At another fire, surrounded by his particular band, sat the Knife Chief, La-che-le-cha-ru, principal chief of the Pawneemahas. He is a large portly man, with a very prepossessing countenance; the hair on the sides of his head is gray; he has a deep scar on the right side, from a wound which was inflicted by a female prisoner, of the Padouca nation, whom he had adopted and taken into his family. This squaw, becoming infuriated at the prospect of the state of slavery to which she supposed herself now reduced, { 149} stabbed her child to the heart, mortally wounded the brother of this chief, and, before she could be despatched, had inflicted this wound, through which the bowels protruded. The individuals of this band live in great harmony amongst themselves, owing probably to their having but two chiefs, who are unrivalled. The second chief is a Mestizo. Against this band we have no accusation; they have always demeaned themselves well towards the American whites.
In a third group were collected the representatives of the Pawnee Republicans; this nation or clan stands accused of whipping, robbing, and otherwise abusing a white American and his son, whom they found trapping beaver on the Arkansa river, this season; of killing two American citizens, two years since, who were also trapping beaver on the same river; and of robbing our party of sundry articles and horses, near the Konza village, whilst under the protection of the flag of our country, of the nature of which they had been instructed, and perfectly well understood. These outrages, and many others, they had committed on lands, to which they do not pretend to have any claim, situated far from their own territories, and in the immediate vicinity of nations with whom they then were, and still are, at war.[185]
On the following day the Pawnees were summoned to council, and in a short time they appeared marching leisurely in a narrow pathway, in _Indian file_, led by the grand chief; near this pathway the musical band was stationed, and when Long Hair arrived opposite, they struck up, suddenly and loudly, a martial air. We wished to observe the effect which instruments, that he had never seen or heard before, would produce on this distinguished man, and therefore { 150} eyed him closely, and were not disappointed to observe that he did not deign to look upon them, or to manifest, by any motion whatever, that he was sensible of their presence. The Indians arranged themselves on the benches prepared for them, and the cessation of the music was succeeded by stillness, which was suddenly interrupted by loud explosions from our howitzers, that startled many of us, but did not appear to attract the notice of the Pawnees.