency smoke-house into a jail, and having placed a number of youthful culprits therein, under a ten days' sentence, he securely padlocked the door. The building being an old frame structure, the prisoners had little difficulty in devising a secret exit which enabled them to spend most of their time at home, being- very careful to be in jail when the meals were handed in. This free and easy manner of suffering imprisoiiii' ment had been continued for several days so successfully that the prisoners grew careless in regard to being in limbo at meal-time, and their jailor having decided to pay them a visit a little earlier than usual, found the prison empty. The police were at once notified and soon reported that they had found them in the jail, where they positively declared they had been all the time.

The Otoe word for medicine had a broader meaning than we attach to its equivalent, for it is "mon-co," - the mysterious, the occult, the incomprehensible ; even clairvoyance is not beyond its pale. A remarkable instance of an exhibition of the last named phenomena by the medicine men of the tribe occurred in 1872, while efforts were being made to recaptu|e White- Water, the murderer, who, having escaped from the sheriff after his arrest, was in hiding somewhere on the reservation. A large party of lowas were visiting the Otoes at the time, on account of a pipe-dance, and had joined in the hunt that was being made for the hiding-place of the fugitive. On account of a trifling peculiarity in the shape of the sole of his moccasin the searchers had discovered his trail in widely separated localities, but his cunning in eluding them was greater than their sleuth-craft. The Indians were exceedingly anxious to capture White- Water in order to show their condemnation of his crime as well as to placate the animosity it had created, toward the Indians, among the friends and relatives of the murdered men. Disappointed in their efforts after several days of search, they at length invoked the occult and mysterious power that was believed to pertain to the "Mon-co"' men, with results in the direction of clairvoyance that were as astonishing as they were mystifying An assemblage of probably two hundred horsemen, including the lowas, was gathered iit a place on the west side of the river where the prairie gradually sloped to a broad river-botton. The medicine men in their midst chanted and danced frantically until at length two of them, mounted on swift ponies, emerged from the throng and after circling around it a few times at great speed, darted off across the prairie and out of sight, - where they went or what happened to them during their absence of perhaps twenty minutes we do not know, but when they . reappeared their horses were in a lather of sweat and as they approached it became evident that both swayed .md could hardly retain their seats ; a rush was made to meet them and each fell from his horse into the outstretched arms of his friends in an apparently unconscious condition. They were laid upon the ground and an excited crowd gathered closely around them. As they slowly recovered from a stupor they muttered words that were eagerly awaited for and listened to by those who were bending over them. In gasping and broken sentences they told of where they had (clairvoyantly?) seen the fugitive seated. It was on the summit of a high bluff on the south side of Cedar creek at a point that could be reached by climbing a very steep rocky gulch that extended from the bed of the creek. There, they declared, he was sitting in the tall grass and gazing watchfully over the country. The writer who accompanied the party of horsemen that at once started for the spot indicated, which was several miles distant, noticed that as they drew near, the Indians halted and were evidently afraid to approach within gun shot, and it was not until he had appealed to the police to show their bravery that they finally charged up the hill and, on the very spot designated by the medicine men, found the nest in the tall grass where he had been seated a very short time before the party charged up the hill on the prairie side, his moccasin tracks proving that he had escaped down the rocky gulch to the bed of the creek and along the edge of the creek, where his trail was followed for about a mile when it struck across the prairie towards the timber on Wolf creek.

The circumstances connected with the arrest of White-Water by Sheriff Alexander, of Jefferson county, his escape from the sheriff, and his final capture by the Indians, may be of sufficient historical interest to relate here. News of an atrocious double murder had reached us, but it was not until the arrival of Sheriff Alexander at the Agency that we learned that White- Water was suspected of the crime. On inquiry it was learned that when the Otoes returned from the hunt a few days before he had loitered behind and came in alone and very seriously wounded some hours after the crime must have been committed. The police informed us that he was living at Medicine Horse's village of bark lodges near the mouth of Mission creek, and the agent and sheriff at once proceeded to that place.

On their arrival an Indian, by a rly gesture, indicated the lodge where he slept and the agent at once entered and found him lying beside his wife on the platform of poles that, with a covering of skins, constituted his bed. On seeing the agent enter and catching a glimpse of the sheriff outside the doorway he at once realized that for him the situation was now desperate, and reaching beneath his pillow he drew forth a heavy, old-fashioned navy revolver, the very one with which the murder had been committed, and cocking it with his unwounded hand, excitedly told his wife that "now my time has come to die and these two principal white men shall die with me." He arose from the bed and, keeping the pistol pointed at the agent, backed to the rear doorway of the lodge, the agent followed closely despite his repeated threats that he would shoot, a threat that he would utidoubtedly have carried into effect had not Medicine- Horse arrived in the nick of time and compelled him to put up his pistol, telling him that if he killed either the agent or the sheriff the white people would wipe the tribe off the reservation. The murderer, pale with fear and suffering from his wound, was placed on a rear seat of the agency carriage with Medicine-Horse beside him as a guard as well as a friend and adviser, and driven rapidly to the return the next day, but having finished his business by sundown, and the night being moonlight, he concluded to start back. In those days all the creeks between Beatrice and the agency were crossed by very dangerous and uncertain fords, and in order to reach the Wolf creek ford the road skirted along the creek through the timber for nearly a quarter of a mile. It was shortly before midnight when the agent reached this stage of his home- agency. On arriving at the Otoe village White-Water begged to be permitted to bid farewell to a relative, and it was while doing this that he sprang away from the sheriff and with the swiftness of a deer made his escape. It was nearly two weeks after the clairvoyance episode before his capture was finally effected. It had become known that he was lurking in the timber bordering Wolf creek, heavily armed, and determined never to be taken alive ; this knowledge had been obtained by secretly following and watching his wife, who had sought him out and was in communication with him. On the day of his capture the agent had gone to Beatrice, expecting to ward journey, the very timber tract in whicii the outlaw was secreted. The moon was shining brightly and as all the curtains of the carriage were rolled up he at once realized that he was about to become a possible target to an unerring marksman. He stopped ;the horses, unrolled and fastened down every curtain, and then useing the whip made quid time through the timber and across the steepbanked, dangerous ford. Approaching the agency with the expectation of f nding all wrapped in darkness and slumber, he was greatly astonished to find the place all lighti' and astir. The Indian police were standing on guard about the doors, and evidently some- thingf momentuous had occurred. Yes, White- Water had been captured, brought to the agency, and delivered to the agent's wife, who had been left in charge of affairs during his absence. She had wisely planned all arrangements to render the murderer's escape impossible, but the unexpected return of her husband was a great relief to her. The capture was effected by his kinsmen in order that no one could be held liable, or compelled to atone for his blood in case of his execution, - it being the Indian custom for kindred to exact reparation either by taking a life or exacting a heavy penalty in ponies. They had approached him with brotherly greetings that disarmed suspicion and it was his own brother who, at an opportune moment, sprang upon him and held his arms while the others bound him securely with a lariat. A farm wagon was then brought from the agency and his unhappy kindred completed their stern act of duty by delivering him into the hands of the law. The next day the Indian police, clad in their blue cavalry uniforms, and carrying a large United States flag at their head, escorted the large agency carriage containing the. agent, his interpreter, Battiste Deroin, and the prisoner for Fairbury. Lack of space forbids giving details of the case; suffice to say that at a trial before Judge O. P. Mason, held some months later, White-Water was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for life. Seventeen years later he was pardoned by the governor, but his stay in prison had been an age to him. Confinement had ruined his health, his wife had married another, his kindred were.mostly dead, and the beautiful valley of the Blue was no longer the home of his race.

The names of some of the leading braves and heads of families whose faces were familiar to many of the early settlers of the county may become of historic interest to future generations and well worth preserving, I together with the significance of each in Eng- I lish. Hence we present the following :

Cha-thea-ka (Buffalo's Tracks) Hoo-gra-toe-way (Four Pillars) E-stah-mon-tha (Iron Eyes) Kay-tah (Turtle) Paw-nee-inga (Little Pawnee) Paw-nee-coo-cha (Pawnee-Killer) Sho-cha-mon-ie (Moving Smoke) Wah-nah-quash-coon-ie (Fearless) Wah-cun-hun-cha (Big Snake) Shun-ga-scaw (White Horse) Mon-co-yo (Valley or Low Land) Bah-thea-inga (Little Cedar) My-um-pe (Good Land) Nah-way-hun-cha (Big Hand) Koth-a-inga ( Little Cro w ) Lont-noo-inga (Little Pipe) Nee-ach-shinga (Little Creek) Maw-hee (Knife) Mah-loo-ha-la (Distant Land) Mon-toe-pah (Bear's Head) Mon-toe-tha-way (Black Bear) No-ho-cha-ning-shinga (Little Brains) Ton-nah-coo-nah (Courting Favour) Wah-con-dah-keep-ah (Religious Head) Wah-cun-thra-cha (Long Snake) Whan-a-ga-he (Adviser) Ho-mo-schu-cha (Red Elk) Mah-sho-cha (Dust) Chee-na-inga (Small Village)

Other heads of families, the English significance of whose names we are unable to give, but all of whom were well known to most of the early settlers of southern Gage county, were the following :

Among the names of prominent Otoe women who were occasional callers on the white settlers and whose faces were familiar to many of them were: Ho-tock-a-me (Tom Boy) Hun-gesh-cha-me Ah-wa-soon-tha-me Mon-ka-toe-wack-a-me O-ma-toe-me Mon-com-pay-me Hoo-gla-me Moh-sho-cha-me Hun-do-ya-me Tah-cha-me Bah-ho-cha-me Kay-lah-me Mon-thu-bla-me

In 1875-1876 better school accommodations were secured by the erection of a large modern two-story school building, with accommodations for boarding a large number of the children. The supervision and care of the Indian Aid Association of the Society of Friends was continued from year to year, and this, combined with other civilizing influences, was instrumental in gradually changing the modes of living and habits of thought among the younger members of the tribe, but the old people adhered tenaciously to the ancient habits and customs of their race. The discontinuance of buffalo hunting, tribal visiting, pony-giving, pipe-dancing, and other episodes of Indian life that had always been of vast import to them, caused a feeling of unrest and dissatisfaction that finally culminated in a determination to remove to the Indian Territory.

In concluding this account of the aboriginal inhabitants of Gage county the writer wishes to bear testimony to their many virtues as a people, - their honesty, their never-failing generosity, their unselfish liberality, and their love and deep regard for each other in every family circle. Many interesting facts and incidents might be added, but space forbids.