In vain should we seek among the nations of the Missouri for an individual whose daring deeds have been more numerous than those of the Little Soldier, or for more brave and generous combatants than Shaumonekusse, Hashea, Nahojeningya, and Wasacaruja. It is not fear, but probably a generous forbearance, that has restrained them from killing more than two white men within the memory of the present generation. Of these, one, a Frenchman, was killed by A-kira-ba during the Spanish government; and the other, a Spaniard, by Shaumonekusse, more recently, at the sources of the Arkansa; an act, which, although attended by an extraordinary display of bravery, was declared by this young warrior to be the only martial act of his life that he was ashamed of. {65} The hunting grounds of the Oto nation extend from the Little Platte up to the Boyer creek, on the north side of the Missouri, and from Independence creek to about forty miles above the Platte, on the south side of that river. They hunt the bison between the Platte and the sources of the Konza rivers. A few years since, their numbers were very much diminished by the small-pox. The language of the Otoes, Missouries, and Ioways, although the same, is somewhat differently pronounced by these respective nations or tribes. The dialect of the Ioways is more closely allied to that of the Oto than to the Missouri dialect; the former differs chiefly in being pronounced more sharply, as in the word In-ta-ra, _friend_, which in the Oto is In-ta-ro. The Missouri dialect differs in being more nasal; the children, however, of this nation being, from their residence among the Otoes, in constant habits of association with the Oto children, are gradually assuming the pronunciation of that nation. Originally the same, and still very similar to the above dialects, are those of the Osages, Konzas, Omawhaws, and Puncaws, the individuals of each of which nations can make themselves reciprocally understood, after a very little practice. The two latter dialects are so very closely allied, as not to be distinguishable from each other, by persons who are not very critically acquainted with the language. The Omawhaw and Puncaw pronunciation is more guttural than that of the two former, of which, particularly the Osage, the pronunciation is more brief and vivid. The free and independent spirit of the Indian is carried even into their language, and may be recognised there by its absolute destitution of a single word drawn from the language of a civilised people. Thus, notwithstanding their constant familiarity with {66} certain traders, and with various articles of the manufacture of the white people, they universally, and in every instance, reject the names which they originally hear for such men and things, and apply others, which they readily invent. {67} CHAPTER VI {IV} Boyer's Creek—Visit to the Pawnees—Human Sacrifices—Anecdote of Petalesharoo—Appendix.