Otoes and Omahas were but shadows of their former selves, miserably poor and wretched, not disposed to do evil unless forced by hunger and want to rob and steal, presumptuous when treated with kindness and charity, but well behaved when visited with vigor and severity.1 The Omahas were particularly miserable. Unprotected from their old foes, the Sioux, yet forbidden to enter into a defensive alliance, they were reduced to a pitiable handful of scarcely more than a hundred families, the prey of disease, poverty stricken, too cowardly to venture from the shadow of their tepees to gather their scanty crops, unlucky in the hunt, slow to the chase, and too dispirited to be daring or successful thieves.

Further north, between the Niobrara or L'eau-qui-court and the Missouri rivers were five or six hundred almost equally abject Poncas. The Pawnees had their villages at the Loup Forks, and south of the Platte and west of the Otoes, and the country to their north was yet the scene of frequent conflicts between the Pawnees and their hereditary enemies, the Sioux.2

All west of the river was "Indian country"—a part of the vast territory of Missouri remaining after the state of Missouri had been created out of it. A white man, entering it, unless specially licensed, became a trespasser. The country was unorganized, practically unexplored, and little else than

1

1 Frontier Guardian, issue of March 21, 1849. The Pottawattomi Indians were expressly excepted from this description. The editor (Orson Hyde) advised returning roving Omahas and Otoes to St. Francis or Trading Point, or the use of the hickory.

2 Lewis and Clark, in 1804, located the Pawnees as follows: "Great Pawnee and Republican, consisting respectively of about 500 and 250 men, on the south side of the Platte, opposite the mouth of the Loup; the Pawnee Loups or Wolf Pawnees, numbering 280 men, on the Wolf fork of the Platte and about 90 miles above the principal Pawnees; and a fourth band of 400 men on the Red River." See also map 41, 2d part, 18th Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology. "The Emigrants' Guide" (W. Clayton, 1848) places the old Pawnee mission station at Plum creek, Lat. 41° 24′ 29′′, and 94 miles east of the Loup Fork ford, Lat. 41° 22′ 37′′, Long. 98° 11', and locates the old Pawnee village formerly occupied by the Grand Pawnee and Tappas bands half a mile west of the Loup Fork. The village mentioned was burned by the Sioux in the fall of 1846. In the spring of 1847 the Pawnees were located on the Loup Fork, nearly thirty miles east of the old village, according to Clayton's Guide.

a name to the world. Peter A. Sarpy had a trading post or so in it; the Presbyterians had established a mission; and a few troops were stationed at Old Ft. Kearney. With these exceptions, the prairie sod of the Indian country was still unbroken by the plow of the white settler.1

In 1830, some sixteen years before the time mentioned, a religious sect arose in New York, calling itself the Latter Day Saints, but commonly designated "Mormons." As the result of great zeal and missionary enthusiasm its members increased rapidly. Vain attempts were made to secure a permanent home, isolated from the rest of mankind, in Jackson, Clay, and Caldwell counties, Missouri. When finally driven from Missouri, in 1840, they gathered on the left bank of the Mississippi at a place nearly opposite the mouth of the Des Moines river. Here at first they were welcomed for their voting power, and easily obtained a charter for the town of Nauvoo, so favorable it practically made them an independent state within a state. The surrounding inhabitants soon combined to drive them out. Five years of constant riot culminated in the assassination of Joseph Smith, the founder of the religion, in the revocation of the charter of Nauvoo, and the complete overthrow of the Saints by superior physical force.

After the election of Brigham Young as president of the twelve apostles, the Mormons promised to leave Illinois "as soon as grass grew and water ran," in the spring of 1846, provided meantime they were permitted to dispose of their property and make preparations for departure, without further molestation. September 9, 1845, the Mormon authorities determined to send an advance party of 1,500 to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. In January, 1846, a council of the church ordered this company to start at once, and announced

1See p. 20, et seq., "William Walker and the Provisional Government of Nebraska Territory," by William E. Connelley, vol. III, second series, publications of Nebraska State Historical Society.

2 Authorities and references for the general outline of Mormon history are deemed unnecessary. The word "Mormon" is used herein solely for convenience and for brevity.

in a circular to the Saints throughout the world their intention to secure a home beyond the Rockies, thus providing a safe haven from the annoyances of their enemies.

All through the winter of 1845-46 the Mormons exerted themselves to dispose of property which could not be easily moved, and to secure proper equipment for the march. Houses and farms and all immovable chattels were sacrificed on the best terms available, and the community for a hundred miles around was bartered out of wagons and cattle.

From motives of prudence, the pioneers hastened their de-, parture. The first detachment, 1,600 men, women, and children, including the high officials of the church, crossed the Mississippi early in February, and pushed forward on the march. The main body of Mormons began crossing the day after, and followed the pioneers in large bodies, and at frequent intervals, though some little distance behind the first party. By the middle of May or first of June probably 16,000 persons with 2,000 wagons had been ferried across the Mississippi, and were on their way to the West. Thus commenced an exodus unparalleled in modern times. In point of numbers of emigrants, in length of travel, in hardships endured, and in lofty religious motives compelling such a host to journey so great a distance, through obstacles almost beyond human belief, there is nothing in recent history with which the march of the Mormons may be compared.

The sufferings of the pioneers (though the hardiest of the whole Mormon host) and of the earlier bands following almost baffle description. Hastily and inadequately equipped, without sufficient shelter or fuel, weakened by disease, short of food for both man and beast, exposed to every blast of an unusually severe winter, they plodded westward and wished for spring. Spring came, and found them destitute, and not half way to the Missouri. The excessive snows of the winter and the heavy spring rains turned the rich prairie soil of Iowa into pasty mud, and raised the streams so that in many instances the emigrants had to wait patiently for the waters to go down.

The pioneers laid out a road, and established huge farms in the lands of the Sacs and Foxes. Two of these settlements or farms were known as Garden Grove and Mt. Pisgah. They included upwards of two miles of fenced land, well tilled, with comfortable log buildings, and were intended as permanent camps for those to follow, and where provisions could be accumulated for the coming winter. In addition to these, camps of more or less permanence were established at intervals along the trail from the Mississippi to the Missouri, at Sugar Creek, Richardson Point, on the Chariton, Lost Camp, Locust Creek, Sayent's Grove, and Campbell's Grove, and at Indian Town, the "Little Miami" village of the Pottawattomies.1

Many did not reach the Missouri in 1846. Some returned to eastern states. Twelve thousand remained at Garden Grove and Mt. Pisgah and in settlements westward to the Missouri, because of a lack of wagons to transport them further west, and for the purpose of cultivating the huge farms intended to provision the camps the following winter. President Young and the vanguard reached the Missouri June 14, 1846, near the present city of Council Bluffs, and then moved back into the hills while a ferry boat was being built. The boat was launched the 29th, and the next day the pioneers began pushing across the river. The next few weeks the companies of emigrants as they arrived temporarily camped on the bluffs and bottoms of the Missouri, at Mynster Springs, at Rushville, at Council Point, and Traders Point. The pioneers at the same time advanced into the Indian country, building bridges over the Papillion and Elkhorn and constructing roads. In July it was resolved to establish a fort on Grand island, but the pioneers did not reach that far west

1 Garden Grove is in the northeast part of Decatur county; Mt. Pisgah at the middle fork of the Grand river, in the eastern part of Union county; Lost Camp about six miles south of Osceola; Sayent's Grove in Adair county; and Campbell's Grove in Cass county-all in Iowa. Indian Town has already been located. See "Early History of Iowa" (Charles Negus) in "Annals of Iowa," 1870-71, p. 568; and the First General Epistle of the Church. Rushville was on the east side of Keg creek, about four miles north of the south boundary line of Mills county.

that year. Some reached the Pawnee villages, and then finding the season too far advanced to continue westward, turned north and wintered on the banks of the Missouri at the mouth of the Niobrara, among the Poncas.1

The Pottawattomies and Omahas received the refugees kindly. A solemn council was held by the Pottawattomies in the yard of one of Peter A. Sarpy's trading houses, and the assembled chiefs welcomed the wanderers in aboriginal manner. Pied Riche, surnamed Le Clerc, the scholar, addressed them:

"The Pottawattomi came sad and tired into this inhospitable Missouri bottom, not many years back, when he was taken from his beautiful country beyond the Mississippi, which had abundant game and timber and clear water everywhere. Now you are driven away from your lodges and lands there and the graves of your people. We must help one another, and the Great Spirit will help us both. You are now free to cut and use all the wood you may wish. You can make all your improvements, and live on any part of our land not actually occupied by us. Because one suffers and does not deserve it is no reason he shall always suffer, I say. We may live to see all right yet. However, if we do not, our children will. Bon jour."

"The Pottawattomi came sad and tired into this inhoslands to the United States, reserving to themselves temporary right of occupation, and now drew and signed articles of convention with the Mormons, with becoming dignity.

A large number of emigrants remained among the Pottawattomies during the winter of 1846-47, living in shacks of cottonwood, in caves in the bluffs, in log cabins in the groves and glens-wherever there was shelter, fuel, and water. The greater number of Mormons, however, crossed into the Indian country at the ferry established opposite the present site of Florence or at Sarpy's ferry below, making their first large

The camp on the Niobrara returned to the settlements on the Missouri, in the spring of 1847, for provisions. See First General Epistle of the Church.