Richardson County, Nebraska - Chapter 2, 1917

Chapter 2

The Indians, found along the west bank of the Pekitanoui or Missouri river in this county by the first white men who came up the river as voyagers, explorers, trappers, or missionaries or across the plains from the southwest Spanish settlements in New Mexico, who had resided within the present limits of the county so long that they were regarded as the original occupants of the country, were the Panias, Paunias, or Pawnees. The Pawnee nation was divided into four tribes, each of which had an Indian name and a white name : Chau-i, Grand ; Kitke-hahk-i, Republican ; Pita-hau-erat, Noisy; Ski-di, Wolf. These tribes were each divided into bands and lived together in groups and kept together on the march. The Sacs and Foxes and lowas came later and were the only tribes who were here by removal. The Pawnees appear to have the best claim as the original red Indian inhabitants of this section. They were holding it at the time the Spaniards first came out of Mexico and appear from records to have been in possession perhaps for three or four hundred years. They were open prairie dwellers, and are believed to have drifted into the country from the southwest. The Pawnees were a very religious people and given much to the ceremonies of the same; their language and customs marked them as differing much from other tribes and as a whole never were at war with the white people. They were distinct from other Indians who, like themselves, were crowded out of this Missouri river valley country, such as the lowas, Winnebagoes, Sioux, Sacs and Foxes, all of whom were forced westward from the shores of the Great Lakes by stronger peoples, and the white settler from the East.

In the interregnum between 1825 and 1827 the United States government established tiiese tribes or parts of them in this county. The Sacs and Foxes, whose homes were on the \\'isconsin and Fox rivers, united in the early part of the nineteenth century and began a migration to the southwest and acquired a large territory in Iowa and Missouri. Under a treaty made between tliem and the government on September 17, 1836, they made an exchange of tliese lands for territory west of the river. The territory thus receixed was for the most part in Kansas and north of the Kickapoo river, but extended nortli to the Great Xenialia river in this county. By \-irtue of this treaty tlie lowas. Sacs and Foxes became permanent neiglibors in this county under wliat was known, until aljout i860, as tlie Great Xemaha agency. .Anch^ew S. Huglies \\as the first appointed to have charge of this agency. The lands so held were described as being "The small strip of land on the south side of the ^lissouri river lying between the Kickapoo boundary line and the Great Xemaha river, and extending from the ^lissouri and westwardly to the said Kickapoo line and the Grand X'emaha, making four hundred sections to l.)e di\-iderl between the said lowas and the Missouri band of Sacs and Foxes, the lower half to the Sacs and Foxes and the upper half to the lowas."

By treaty of May 18, 1S54 ( 10 Stats. 1074), the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States all of the country above described, except fifty sections of six hundred and forty acres each, to be selected in the western part of the cession. The fifty sections were selected in 1854, having been surveyed and established by John Leonard, a deputy surveyor.

Under a joint treaty of March 6, 1861, with the Sac and Fnx and Iowa Indians, all that part of their reservation lying west of Xohart creek and within the boundary as surve\'ed by Leonard, was to be suld to the government, half of the proceeds to go to each nf the tribes. This cession was sold and the money invested for the Indians.

L'nder the terms of treaties at various times the boundaries of the tribal lands sufifered changes but the last home of the Sacs and Foxes comprised lands as follows : Beginning at the intersection of the south line of the Iowa reserve with Xoharts creek, thence along this line to the south fork of the Nemaha, or Walnut creek, thence down this creek to its mouth, thence down the Great X'emaha river to the mouth of X'oharts creek, thence up this creek to the place of beginning. The lowas retained the lands to the east, which lay between the (n-eat Xemaha and Missouri rixers. a \cr\- large part of which was in the state of Kansas.

By authority of the act of Congress of August 15, 1876, ten sections of the west end of this resen^e were sold with the consent of the tribe, which was given on January 8, 1877. The sale was made through the land office at Beatrice and Charles Loree, of Falls City, had local charge of the same, under direction of the land office.

In IQO-' what was left of the Iowa reserve consisted of ele\en tliousand six hundred acres, all allotted, and that of the Sacs and Foxes, eight thousand and thirteen acres, all allotted, except nine liundred and sixtv acres. The earlier enumeration of these bands by the government places the figure at nearly a thousand. These Indians being so long isolated on their small reservation and separated from other and larger bands of wild Indians, dropped their roving disposition and were quite friendly with the whites and ne\er gave trouble to the settlers. But few are left in this county at the present day.

In i860 a remnant of the W'innebagos, who for a long time had lived with the Sacs and I'oxes at the Nemaha agency went back to their tribe in Minnesota. \^'. P. Richardson, Daniel Vanderslice. Major John A. Burbank and C. H. Norris were in charge of the Nemaha agency during the period between 1850 and 1867, the latter two being residents of Falls City.

On account of their participation in the Black Hawk War in Illinois and Iowa, the Sacs and Foxes were taken in hand by the United States government and removed to reservations in IMissouri and Iowa first, and later to this county.

Treaty Of 183O

L'nder a treat}- witli the various tribes of Sioux and other Indians on July 15, 1830, at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, a strip ten miles wide between the Great Nemaha river in this county and the Little Nemaha river in Xemaha county, being about twenty miles long, was set aside as a reservation for the half-breeds and mixed bloods of the Omahas, lowas, Otoes and Yankton and Santee bands of the Sioux family of Indians. The Winnebago Indians, who were a branch of the Sioux, at one time occupied a tract of land in the northeast part of the county having a village on what is known as Winnebago creek in Arago township, this being within the "half-breed" strip or reservation. So it is apparent that the Indians found here in 1853-4, when Nebraska was first opened to white settlers, were, themselves, early arrivals in this part of Nebraska territory and are not to be taken into account when an effort is made to discover what people antedated the Pawnees.

The Sacs and Foxes were of the Algonquin family or Eastern Indians and were distinct from the lowas, Winnebagoes, Omaha and Sioux family tribes with whom thev were closely associated while living in the Great Lake region. "The Hand Book of American Indians", a publication of the United States Bureau of .\merican Etlmology, lias the following to say relative to the Sacs : the i)lains. Thev practiced agriculture on an extensive scale. Despite their fixed abode and villages they did not live a sedentary life together and fish almost the whole year around. They were acquainted with wild rice, and hunted the buffalo. They did not get possession of horses until after the Black Hawk War in 1832, and they did not become very familiar with the horse and the mule until following their arrival in Kansas after the year 1837. Their abode was the bark house in warm weather and the oval flag reed lodge in winter; the bark house was characteristic of the village. Every gens had one large bark house, wherein were celebrated the festivals of the gens. In this lodge hung the sacred bundle of gens, and here dwelt the priests who watched over them. It is said that some of these houses were of the length required to accommodate five council fires. The ordinary bark dwelling had but a single fire, which was in the center.

"The Pawnees are by many regarded as having attained a higher culture than the Indians who were placed on reservations. They possessed horses sooner, and were great buflfalo hunters. Xo Indians, of course, had guns or horses before the white man came.

"But liack and before the Indians whom the white men ever met, were tribes of men in possession of the Missouri river country, delighting especially to build their houses on the high bluffs where the eye could have a wide sweep over the waters and surrounding country. These old house sites are now hidden from view by the acaimulated dust of centuries and to be seen and appreciated must be excavated and dug out of the rubbish heap of time, like buried cities of antiquity."

The articles foinid in these house sites indicate, so archeologists claim, a higher state of culture and mental development than possessed by the Indians who occu])ied the ground later. InU were less warlike. Some believe that there was a large population, while (jthers hold to the belief that the c()untr\- could not have been thickly settled even along the river bluffs, but that the settlements endured over long periods of time. It is most probable that the number was not great, as the means of subsistence was not so easily 1 litained by the early or primitive peoples. They cultivated the soil and raised crops of some kinds, probably pumpkins, gourds, squash, corn and I)eans. but as they had no tools with which to cultivate the soil, except bone ini])lenients, it is unlikel\- they could ha\e worked on an extensive scale.

- lenced by the fact that many articles used were made of the bones of deer and buffalo and are found among their remains. They were also fishermen, as shown by the bone fish-hooks, and living so long on the river they knew the use of boats and dugouts. They built quite large one-story houses, made pottery and many kitchen and household utensils out of the clay found on ihe hills.

One of the seats of this ancient tribe was on the Stephen Cunningham farm. al30ut a mile north of Rulo, near the old townsite of Yankton in sections 5 and 8, of township i, north of range No. i8, east of the sixth p. m. The story of its discovery in December, 1913, is as follows and very interesting :

An Interesting Story

A story had been sent out from Rulo some time previous and given wide ])ublicity in the state press to the effect that the remains of a prehistoric race iiad l)een found near that city. The editor of this work together with Mr. .\. R. Keim, editor of the Falls City Journal, went to Rulo for the purpose of making a personal investigation. Arriving there we were directed to the . farm of Stephen Cunningham about a mile and a half north of Rulo. The farm at that time was occupied by A. R. Morehouse, a tenant, who was kind enough to give us every assistance required. The land is adjacent to the Missouri river and a good-sized creek, which drains the farm and surrounding country, empties into the Big Muddy, near the site of the obsolete village of Yankton, which was located on the east side of the farm, fronting the river. The village and all traces of it except cellars over which building had stood ha\e long disappeared, and it is said to have been at its best in the days when steamboats were numenrus on the river. The creek referred to. at the ]iresent time, has but little water in it, but the waters from heavy rains and the hack water from the Missouri river, at times when it has been high, have washed a deep and wide gorge. It is on the south banks of this ravine and at a distance of about a thousand feet west of a point where it formerly emptied into the Missouri river, that the find of skeletal remains was made. The first find of human bones had been made some weeks prior to our visit ; further recent heavy rains brought more tones to view. When we arrived at the scene we found quite a quantity of bones lying around on the ground and were told that the students of the schools at Rulo had visited the scene and removed many good specimens.

However, as some bones were in plain view protruding from the bank. shovels were brought and after a little digging two more complete skeletons were iinco\ered and plenty of evidence to show that many more might be found in the wall of the ravine. The skeletons were all found with the head to the east and at a depth from the surface of the. ground of six or seven feet and were found embedded in a formation of joint clay, which gave no evidence of having been distmbed in centuries. A string of white shell beads were found around the neck of each and all the bones were in a good state of preservation. The oldest inhabitants of that section were interrogated, but had no memory of any burial ground located in this spot and no one could he found who could throw any light on the presence of the skeletons in such a place. One skull and a number of the bones was sent to the Nebraska State Museum, where they are now placed on exhibition.

Keport Of Edwin Ii. Barbour

Professor Barbour made the following report of the receipt and examinati(jn of the skull, tones and shell beads: "I have received and examined the skull, l^ones and beads recently received submitted for examination. The shells used for these beads are Paludina dccapitsta, so named because the apex of the S])ire is truncated, suppressed or "cut off". The Paludinas are fresh water gasteriwd "shells", which live in lakes and large swamps. The particular specia which were u.^ed in making these beads had very thick walls and an inflated bod}- whorl, which gave the shell a rounded appearance, and the thickness gave the bead strength and lasting qualities. We know of no other paludina with equally thick walls. The lx)dy whorls are ridged and ornamented in a pleasing way. . Altogether, these shells seem to have been wisely chosen by early Nebra.^kans. The apertures of these shells are large and by grinding or rubbing the shells, presumably on rough stones, a second hole was made through the body whorl just back of the aperture. Thus, two openings were made and the shell could be easily strung. The shells are used very considerabl\- and it may not be over fanciful, perhaps, to imagine that the necklace may have been graduated much as necklaces of modern l)eads are graduated, with the larger in front and the smaller ones back.

"Tlie skull and bones appeared to be those of a tvpical Indian. The forehead is of good size, the frontal eminence well developed, the dome of the skull large, the face erect, with little, if any, protrusions of the muzzle, superciliary ridges very reduced and cheek bones of average prominence, eyes well apart, average cross temples. It appears to be the skull of an Indian of the higher rather than the lower tribes. The tibia is characterized by an tinc<imm(inly high crest and pronounced anterior curvature, but this is not uncommon. The skull seems to be finely preserved, with mandible in place and the dentition complete. Even the hyoids may he seen between the rami of the jaws."

A reporter for the Nebraska Sta.tc Journal interviewed the professor, after the report was sent out that Spanish coins had been found among the Indian remains and this reporter made the statement that it was now the Professor's opinion on re-examination that the skull represented a low type of Indian. The interview was as follows: "Spanish coins near the place where a number of skeletons were found may have been brought there by Coronado, but the skeletons are not those of followers of the Spanish explorer. This is the decision reached by Professor Barbour of the state museum, after he had examined for the second time the skull sent him from the recent find at Rulo. The skull is typically Indian and a low type of Indian at that. There is not the least possibility that it could be a member of the famous Spanish expedition, which passed through the country, in the early days of American discovery and exploration. The examination showed that the skull had a peculiar triangular shaped bone at the back. The bone is found almost exclusively in Indian tribes. The professor measured the facial angle and discovered that it was by far too low for that of the European and even abnormally low for that of the Indian. This latter does not point to the fact that the skull is that (^f a specia of mankind lower than that of the Indian. Rather it shows an individual variation in the particular specimen. The skull is that of a middle-aged man. This is pr')ven by the fact that the sutures are well formed and closed. They are not closed tightly enough, however, to be that of a man in advanced years. In making this observation the professor pointed out that the sutures remained partly opened until mature vears, to allow the brain a chance for growth and consequently give the individual a chance for intellectual expansion. In the ape family the sutures close early in the life of the individual. As the different races of mankind become more advanced, sutures close at correspondingly later periods of Hfe."

Following closely upon the finding of the skeletons mentioned above came stories of the finding with them of Spanish coins of gold and the .story created a sensation in this section and was widely commented upon by the press of this and other states. The story of the "'coins" came from parties who had visited the scene in our absence and the matter of their having been "actually found"' in the place indicated was never fully authenticated to our satisfaction. We saw the purported coins, which, in fact, were not coins at all, but more in the nature of medals about the size of an American half dollar and made of a cheap metal and coated to resemble gold. Upon examination the\- proved to be emblems of the Catholic Knights of St. George and l)ore Latin inscriptions. On one side of the coin was a figure of St. George nicnnted on a horse with a spear in his hand fighting a dragon, and the words "St. Georgins l<>|uitnm Patronns." On the reverse side of the coin were the figure of a small sailing of the style of the days of Liilunilius. the rising sun over the sea and the words "In tempestiis Securitas.'"

Reasons Givex For Age Of The Find

Hon. R(jbert ]-'. (iilder, of Omaha, a member of the Omaha Jl'orld Herald staff and field archeologist for the Nebraska State Museum, who came here at the instance of myself and made a personal examination of the house -ite and bones and assisted in some excavations while at the scene himself, had the following to say:

"I am not prepared to sa\- how old the skeletal parts in the burial are but believe it would not be stretching the truth to place an age on them of one thousand five hundred to three thousand years. I find upon analysis that some of the .skull bones I brought home with me are mineralized to a very large degree, that practically all their animal matter has been displaced by mineral matter and that they are very highly mineralized or "fossilized." Wy reasons for estimating the age of the skeletons are:

I'irst : Uy finding absolutely prehistoric beads closely associated with the liones. In fact, linding them in place, and highly impregnated or covered with oxide oi manganese, giving to some of them the appearance of having real cuticle composed of mineral.

Second: By finding pre-Columbian utensils with the skeletons, viz., two scajnila implements, commonly called hoes or digging tools, differing from the modern bone hoes.

Innirth ; By finding a part of a familiar tlint blade closelv associated with the bones and other f;imiliar boulders, only found by me in Xebraska's oldest aboriginal house ruin>. wiiicb certain!}- b;i\e a geological age of from two thousand to fi\e thousand years.

I have not heard of any iron knives or arrow heads being found as.sociated with the skeletons and it is known that the origin.al Americans had metal point;- ])rior to metal adornments.

The beautiful modern towns and cities we live in with their paved streets, electric lights, telephones, sewers and all modern conveniences, including the automobile, with -which we can race across the country and enjoy the view of large improved farms \\ith their beautiful homes, in a way lull us into a sense of believing it was ever thus and that we were the beginning of all in what we call a new country. Such conclusions receive a rude shock when evidence is produced to the contrary and we see that this land was the home of peoples in the distant past of whom we can know but little. We were again reminded of this fact in May of last year (May ii, 1916), when a large olla was found nine feet below the surface in the side walls of a drainage ditch on lot No. 8 of the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 19, township i, north of range 17, east of the sixth princii>al meridian, which is about three miles cast of Falls City and one mile west of the old village of f'reston. The place where found is a United States government tract in the Iowa Indian lands. At this point the Great Nemaha river makes a loop or horseshoe and a drainage ditch had been built across the neck of land running east and west. It was found in the south wall of the large ditch about eight or nine feet below the surface of the ground at the top of the ditch. This piece of ancient pottery was fashioned by hands that had long since laid aside the working tools of life; how long since we do not know.

It has been observed that the making of pottery was not much carried on by nomadic tribes because of the fragility of the vessels, but found its highest development among peoples of sedentary habits. The clay used was mixed with various tempering ingredients, such as sand and pulverized stone, potsherds and shells ; the shapes were extremely varied and generally worked out by the hand, aided by simple modeling tools. The baking was done in open or smothered ovens or fires or in extremely crude furnaces. Many ollas found in dififerent parts of the country are highly decorated. Authorities agree that the tribes of the plains did not practice the art of making potter}- except in the most simplest forms, but those of the ancient tribes of the middle and lower Mississippi valley and Gulf states were excellent potters.

The olla above referred to was found in the flood plain of the Nemaha. It measured eighteen inches in depth and about three feet in circumference and the top opening was twelve inches. It was found in a sub-soil of clay. The entire bottom has received many feet of soil deposit brought down from flood and overflow, but those best acquainted with the country say that not more than three or four feet have been added in this way in the past fifty years they have known the country. The olla was photographed, just as found by L. C. Edwards, in an upright position, as if it had been sitting on a floor. A vase similar was found at the Yankton townsite of the Missouri river bluffs, north of Rulo, but these two are so far as known, the only ones ever found in Richardson county.

The manner in which the olla chanced to see the light of day and tell a tale of partly civilized human life, as it existed in the Xemaha valley, long centuries before the white man saw that tortuous stream's winding course through the broad flood plain fringed with groves and guarded on either hand by the rolling, indented hills, was due to the digging of the cut-off channel for the Nemaha river from the Burlington railroad bridge, a mile west of Preston, in a northeast course, to cut off a sharp bend and shorten the stream. The work was done for the drainage district No. i, of Richardson county, with a drag line dredge. The line of the ditch was over a tract of land belonging to the Sac and Fox tribes of Indians and is still owned by the tribe, being reserved by the government as a mill site, when all the other lands were allotted. The olla was not exposed l)y the dredge, although it cut deeper than the position where it was found. The olla was exposed by the erosion and widening of the ditch by the floods of 19 15 and was brought so near the slope of the ditch, thus widened, that the action of the frost of the previous winter or spring after the ice went out, cracked and broke it. It was not injured by the dynamite used in blasting to any preceptible degree, but its being found was due to C. G. Buchholz, being in charge of the dynamite gang, blowing the ditch deeper. The location would have been favorable for a fishing camp or a permanent home, as it is protected on all sides by heavy timber and was in a high bend of the river and very seldom overflowed. The high bluff, within a few hundred feet, would have furnished a good lookout and it was at all times accessible from the south, as the high prairie came right up to the bluff. There was and is a good spring of water within five hundred feet of this ancient house site. The fact that this olla was found in an upright position, ten feet underground, is not strange, as it was supposed to have been the custom of the ancient peoples to whom this Wonged, to live in large community or communal houses, or at least to have had one such for community worship or ceremony. Those houses were four or five feet under ground with the remainder above. There is apparently three or four feet of fill from the dift'erence in the nature of the soil. The clay of the Nemaha valley plains originally scoured down when the stream was a real river about the time of the ice age ended and the great lake that occupied the whole south half of Nebraska drained off in this direction. Since the stream dwindled down to its present size, it has been overflowing, but not as much as formerly, as within the period of the white man's settlement and the breaking of the prairies and the plowing of the fields soon filled the narrow, deep stream and caused overflows that carried the suspended soil out upon the bottom lands and all of these places have been filled up by the new soil deposits, in many places as much as five feet, since 1870. The belief is prevalent that any ten years since 1870 have seen as much filling on an average over the flood plain as was made in one hundred, before the sod was broken. The olla was brought to Falls City.

Prehistoric Shell Necklace

On January 14, 1914, in company with a party of well-known Falls City, Nebraska, citizens, I examined a "burial" about one and one-half miles north of the village of Rulo, Nebraska, in Richardson county, not far north of the Kansas line. In the party were Rev. James Noble, rector of St. Thomas's Episcopal church; Lewis C. Edwards, register of deeds of Richardson county; .V. R. Keim, editor of the Falls City Daily Journal; Robert Rule and Harry Jenne, Falls City business men, and Col. Charles Marion, a well-known auctioneer of that part of Nebraska.

Several weeks prior to my visit 1 had been informed of the fact that human bones had been found protruding from the south wall of a ravine, which had been cut into the hills by rains. As it is a common thing to find bones almost anywhere in the Missouri valley, I was not especially interested, but I learned later that "Spanish" coins of a "very ancient date" and many trinkets of "silver", had also been found with the remains. I decided to make a personal investigation in l^ehalf of the state museum. University of Nebraska. As this paper is not intended as an expose of a "plant" of valueless "junk", it is only necessary to state that the job was a very bungling affair and has been pretty thoroughly aired through the investigations of Mr. Floyd Morehouse, a son of the tenant of the farm. It might be stated, however, before disposing of that part of the matter, that the supposed Spanish coins were in reality emblems of the Catholic Knights of St. George, on which were inscriptions in Latin. The fact that Nebraska has had for a year a statute making such forgeries a crime, was one of the agencies in preventmg a very large traffic in the spurious "relics", planted with what were without question pre-Columbian remains.

The above article and photos appeared in the March- April, 1914, issue of "Records of the Past" Magazine, published at Washington, D. C. The author, Mr. Robert F. Gilder, of Omaha, has kindly consented to the use of the storv in this History of Richard.son County.

The Sac Or Sauk Indians As A People

The Indian, like his white brother, had a certain amount of caste or rank. They were divided into "gentes". They had as many as fourteen gentes : Trout, Sturgeon, Bass, Great Lynx, or Fire Dragon, Sea, Fox, Wolf, Bear, Bear-Potato. Elk, Swan, Grouse, Eagle and Thunder. In earlier periods there seemed to have l)een a more rigid order or rank, both socially and politically. For example, chiefs came from the Trout or Sturgeon tribes, and war chiefs from the Fox gens; and there were certain relationships between one gens and another, as when one acted the role of servant to another, seen on occasion of the gens ceremony. Marriage was restricted to men and women of the different gentes, and was generally attended with the exchange of presents between the family of the pair.

In the case of death, a man might marry the sister of his deceased wife, or the widow might become the wife of the brother of her dead husband.

Polygamy was practiced, but was not usual ; it was the privilege that went with wealth and social prestige. A child followed the gens of his father, but it frequently happened that the mother was given the right to name ; in that case the child took a name peculiar to the gens of the mother, Init was yet in the gens of the father. But for this fact the gens of an individual could generalh- be known from the nature of the name. The name is intimately connected with the gens; for example, a name meaning "he that moves ahead flashing light," refers to lightning, and is a name peculiar to the Thunder gens. Besides the grouping into gentes, the tribe was further divided into two great social groups or phratries : Kishko and Oskrash. The painting color of the first was white clay and that of the second, was charcoal. A child entered into the group at birth, sometimes the father, somelimes the mother, determining which group. The several groups engaged one another in all manner of contests, especially in athletics. The Sauk never developed a soldier society with the same degree of success as did the Foxes, but they did have a buffalo society; it is said that the first was due to contact with the Sioux, and it is reasonable to suppose that the second was due to influence also of the plains. There was a chief and a council.

As stated, the chiefs came from the Trout and Sturgeon gentes, and the council consisted of these, the war chiefs, or heads of families, and all the warriors. Politically, the chief was little more than a figurehead, but socially he occupied the first place in the tribe. Not infrequently, however, by force of character and by natural astuteness in the management of tribal affairs, the chief might exercise virtually autocratic powers. Furthermore, his person was held sacred, and for that reason he was given royal homage.

The religion of the Sauk is fundamentally in the belief in what are now commonly known as Manitos. The sense of the term is best given by the combined use of the two words "power" and "magic". The world is looked on as inhabited by beings permeated with certain magic force, not necessarily malicious and not necessarily beneficent, the manifestation of which might produce one or the other effect. Objects in nature held to be endowed with this force become the recipients of varying degrees of adoration. A child is early taught to get into personal relation with some Manito by means of fasting and vigil to secure his tutelary or genus. The Manitos of the Sauk mythology and religious worship are represented in all nature. They are human beings, animals, birds, fishes, reptiles, insects, plants, fire, water and all the elements personified. The mythology of the Sauk is rich with fables of anthropomorphic beasts and beings. The principal myth is concerned with the god of life, called Nanaboszo, by cognate tril^es. with die flood and with the restoration of the earth.

The Sauk had numerous ceremonies, social and religious. Some of these they still retain. The chief two religious ceremonies still in existence are the gens festivals and the secret rite of the Midewiwin. or Grand Medicine Society. The gens festival is held twice a year - in the spring, when thanksgiving, is offered to the Manitos for the new season, and in the summer after the fields ripen. The meeting of the Midewiwin is generally held but once a year, during the spring, when a ceremony is conducted by a group of men and women bound together by vows of secrecy. The society is entered by initiation and the payment of a fee. and the ceremony is conducted by an elaborate ritual on the occasion of the admittance of a new member, who takes the place of one who died during the preceding year.

Next in importance to these, are the rites connected with death and adoption. To express grief for dead kindred, they blackened their faces with charcoal, fasted, and abstained from the use of vermilion and orna- ments in dress. The Sauk practiced four different methods of burial: ( i) the corpse was laid away in the branches of a tree or upon a scaffold; (2) it was placed in a sitting posture, with the back supported, out on the open ground; (3) it was seated in a shallow grave, with all but the face buried and a shelter was placed over the grave; (4) there was complete burial in the ground. The ghost world is said to be in the West, beyond the setting sun. and thither it is said the people go after death. The brother of the culture-hero is master of the ghost world, while the culture-hero himself is said to be at the North, in the region of the snow and ice. The Sauk are looking for his return, when they believe the world will come to an end, and they and the culture-hero will go to join his brother. The Sauk was first known to history in 1650.

The churches, as in these later da}'s, were pioneers in the new country, and the great work done by these institutions is deserving of the highest commendation. Viewed in the light of more recent history, as it relates to the troublesome times encountered by those who would become settlers, it is almost unthinkable that they should have found men ready and willing to sacrifice themselves and who would have dared to enter this then desolate, unsettled country and spend the greater portion of their lives among the early Indians of this region. Yet, we have the proof in reports made by those early missionaries to the missionary boards of the Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Episcopal and Presbyterian churches.

It appears that they were here long in advance of those whom we designate as the pioneers of the county; The first missions were located to the south and ea.st, in what is now known as northeast Kansas, but a short distance south of the Kansas-Xebraska state line. One of these missions is still maintained in Doniphan county, Kansas. Rev. Isaac McCoy, of the Baptist church, was one of the earliest of these missionaries and was well acquainted with conditions on the Iowa and Sauk reservations, both of which extended into this county. He was here in 1839, which, of course, was long before the erection of Nebraska Territory and found the lowas at that time to number more than, one thousand, while the Sauks, located but a little way to the west, had more than five hundred members in the parts of their tribe occupying this territory. In reports made by him he indicated that the ciinditi<-)ns of these people were inipro\ing somewhat and that tlie general government, under treaty stipulations, was affording them considerable assistance in the building of dwellings and mills ; in fencing and plowing their lands, and in caring for live stock and the building of schools. .\t this earlv time the Western Missionary Society of the Presbyterian church had established a mission, which was for a time in charge of Mr. and Mrs. Ballard. Upon their retirement it was taken over by Rev. \\'illiam Hamilton and Messrs. and Mesdames Irving and Bradley. The assistance rendered by the government to the Indians in the building of houses was greatly appreciated and some of the old houses so built were located south of the Great Nemaha, near Falls city, and the ruins of the same were found by the pioneers coming- here in the earlv fifties.

The Methodists at this time had a small mission in charge of Reverend Berryman and the Catholics, likewise, were in the field with a small mission.

Kev. William Hamilton, Missionary

The Rev. William Hamilton, who was as well known as any of the early missionaries after coming here in 1837, spent the remainder of his life in Nebraska.

He was born in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, on the banks of the Suscpehanna, West Branch, on August i, 1811, and although his father was killed by the Indians, while peaceably engaged on his farm, the young man, upon offering himself as a foreign missionary, requested that he be sent among the Indians of this country.

After completing his studies at college Mr. Hamilton was licensed to preach b)^ the Presbytery of Northumberland, in the spring of 1837, and returned to a seminary to resume studies with his old class. During that summer he was accepted by the Presb}terian Ijoard of foreign missions as their missionary, and at the same time was married to Julia Ann N. McGiffin of \\^ashington, Pennsylvania. He was ordained by the Presbytery of Northumberland in 1837, and immediately started to his field in the West. He left Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 30, 1837, and reached Liberty Landing on Saturday, November i8th, having been en route nearly a month from Pittsburgh, and traveled from St. Louis to a point, the present site of Glasgow, Missouri, within eighty-six miles from the field to his future labors. Forty-five miles of this was on horseback to the old agency, nine miles below East Black Snake Hills, the present site of St. Joseph, Missouri. He reached this place on the 27th of Deceml^er, and was detained at the agency on

From the agency at St. Joseph he footed it, while his wife, a little Indian girl and a white girl in Mr. Ballard's family, rode horseback. The ice was only strong enough to cross on foot, and they waited until a trader bought a mule from an Indian, and hiring it and an Indian pony, his wife rode the mule and the two girls rode the pony, while he took tt afoot. They had twenty-five miles to go to reach the Indians on Wolf creek, and night overtook them at Mosquito creek, seven or eight miles from their destination. As they had intended to get through, no provision had been made ' for camping out, or for dinner, supper or breakfast. It was very dark and knowing nothing of the road they camped by that stream, and he spent most of that night cutting wood that the party might not freeze, having an extra axe in his saddle bags and succeeded in affixing a temporary handle. The following morning they started without breakfast and reached Wolf creek about eleven o'clock. The water at the ford lacked but three or four inches of overreaching the pony's back and the bank was very miry; not until four o'clock in the afternoon did they succeed in gaining the other bank, and all were wet to the skin. The weather for that time was quite warm or they might all have perished with cold, as it was the 29th day of December.

Mr. Irving and wife and other missionaries were there in a log shanty, and they were most kindly received by them and shared their hospitality until thev could fix up the other end of the log house for their home. Irvinghad a small quantity of flour which he gave to the Hamilton party and with some corn and beef they were able to get from a trader at Iowa Point, some six miles away, when it was issued to the Indians, they were able to make out. Mr. Hamilton walked the six miles on one occasion and ground the corn on a hand mill, as long as it was prudent to stay, and carried the meal home on his back. On another occasion he went to Ft. Leavenworth, fiftyone miles, to take the borrowed mule home, expecting to cross there and go thirty miles further to St. Joseph, that is, over eighty miles, to get to a place only twenty-five miles from the mission, and return the same way; but when he got to the fort the cold of the preceding night rendered the river impassable on account of the ice. Alxiut sundown, when he was nearly twenty miles from the garrison, though he know nothing of the distance, there came up suddenly what would now be called a blizzard, and it seemed as though he should perish, if he had not had a buffalo robe on his saddle which a trader, who had traveled with them from St. Louis, when he parted with them at Fayette, gave to Mr. Hamilton, saying he might need it some time. The next day he started back, having obtained a sack of flour at the garrison through the kindness of General Kearney, and arrived at his home on the third night near midnight, having had to break the ice to cross Wolf creek. It was February before they were able to get their trunks, and then in doing so he had to make another trip occupying ten days. During his absence his wife and Mr. Irving and wife had the pleasure of trying to live on the siftings of corn meal.

The Iowa Indians at that time numbered some eight hundred souls, and the Missouri Sacs about five hundred. They were much given to heavy drinking in those days, when they were able to obtain liquor, and sometimes the sprees might extend for days at a time, or until they had killed some of their number, when they would swear ofif, as it was called, for a certain number of days, but before the expiration of the allotted time some of them would break over the rule, and then, like one sheep going to water, it was a signal for all to follow. Mr. Hamilton spent more than fifteen years of his life among tliem, and Mr. Irving who had kept a diary, claimed that the Indians had at different times during their drunken sprees, murdered as many as sixty of their number, while not one of their people had been killed by any other tribe, though they had killed others. At first they were very jealous of the missionaries, thinking they had come to trade, and when told that this was not the object of the party, suggested that they might as well return home, as they could. see no higher object for their being there. The Indians, however, in due time became very friendly with the missionaries.

Reverend Hamilton was once waylaid, as the interpreter had told him, by the head chief, a very bad man, when he had gone to the mill and was returning after night. He, however, took a different road when nearing his home, with no apparent reason, and thus avoided him. The missionaries had also been under consideration by the Indians when they were in a mood to commit murder, but they had crossed the river and shot a white man living on the bottoms. No-Heart (for whom No-Heart creek and an earlv village by that name south of Rulo was named), when a little drunk, told Mr. Irving that the missionaries should not die - a remark not understood at the time - but plain enough when they heard of the shooting on the east side of the Missouri river. All this happened before the purchase of the country in 1854. Mr. Hamilton's life was threatened at one time by a (6) man who had been a blacksmith, the latter drawing a pistol and a bowie knife on him. The culprit was at a later time burned in Te.xas for the shooting of a prosecuting attorney in a court room, and confessed at the stake the murder of several whites and an Indian.

Reverend Hamilton, after enduring the years of hardships among the Iowa and Sacs at the mission on Wolf river, was transferred to the Otoe and Omaha mission at Bellevue, Nebraska, in 1853. reaching this latter place on the 6th of June of that year.

]\Ir. Hamilton, who had spent most of his active life working among the tribes of Indians in this state, writing on the subject, on May 22, 1884, had the following to say:

"I could relate many things in connection with the treatment of the Indians, that ought to make us, as a nation, blush, but it would require a book to tell all I have witnessed of fraud practiced upon them, and by many persons; things that I have personally known to be true, would now hardly be believed. The policy of teaching them English is well enough, but the idea of driving their ovvii language out of their minds, may do to talk about, but will not be done in many generations. Even the few who seem to understand our language as well as we do ourselves (only a few), prefer speaking their own. Their mode of thought is so different from the English, and I might sav, from all modern European languages, that it is a great l)arrier to their acquiring our language perfectly. It must be the work tif time, and while they are instructed in English, the great truths of the Gospel must be heard in their own language wherein they were born. With these instructions in religion and the education of the young, strict justice on the part of the government should be done them. They ha\-e rights that seem to have been little respected.

"Although I seemed to offend an agent forty-si.x years ago by saying the whites would have this country before long, and I could not believe what he so confidently asserted again and again, that they could not, for it was set apart forever for the Indians, yet time has shown what he could not then believe has literally come to pass. When the treaty was ratified, it was not long until great numbers were seeking a home in what was thought, not a centurv ago, to be a desert country, and not fit for the hunting grounds of the Tndian.s. \\'hen I came ^^'est in 1837. most of Iowa was unsettle*.! and owned b\- the Indians, and the buffalo roamed tn-er it. there being .1 few settlements on the Mississippi. 1 have seen all of Missouri settled up. .-ind 1 might sa\ as far smith as Arkansas. When asked in an early day how far my diocese extended. I replied, I supposed north to the forty-ninth degree of latitude, and west to the summit of the Rocky mountains, as at that time I knew of no other Preshyterian minister within these bounds. Reverend Dunbar had been among the Pawnees, but had left. The population of the United States did not at that time exceed fifteen million of souls. Now what do we see? Churches and schools all over this then Indian country and a population of fifty-five millions.

"When I came among the Indians fifty years ago I saw the red man riding on horseback, and his wife walking and carrying a load, and the little girls carrying something, and boys, if there were any, carrying bows and arrows. Before I left the lowas, I saw the v>ife on the horse, and the man walking. The same may be said of the Omahas. Now, it is quite common to see the man and his wife riding together in a wagon. Then, the women packed the wood, often three miles, on their backs - that was in summer : now it is hauled in wagons, the men generally doing the work, when able. Then, when not on the hunt, the}- were, when sober, either playing ball or cards, or some other game ; now they are engaged in farming. True, they keep up their dances, i. e., the heathen part, but generally take the Sabbath for them, as they pretend to work on the other days, but they also work on the Sabbath. It is over thirty years since I left the lowas. and they have greatly diminished, as have the Otoes and Sacs. Whiskey has been their ruin.

"The Indians do not worship idols as many heathens, that is, carved idols or images, but are idolaters in the true sense of the word; but the idol is more in the mind and they apply the name of god to many things and ideas - different gods for different things. Wakanda in Omaha, Ponca, etc. ; Wankanta in Iowa, Otoe, etc. : Wa-ka-tangka in Sioux, which is reall\- the great or war god; Tanga, Sioux; Tangga, Omaha; Tanra, Iowa, signifying great. Waka is a snake in Iowa and Otoe, and uda is good in Omaha : perhaps, good snake, as pe is good in Iowa, and peskunya is bad, or not good: while uda is good, in Omaha, but pe-azhe in Omaha is not good, showing the pe retained in the negative Great Spirit is introduced, I have no doubt by the whites, as the only idea of that spirit is the spirit of the person. Moleto, or meneto, is the name of God in the Sac and kindred languages, and a Sac interpreter told me it meant big snake. The Sac language is as musical as the Greek. The Winnebagoes use a term for God signifying the maker of the earth, but also the same nearl\- as the lowas."

In 1834 two Presljyterian workers. Rev. John Dunbar and Samuel Allis, began work among the Pawnees of Nebraska under the auspices of the American board, and were later joined by Doctor Satterlee. After some time spent in getting acquainted with the people and the language, a permanent station was selected, in 1838, on Plum creek, a small tributary of the Loup river, by consent of the Pawnees, who in the meantime had acknowledged the authority of the government. Circumstances delayed the work until 1844, when a considerable mission and a government station were begun, and a number of families from the different bands took up a residence adjacent thereto. In consequence, however, of destructive inroads of the Sioux, the ancient enemies of the Pawnee, the mission effort was abandoned in 1847 3nd the tribe returned to its former wild life.

About the year 1835 work was begun by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions among the Iowa and Sauk, then residing on the Missouri river, in east Nebraska ( Richardson county that now is ) . Attention was also given to some others of the removed tribes, and about ten years later a mission was established among the Omaha and Otoe at Bellevue, near the present Omaha, Nebraska, where, in 1850, Rev. Edward IMcKinney compiled a small Omaha primer, the first 'publication in that language. Both missions continued on down to a modern period, despite the shifting fortunes of the tribes. Other prominent workers were Rev. Samuel Irvin, who gave thirt\- years of his life, beginning in 1837, to the first tribes named; and Rev. William Hamilton, who, beginning in 1837, with the same tribes, was transferred to the Bellevue Mission in 1853, rounding out a long life with a record of a half a century spent in service. Working in collaboration these two produced several linguistic works in the Iowa language, published by the ^lission Press, between 1843 to 1850, besides a collection of Omaha hymns and some manuscript translations by Hamilton alone at a latter period.

The earliest Baptist worker in the central region was the Rev. Isaac McCov, afterward for nearly thirty years the general agent in the Indian mission work of that denomination.