"These tribes are at war with all their neighbours, except the Konzas, and a part of the Sauks and Foxes; with the Konzas they are and long have been on the most intimate and friendly terms; with the Sauks and Foxes they are at present barely at peace. All their chiefs (except Clermont) are very weak and unpopular. Many of their great war captains are in opposition to their chiefs, and have powerful influence in their respective tribes. Of these are 'The Duck,' 'Big Wolf,' and 'John L. Foe,' of the Great Osage; 'Sansoreille,' 'Big Soldier,' and 'The Soldier of the Oak,' of the Little Osage.[126] Their council are very much distracted by the jealousies and intrigues of the principal warriors, and for want of energy and decision in the chiefs. When I left them last spring, my impressions were, that the Osages were generally disposed to be at peace with us, but they were very much dissatisfied and displeased, and losing their former unbounded confidence in us, in consequence of what they alleged to be a failure on the part of the United States to fulfil the treaty existing between them and the United States. My opportunities for observation and inquiry concerning the temper and disposition of those Indians were very good, and were not neglected. And my acquaintance with the Osages being very general (extending almost to every individual), and of long standing (upwards of eight years), enables me to speak confidently of them. "In the year 1804 the President of the United States gave his promise to a number of Osage chiefs, then on a visit at Washington, to establish for them a trading-house on the plan authorized by a law of {110} congress. In 1806 the President repeated the same promise to another deputation of Osage chiefs then here. In 1808 the President ordered the establishment to be made, and accordingly in October of that year it was made. So far this was a gratuitous act of the government; but in the following month it assumed a very different character. On the 8th November 1808 Peter Choateau (the U. S. agent for the Osages), arrived at Fort Clark.[127] On the 10th he assembled the chiefs and warriors of the Great and Little Osages in council, and proceeded to state to them the substance of a treaty, which he said Governor Lewis had deputed him to offer the Osages, and to execute with them. Having briefly explained to them the purport of the treaty, he addressed them to this effect (in my hearing) and very nearly in the following words: 'You have heard this treaty explained to you; those who now come forward and sign it shall be considered the friends of the United States, and treated accordingly; those who refuse to come forward and sign it shall be considered enemies of the United States, and treated accordingly.' The Osages replied in substance, 'that if their Great American Father wanted a part of their land, he must have it; that he was strong and powerful, they were poor and pitiful. What