USA > Nebraska > Platte County > Past and present of Platte County, Nebraska : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 2
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his grant, the river "heretofore called Mississippi," is named "St. Louis." The "Missourys" is called "St. Phillip," and the "Ouabache" (the Ohio and Wabash united) is named "St. Jerome." Louisiana was made dependent upon the general government of New France (Canada). The laws of Paris were to be observed and enforced in the province. Crozart's patent extended sixteen years but was re- signed after five years. A short time after its relinquishment, the colony of Louisiana was granted to the Mississippi Company, pro- jected by the celebrated John Law, with authority to monopolize all the trade and commerce of the province-to declare and prosecute wars and appoint officers. The company built Fort Chartres, about sixty-five miles below the mouth of the Missouri, on the east side of the Mississippi. Miners and mechanics were encouraged to emigrate, and the City of New Orleans was founded in 1717. Settlements now began to extend along the banks of the "mighty river," and the Illi- nois country received a considerable accession.
Dutisne, a French officer, was sent from New Orleans, in 1719, by Bienville. the governor of Louisiana, into the country west of the Mississippi. He visited a village of the Osage Indians, five miles from the Osage River, at eighty leagues above its mouth. Thence he crossed to the northwest one hundred and twenty miles, over prairies abounding with buffaloes, to some Pawnee villages. Fifteen days more of westward marching brought him to the Padoucahs, a brave and warlike nation. IIere he erected a cross with the arms of the king, September 27, 1719. If Dutisne did not actually set foot upon what is now the State of Nebraska, he could not have been very far away on that day.
"On the 10th (of October, 1721), about 9 o'clock in the morning. after we had gone five leagues on the Mississippi," writes Charlevoix. "we arrived at the mouth of the Missouri, which is north-northwest and south-southeast. 1 believe this is the finest confluence in the world. The two rivers are much of the same breadth, cach about half a league; but the Missouri is by far the most rapid and seems to enter the Mississippi like a conqueror, through which it carries its white waters to the opposite shore, without mixing them; afterward, it gives its color to the Mississippi, which it never loses again, but carries it quite down to the sea."
"The Osages," continues Charlevoix, "a pretty numerous nation, settled on the side of a river which bears their name and which runs into the Missouri about forty leagues from its junction with the Mississippi, send, once or twice a year, to sing the Calumet amongst
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the Kaskaskias, and are actually there at present. I have also just now seen a Missouri woman, who told me that her nation is the first we meet with going up the Missouri, from which she has the nanie we have given her, for want of knowing her true name. It (the Missouri nation) is situated eighty leagues from the confluence of that river (the Missouri) with the Mississippi."
As early as 1719, the Spaniards in New Mexico, alarmed at the rapid encroachments of the French in the Upper and Lower Missis- sippi valleys, made strennous exertions to dispossess them. In order to accomplish this, they thought it necessary to destroy the Missouri nation, who were in alliance with the French. Their plan was to excite the Osages against their neighbors-the Missouris-and then take part in the contest against the latter. An expedition was fitted out in 1720 at Santa Fe. It was a moving caravan of the desert. The Spaniards were led to the very tribe they would have destroyed, supposing them to be the Osages. The result was that all were killed except one, who succeeded in making his escape. This boldness of the Spaniards caused the French under M. de Bourgmont to erect a fort on an island in the Missouri, above the mouth of the Osage River, which post was called "Fort Orleans." But the stockade was at- tacked after its completion and occupation, and all the garrison slain; by whom was never known. The builder of Fort Orleans, before its destruction, passed many leagues up the Kansas River, and made firm friends of the Padoucahs, who had previously been seen by Dutisne. The Indians had previously traded with the Spaniards in New Mexico.
The first information extant of the tribes of Indians inhabiting the Missouri River above the Missouri nation, is that given by Charle- voix in 1721: "Higher up we find the Cansez ( Kansas) ; then the Octotatas (Otoes), which some call Mactotatas; then the Ajonez (Iowas) and Panis (Pawnees), a very populous nation, divided into several cantons, which have names very different from each other. All the people I have mentioned inhabit the west side of the Missouri, except the Ajouez, which are on the east side, neighbors of the Sioux, and their allies." It is evident that during the first half of the seventeenth century the country now forming the State of Nebraska was inhabited along its southern border by the Kansas In- dians; that the Platte River, then called the Rivere des Panis, was the home of the Pawnees, who had also villages to the northward, at a point a considerable distance up the Missouri River. But to the westward, on the headwaters of the Kansas River, of the Platte
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River and of the Niobrara, lived the Padoucahs-a tribe long since extinet.
In the beginning of her history, the State of Kansas is more fortu- nate than her sister state north. We know to a certainty that as early as 1719, Dutisne visited her territory and that Bourgmont was there in 1724. Now, while it is almost as certain that what is now Nebraska was visited by Frenchmen not long subsequent to this period, yet the names of these visitors we shall never know. They were traders, hunters and trappers from the Mississippi River and from Canada. They cannot be called explorers, much less colonists. They left no record behind them of the Missouri country and its various tribes.
The Mississippi Company, in 1732, surrendered their charter to the French Government. Then it was that the "Mississippi bubble" burst. The company had held possession of Louisiana for fourteen years and left it with a population of 3,000 whites and half as many blanks. The French king, on the 10th day of April of that year, de- clared the province free to all his subjects, with equal privileges as to trade and commerce. But, though the company of the West did little for the enduring welfare of the Mississippi Valley, it did something; the cultivation of tobacco, indigo, rice and silk was introduced; the lead mines of Missouri were opened and in the Illinois country the culture of wheat began to assume some degree of stability and im- portance; but the immediate valley of the Missouri still remained wholly in possession of native tribes. For the next thirty years very little transpired in the upper portions of Louisiana worthy of especial mention. St. Genevieve, on the west side of the Mississippi, within the present limits of the State of Missouri, was founded, and during the year 1762, the first village was established on the Missouri River within the same state, named "Village du Cote," now St. Charles. In the same year the governor general of Louisiana granted to Laclede and others a charter under the name of the "Louisiana Fur Company," which, among other things, conferred the exclusive privi- lege of trading with the Indians of the Missouri River. But just be- fore this time, momentous events had transpired in Canada. This country was conquered by the English and as we shall now see, Louisiana became the property of other powers.
CESSION OF LOUISIANA TO THE UNITED STATES
By the British conquest of Canada in 1760, the Province of Louis- iana alone remained to France, but even this it was not in a position
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to hold. Therefore it was that, on the 3d of November, 1762, she ceded it to Spain, shorn, however, of its eastern half, which fell to the Eng- lish. The entire region of the Missouri River, including of course, all that is now the State of Nebraska, was thenceforth for thirty-seven years, Spanish territory. But Spain did not at once take possession of her portion of Louisiana, as the sequel shows. On the 15th of February, 1764, Laclede's company established itself on the present site of St. Louis, where he founded that city and gave it its name. Two years after this, Don Antonio d'Ulloa, the Spanish governor, arrived at New Orleans, but was so coldly received that he departed without having produced his credentials. Two years after, a com- pany of Spanish troops took possession of St. Louis in the name of the King of Spain, and in 1770, French sway was at an end in so much of Upper Louisiana as lay west of the Mississippi; for in that year a lieutenant governor arrived at St. Louis and extended his authority over the whole region. But Great Britain did not long remain the possessor of the country east of the Mississippi, for by the definite treaty of peace, signed September 3, 1783, the United States was declared to extend from the Atlantic Ocean westward to the Missis- sippi River, and from a line along the great lakes on the north south- ward to the thirty-first parallel and southern border of Georgia. Still, the territory now constituting the State of Nebraska was no part of the United States. The vast region bordering upon the Missouri (beginning a short distance above the confluence with the Mississippi) and watered by its tributaries, remained a possession of Spain, and the home of savage nations, visited only by the vagrant trader to traffic in furs with the different tribes. These traders were mostly Frenchmen. Sometimes they would have houses and remain station- ary for one, two and even more years, but sooner or later, they all departed from the country.
On the 1st day of October, 1800, by a treaty concluded at St. Ildefonso, between Napoleon and the King of Spain, the colony or Province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it was then held by Spain, was re-ceded to France. This treaty was confirmed and en- forced by a treaty at Madrid, March 21, 1801. Thus, after holding Louisiana thirty-seven years, Spain yielded its ownership to its orig- inal claimants, and subsequently the French flag waved over delighted New Orleans. Nebraska was again French territory. The year 1803 saw, however, another change. France ceded Louisiana to the United States, on the 30th of April, and the whole valley of the Missouri,
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even to the Rocky Mountains, was now under the ownership of our own country.
DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA
On the 31st of October, 1803, an act of Congress authorized the President of the United States to take possession of Louisiana and form the temporary government thereof. By this act the Govern- ment was vested in such person and persons and exercised in such manner as the President of the United States might direct. But the authority of the General Government really dates from March 10, 1804, on which day Amos Stoddard assumed the duties of governor of Upper Louisiana. On the 26th of that month, Congress erected Louisiana into the Territory of Orleans and the District of Louis- iana. The division line was the southern boundary of Mississippi Territory and the thirty-third degree of latitude. So Nebraska was then a part of the District of Louisiana, the latter being all of the French cession west of the Mississippi River, except the present State of Louisiana. The government of this large district was committed to the officers of the Territory of Indiana.
THE TERRITORY OF LOUISIANA
An act of Congress, passed March 3, 1805, changed the "District of Louisiana" to the "Territory of Louisiana." The act made pro- visions for a governor, secretary and two judges. It was detached from the Territory of Indiana, and erected into a separate territory of the second class. so that then what is now Nebraska, became a por- tion of the "Territory of Louisiana." President Jefferson appointed James Wilkinson governor, and Frederick Bates secretary. St. Louis was made the capital. The judges were Return J. Meigs and John B. C. Lucas. These, with the governor, constituted the Legis- lature.
In 1808 the Missouri Fur Company was established. Its principal members were Pierre Choteau, Manuel Lisa, William Clark, Sylves- ter Labadie, Pierre Menard and Auguste Choteau. The capital of the company was $40,000. The first expedition under its auspices was dispatched under the command of Maj. A. Henry and his suc- cess was gratifying. He established trading posts on the Upper Missouri, on Lewis River, beyond the Rocky Mountains and on the southern branch of the Columbia.
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THE TERRITORY OF MISSOURI
By an act of Congress, passed June 4, 1812, the "Territory of Louisiana" became the "Territory of Missouri," within the bounds of which was the present area of Nebraska. It provided for a gover- nor and secretary and the legislative power was vested in the governor, council and House of Representatives. The members of the House were elected by the people. They sent to the President of the United States the names of eighteen persons, and from these the chief ex- ecutive, with the advice and consent of the Senate, selected nine per- sons, who formed the council. The judicial power was vested in a Superior Court, in inferior courts and in justices of the peace. The judges were appointed by the President. On the 19th of January, 1816, the Legislature passed a law making the common law of Eng- land the law of the territory.
A PERIOD OF NO GOVERNMENT
For nearly thirty-three years after the admission of Missouri as a state into the Union, the country now included within the boundaries of the State of Nebraska was practically without a government. But as there were substantially no American settlements to be governed, the want of any power to restrain and regulate the affairs of white people was of little or no consequence. However, before half that time had elapsed, the country was attached to the United States Judicial District of the State of Missouri, as the sequel shows.
INDIAN TRIBES AND TREATIES
The Otoe Indians (a tribe of the Pawnees-"Panismahas") were doubtless the Octotatas of Charlevoix, who placed them in 1721 above the Kansas Indians, upon the Missouri. Lewis and Clark say they were once a powerful nation, and that their home was originally on the Missouri not far above the mouth of the Platte. Then they migrated up the last mentioned stream, where these explorers found them in 1804. From this position (some thirty miles up the Platte) they came back to the Missouri and established villages where the City of Omaha is now situated, but they soon returned again to the Platte, near their old homes. Again abandoning their homes on the Platte, they once more established themselves on the Missouri, this time at a point a few miles south of the present location of Nebraska City.
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On the 15th day of March, 1854, the confederate tribes of Otoes and Missouris ceded to the United States "all their country west of the Missouri River, excepting a strip of land on the waters of the Big Blue River, ten miles in width and bounded as follows: Con- mencing at a point in the middle of the main branch of the Big Blue River, in a west or southwest direction from Old Fort Kearney, at a place called by the Indians the 'Islands;' thence west to the western boundary of the country hereby ceded; thence in a northerly course with said western boundary ten miles; thence east to a point due north of the starting point and ten miles therefrom; thence to the place of beginning. Provided, That, in case the said initial point is not within the limits of the country hereby ceded, or that the western boundary is not distant twenty-five miles or more from the initial point, in either case, there shall be assigned by the United States to said Indians for their future home, a tract of land not less than ten miles wide by twenty-five miles long, the southeast corner of which tract shall be the initial point above named. And such portion of such tract, if any, as shall prove to be outside the ceded country, shall be and the same is hereby granted and ceded to the confederate tribes of Otoe and Missouri Indians by the United States, who will have said tract properly set off by durable monuments as soon after the ratification of this instrument as the same can conveniently be done." The limits of this reservation to the Otoes and Missouris were changed by a treaty held December 9, 1854, and proclaimed April 19, 1855, as follows: The initial point of their reservation, in lieu of the one previously fixed upon, was put a distance of five miles due east of the last mentioned point; thence west twenty-five miles; thence north ten miles; thence east to a point due north of the starting point and ten miles therefrom; thence to the place of beginning. This tract included 16,000 acres in the south part of what is now Gage County, and the southeast corner of Jones County, Nebraska, including also a strip adjoining on the south, in Marshall and Washington counties, Kansas. The tribes number less than five hundred persons. The western portion of the reservation has been appraised for sale.
The Pawnees, it will be remembered, ceded in 1834, to the United States, all their lands south of the Platte River. On the 6th day of August, 1848, a treaty was held with the four confederate bands (then living on the south side of the Platte for fear of the Sioux, but whose possessions were on the north side). By this treaty they relin- quished to the General Government all that tract of land described as follows: Commencing on the south side of the Platte five miles
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west of Fort Childs (afterward Fort Kearney), thence due north to the crest of the bluffs north of said Platte River; thence east and along the crest of said bluff's to the termination of Grand Island, sup- posed to be about sixty miles distant; thence south to the southern shore of said Platte River; and thence west along the southern shore of the said Platte River to the place of beginning. This was the last treaty made with the four confederate bands of the Pawnees until after the organization of Nebraska Territory. Under a treaty dated September 4, 1857, these Indians sold more of their lands and were shortly afterward removed to their reservation in the valley of the Loup Fork River, which reservation contained 288,000 acres. The number of persons living in June, 1861, was 3,414. During the In- dian troubles of 1864, the Pawnees furnished scouts to the Govern- ment, but this enraged the Sioux, who behaved with their accustomed treachery, and after making peace with the Government, again turned on the Pawnees, killing them without mercy and stopping their im- provement. The grasshoppers also came in to their destruction, and June 10, 1872, Congress authorized the sale of 118,424 acres for their benefit. October 8, 1874, the Pawnees agreed to move to a reserva- tion in Indian Territory, and they were taken there the following year. They have a perpetual annuity of $30,000, and an educational appropriation by Congress of $22,600.
As early as the first quarter of the eighteenth century, the "Ma- has," now known as Omahas, had their homes upon the north side of the Missouri, at and near the mouth of the Sioux River. They sub- sequently crossed over to the Niobrara, in what is now Nebraska. Being pursued with a relentless fury by the Sioux, they moved down the Missouri, so that it may be said in general terms, the country west and south of that river and adjoining it, but above the mouth of the Platte, was Omaha territory, as claimed by that tribe. A treaty was made with this tribe by the United States, March 16, 1854, the first article of which reads as follows: "The Omaha Indians cede to the United States all their lands west of the Missouri River, and south of a line drawn due west from a point in the center of the main channel of said Missouri River due east of where the Ayoway River disem- bogues out of the bluffs, to the western boundary of the Omaha country, and forever relinquish all right and title to the country south of said line: Provided, however, That if the country north of said due west line, which is reserved by the Omahas for their future home, should not on exploration, prove to be a satisfactory and suitable location for said Indians, the President may, with the consent of said
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Indians, set apart and assign to them, within or outside of the ceded country, a residence suited for and acceptable to them. And for the purpose of determining, at once and definitely, it is agreed that a dele- gation of said Indians, in company with their agent, shall, imme- diately after the ratification of this instrument, proceed to examine the country hereby reserved, and if it please the delegation, and the Indians in council express themselves satisfied, then it shall be deemed and taken for their future home; but if otherwise, on the fact being reported to the President, he is authorized to cause a new location, of suitable extent, to be made for the future home of said Indians, and which shall not be more in extent than 300,000 acres; and then and in that case, all of the country belonging to the said Indians north of said due west line shall be and is hereby ceded to the United States by the said Indians, they to receive the same rate per acre for it, less the number of acres assigned in lieu of it for a home, as now paid for the land south of said line." The treaty was proclaimed June 21, 1854. and the following year they were removed to their present reser- vation of 345,000 acres in the northeastern portion of the state, be- tween the Missouri and Elkhorn rivers. In 1879 they numbered 1,050.
By a treaty between the Iowa Indians and Missouri band of Sacs and Foxes, proclaimed February 15, 1837. these Indians were as- signed to a home upon a small strip of land on the south side of the Missouri River, lying between the Kickapoo northern boundary line and the Grand Nemaha River, and extending from the Missouri back and westwardly with the Kickapoo line and the Grand Nemaha, mak- ing 400 sections, to be divided between the Iowas and Saes and Foxes-the lower half to the latter, the upper half to the former. By a treaty made May 17, 1854, the Iowas were restricted to the fol- lowing territory, which was to be the future home of those Indians: Beginning at the mouth of the Great Nemaha River, where it empties into the Missouri; thence down the Missouri River to the month of Noland's Creek; thence due south one mile: thence due west to the south fork of the Nemaha; thence down said fork with its meanders to the Great Nemaha River; and thence with the meanders of said river to the place of beginning. The boundaries of the lands belong- ing to the Missouri band of the Sacs and Foxes were changed by a treaty, they getting a portion of the Iowa reservation just mentioned.
The Santee Sioux numbered in 1879, about eight hundred and are located in Knox County, on the Missouri River, near the month of
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the Niobrara, on a reservation of 115,200 acres. They are mostly amenable to educational influences.
The Winnebagoes, a remnant of a once numerous and powerful tribe, live on a reservation of 128,000 acres, at the Blackbird Hills on the Missouri River, in the northeastern part of the state, adjoining the Omaha Reservation. They number about one thousand six hun- dred. They came from Wisconsin and Minnesota. In the War of 1812 they took sides with the British. After a number of treaties, in 1863 they removed to Crook Creek, in Dakota, above Fort Randall. The locality was unsuited to them, and from disease, famine and hos- tile tribes they suffered greatly. They came to the Omaha Reserva- tion and appealed for protection. In May, 1866, they removed to Winnebago, and in 1869 were assigned to the care of Friends. Their late history is one of constant disaster, although they are quite favor- ably disposed to accept civilizing overtures.
NEBRASKA AS A TERRITORY
TRADERS AND MISSIONARIES
The exploration of the region drained by the Missouri, in 1804, paved the way to more commercial undertakings. In 1805, Manuel Lisa, a wealthy Spaniard, with a party in search of trading grounds, reached the lands north of the Platte. The beauty of the scene caused him to exclaim "Bellevue," by which name the spot has since been designated.
In 1810, the American Fur Company, that monster monopoly under control of John Jacob Astor, established a post at Bellevue. Francis De Roin was placed in charge of the business there and after some years of service was succeeded by Joseph Robiaux. The latter was followed by John Cabanne.
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