384 EXPEDITION TO THE 



ledging thereby not only his superiority over all the other 

 Dacota chiefs, but even that of the Dacota nation over 

 theirs. At this meeting, they exchanged and renewed 

 pledges of friendship, &c. The festivities, which lasted 

 about a fortnight, consisted of dances, songs and repasts ; 

 the principal feast was celebrated on the 25th of June. 

 Buffaloes were then very abundant in the country, and a 

 great number were killed. The chief to whom the flat- 

 tering distinction of Father was thus applied, is the same 

 that is generally called Petit Corbeau by the traders, Che- 

 tanwakoamane by the Dacotas.* Renville interpreted for 

 this Indian at the time when he visited Drummonds island, 

 in 1815. He reproached the British government for the 

 situation in which they left the Indians. When told by Col. 

 M'Coy, the Indian agent for the British, that he acted in 

 compliance with one of the stipulations in the treaty with 

 the United States, the chief replied, that the British go- 

 vernment had deceived them ; they were at peace with the 

 Americans in 1812; but they had been excited to acts of 

 hostility ; at the time that he spoke, they were at war with 

 the United States, having been instigated to it by the Bri- 

 tish, who then deserted them. He could not believe that 

 it was on account of their stipulations ; he summoned them 

 to fulfil their promises, or he must charge them with fraud 

 and cowardice. When he was invited to settle in Canada, 

 and assured of support and maintenance for himself and 

 his band, he indignantly replied, that he required none of 

 their support; he would fight, and himself obtain peace for 

 his nation, and they would support themselves upon their 

 own lands. The Kapoja Indians have but one village, 



■♦This chief formed one of the deputation who visited -the City of 

 Waslungton in July, 1824. 



