BULL. 30] 



OTO 



1()5 



tion is given by Maximilian, ■who states 

 that it was communicated to Maj. Bean, 

 the Indian agent, by an old Oto chief. 

 He related that, before the arrival of 

 the whites a large band of Indians, the 

 Hotonga ('fish-eaters'), who inhabited 

 the lakes, migrated to the s. w. in pursuit 

 of buffalo. At Green bay, "Wis., they di- 

 vided, the part called by the whites Winne- 

 bago remaining, while the rest contin- 

 ued the journey until they reached the 

 Mississippi at the mouth of Iowa r., 

 where they encamped on the sand beach 

 and again divided, one band, the Iowa, 

 concluding to remain there, and the rest 

 continuing their travels reached the Mis- 

 souri at the mouth of Grand r. These gave 

 themselves the name of Neutache ('those 

 that arrive at the mouth'), but were 



CHIEF GEORGE— ARKEKETAH— OTO 



called Missouri by the whites. The two 

 chiefs, on account of the seduction of 

 the daughter of one by the son of the 

 other, quarreled and separated one from 

 the other. The division led by the father 

 of the seducer became known as Wagh- 

 tochtatta, or Oto, and moved farther up 

 the INIissouri. While the Winnebago 

 settled in Wisconsin, the Iowa, after they 

 ceded to the United States all the lands 

 on w^hich they first settled, moved w. 

 between Missouri r. and the Little Platte. 

 The Missouri, havingbeen unfortunate in a 

 war with the Osage, divided, and a part of 

 them lived with the Iowa and a part with 

 the Oto. The Oto continued up the INIis- 

 souri until they crossed the Big Platte and 

 lived for some time a short distance above 

 its mouth ; later they resided on Platte r. , 



about SO m. by water from the Missouri. 

 The same tradition was oi)tained bylNIaj. 

 Long several years before Maximilian's 

 visit. Dorsey was informed by the Iowa 

 chiefs wdio visited Washington in 1883 that 

 their peoi)le once formeil part of the Win- 

 nebago. TheOtoseem to liave beenmost 

 intimately associated with the Iowa. 

 That they were ever at the mouth of 

 Missouri r., where, according to one tra- 

 dition, the}' were with the INIissouri, is 

 not likely. The fact that they were with 

 the Iowa in the vicinity of Blue Earth 

 r., Minn., immediately preceding Le 

 Sueur's visit in 1700, indicates that their 

 movement was across the Mississippi into 

 s. Minnesota instead of down that stream. 

 Le Sueur was informed by some Sioux 

 whom he met that "this river was the 

 country of the Sioux of the West, of the 

 Ayavois [Iowa] and the Otoctatas [Oto]." 

 Messengers whom he sentto invite the Oto 

 and Iowa to settle near his fort at the 

 mouth of r>lue Earth r. found that they 

 had moveil w. toward the Missouri r., 

 near the Omaha. Marquette, in 1673, ap- 

 parently locates the tribe on his auto- 

 graph map on upper Des Moines or 

 upper Iowa r. Membre (1680) places 

 them 130 leagues from the Illinois, almost 

 opposite the mouth of the Wisconsin. 

 Iberville (1700) saidthat the Otoand Iowa 

 were then with the Omaha between the 

 Missouri and Mississippi rs., about 100 

 leagues from the Illinois. The last two 

 statements agree substantially with thatof 

 Le Sueur. It is therefore not probable, as 

 given in one statement, that the Oto were 

 on Osage r. inl687. That they weredriven 

 farther s. l)y the northern tril>es at a later 

 date will appear from the list of localities 

 given below. Lahontan claims to have 

 visitedtheir villagein 1690onthe "( )tentas 

 [Iowa or Des Moines] river at its junction 

 with the Mississippi," perhaps referring 

 to a temporary camp. In 1721, accord- 

 ing to Charlevoix, the Oto were below 

 the Iowa, who were on the e. side of INIis- 

 souri r., and above the Kansa on the w. 

 side. Le Page du Pratz (17oS) mentions 

 the Oto as a small nation on Missouri 

 r. Jefferys ( 1 761 ) placed them along the 

 s. bank of "Panis river," probably the 

 Platte between its mouth and the Paw- 

 nee country; but in another part of 

 his work he locates them above the 

 Kansa on the w. side of Missouri r. 

 Lewis and Clark (1804) locate the tribe 

 at the time of their expedition on the s. 

 side of Platte r., about 30 m. from its 

 mouth, but state that they formerly lived 

 about 20 m. aljove the Platte, on the s. 

 bank of the Missouri. Having dimin- 

 ished, probably through wars and small- 

 pox, they migrated to the neighborhood 

 of the I'awnee, under whose protection 

 thev lived, the Missouri being incorpo- 

 rated with them. From 1817 to 1841 thev 



