Mocky Mountains. 189 



the bands of the Omawhaws, called to-day on his return ; this 

 band had been much necessitated for food, subsisting for 

 some time upon the fruit of the red haws, which the squaws 

 sought for beneath the proper trees, under the snow. He 

 met with some of the nation of Sioux, called Gens de Feuille 

 by the French. They have been much thinned in numbers by 

 a disorder, which, from the description given of it, may be the 

 quinsy. This same band is said to have suffered much from 

 the small pox last autumn. They were also now nearly starv- 

 ed for want of food ; but they said if they could hold out 

 until they arrived at Min-da-wa-cong, or Medicine lake, (on 

 the maps Spirit lake) they would do very well, as they had 

 there a considerable quantity of wild oats buried or cache 

 as the French say. 



13th. Ietan,* an Oto, of whom we have before spoken, visit- 

 ed us to-day, for the purpose of getting two gunlocks mend- 

 ed. He left his people at the Republican fork of the Konza 

 .river, and intends as soon as he returns, to lead a party in 

 pursuit of bisons, which he says are in plenty on the Loup 

 fork of the Platte, about sixty miles distant from us. 



14th. Ietan called this morning, and as some of our par- 

 ty were going to visit at Camp Missouri, he accompanied 

 them, in order to obtain Major O l Fallon's permission for his 

 nation to go to war with the Konzas. He informed the 

 agent that individuals of that nation had sometime since 

 stolen horses from them. That one of the losers, Big Sol- 

 dier, had gone to the Konza village to demand the horses ; 

 but seeing a number of horses belonging to that nation, when 

 he arrived near the village, he could not resist the temp- 

 ation of immediately retaliating by seizing several, and ap- 

 propriating them to his own use. But, Ietan said, he 

 thought the honour of his nation still called for war, and he 

 solicited the acquiescence of the agent in that measure. The 



*Sha-mon-e-ku6-se. 





