Rocky Mountains. 36 7 



and Poncahs, to which may be added the Quawpaws, and 

 several other tribes not mentioned in this report, ^i'he lan- 

 guages of all of them are radically the same, hut are now 

 distinguished by a variety of dialects. 



VIII. — Of the Arrapahoes^ Kaskaias^ Kiaways, latans, and 



Shiennes. 

 These nations have no permanent residences or villages, but 

 roam sometimes in society and sometimes separately, over a 

 large portion of the section of country last described. They 

 hunt the bison principally, and migrate from place to place, 

 in the pursuit of the herds of that animal, upon the flesh of 

 which they chiefly subsist. Being thus accustomed to a rov- 

 ing life, they neglect the cultivation of the soil, and subsist 

 almost exclusively upon animal food. They formerly carried 

 on a limited trade with the Spaniards of Mexico, with whom 

 they exchanged dressed bison skins for blankets, wheat flour, 

 maize, &c., but their supplies of these articles are now cut 

 off, by a war which they are at present waging against that 

 people. Ihey also, at distant periods, held a kind ot'fair^ on 

 a tributary of the Platte, near the mountains, (hence called 

 Grand Camp Creek) at which they obtained British mer- 

 chandize from the Shiennes of Shienne river, who obtained 

 the same at the Mandan village, from the British traders 

 that frequent that part of our territory. Last winter, they 

 traded a great number of horses and mules, with a party ot 

 white men, who had ascended Red river, but whence the party 

 came could not be ascertained: it, however, appeared proba- 

 ble that they were citizens of the United States, or possibly 

 freebooters from Barrataria. 



The Shiennes associated with those wandering tribes, are 

 a small band of seceders, from the nation of the same. name, 

 residing upon Shienne river. They are said to be daring and 

 ferocious. They are, however, kept under restraint by the 

 energy and firmness of their chief. The Bear''s Toothy who 

 is the principal chief of the Arapahoes, and the head chief of 

 all these nations, possesses great influence over the whole. His 

 mandates, which are uniformly characterized by discretion 

 and propriety, are regarded by his subjects as inviolable laws. 



The Kaskaia and Kiaway languages are very difficult to ac- 

 quire a knowledge of. Our interpreter, who had lived se- 

 veral years with them, could only make himself understood 

 by the language of signs, with the aid of a very few words 

 of the Crow language, which many of them appeared to un- 



