villages every eight or ten years. In 1833 the Pawnees ceded the territory south of the Platte to the United States. In 1857 they ceded the territory north of the Platte, except their reservation in Nance county. The territory ceded, according to Chas. C. Royce,1 embraced the central third of the entire state. The reservation above mentioned was ceded in 1876, and the Pawnees were taken to Indian Territory, where they now have a reservation.

The various branches of the Siouan linguistic stock have come to this state at five different times. The first were the Mandans, whose coming is shrouded in antiquity. Catlin claims to have traced their earthworks and habitat down the Ohio river and up the Missouri. McGee says the Siouan family began to cross the Appalachian mountains one thousand years ago. The Mandans were among the first to break off from the parent stock, and the only excuse we have for including them in our history is the probability that they crossed our borders on their way up the Missouri river some time prior to the coming of the Skidi band in 1400.

McGee says the Omaha tribe was near the mouth of the Ohio river in 1500, 30 its coming to Nebraska must have been after that date. It is traced quite accurately up the Missouri and Des Moines rivers to its present home in the northeast part of Nebraska. The Osage tribe branched off and remained at the Osage river. The Kansas tribe came on to the Kansas river, and there established its permanent habitat. The date of the arrival of the Kansas tribe is sufficiently early to allow the "Escanzaques" of Onate to be regarded as Kansas Indians. The Omahas and Poncas remained together until about 1650, when the latter moved northward and occupied the country from the mouth of the Niobrara west to the Black Hills. By the treaty of March 16, 1854, the Omahas ceded the northeast third of the present state to the United States, excepting that part north of a line drawn due west from the mouth of the Aoway river. That tongue of land which was added to Nebraska in 1890, by authority of the act of

118th Rept. Bureau of Ethnology, pt. 2. 2 Catlin, North American Indians.

Congress of March 28, 1882, and which lies between the Niobrara, Keya Paha, and Missouri rivers, was ceded by the Poncas in 1858, except a small reservation. In 1877 the Poncas were moved to Indian Territory.

The Dakota City Herald, in noting that the Omahas had just received their annuity on their reservation from Captain Moore, Indian agent, makes the following observation as to their condition: "They are being gathered to their fathers fast, very fast, as they now number only 964 savage souls. The amount of their payment was $23,000 and averaged about $24 a head. Since Uncle Sam supplied them with a few 'scads' they have paid frequent visits to our town, and laid something out for the purpose of laying something in." From the the observant editor's remarks it appears that the Indians did not confine their inebriety to alcoholic drinks. He relates that "five of these red sons of the forest, two red squaws in red blankets, and one pale red papoose put up at the Bates house on Sunday night for supper." They had a table by themselves, by courtesy of the landlord, and, “in the language of the Arkansas bride, 'they sot and sot' until they stowed away everything eatable within reach or sight. Seventy-seven cups of coffee were drank at the sitting, and but one, a young squaw, gave out. After getting down seven cups she failed on coffee; the others kept on until the kettle gave out. When the meal was over they paid the landlord two bits apiece and departed."

The third detachment of the Siouan family to occupy Nebraska consisted of three tribes, the Otoe, Missouri, and the Iowa. The Otoes and Iowas have always been closely related. They were first seen at the mouth of the Des Moines river by Marquette in 1673. They are said, by tradition, to have sprung from the Winnebago stock. It is stated that in 1699 they went to live near the Omahas. Missouris have had a very checkered career. They were first seen in 1670 at the mouth of the Missouri river. Soon after 1700 they were overcome by the Sac and Fox and other 8 November 19, 1859.

The

tribes. Most of them joined the Otoe tribe, but a few went with the Osage and some joined the Kansas tribe. They have never ceded land to the United States except in company with the Otoes, but they have been a party to every Otoe transaction. To all intents and purposes the Otoes and Missouris have been as one tribe during their occupancy of this state.

The Otoes and Missouris ceded the southeast portion of the state to the United States in 1833; this cession embraced the land south and west of the Nemaha. The remaining portion of land which they claimed lay between the Nemaha, Missouri, and Platte rivers, reaching as far west as Seward county. This

last tract was ceded in 1854, when they returned to their reservation south of Beatrice. This they relinquished in 1881, and they now live in Indian Territory. Most of the Iowas remained east of our border until 1836, when they were given a tract of land along the south bank of the Nemaha. This they retained in part in individual allot

tribe. All three tribes belonged to the same branch of the Siouan family as the Winnebago.

These cessions gave the United States title to the east two-thirds of the state. The earliest treaty by which they acquired title to land in this state was made with the Kansas in 1825; by this treaty the Kansas ceded a semicircular tract along the south line, reaching from Falls City to Red Willow county and nearly as far north as Lincoln. So it seems that the Kansas at least laid claim to

ment, but they remain under the Great Nemaha agency. This tribe was always closely associated with the Otoe, but was never under the same tribal organization as was the Missouri

'Sentegaleska (Spotted Tail), a Brulé Sioux chief of northwestern Nebraska, came up from the ranks and attained the greatest distinction recorded in the annals of the red man. When eighteen years of age he engaged a subchief in deadly combat, which first brought him into prominence. He rapidly gained prestige until he was chosen hereditary head chief of the entire Sioux nation. In 1872 he was taken to Washington as a delegate, and in 1876 he was crowned "King of the Sioux," by General Crook, an office which he filled with dignity.

Spotted Tail was often called upon by the government to negotiate peace with the hostile tribes of the Northwest, in which he was very successful, many

part of our territory.

The next detachment of the great Siouan family to invade Nebraska was from the northern branch of this tribe which dwelt along the Great Lakes. The Assiniboins had separated from this branch as early as 1650, and, according to McGee, were near the Lake of the Woods in 1766, so they had not long wandered over our soil when written history began.

The Pawnees and Omahas joined in repeling the advance of these northern tribes and held them well back from the

waterways for many years, but they hunted on the head-waters of

the Platte and Republican and even as far south as the head-waters of the Smoky Hill and Solomon rivers. The Crows were doubtless the first to encroach on the Platte

lives and much property being saved by his conciliatory offices. He was always friendly to the whites, advised his tribe wisely, and was one of the very few Indians who could be trusted all the time.

On the 5th of August, 1881, Spotted Tail was murdered by Crow Dog, one of his subchiefs. A feud had long existed between them, and when the chief refus d to permit Crow Dog to go on the hunt with the rest of the tribe, the latter drove to the chief's tepee, and calling him out, shot him. This occurred at the Rose Bud agency, as Spotted Tail was preparing to again visit Washington.-(E. E. Blackman, archeologist, Nebraska State Historical Society.)

A GROUP OF WINNEBAGO INDIAN CHIEFS, WITH THEIR AGENT, ROBERT W. FURNAS, TRADER MAJOR F. J. DEWITT, AND INTERPRETERS Engraving from a photograph taken in New York City in 1866, and owned by the Nebraska State Historical Society

valley; they drifted to the Black Hills in an early day and hunted on the Platte from the northwest. The Blackfeet, a branch of the Saskatchewan tribe, came later. The YankThe Yankton, Santee, Brulé, Sisseton, Ogallala, Teton, Minnetaree, and parts of other tribes from time to time hunted or fought on the head-waters of the Platte. They joined in ceding the northwest part of the state to the United States in 1868, reserving for themselves a common hunting right, which they relinquished in 1875. They are now on the various reservations in Dakota and Indian Territory. The Winnebagos were the last of the great Siouan family to come; they were moved from Minnesota to a part of the Omaha reservation in 1862, where they still reside. Schoolcraft says this tribe once lived on a branch of the Crow Wing river in Minnesota. Some of the Santee Sioux were moved to Nebraska at the same time, but many of both tribes came across the country before.

To the Algonkian family belong the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Atsina, who wandered over the western part of Nebraska, as did the Sac and Fox tribe, which had a reservation in the extreme southeast part of the state from 1836 to 1885. The Algonkian family once occupied the greater part of the Mississippi valley. At a very early date the Cheyennes drifted westward through the Dakotas and gave their name to one of the important streams. Later they drifted southward. Lewis and Clark mentioned this tribe as occupying a position on the Cheyenne river in 1804, while Long in his expedition of 1819 found a small band which had seceded from the main stock on the Cheyenne river, and had roamed with the Arapaho along the Platte river. There is a record, by Frémont, of this tribe being on the Platte above Grand Island in 1843. They ceded the southwestern portion of Nebraska in 1861.

the Shoshoneans from the west. The date of their coming to Nebraska is obscure. The time of their separation from the eastern parent stock is shrouded in antiquity, and as early travelers found them a wild race, and not easy to study, little of their early history is recorded. They joined the Cheyenne and Arkansas Indians in ceding to the United States government the extreme southwest portion of Nebraska. So far as can be learned the Arkansas never occupied any part of Nebraska. The Atsinas were closely allied to the Blackfeet (Siouan) and, since whites have known them, have affiliated with that tribe. They are distinctly Algonkian, however, and have a legend telling how they came to separate from the Arapahos.

As stated above, the Algonkian stock occupied most of the Mississippi valley at one time. The United States purchased all of Missouri north of the river, most of Iowa, and a part of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota from the Sacs and Foxes. They seem to have been the original owners of the Mississippi and Missouri front, and the Siouan tribes as they drifted westward doubtless had them to deal with. This may account for the movement westward of the Otoe and the Kansas tribes across the river. The Sacs and Foxes relinquished their possessions and retired to a southern reservation, excepting a band who took a reserve on the Great Nemaha river, partly in Nebraska and partly in Kansas, and which remains in the Great Nemaha agency.

Powell1 does not believe that the Shoshonean family occupied a part of Nebraska, and it is doubtful whether any part of this family had more than a transient home within the state. It is certain that the Comanches roamed over our territory, and doubtless the "Padoucas" once had a more or less permanent home here; at least the north fork of the Platte river was known in the early days as the Padouca fork. Mooney2 says: "In 1719 the Comanche were mentioned under their Siouan name of Padouca as living in what is now western Kansas. It must be remembered that five hundred to eight hundred miles was an ordinary range for a plains

214th Ann. Rept. Bureau of Ethnology, pt. 2, p. 1044.

tribe, and the Comanches were equally at home on the Platte or in Chihuahua (Mexico)." The great Shoshonean family occupied the mountain country from the south line of Oregon to the north line of Arizona, and extended from the Pacific coast at the southwest corner of California nearly to the west line of what is now Nebraska. They were a powerful and numerous people. Later the Siouan bands drove the Comanches south and the other branches of the Shoshonean family west and north. Lewis and Clark in 1805 mention the Padoucas as extinct except in name. Bourgmont visited the Padoucas on the head-waters of the Kansas in 1724. The Comanches and the Kansas were closely associated for one hundred and fifty years, says Mooney.1 There is no record that the Comanches ever ceded any part of this state to the United States.

About 1700 a tribe of the Kiowan family migrated from the far northwest and took up a residence in the vicinity of the Black Hills. From there they were driven by the Siouan tribes, and Lewis and Clark mention them as residing on the north fork of the Platte in 1805, and numbering seventy tepees. They slowly drifted southward until they occupied the country south of the Arkansas

114th Ann. Rept. Bureau of Ethnology. 218th Ann. Rept. Bureau of Ethnology. The following is a summary of the foregoing classification of the Indian tribes of Nebraska:

river. As this tribe never lived far from the mountains, their occupancy of Nebraska was but transient. Powell2 shows this linguistic family as occupying the extreme southwest part of Nebraska, but there is no record that they ever ceded any part of the state.3

There was a "half-breed" tract situated between the Nemaha and Missouri rivers set apart in 1830, intended for the home of civilized Indians belonging to the Omaha, Iowa, Otoe, Yankton, and Santee Sioux half-breeds.* The Pine Ridge and Rosebud agencies are located just north of the north line of Nebraska, in South Dakota, and the Indian title to a narrow strip adjoining in this state is not yet extinguished. There are titles in the old Sac and Fox and Iowa reservation, in Richardson county, still vested in Indians, and a few live there. The Santee agency, near Niobrara, still maintains an agent who reports to the commissioner of Indian affairs for this tribe and also for the Ponca subagency, situated twenty miles west between the Niobrara and Missouri rivers. The Indians at these agencies, together with the Omahas and Winnebagos, in Thurston county, are the only Indian wards of the government in Nebraska at the present time. According to the census of 1900 there were 3,322 Indians in the state Otoes, Omahas. Yanctons and Santee bands of Sioux, the Indians themselves selecting the reserves as named above, to be owned, occupied or held by them as other Indian lands, during the pleasure of the president of the United States, and by him held in trust to be divided equally among them when he saw proper. An act of congress in 1854 required him to have the land surveyed and consummate the treaty. The survey has been made and the 'Nemaha reservation' found to contain 162 sections. The census is now being taken of the different half-breeds entitled to a portion, that it may be equally divided; when completed the land will be equally apportioned to each half-breed and he be at once placed in possession of a deed in fee simple. The number of half-breeds will be found much larger than anticipated, and consequently the amount of land to each less-probably not over a hundred acres to each. There is now quite a large number of half-breeds on this reserve, many of them men of considerable means, and they are driving ahead quite briskly in the way of improvement, such as opening farms, and erecting machinery of various kinds. They have one thriving little town, we learn, at the mouth of the Big Nemaha. This is considered, and really is, one of the most desirable tracts of land in Nebraska. Many depredations have been and are yet being made upon these lands by white settlers. We caution such persons against committing trespass by removing stone, coal, timber or other valuables, as the Intercourse law' is severe, and is required to be put in force rigidly by agents, or other officers."