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The Otoe and Missouria Tribes are divided into bands or clans, with chiefs, symbols, badges, etc. The influence of names and families is strictly kept up and their qualities and relative distinction preserved in heraldric family arms.
The Otoe and Missouria Tribes have two ruling fami- lies, viz :-- Ah-lu-qwa, or Buffalo Clan and the Tu-nah-be, or Bear Clan. Each clan is the ruler as their respective moon ar- rives.
When the moon begins to warm mother earth and when the grass and the leaves begin to have a coat of green, or dur- ing the last quarter of Ma-gan-na, (plow month) or the month of April, the Ah-lu-qwa is the ruler of the tribes and is to be respected.
When the moon begins to cool mother earth and when the leaves turn brown and begin to drop back to earth, or during the last quarter of Tah-ke-lu-rscha, (mating of deers) or the month of October, the Tu-nah-be becomes the ruler of the tribes. When the change is made certain rites and rituals are performed.
When the "Guardian of all red children" placed the Otoe and Missouria Tribes here upon the earth, they were given re- ligious customs, which were observed in the old days gone by. Every new moon brought some rituals and when they prepare to give mother earth the seed for their crop, certain rites were had and the same is true when they gather the harvest and when their fall hunt is about to begin. They remembered their Maker daily and always called upon Him for guidance and protection.
Believing that this will be of some interest and regretting very much that the true history, given by an Indian who is a student of the old Indian teachings, will be forgotten forever, I now close.
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
BE-LAH-WAY (Month Counting) : CALENDAR
Was-se-gay, Me-tah-way,
People, My own. Wah-doe-dah, hay-dah, Nu-dar-chee,
Otoes and Missourias. WAH-COHN-DAH, E-chee-chee-a. A-wa-tah-way-nay, Great Spirit children his own.
WAH-COHN-DAH, Ah-blah-a-ah-dah-nay, Great Spirit everywhere they see WAH-COHN-DAH, Me-kay, way-glo-he-nay, Great Spirit, faithful worshippers."
The Otoe and Missouria tribes have songs for their Great Spirit because He is everywhere. Their songs are breathed-in songs and these songs are treasured down through the ages from generation to generation.
Each new moon meant purification and sacrifice from every family in the tribes. The priest of the tribes takes their offerings and takes them to the altar which is built for that purpose only, and the possessor offers them as a sin offer- ing to the Great Spirit. The priest, looking to the heaven, of- fers a prayer and sings to the Great Spirit, who is watching his children everywhere. An elegy is sung to the new moon.
The different seasons of the year brought some form of worship. The most important event is spring and in fact their new year begins with the spring. Spring was a day of much thinking because the Great Spirit made everything to live over again. It meant that they, as a tribe or nation, must bury their past and live over again and try to remember their Maker more each day by their prayers. Their feasts for new resolutions are had at the very beginning of spring.
Winter was also a big event because it brought to their minds of the death of things and to the human race. Winter reminded them of death. The snow covering the whole earth reminded them of the purity of their Great Spirit, and they al- ways tried to live a pure life.
Their count of the days begins with each new moon, and every important event or act is reckoned as the new moon, when moon was larger than new moon or, when moon was full, when moon was smaller than full moon, which meant new moon, 1st quarter, full moon and last quarter.
Such is the counting months of the year of the Otoe and Missouri.
Richard Shunatona, Author.
OTOE AND MISSOURIA INDIAN CALENDAR
Otoe and Missouria
English Mating of the raccoon
Me-key-le-lu-rscha
January - the moon racoon hunts a mate.
Ray-sca-be-tah-way -
Month of the Waterfrog
February
The moon when the Indian looks at the Pleiades for early or late spring.
Be-oo-neng-a
Month of doing nothing
March
The moon Indians hold sacred when Great Spirit gives new life to all.
Plow month
May-gah-na April
The moon Indians plow the ground, offer rituals to plant the maize.
We-rscha-yeng-a
Sprouting month
May
The moon that makes plants
sprout.
May-lah-oo-na
Cultivating month
June
The moon Indians cultivate their pumpkin and the maize
Cha-ke-lu-rscha 1
1
1
The moon bisons hunt a mate.
Hom-ah-yo-chee-na
Bellowing of the elk
August
The moon that brings hot winds.
Toe-me-lah-rscha-mah-lah
Deer's wallow frosted
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
Mating of the bison
July
1
1
J
1
September
The moon that brings the har- vest.
Tah-ke-lu-rscha October The moon that brings the fall hunts.
Mating of the deer
Ta-wah-schoo November
Buck's horns broken
The moon to find bucks with locked horns on account of f ..
fighting.
Moo-stchee-dah-way December
Bear getting down
The moon that brings the snow the priest uses to offer tribal sacrament to the Great Spirit.
SEASONS
Hah-toe-hoo-dah, Spring moons,
Doe-gay-dah, Summer moons, Tah-ne-dah. Winter moons
Nah-toe-wah-ne-dah, Autumn moons,
NEBRASKA HISTORY
64
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
SITE OF PLUM CREEK MASSACRE (Continued from Vol. V, No. 3)
sitting on the wagon tongue thinking of hooking up, all of a sudden, without any apparent noise, nine of the biggest, black- est war painted Indians I ever saw suddenly appeared from out of the river all riding good horses. They at once began to par- ley. Some of them could talk English pretty good, wanting to trade ponies for squaws. As my wife sat on the wagon in plain sight of them they raised their bids from one to four ponies for her. -
All at once the whole party struck out for the bluffs on the full run, which for the moment was a puzzle to me. The mystery was soon solved, for on looking down the road I saw a company of cavalry, that were being sent from Ft. Kearny to Cottonwood Springs, within a mile of us. These cavalry were to establish an outpost near where the trouble was expected. I don't think we would have been disturbed by these Indians at that time except in a badgering way and my reason for this belief will be given Jater.
From this camp we drove on for another half day. We camped this time at what was called the Deserted Ranch, a place on a dry gulch where someone had started a ranch and gave it up before completion. Soon after going into camp here a mule train, consisting of ten four mule teams, drove from the east and went into camp on the north side of the road about one hundred yards from us. This was August 7, 1864. This train belonged to Frank Morton, of Sidney, Iowa. I will speak further of it later.
Early in the morning of August 8, we broke camp and made what was called a breakfast drive, a very common thing in those days. We drove to the twenty-one mile point and went into camp, about ten o'clock for our breakfast. We had been there but a short time when the stage coach passed us on double quick time going east and the driver shouted that we had better get out of that as there were ten or twelve dead men lying in the road a little way above there.
Yet with all this I could hardly believe that there was anything unusual so I hitched up our team and drove four miles to the seventeen mile point, seventeen miles from Kear- ny. While there in camp, about ten o'clock, a company of cav- alry came up from the fort on double quick. The captain halt- ed and asked where I camped last night and when I told him at the old soddy he asked if I saw any Indians. I told him I did not. "Well," he said, "it's strange, for just where you say you camped last night it is reported that ten or twelve people were killed and one woman taken prisoner and their mules run off and wagons burned."
And now comes the strange part of my story showing that if such a thing as providence interfering or assisting anyone it certainly showed its full hand in our case from the time we turned around at Cottonwood Springs until we passed on and cscaped that massacre known as the Plum Creek massacre. For it is a fact that the people killed in that raid were the same people who camped so near us the night before and the fact that we made an early drive that morning was the only reason that we escaped. Again, when I tell you that Mrs. Morton, who was accompanying her husband on this trip, was an old schoolmate and chum of my wife and the further fact that they failed to recognize each other, in our respective camps, must be another act credited to Providence. The peo- ple slain in this cutfit consisted of Frank Morton owner of the outfit, of Sidney, Iowa, and ten white men drivers, and a col- cred cook. Mrs. Morton was taken prisoner and I believe re- maired with these Indians for about five months when she was rescued through some friendly Indians, taken to Denver and finally reached her friends again.
Another and most remarkable escape occurred at this time. About four miles east of our camp was a new ranch owned by a German called Dutch Smith. On our drive that morning as we passed the Smith place he was seated in a bug- gy at the door and his wife was pleading with him to go along. They were going to Fort Kearny, but he seemed to be quite anxious for her to remain home. However, she prevailed, for within one half hour they passed us on the road to Fort Kear- nv. The Indians who committed the murders at the Morton Camp followed down the road as far as Smith's place, killed his hired man, ran off his stock and burned his build- ings. Whether these different escapes all just happened or whether the hand of Providence was guiding us are things that to me are not comprehensible.
In referring back to the episode at Gillman's ranch with the nine Indians I have come to the conclusion that they would not have harmed us at that time. I consider the Plum Creek massacre a premeditated attack, as there were depredations committed all along the Overland Trail for a distance of two hundred miles and thus the little squad who visited us would not dare to start the scrap until the agreed time arrived.
On our arrival back at the old home and starting point we concluded that Nebraska was good enough for us and we have rounded out a full one half century within her confines. We have two sons, thirteen grandchildren, and five great-grand- children, all born in Nebraska and all living in the state today, without a death in the family for forty-six years.
It is marvelous to stop for a moment to consider what has taken place in this great America of ours in one half century. Every mile of railroad west of Minneapolis, Ft. Des Moines and St. Joseph has been constructed since I settled in Nebraska Territory, Fort Des Moines, Iowa, being the nearest to a rail- road at the time of my settling in Butler county.
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
19990
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.
-
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.
Prezent 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
2
NEBRASKA HISTORY
LE MASSACRE DE L'EXPÉDITION ESPAGNOLE DU MISSOURI 41 AOCT 1720).
PAR LE BARON MARC DE VILLIERS.
Extrait du Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris, Nouvelle série, tome XIII, 1921, p. 239-255.
+ 4
AU SIÈGE DE LA SOCIÉTE, 61, RUR DE BUFFON. 61. - 192
Title page of Original French publication translated for this publication of Nebraska State Historical Society.
3
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
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 Charlevoix1, Dumont de Montigny? and Le Page du Pratza 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. HI, p. 284-285.
3. History of Louisiana, 1756, v. II, p. 246-251.
* See notes by Addison E. Sheldon on pages 29-31.
4
Rio
Grande
APACHES
NOUVEAU MEXIQUE
Sborta Fe
du xvine siècle indiquent, assez exactement, leur habitat 1, seulement le
200 KILOMETRES
100
100 50 0
N. Loup Fork
Rivière Platte
Prairie ( R)
OTOTAC
AS
Le Mississier
R. des Minois
MISSOURIS
D
KANZA
Kanzas
OSAGES
Marame
Kaskakias
Osages
S
R. des
Ohio
Arkansas
I
Missouri
PANIS-MAHAS
AIQUEZ
Platte du Sud
PADOUKAS A
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
5
NEBRASKA HISTORY
expedition. The 20th letter of Father Charlevoix contains in- teresting details, especially since they were gathered from Indians coming directly to Canada4, 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.s" 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.
6
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 time11.
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.
7
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- l'ied 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.
8
NEBRASKA HISTORY
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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