112 PICTOGRAPHS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 



whence they sent appealing for succor to (he commanding officer at 

 Fort Atkinson, the present site of Couucil Bluffs. This officer was Col. 

 H. Leavenworth, Sixth United. States Infantry, who marched June 

 22, with 220 men of that regiment, 80 men of trading companies, and 

 two G-pound cannon, a Si-inch brass howitzer, and some small swivels, 

 nearly 700 miles through a country filled with hostile or unreliable In- 

 dians to the Ree villages, which, after much hardship and some losses, 

 he reached on the 9th of August. The Dakotas were at war with the 

 Arickara or Eees, and 700 to 800 of their warriors had joined the United 

 States forces on the way ; of these Dakotas 500 are mentioned as Yank- 

 tons, but the tribes of the remainder are not designated in the official 

 reports. The Reeswereiu t wo villages, the lower one con tabling seven ty- 

 one dirt lodges and the upper seventy, both being inclosed with pali- 

 sades and a ditch, and the greater part of the lodges having a ditch 

 around the bottom on the inside. The enemy, having knowledge of 

 the expedition, had fortified and made every preparation for resistance. 

 Their force consisted of over 700 warriors, most of whom were armed 

 with rifles procured from British traders. On the 9th of August the 

 Dakotas commenced the attack, and were driven back until the regular 

 troops advanced, but nothing decisive resulted until the artillery was 

 employed on the 10th, when a large number of the Bees, including 

 their chief, Grey-Eyes, were killed, and early in the afternoon they 

 begged for peace. They were much terrified and humbled by the effect 

 of the cannon, which, though small, answered the purpose. During 

 the main engagement the Dakotas occupied themselves in gathering 

 and carrying off all the corn to be found, and before the treaty was 

 concluded, which, at the supplication of the Bees, Colonel Leaven- 

 worth agreed to, the Dakotas all left in great disgust at not being 

 allowed to kill and scalp the surrendered warriors with their squaws 

 and pappooses, take possession of the villages, horses, etc., and in fact 

 to exterminate their hereditary foes. However, the Bees, having be- 

 come panic-stricken after the treaty and two days of peaceful inter- 

 course with the soldiers, deserted their homes, and the troops, embark- 

 ing on the loth to descend the river, shortly saw the villages in flames, 

 which was the work either of the Dakotas or of inimical traders. 



The device is believed to represent an Arickara palisaded village and 

 attacking soldiers. Not only the remarkable character and triumphant 

 result of this expedition, but the connection that the Dakotas them- 

 selves had with it, made it a natural subject for the year's totem. 



All the winter counts refer to this expedition. 



> T o. III. United States troops fought Bee Indians. 



Battiste Good says: " General first-appearedand-the-Dakotas- 



aided-him in-an-attack-on-the-Bees winter," also " Much corn winter." 

 For his character see Figure 09, page 166. The gun and the arrow in 

 contact with the ear of corn show that both whites and Indians fought 

 the Bees. 



