Rocky Mountains^ 285 



of coaxing, pushing, kicking, and whipping, we at length 

 urged our clownibh animals up to the door of the inn. 



Fifteen miles north of Jackson, on a little stream called 

 Apple creek, reside about four hundred Indians, mostly 

 Deiawares and Shawnees. At the time of our visit, the head 

 of a Shawnee, who had been concerned in the murder of a 

 white woman, was seen elevated on a pole by the side of the 

 road leading from Jackson to the Indian settlement of Apple 

 creek. It was related to us, that the crime, for which this 

 punishment had been inflicted, was committed at the instiga- 

 tion of a white man. The murderer was demanded of the 

 Shawnees by the people of Jackson, and being at length dis- 

 covered by the Indians, and refusing to surrender himself, 

 he was shot by his own people, and his head delivered up 

 agreeably to the demand. 



It is painful to witness the degradation and depression of 

 a people once powerful and independent, still more so to see 

 them submitting to the wanton and needless cruelties of their 

 oppressors. VVe have not been informed by what authority 

 the punishment, above mentioned, was inflicted upon a whole 

 community for the crime of one of its members, and we are 

 sorry to have occasion to record a circumstance so little 

 honourable to the people of Missouri. 



A miserable remnant of the Shawnee, Delaware, and 

 Peola tribes, with a few Chickasaws, and Cherokees, were 

 at this time scattered through the country, from the Missis- 

 sippi, at the mouth of Apple Creek, westward, to the sour- 

 ces of Black river. They were, however, soon to remove 

 farther west, and many of them were already on their way 

 to the country about the upper branches of White river, where, 

 by becoming intruders upon the territories of the Cherokees, 

 it may be expected that their speedy and entire extinction 

 will be insured. 



The road from White river joins that from the upper set- 

 tlements on the St. Francis, at some distance beyond Jackson. 



