74 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



THE OMAHAS. 



The Omahas were one of the tribes noticed by Marquette in 1673, and by Carver in 

 1766, who found them located on the Saint Peter's River. They were divided into 

 two bands, the Istasunda, or Grey Eyes, and the Hongashans, and cultivated corn, 

 melons, beans, &c. In 1802, from a tribe numbering about 3,500, they were reduced 

 to less than a tenth of that number by small-pox, when they burned their village 

 and became wanderers, pursued by their relentless enemy, the Sioux. Lewis and 

 Clarke found them on the L'Eau qui Court, numbering about 600. Since 1815 many 

 treaties have been made with them, always accompanied by a cession of lands on 

 their part in return for annuities and farming implements. (Mr. Catlin, page 10, 

 vol. 2, Eight Years, speaks of the site of the ancient Omaha villages, and gives details 

 and illustrations of their method of burying their dead, also given herein.) In 1843 

 they returned to their village, between the Elkhorn and the Missouri, and made a peace 

 with some of the Sioux, but their great chief, Logan Fontanelle, was killed by them 

 not long after. Since then they have devoted themselves mainly to agriculture, and, 

 under the fostering care of the Friends, are very much improved in their condition. 

 In 1875 they numbered 1,005, depending entirely upon their crops for their subsist- 

 ence, of which they have considerably more than enough for their own use. They 

 have three good schools, which are largely and regularly attended. The older Indians 

 are also abandoning their old habits and assisting in building for themselves upon 

 forty-acre allotments of their lands. — W. H. Jackson, 1877. 



MISS FLETCHER ON THE OMAHAS. 



A most interesting account of the Omaha Indians can be found in an 

 illustrated pamphlet published by Alice G. Fletcher, Washington, Judd 

 & Detweiler, 1885. It is entitled an " Historical Sketch of the Omaha 

 Tribe of Indians in Nebraska/ 7 12 pages. It gives the manners, habits, 

 and customs, of these Indians. On page 1 the following is given : 



The Omahas belong to the same linguistic family as the Poncas, Osages, Kansas, 

 Otoes, Dakotas, Mandans, Winnebagoes, and many other tribes. While some of these 

 cognate tribes can understand each other's speech, as is the case with the Omahas, 

 Poncas, Quapaws, and Osages, others when they meet are unable to make themselves 

 intelligible to one another, as in the instance of an Omaha meeting a Dakota or Win- 

 nebago or Mandan. During the long period which has elapsed since these tribes were 

 united to one another or to a parent stock, their various languages have undergone 

 great modifications and change, so that at the present time it requires the skill of the 

 linguistic student to discern the relationship between the people speaking these dif- 

 ferent tongues. 



PRESENT LOCATION AND CONDITION. 



On June 30, 1885, there were 1,167 Omahas at Omaha and Winneba- 

 go Agency, Nebraska, in the " Black Bird" country. They are farmers, 

 and live on lands allotted in severalty. 



The agent, October, 1884, writes of them : 



The Omahas are a steady, sober, and industrious people, whose greatest desire is 

 to secure permanent homes for themselves and their posterity. They are peculiarly 

 attached to their homes. For two hundred years or more this has been their home, 

 never leaving it except when driven away by other tribes or for the purpose of laying 

 in their yearly supply of buffalo meat. On the summit of every bluff lie whitening 

 in the sun the bones of their ancestors, and on these bluffs they, too, hope some day 

 to lie with them. 



