122 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 72 



a peace which was concluded with great ceremony at this Omaha- 

 Ponca town. At the urgent recjuest of the Arikara the sacred chant 

 and dance of the calumet was used to cement this great peace pact. In 

 this manner the Omahas and Poncas for the first time came into 

 contact with this the most profoundly hinding and sacred ceremony 

 known to savage man. 



At this site the age-long association between the kindred Omahas 

 and Poncas was broken. The tradition does not give the cause of 

 their separation ; but for some reason the Poncas, after having lived 

 with the Omahas through their long slow wanderings in the regions 

 east of the Mississippi and through the lower and middle reaches of 

 the Missouri Valley, left their kindred and formed a separate tribe. 



It was at this site that the Omahas first came to possess the white 

 man's horse, which was to play such an im])ortant part in the l_ater 

 Omaha life. The tradition tells that neither the Poncas nor the 

 Omahas had possessed horses until after their separation at this site. 

 The finding of the skeleton of a horse in a mound on this site is 

 one of the many evidences which confirm this tradition that the 

 Omahas remained at this site after the Poncas split away, and shows 

 the Omahas were still living here when they first obtained horses. 



OSACIE SITES 



In Vernon and Bates counties, western Missouri, near the junction 

 of the Osage and Marmiton rivers, Mr. Myer found several sites 

 known to have been occupied by the Osage Indians in early historic 

 times, shortly after they had come in contact with the whites. 



Two of these early historic Osage sites, the village of the Grand 

 Osage and the Little Osage village, were probably located. These 

 were visited by Zebulon Pike in his journey of exploration in 1806. 



The site of the village of the Grand Osage was at the junction 

 of the Marmiton and Little Osage rivers, in Vernon County. 



The probable site of the Little Osage village of Pike was at the 

 Perry and MacMahan coal mine, about 2 miles northwest of the 

 village of the Grand Osage. Old settlers stated that decayed lodge 

 poles were still standing and many other signs of Indian occupancy 

 were to be seen at this Little Osage site as late as 1840. The present 

 appearance of this site is shown in figure 125. 



A consideral)le collection of surface finds from this site shows no 

 objects of white man's manufacture ; but local tradition says frag- 

 ments of brass kettles, old gun barrels, early bullets, and other objects 

 of white man's manufacture have been found here. 



