NATIONAL NAME. 35 



members of the nation, that the country they now 

 hold was previously possessed by the Alligewi, 

 of whom the name only remains in the appellation 

 of the Alleghany Mountains. 



Before the European invasion, the Dakota, 

 Huron, Oneida, Mohawk, and Iroquois association, 

 or Mengwe *, generally known as the " Five 

 nations," had penetrated into the Eyihinyuwuh ter- 

 ritory by way of the Missouri and St. Lawrence. 

 The contests by which the Mengwe established 

 themselves in a district, surrounded on all sides by 

 their enemies, must have been severe ; and they are 

 not even now ended, but are carried on in the 

 country between the Saskatchewan and Missouri, 

 notwithstanding the persevering efforts of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company and the officers of the 

 American outposts to suppress them. Deadly 

 feuds exist between the Blackfeet Ej^thinyuwuk, 

 and the Mandans, Minetaresf, and other Dakota 

 tribes which frequent the bison plains ; and on the 

 Red River of Lake "Winipeg, fatal conflicts took 



* This confederacy assumed the appellation of Mengwe from 

 the ancient Iroquois title, Ongwe-honwe, which signifies, ac- 

 cording to Colden, " men surpassing all others." 



■j" Called also Absoroka. These and the Mandans are the 

 so-called Welch Indians, said to be descended from Madoc and 

 his followers. The same origin has been attributed to the 

 southern Tuscarora, of the Iroquois stock. 



D 2 



