bank of the Missouri. Being reduced, they migrated to the
neighborhood of the Pawnees, under whose protection they now live. Their
village is on the south side of the Platte, about thirty miles from its
mouth; and their number is two hundred men, including about thirty
families of Missouri Indians, who are incorporated with them. Five
leagues above them, on the same side of the river, resides the nation of
Pawnees. This people were among the most numerous of the Missouri
Indians, but have gradually been dispersed and broken, and even since
the year 1797, have undergone some sensible changes. They now consist of
four bands; the first is the one just mentioned, of about five hundred
men, to whom of late years have been added the second band, who are
called republican Pawnees, from their having lived on the republican
branch of the river Kanzas, whence they emigrated to join the principal
band of Pawnees: the republican Pawnees amount to nearly two hundred and
fifty men. The third, are the Pawnees Loups, or Wolf Pawnees, who reside
on the Wolf fork of the Platte, about ninety miles from the principal
Pawnees, and number two hundred and eighty men. The fourth band
originally resided on the Kanzas and Arkansaw, but in their wars with
the Osages, they were so often defeated, that they at last retired to
their present position on the Red river, where they form a tribe of
four hundred men. All these tribes live in villages, and raise corn; but
during the intervals of culture rove in the plains in quest of buffaloe.

Beyond them on the river, and westward of the Black mountains, are the
Kaninaviesch, consisting of about four hundred men. They are supposed to
have emigrated originally from the Pawnees nation; but they have
degenerated from the improvements of the parent tribe, and no longer
live in villages, but rove through the plains.

Still further to the westward, are several tribes, who wander and hunt
on the sources of the river Platte, and thence to Rock Mountain. These
tribes, of which little more is known than the names and the population,
are first, the Staitan, or Kite Indians, a small tribe of one hundred
men. They have acquired the name of Kites, from their flying; that is,
their being always on horseback; and the smallness of their numbers is
to be attributed to their extreme ferocity; they are the most warlike of
all the western Indians; they never yield in battle; they never spare
their enemies; and the retaliati