Chapter I (4)

[I-70] Finishing the journey to the Pawnee Republic village, whence the great river on which it was situated took its name. Its ultimate sources are in Colorado, like those of the Smoky Hill r. Its main course then cuts off the extreme N. W. corner of Kansas, by running through Cheyenne Co.; whereupon the stream enters Nebraska, and skirts the southern border of this until it dips into Kansas across the N. border of Jewell Co., whence it continues E. into Republic Co., turns S. in this to Cloud Co., E. through this to Clay Co., and S. E. through this to Geary Co., where it is joined by the Smoky Hill, as already noted. The whole journey thus made from the Osages to the Pawnees foots up, by Pike's distances, about 350 m. In a letter to the Secretary of War he calls it "375"; but this is simply offhand. He also claims that his Osages led him roundabout 100 m. through their fear of the "Kans." Pike's land mileages seem to me more correct than those excessive ones he assigns to his navigation. I suppose this journey to have been between 300 and 325 m.

I must emphasize here the fact that I have failed in every attempt to locate the precise site of the Pawnee village. One would suppose it well known; I find that it is not, and have yet to discover the ethnographer or geographer who can point it out. Correspondence addressed to persons now living in the vicinity was as fruitless as my exploration of the sources of official knowledge in Washington, where several friends interested themselves in my behalf to no purpose. I know of no closer indication than that afforded by Gregg's map of 1844. This letters "Old Pawnee Village" on the S. bank of the Republican, halfway between long. 98° and 99° W., and thus, as I judge, about opposite the present town of Red Cloud, Webster Co., Neb. Gregg runs the Republican entirely S. of lat. 40° N., _i. e._, in Kansas; but the place where Pike struck it was certainly in that portion of its course which runs in Nebraska, just over the Kansas line. Gregg in fact gives his river a recognizable northward convexity along here, and if it does not overreach 40°, that is a fault of absolute, not relative, position. We are here much less concerned with latitude than with longitude. The river is running approximately from W. to E., in Webster Co., and the main point is how far W. the village was, as that would affect details of the route from the last point at which I have been able to locate Pike. It will be necessary to discover the exact situation of the Pawnee village before the cloud over the end of this journey can be dispelled, and the beginning of the journey from the village to Great Bend on the Arkansaw can be set in a clear light. For the present I can only tentatively assume longitude 98° 30´ W. (See Scandia, in the Index.)

[I-71] Guillaume Thomas François Raynal, commonly called Abbé Raynal, b. Aveyron, France, Apr. 12th, 1713, d. Paris, Mar. 6th, 1796--a philosophical free-thinker and historian, who wrote too much sense and truth to suit his official superiors, and was consequently unfrocked. It is a curious fact in the history of the most Tammany-like machine for the propagation of painful superstitions ever known in the Western world--excepting perhaps Brigham Young's similarly organized scheme--that whenever one of its members begins to think for himself they make him take off his gown and wear trousers openly. The irony in the case seems to escape the professional nurserymen in that hot-house. The abbé wrote various works; his most celebrated one, to which Pike refers, is: Histoire Philosophique et Politique des Établissements et du Commerce des Européens dans les Deux Indes, 1770, repub. 1780-85--a book whose strength and other merits may be inferred from the fact that it had the honor of being burned by Parliamentary order; though its author was simply exiled, the times being already a little out of joint for roasting heretics along with their heresies.

[I-72] Richard Sparks of Pennsylvania had been a captain in the levies of 1791, when he was appointed a captain of infantry, March 7th, 1792; he was arranged to the 3d Sub-legion, Sept. 4th, 1792, to the 3d Infantry, Nov. 1st, 1796, and transferred to the 2d Infantry Apr. 1st, 1802; he became major July 29th, 1806, lieutenant-colonel Dec. 9th, 1807, and colonel July 6th, 1812; he was honorably discharged June 15th, 1815, and died July 1st, 1815.

[I-73] 1. As already indicated, "Tetaus" and "Tetans" are Pike's names for Comanches, also variously known as Ietans, Jetans, Hietans, Aiatans, etc., and also by the Sioux name Padoucas, adopted by the French; they called themselves Num, meaning simply "people." Some of their other names are Kaumains, Choumans and Comandes; we now write Comanches or Camanches indifferently, thus adopting a form of the Spanish name, whose meaning is unknown. These Indians are of the Shoshonean family; they number about 150, on the Kiowa, Comanche, and Wichita Reservation in Oklahoma; there were some 2,500 when they were placed in a reservation in 1868; they had been noted, time out of mind, as wide-ranging, lawless, and warlike freebooters. 2. Pike above mentions three of the four principal tribes of the Pawnee confederation, _i. e._, of the middle group of Caddoan stock, who are: (1) Pawnee proper, Grand Pawnee, or Tcawi; (2) Pawnee Republicans or Republican Pawnees (giving name to the great branch of the Kansas r.); (3) Pawnee Loups, Pawnee Mahas, Pawnee Wolves, or Skidis; (4) Tapage or Pitahauerat: see further, L. and C., ed. 1893, pp. 55-57. (3) Pike's Kans are entirely different Indians, of Siouan stock, Dhegiha group: for these see _l. c._, pp. 33, 34.