[15] See “Lives of Famous American Indians.”
The Omahaws are said to have formerly been a much larger tribe than they are at present, and a terror to their neighbours, being able to muster not less than a thousand warriors. But in the year 1802, they were attacked by the small-pox, and the tribe was reduced to about three hundred souls. The survivors, unwilling to remain in a place that had proved so fatal to them, burned their village, and became, for a time, a wandering people. But they have since returned to their country, north of the River Platte, and built a village on the southwest bank of the Missouri. The Pancas, having been nearly destroyed by the Sioux, after several removals from the Red River of Lake Winnipeg, joined the Omahaws, and, for a time, were merged in that tribe, but have now resumed their separate existence. These two tribes are allied with the Pawnees, and, some twenty years since, their chiefs accompanied some Pawnees and other Indian warriors to Washington, where Big Elk, the Omahaw chief, thus addressed the President.
“My great father, look at me! look at me, my father! My hands are unstained with your blood; my people have never struck the whites, and the whites have never struck them. It is not the case with other red-skins. Mine is the only nation that has spared the Long Knives. I am a chief, but not the only one in my nation; there are other chiefs who raise their crests by my side. I have always been the friend of the Long Knives, and, before this chief” (pointing to Major O’Fallon) “came among us, I suffered much in support of the whites. I was often reproached for being their friend; but when my father came among us, he strengthened my arms, and I soon towered over the rest.”
In reference to the proposition made him to have people come among them to teach them the arts of agriculture, he said:--“The Great Spirit made my skin red, and he made us to live as we do now; and I believe, that, when the Great Spirit placed us upon this earth, he consulted our happiness. We love our country, we love our customs and habits. I wish that you would permit us to enjoy them as long as I live. When we become hungry and naked; when the game of the country becomes exhausted, and misery encompasses our families; then, and not till then, do I want those good people among us. Then they may lend us a helping hand; then show us the wealth of the earth; the advantages and sustenance to be derived from its culture.”