SOURCE OP ST. PETER S RIVER. 381 



boins, at 7600. This band having always been estimated 

 at very nearly the same number as all the other Dacotas, 

 will give an aggregate, (according to these data,) of 15,000 

 warriors. Admitting the proportion of one-fourth the na- 

 tion able to bear arms, which is probably very near the 

 truth, it would give as a total 60,000 souls; who would oc- 

 cupy about 6000 lodges. In counting the lodges we allude 

 -to the skin tents which contain from eight to ten indi- 

 viduals, young and old ; for the permanent cabins on the 

 Mississippi contain from three to ten families each, and it 

 is said that one cabin has, in some cases, furnished from 

 fifteen to twenty warriors. 



As almost every traveller, who has visited the Dacotas, 

 has given a different enumeration of their divisions ; some 

 reckoning but seven, while others admit as many as twenty- 

 one tribes ; it may be well to observe that this distribution 

 into fifteen parties is merely introduced with a view to 

 facilitate a better acquaintance with the nation. We believe 

 that there are but seven tribes among the Dacotas, as their 

 name of Ochente Shakoan implies; the divisions which we 

 have admitted in the Mende Wahkantoan, are probably 

 not very important, and we know that similar ones exist 

 among the several tribes of roving Dacotas ; we have no 

 doubt that the Tetoans are divided into many parties, such 

 as the Tetons of the Burnt wood, the Tetons Okandandas, 

 Tetons Mennakenozzo, Tetons Saone, &c. as enumerated by 

 Lewis and Clarke. If we have not made use of any of these 

 divisions in most of the other tribes, it is because we could 

 not obtain them so accurately ; and also because they are less 

 important; a hunter, who has no fixed residence, will wil- 

 lingly pass from one party of Indians to another, belong- 

 ing to the same tribe as he does, and this he will be ready 

 to do at any time ; but he who has his lodge, his cornfields;, 



