James's Account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820, part 1James, Edwin
History
James's Account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820, part 1
James, Edwin
Indians of North America; Rocky Mountains; United States -- Discovery and exploration; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
me if you were liberal enough; but I ask nothing: you have a forked
tongue. You have abused me to the whites, by calling me a rascal,
saying I robbed the traders, &c.; but go, I will not harm you; tell
the red head (Governor Clarke) that I am a rascal, robber, &c., I
am content."[184]
At another fire, surrounded by his particular band, sat the Knife
Chief, La-che-le-cha-ru, principal chief of the Pawneemahas. He is
a large portly man, with a very prepossessing countenance; the
hair on the sides of his head is gray; he has a deep scar on the
right side, from a wound which was inflicted by a female prisoner,
of the Padouca nation, whom he had adopted and taken into his
family. This squaw, becoming infuriated at the prospect of the
state of slavery to which she supposed herself now reduced, {149}
stabbed her child to the heart, mortally wounded the brother of
this chief, and, before she could be despatched, had inflicted
this wound, through which the bowels protruded. The individuals of
this band live in great harmony amongst themselves, owing probably
to their having but two chiefs, who are unrivalled. The second
chief is a Mestizo. Against this band we have no accusation; they
have always demeaned themselves well towards the American whites.
In a third group were collected the representatives of the Pawnee
Republicans; this nation or clan stands accused of whipping,
robbing, and otherwise abusing a white American and his son, whom
they found trapping beaver on the Arkansa river, this season; of
killing two American citizens, two years since, who were also
trapping beaver on the same river; and of robbing our party of
sundry articles and horses, near the Konza village, whilst under
the protection of the flag of our country, of the nature of which
they had been instructed, and perfectly well understood. These
outrages, and many others, they had committed on lands, to which
they do not pretend to have any claim, situated far from their own
territories, and in the immediate vicinity of nations with whom
they then were, and still are, at war.[185]
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