OCR Text |
Show I i 166 BEAVERS----OTTER CREEK----DESERTED ARIKKARA VILLAGES. the breaking up of the ice, the bark of the trees being peeled off eight or ten feet above ground. At noon, Mr. Bodmer had shot a very large male antelope, which we despatched some of the people to bring on board ; other hunters, who had gone out early to the east bank, made signs that they had killed some game ; and the boat which we sent to them returned in the evening with four large elks. In the thick forest, on the left bank, were many traces of beavers, which are more numerous hereabouts than in most of the other parts on the Missouri, because the trappers (beaver catchers) did not venture to place their traps in the territory of the hostile Arikkara Indians. Opposite to the mouth of Otter Creek, in the woods and thickets of the west bank, behind which rose the green hills of the prairie, there were many elks, which were frightened by the noise of the steamer. In this forest we found an uninhabited loghouse, 180 steps from which runs a pretty river, called Moreau's River, from a man of that name who passed the night here with a Chayenne Indian woman, who had been taken by the Arikkaras and escaped. She stabbed him while he slept, and fled on his horse to her own nation. This river is called the southern boundary of the territory of the Arikkaras, though they often make excursions far beyond it. We stopped at the above-mentioned loghouse to cut wood, but it was found more convenient to pull down part of the old building and take it away. On the morning of the 12th, our cannon, muskets and rifles were loaded with ball, because we were approaching the villages of the hostile Arikkaras. We came to Grand River, called in Lewis and Clarke's map Wetarko River. As we here touched the bottom, we crossed to the east bank, and in half an hour reached Rampart River, which issues from a narrow chain of hills, called Les Remparts; and soon afterwards an island covered with willows, which, on the large special map of Lewis and Clarke, has an Arikkara village, of which there are now no traces. From the hills we had a fine prospect over the bend of the river, on which the villages of the Arikkaras are situated, and which we reached after a short run of only two miles. The two villages of this tribe are on the west bank, very near each other, but separated by a small stream. They consist of a great number of clay huts, round at the top, with a square entrance in front, and the whole surrounded with a fence of stakes, which were much decayed, and in many places thrown down. It was not quite a year since these villages had been wholly abandoned, because their inhabitants, who were extremely hostile to the Whites, killed so many Americans, that they themselves foresaw that they would be severely chastised by the United States, and therefore preferred to emigrate. To this cause was added, a dry, unproductive season, when the crops entirely failed ; as well as the absence of the herds of buffaloes, which hastened their removal. It is said that these Indians now roam about on the road from St. Louis to Santa Fe, and the late attacks on the caravans are ascribed to them. Mr. Bodmer made an accurate drawing of these deserted villages. The principal chief of the Arikkaras, when they retired from |