t five miles higher, where the greatest part of them were
put to death, and the rest emigrated to their present situation, in
order to obtain an assylum near the Minnetarees. They are called by the
French, Soulier Noir or Shoe Indians; by the Mandans, Wattasoons, and
their whole force is about fifty men.

On the south side of the same Knife river, half a mile above the Mahaha
and in the same open plain with it, is a village of Minnetarees surnamed
Metaharta, who are about one hundred and fifty men in number. On the
opposite side of Knife river, and one and a half mile above this village
is a second of Minnetarees, who may be considered as the proper
Minnetaree nation. It is situated in a beautiful low plain, and contains
four hundred and fifty warriors. The accounts which we received of the
Minnetarees were contradictory. The Mandans say that this people came
out of the water to the east, and settled near them in their former
establishment in nine villages; that they were very numerous, and fixed
themselves in one village on the southern side of the Missouri. A
quarrel about a buffaloe divided the nation, of which two bands went
into the plains, and were known by the name of Crow and Paunch Indians,
and the rest moved to their present establishment. The Minnetarees
proper assert, on the contrary, that they grew where they now live, and
will never emigrate from the spot; the great spirit having declared that
if they moved they would all die. They also say that the Minnetarees
Metaharta, that is Minnetarees of the Willows, whose language with very
little variation is their own, came many years ago from the plains and
settled near them, and perhaps the two traditions may be reconciled by
the natural presumption that these Minnetarees were the tribe known to
the Mandans below, and that they ascended the river for the purpose of
rejoining the Minnetarees proper. These Minnetarees are part of the
great nation called Fall Indians, who occupy the intermediate country
between the Missouri and the Saskaskawan, and who are known by the name
of Minnetarees of the Missouri, and Minnetarees of Fort de Prairie; that
is, residing near or rather frequenting the establishment in the prairie
on the Saskaskawan. These Minnetarees indeed, told us that they had
relations on the Saskaskawan, whom they had never known till they met
them in war, and having engaged in the night were astonished at
discovering that they were fighting with men who s