The Padouca were a powerful tribe when visited by Bourgmont in 1724 (see succeeding volume, note 29), but the nation disintegrated and lost its identity before the close of the eighteenth century, if, indeed, the name was not from the beginning applied collectively to several kindred tribes of the plains. Their habitat was the banks of the upper Kansas River; later they removed to the Platte, the North Fork of which is sometimes designated by their name. The Indians here called La Plais (La Playes) were reported by Lewis and Clark (_Statistical View_) to be a numerous tribe of Shoshoni stock, inhabiting the plains at the heads of the Arkansas and Red rivers. Later authorities seem not to have distinguished them from the kindred Comanche.--ED. [180] The Indian name for Americans. On the origin of the term, see Thwaites, _Daniel Boone_ (New York, 1902), p. 111, note.--ED. [181] This quarrel, and the resulting loss of part of the nose of one of the contestants, has given rise to a number of fables. In one of them Ietan and his brother are the combatants, and it is Ietan who loses the tip of his nose. In his thirst for revenge he pursues his brother across the plains and through the forest, both in friendly and hostile villages, only to fall a prey to bitter remorse when, after many months, he overtakes the fugitive and slays him.--ED. [182] Elkhorn River (Corne de Cerf, of the French explorers) is a considerable northern tributary of the Platte, into which it falls on the western line of Sarpy County. The head waters are only a few miles from the Niobrara River, in Rock County.--ED. [183] One of the half-breed sons of Pierre Dorion (Durion), who accompanied Lewis and Clark as interpreter. See Bradbury's _Travels_, in our volume v, note 7.--ED. [184] Red-head was the customary Indian name for Governor William Clark, and St. Louis was "Red-head's Town." For sketch of Clark, see Nuttall's _Journal_, in our volume xiii, note 105.--ED. [185] It was a party of the Grand Pawnees that robbed and ill-treated Lieutenant Pike and his party, when traversing the country within their range.--JAMES. [186] See Appendix C at the end of volume xvii.--ED. [187] 1. _Sorex parvus_, SAY.--Brownish cinereous above; beneath cinereous; teeth blackish; tail short, of moderate thickness. _Body_ above brownish cinereous, beneath cinereous; _head_ elongated; _eyes_ and _ears_ concealed; _whiskers_ long, the longest nearly attaining the back of the head; _nose_ naked emarginate; _front teeth_ black, lateral ones piceous; _feet_ whitish, five-toed; _nails_ prominent, acute, white; _tail_ short, subcylindric, of moderate thickness, slightly thicker in the middle, whitish beneath.