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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01751 4602
GENEALOGY 978.2 N2642 1923
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013
http://archive.org/details/nebraskahistory06shel
Spanish Expedition Number
NEBRASKA AND RECORD OF
HISTORY PIONEER DAYS
Published Quarterly by the Nebraska State Historical Society
Addison E. Sheldon, Editor
Subscription, $2.00 per year
All sustaining members of the Nebraska State Historical Society receive Nebraska History and other publications without furthr payment.
Vol. VI January-March, 1923
No. 1
CONTENTS
The Battle at the Forks of the Loup and the Platte August 11, 1720 .- Extermination of the Spanish Army by Otoe Tribe of Indians .-- A New Chapter in Nebraska History
Translation from French and Spanish Sources by Ad- dison E. Sheldon
Letter from Rev. M. A. Shine upon New Documents
First Visit of Nebraska Indians to Paris in 1725
Charlevoix Letters on the Massacre of the Spanish Caravan
With Ten Full Page Illustrations on the Text
Entered as second class matter February 4, 1918, at the Post Office, Lincoln, Nebraska, under Act August 24, 1912.
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
THE NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Founded September 25, 1878
The Nebraska State Historical Society was founded Sep- tember 25, 1878, at a public meeting held in the Commercial Hotel in Lincoln. About thirty well known citizens of the State were present. Robert W. Furnas was chosen president and Professor Samuel Aughey, secretary. Previousto this date, on August 26, 1867, the State Historical Society and Library Association was incorporated in order to receive from the State the gift of the block of ground, now known as Haymarket Square. This original Historical Association held no meetings. It was superseded by the present State Historical Society.
Present Governing Board
Executive Board-Officers and Elected Members
President, Hamilton B. Lowry, Lincoln
1st V-President, W. E. Hardy, Lincoln
2nd V-President; Rev. M. A. Shine, Plattsmouth Secretary, Addison E. Sheldon, Lincoln Treasurer, Don L. Love, Lincoln James F. Hanson, Fremont Samuel C. Bassett, Gibbon John F. Cordeal, McCook
Novia Z. Snell, Lincoln Robert Harvey, Lincoln
Ex Officio Members
Charles W. Bryan, Governor of Nebraska Samuel Avery, Chancellor of University of Nebraska J. P. O'Furey, Hartington, President of Nebraska Press Association Andrew M. Morrissey, Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Nebraska
New Chapter in Nebraska History
Documents from Paris Give Account of Massacre by the Otoe Tribe of Spanish Military Expedition on August 11, 1720
Declare That the Fight Took Place on Nebraska Soil at the Junction of the Platte and Loup Rivers
Unpublished Diary of Spanish Officer Found on the Field of Battle Gives Account of the March from Santa Fe.
[A battle between a Spanish army and the Otoe tribe of Nebraska, fought 203 years ago at the junction of the Loup and the Platte rivers (adjoining the present city of Colum- bus.) The complete defeat and destruction of the Spanish force. Booty from the battlefield carried by Indians to the French settlements in Illinois and even as far away as the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan.
The above paragraph summarizes startling Nebraska news contained in a recent issue of the Journal de la Societe des Americanistes, published at Paris by a group of French scholars for the promotion of knowledge of America and cor- dial relations with its people.
The story of a Spanish expedition and its defeat is not new. Accounts hitherto published lacked definite information. They seemed, in some respects, like the wonderful legend of Penalosa, or the wild tales of Baron la Hontan. or Mathieu Sagean, all of them locating in the Nebraska region great na- tions of semi-civilized Indians with high walled cities, great wealth of gold and silver, fleets, armies and other products of the imagination. These early accounts of the Spanish Cara- van were interpreted generally as embellishments of Spanish raids on the Osage country southeast of Kansas City.
Now comes the learned French editor at Paris furnish- ing us with unpublished documents-in particular a copy of a Spanish military note book kept by an officer with the ex- pedition describing the march and the events preceding the battle. Based on these new sources-and critical comparison with the former accounts-the French editor hands us his
r
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
:
LE MASSACRE DE L'EXPÉDITION ESPAGNOLE DU MISSOURI (1 AOUT 1720).
PAR LE BARON MARC DE VILLIERS.
Extrait du Journal de La Sociale des Americaniates de Paris, Nouvelle série, tome XIII, 1921, p. 239-255.
AU SIEGE DE LA .SOCIETE, 61, RUE DE BUFFON, 61. - 1921
Title page of Original French publication translated for this publication of Nebraska State Historical Society.
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
opinion all the way from Paris that the Massacre of the Span- ish took place at the junction of the Loup with the Platte, in Platte county, Nebraska. He furnishes us with a map show- ing the location of Indian tribes in this region at the date of 1720 and indicating the site of the battle ground. There is yet room for more critical study of the text of these docu- ments with the map of the Kansas-Nebraska region by Ne- braska scholars qualified by exact knowledge of the country. But, even so, the new material and the opinion of the Paris editor give this discovery in Nebraska history an importance - comparable only with the publication, forty years ago, of the Coronado expedition. ]
MASSACRE OF THE SPANISH EXPEDITION OF THE MISSOURI (AUGUST 11, 1720) BY BARON MARC DE VILLIERS (TRANSLATED BY ADDISON E. SHELDON) FROM THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF AMERICANISTES, PARIS
1
Warned by the Padouka (Comanche) that French trap- pers were about to ascend the Missouri to search for mines and to try to gain possession of New Mexico, the Spanish or- ganized, in the spring of 1720, an important expedition to ex-" plore the region of the Missouri and to drive from those quar- ters any French who might already have established them- selves there. But the Spaniards did not know how to concil- iate the Indians and their column, in spite of its strong arma- ment, was completely exterminated by the Otopata, other- wise called Oto, about 100 kilometers from the Missouri. Early Accounts of Massacre
Father Charlevoix', Dumont de Montigny= and Le Page du Pratz have each left us an account of the massacre of the
NOTES BY BARON MARC DE VILLIERS
1. History of New France. . Edition of 1744, v. III, p. 246-251.
2. Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, 1753, v. II, p. 284-285.
3. History of Louisiana, 1756, v. II, p. 246-251.
* See notes by Addison E. Sheldon on pages 29-31.
A
Rio
Grande
APACHES
Arkansas
MOIxaW QYJANON
Sorta Fr
J. H.
Carte montrant l'emplacement exact du Massacre de l'expédition espagnole du Missouri. Paris Map Showing Nebraska Region in 1720 X indicates place of Spanish Massacre.
NEBRASKA HISTORY
du xvine siècle indiquent, assez exactement, leur habitat 1, seulement le
Missouri
100
50
0
100
200 KILOMETRES
.
PANIS MAHAS
OTOTACY
.
AS
Le Mississip,.
B.
P.
D
MISSOURIS
KANZAS
Kanzas
OSAGES
Kaskakias
des
Marame
R. des O
PADOUKAS A/
R
Rivière Platte
N. Loup Fork
AIQUEZ
Prairie ( R.)
Platte du Sud
Obio
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
expedition. The 20th letter of Father Charlevoix contains in- teresting details, especially since they were gathered from Indians coming directly to Canada, for all the other versions which we know came from the savage nations which frequent- ed only our posts in the Illinois. The account of Le Page du Pratz, very much more developed and possibly inspired by that of Dumont, seems at times a little too fantastic and makes the error of taking the Missouri for the Otoptata and above all of confounding the Osage with the Pani. As to Du- mont de Montigny he has quite certainly very much exagger- ated the force of the Spanish Expedition by making it "1,500 persons, -men, women, and children .= " From 200 to 250 Europeans, accompanied by several hundreds of Indian car- riers, probably started from Santa Fe. But, as three-fourths of the members of the expedition returned to New Mexico for various reasons, the column after crossing the river of the Kanza included scarcely more than 200 persons, of whom 60 were Spaniards.
New Documents Found.
Three unpublished documents, preserved in the archives of the Hydrographic Service of the Marine and of the Minister of War, enable us to correct or to complete the accounts of the three first historians of Louisiana, and to establish, for the first time, that the expedition of the Spaniards was extermin- ated on August 11 or 12, 1720 by the Otoptata Indians (Oto) ", acting in concert with the Pani-Maha (Loup or Skidi) and perhaps some Missouri, upon the banks of the river Platte (Nebraska) and very probably near its junction with the Loup river (Loup Fork).
In 1720 France and Spain were at war. We had just seized the port of Pensacola and driven-for the moment -- the Spaniards from their post of Adayes. It would seem en- tirely natural to see the governor of New Mexico seeking to take an easy revenge against our posts, very poorly defended,
4. This letter is dated at Michillimakinac, July 21, 1721. But Charlevoix wrote out the greater part of his letters, or at least revised them entirely, after his return to France.
5. Bossu, who in recopying, always exaggerates, speaks of more than 1,500 guns! New Voyages to West Indies, v. I, p. 175.
6. The names written in italic are those adopted by the Handbook of American Indians, published by the Bureau of American Ethnology.
7. Founded to watch our establishment of Natchtotochez, located on Red river.
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
in the Illinois. However, when one knows the fundamental policy of the Spaniards, all of whose efforts tended to main- tain a large zone of mystery between Louisiana and New Mex- ico, this reason alone seems quite insufficient.
John Law's Mississippi Bubble.
The 60-odd unhappy Spaniards massacred by the Otop- tata, were, in truth, the obscure and unfortunate victims of the system of John Law and the fantastic schemes of the Company of the Indies. The great number of mining tools which this expedition carried, the colonists with their live- stock which it conducted, show that the Spaniards did not limit themselves to the plan of keeping the French at a dis- tance from New Mexico, but above all, cherished the hope of seizing the fabled mines of the Missouri, so well advertised on the Rue-Quinquempoix.
Certainly in the springtime of 1720 the Mississippi Craze had already greatly diminished. At Paris they sang:
The mines, -we will rummage in 'em For no doubt we'll find something in 'em -If Nature ever put it in 'em.
And very few people in Europe still believed in boulders of emerald and mountains of silver in Louisiana. But the news of this recent skepticism had not yet had time to reach Santa Fe in New Mexico.
Oto Tribe-Various Names.
Most of the early authors who concern themselves with Upper Louisiana speak of the Otoptata and nearly all the 18th century maps of America indicate their habitats with consid- eerable accuracy. But the name of these Indians' is written in many forms and one encounters indifferently Ototacta, Octotact, Onatotchite, Otontata, Huatoctoto, Othouez, etc. In 1724 Venyard De Bourmont, later the author of the Rela- tion of his Journey" called them Hoto and Otho, and it is this name of Oto which the Americans have preserved for the last survivors of this nation which is perpetuated even to our own time1.
8. We might cite: ; Franquelin, Le Page du Pratz, d'Anville, Vaugondys, Bowen, etc.
9. The Handbook of American Indians notes more than seventy of them, and that list is yet to be completed!
10. Margry, v. VI, p. 396 and 402.
11. The census of 1906 still numbers 390 of them. .
" See notes by Addison E. Sheldon on pages 29-31.
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
According to Father Charlevoix "The Octotatas are people related to the Aiouez (now Iowas) from whom it is even said they are descended." This information agrees with the class. ification of the Handbook of American Indians, in which the Iowa, the Oto and the Missouri are grouped with the great Siouan family. An unfinished Spanish manuscript, a compil- ation of undated and unsigned documents, makes the Oto de- scendants of the Missouri. This collection indicates that at the beginning of the 19th century the Oto numbered 500 souls, of whom 120 were warriors; that they often intermar- ried with the Kansas, and protected in disdainful manner the Missouri, reduced then to only 80 warriors. At this period the Oto were allies of the Pani, properly called Grand Pani (Pawnees Chaui), of the Sawkee (Sawk) and the Zorro (Ren- ards or Foxes). They were at war with the Maha (Omaha), Poncare (Ponca), Sioux, Great and Little Osage, and also with the Caneci (Lipan or Apache) and the Lobo (Skidi).
The Platte and Nemaha Rivers.
It is believed that the original Oto, then living in the present state of Iowa, first dwelt near the mouth of the Great Nemaha river, before they fixed their home on the right bank of the river of the Pani which the Mallet brothers chris- tened on June 2, 1739, with the name of Plate. This name so well characterizes this river that it remains to our day, with the spelling Platte. 13 The Otoe never removed far from this re- gion and, though driven many times toward the south during the course of the 19th century, they still occupied in 1882," a reserve located in the central part of the present state.of Ne- braska.
12. This river falls into the Missouri a little north of the south- east corner of the State of Nebraska.
13. The Indians call this river Nebraska, the educated Spanish translate the name Plate in Somero, the others into Plata which means silver! And the Americans themselves, at times have given it that of Swallow-(perhaps Shallow ?)
14. The Oto were at that date removed to Indian Territory.
* See notes by Addison E. Sheldon on pages 29-31.
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
11
4
Chon-moni-case or Shau-mone-kusse, (called by the white fur- traders Ietan) is the most noted chief of the Otoe tribe in the early American period. He was one of those prominent at the great council of the Otoe tribe with Major Long Oct. 3, 1819, at their camp about six miles above Florence, near Fort Lisa. He was then a young man and this portrait as made at that period. Later he became a head chief. He was killed April 28, 1837, in a fight with young Otoes who had run away with one of his wives. Moses Merrill, first missionary to the Otoe, saw the fight and wrote the story of it in his diary. The great Otoe village where Ietan ruled was three miles southeast of the present village of Yutan. : There are many remains of this village still visible. They were photographed by the editor of this magazine in 1912. Yutan was named in honor of this Otoe chief.
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
Nebraska Indians Journey to Paris.
About 1714 the grand chief of the Otoptata descended the Mississippi to meet Bienville, and died at Biloxi. Ten years later another chief of this nation accompanied M. De Bourmont to Paris. The nations on the Missouri had designed to send to France ten delegates, -one Otoptata, four Osage and five Missouri, one of whom was a young woman. But the Council of the Colony, for reasons of economy, held back five and permitted to go only the young Missouri woman, one Otoptata and one Osage, one Missouri, one Illinois and Chi- cagou, ambassador of the Metchigamias.
The. (Indian) envoys arrived at Paris on September 20, 1725, and were received by the duke of Bourbon, the duchess of Orleans and the directors of the Company of the Indies. They were then presented to the king by Rev. Father de Beaubois (S. J.) who delivered to Louis XV a necklace of friendship sent by Mamantonense, chief of the Metchigamias, Kaokias and Tamarois", with a speech" given by Chicagoun. This orator had, a few days before, wished the duchess of Orleans "to be fruitful in great warriors like the ancestors of your husband and yourself."
These Indians from Louisiana were, for sometime, all the rage at Paris. They received beautiful blue suits with gold lace. At the Bois de Bolougne, before the court, they hunted deer "in their own style, that is by chasing" and they gave war dances at the opera and the Italian theatre. If we may believe Bossu one of these Indian envoys recalled thirty years afterward the perfumes so extravagantly used by Paris ladies and declared that "they smelled like alligators."
Nebraska Orator at Paris.
One of the three representatives of the Otoptatas, Osages and Missouris, we do not know which, died on the journey, and one of his companions pronounced an oration for the deceased in the name of all the Indians of the Missouri. Here are two charming passages from the translation made in prose and verse of his address before the king:
"Twelve whole moons have passed since we left our land (that is, Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa,) November, 1724 to ap- pear here. One of our chiefs is dead on the way, the others gave up, or remained on the seashore, (that is, in New Or-
15. The Michigamea, Cahokia and Tamaroa were Indian tribes closely related to the Illinois.
16. 'Chicagou was still living in 1762. See Bossu, New Voyages to West Indies, 1768, v. I, p. 157.
17. See Dumont, Historical Memoirs of Louisiana v. II, p. 76. * See notes by Addison E. Sheldon on pages 29-31.
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
leans.) We are ashamed to see our plain speech. We bring with us furs and the work of our squaws. You will not think them of much worth, since you have in abundance, things so much more beautiful, but everything was lost in the first ship which was to bring us across"-we cannot wonder enough at the beautiful things which we see every day. We are very happy in the treatment given us since we arrived in this land; we had not been so before we arrived here". The tribes represent to you :
1. Not to abandon them and they ask the French as much to keep friendship as to provide for their needs.
2. That they have never had any one to teach them to pray save only a white collar" who came to them a little time ago, whom they are happy to have and beseech you to send others.
3. They beg you to send us back entrusted with your message and they will look on all upon this side (the great water) in order that they may see you again.
1. That the French having made known to us all, that you think in all this country, and that the stores which are here are from you. We are in your hands give to our bodies. (Sic)
Verses in Honor.
So much eloquence drove an anonymous versemaker to put in rhyme the prose of the Indians of the Missouri.2:
Great Chief, Master of Life, Spirit Grand, We have come to behold thee in the bosom of thy land! And, given heart to cross the seas and their distress, We arrive, without regret, from our dark wilderness. From thy soul there flashes upon our grosser soul A light we would gladly take for our control, Thy subjects, soldiers, court, with astonishment we own, Thy lordly power, the glory of thy person and thy throne, Thy cities, and thy gardens, thy mansions and thy sports.
Our nations brave all offer thee with willing hearts Their services in battle with their strong arms and darts. Send to our hunting grounds, under thy sway,
Thy Frenchmen, thy goods, thy white collars to play.
18. La Bretonnie.
19. Always economizing, the Council of Louisiana had allowed the Indians, during their voyage only Sailors' rations, without wine or fresh ment, food to which the savages were not accustomed. Happily for them Bourmont bought food for them with his own money.
20. A father of the Mission Etrangeres. (Foreign Missions.)
21. Library of the Arsenal. . Manuscript No. 3724, pages 77-81:
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
"Missouri Princess".
As for the "Missouri Princess"-she was baptised at (the church) of Notre Dame of Paris, then married to Ser- geant Dubois, one of the companions of Bourmont during his journey . of 1724 to the Padowkas. Dubois scarcely reaped the reward of his promotion to be commissioned officer and his appointment as King's interpreter for the nation of the . Illinois-which he received on the occasion of his, marriage, for he perished at the massacre of the garrison of the fort of Orleans of the Missouri. If one may .believe Dumont Madame Dubois caused the assassination of her husband, but that statement seems to us hardly probable. In any event she married again a little later a captain of militia of Illinois. named Marin. Bossu saw at Paris in 1751 two children of the "Princess."22
Ancient Home of Otoe Tribe.
At the time which concerns us the Oto lived on the south bank of the river Platte, most of the time, it seems, near the point where the course of that river turns sharply in the southern direction. It is difficult to locate the point with greater certainty, first, because the Indians lived in a number of villages= and during the 18th century drew, little by little, closer to the Missouri river, and second, because the explor- ers who give the number of leagues (figures varying) which separate the Oto from the Missouri, have failed for the most part to inform us whether they reckoned the distances by the direct trail across country or by following the great bend of the river."
The Pani-Maha.
The exact location of the Pani-Maha seems a little more difficult. These Indians, who certainly played a very import- ant role in the massacre of the Spaniards, lived in 1720 north of the river Platte, along the different branches of the river. which was generally given the name "River of the Pani- Maha," but later received the name of Loup which it still bears.28
22. New Voyages in North America, 1777, p. 227.
23. "The Ottoes" says the Spanish manuscript already cited, "Do not claim the exclusive possession of any territory, and do not fix any boundaries to their own lands. They are hospitable, cultivate the soil in the same way as the Kansa and Osage. They hunt on the :salt marshes of the lake of Nimnehaw."
24. . In 1794 Truteau reckoned twelve leagues, by water, and Clark, ten years later, only eight. But neither one had ever gone up the river Platte, rarely navigable.
: 25. Bienville expressly asserted it. The .Missouri . also declared they took part in the Massacre. ( Margry, v. VI, p. 450).
* See notes by Addison E. Sheldon on pages 29-31.
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
NE .APA-PD.
Pes-ke-le-cha-co
Was a noted Pawnee chief in the carly period of the 19th century. He was one of the chiefs chosen to visit Washington some time prior to 1825 and confer with the president. His portrait was painted at that time. On his return he became one of the strong advocates of friendly relations with the white men in the councils of the Pawnee nation. He had seen the great cities filled with white people, their great. guns, ships and factories and he never tired of relating the sights of this visit. In 1826 a war party of Osage raided the Pawnee villages. Pes-ke-le- cha-co killed an Osage. ' He rushed forward to lay his hand on the dead' warrior-one of the highest honors in war. In the struggle to prevent this Pes-ke-le-cha-co was slain. His deeds were long related around. the camp fires of the Pawnee nation.
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NEBRASKA . HISTORY
The Pani-Maha were evidently part of the great nation of Pani (Pawnee) but seem to have formed a branch some- what distinct from the other tribes, of whom the nearest was the Grand Pani sometimes called simply Pani-and the Pani- Pique, often formerly called White Pani. These latter were more friendly to the Spaniards than to the French. Nothing forbids conceding (with the Handbook of American Indians) that the Pani-Maha were the direct ancestors of the Pani- Loup, Loup or Skidiz who lived in the same region sixty years later. The independence of, the Pani-Maha, in opposition to the other Pani, and the complex formation of their name might well arise from a fusion, common enough with Indians, -between one tribe of Pani and a group of Mahay-which nation for so long a time wandered along the Missouri and one tribe of which was located at the beginning of the 18th century near the Oto.
The Loup", in any event, had without doubt forgotten their double (surmised) parentage, for they were later often at war with the white Pani and the Maha.
Spanish Officer's Note Book.
Let us now proceed to the history of the Spanish Expedi- tion. And here, at the start, are the last leaves of the note book of the journey by a Spanish officer. These are the only records, unfortunately, which the Indians brought to M. de Boisbriant. commandant of the province of Illinois :
Translation of a leaf from a journal in Spanish, found at the defeat of a detachment of that nation by the Otoptata .?? 4 (On the margin-"Also, written Ouatotchata").
"The trails which we find lead us to a place where we be- lieve we shall get information of a band which, by all appear- ances, is not very far distant from some village. We resolve to camp in order to see what there is for us to do.
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