surrounding tribes and nations of Indians, except the Konzas. It is said, that they are about forming an alliance with the Sauks and Fox Indians of the Mississippi, and that the latter are preparing to remove to their country. They have recently driven the Pawnees of Red river from their place of residence, and compelled them to seek an abode upon the head waters either of the Brases or Colorado. The Konzas and Osages are descendants from the same common origin with the Otoes, Missouries, Ioways, Omawhaws, and Puncahs, to which may be added the Quapaws, and several other tribes, not mentioned in this report. The languages of all of them are radically the same, but are now distinguished by a variety of dialects. _Of the Arrapahoes, Kaskaias, Kiaways, Ietans, and Shiennes_ These nations have no permanent residences or villages, but roam, sometimes in society and sometimes separately, over the tract of country constituting the section last described. They hunt the bison principally, and migrate from place to place in the pursuit of the herds of that animal, upon the flesh of which they chiefly subsist. Being thus accustomed to a roving life, they neglect the cultivation of the soil, and are compelled to subsist almost exclusively upon animal food. They formerly carried on a limited trade with the Spaniards of Mexico, with whom they exchanged dressed bison-skins for blankets, wheat, flour, maize, &c.; but their supplies of these articles are now cut off by a war, which they at present are waging against that people. They also, at distant periods, held a kind of fair on a tributary of the {245} Platte, near the mountains (hence called Grand Camp creek), at which they obtained British merchandize from the Shiennes of Shienne river, who obtained the same at the Mandan village from the British traders that frequent that part of our territory. Last winter they traded a great number of horses and mules with a party of white men, who had ascended Red river, but whence the party came from could not be ascertained; it however appeared probable that they were citizens of the United States, or possibly freebooters from Barataria. The Shiennes associated with these wandering tribes are a small band of seceders from the nation of the same name residing upon Shienne river. They are said to be daring and ferocious. They are however kept under restraint by the energy and firmness of their chief. The Bear Tooth, who is the principal chief of the Arrapahoes, and the head chief of all these nations, possesses great influence over the whole. His mandates, which are uniformly characterized by discretion and propriety, are regarded by his subjects as inviolable laws.