246 Expedition to the 



On the 8th of November, 1808, Peter Chouteau, the'United 

 States' agent for the Osages, arrived at Fort Clark. On the 

 10th he assembled the chiefs and warriors of the Great and 

 Little Osages in council, and proceeded to state to them the 

 substance of a treaty, which, he said, Governor Lewis had 

 deputed him to offer the Osages, and to execute with them. 

 Having briefly explained to them the purport of the treaty, 

 he addressed them to this effect, in my hearing, and very 

 nearly in the following words: " You have heard this treaty 

 explained to you. Those who now come forward and sign 

 it, shall be considered the friends of the United States, and 

 treated accordingly. Those who refuse to come forward and 

 sign it shall be considered enemies of the United States, and 

 treated accordingly." The Osages replied in substance, 

 " that if their great American father wanted a part of their 

 land he must have it, that he was strong and powerful, they 

 were poor and pitiful; what could they do? he had demanded 

 their land and had thought proper to offer them something 

 in return for it. They had no choice, they must either sign 

 the treaty, or be declared the enemies of the United States." 



" The treaty was accordingly signed on the same day, and 

 so much were the Osages awed by the threat of Mr. Chou- 

 teau, that a very unusual number of them touched the pen, 

 many of whom knew no more the purport of the act than if 

 they had been an hundred miles off; and I here assert it to 

 be a fact, that to this day the treaty is not fairly understood 

 by a single Osage. 



" Thus the trading house, which had been established 

 gratuitously, in conformity with the earnest solicitations of 

 the Osage chiefs, and repeated promises of the President, 

 was made a part of the price of the lands acquired under 

 that treaty by the United States. In April 1810 this treaty 

 was ratified and confirmed by the senate, and was duly pro- 

 claimed by the President of the L^nitcd States to be a law 

 of the land. The Osages complained of the delay which took 



