424 EXPEDITION TO THE 



day but a noble ruin. No longer united for purposes 

 of common defence, they have long since ceased to meet 

 at the same council fire ; their alliances with other nations 

 are now mere mockeries ; their wars have dwindled into 

 petty conflicts. Instead of marching as they formerly did 

 by hundreds, they now issue forth in small detachments, 

 presenting rather the character of a band of marauders than 

 of an expedition of warriors. When they lighted the com- 

 mon calumet at the General Council Fire, it was always 

 among the Mende Wahkantoan, who then resided near 

 Spirit Lake, and who were considered as the oldest band 

 of the nation ; their chiefs being of longer standing than 

 those of the other tribes ; among themselves they use the 

 appellation of brothers. They are related with the Shiennes, 

 and with the Arricaras, and by marriages they are connect- 

 ed with the Pawnees, Osages, &c. ; but to these nations 

 they only apply the term of friend. With the Omawhaws 

 they wage a deadly warfare. We were told that the 

 lawas were formerly a band of the Dacotas, and that they 

 were distinguished by the term of the Titatons, but that 

 they separated long since, and that their language had been 

 so much altered as to be unintelligible to the Dacotas. But 

 this information is probably incorrect, for Governor Clarke, 

 during his late visit to the seat of government, with a de- 

 putation of Indians from many nations, informed Mr. Col- 

 houn, that the lawas, Winnebagoes, and Otoes, appeared 

 to him to be of common descent, and to speak dialects of 

 the same language, and he expressed his opinion, that an 

 inquiry into the matter would result in determining them 

 to be of that nation, which, as we learn from Mr. Jeffer- 

 son's "Notes," emigrated from Ocoquan. Mr. Joseph 

 Snelling, who accompanied that deputation, likewise in- 

 formed Mr. Colhoun, that in a speech made by the lawa 



