182 DAKOTA GRAMMAR, TEXTS, AND ETHNOGRAPHY. 
with the present, for the old men now living, and children of men of the 
past generation, say that they traveled to the southwest, in search of scalps, 
to a country where the prairie ceased, and were gone from their village 
twenty-one moons. Others went to the north to a country where the sum- 
mer was but three moons long. 
The French maps of this western country, made about one hundred 
and twenty-five years ago, are, in many things, very inaccurate, but may 
be received as indicating the general locality of Indians at that time. In 
one of the maps the Ponka, Pawnee, and some of the Oto, together with 
the Panimaha,' are placed on the Platte and its branches. Other villages 
of the Maha (Omaha) are placed, apparently, above the mouth of the James 
or Dakota River, on the eastern side of the Missouri. The Iowa, the Oto, 
and the Yankton and Teton Dakota are placed down in what is now the 
State of Lowa. 
When Lewis and Clarke ascended the Missouri, in the autumn of 1803, 
they met the Yankton Dakota about the mouth of the James or Dakota 
River, where Yankton now stands. Their village was some distance above, 
perhaps about the site of Bon Homme. They met the Teton Dakota at the 
mouth of the Teton or Little Missouri (Wakpa siéa), where old Fort Pierre 
stood. These were of the Oglala band. Tradition says that the Oglala 
were the first to cross the Missouri, and that this was the place of crossing. 
At first they went over to hunt. The buffalo were found to be more 
abundant. They returned again. But after several times going and 
returning they remained, and others followed. At the commencement of 
this century some Teton were still on the east side of the river, but their 
home seems to have been then, as now, on the west side. 
As this is the only notice of their meeting Teton on their ascent, we 
infer that the main body of them were not on the Missouri, but far in the 
interior.” 
ARGUMENT FROM NAMES OF NATIONS, TRIBES, ETC. 
In all primitive states of society the most reliable history of individuals 
and nations is found written in names. Sometimes the removals of a 

! Skidi or Pawnee Loup. 
2In the winter count of American Horse (4th An. Rep. Bur. Eth., p. 130), Standing-Bull, a 
Dakota, discovered the Black Hills in the winter of 1775-76. The Dakota have of late years claimed 
the Black Hills, probably by right of discovery in 1775-76; but the Crow were the former possessors, 
and were found in that region by the Ponka before the time of Marquette (i. ¢., prior to the date of 
his autograph map, 1673),—J. 0. B, 
