Page:A Brief History of South Dakota.djvu/80

74 them to thinking there was no danger, he sent a war party of Omahas against a little band of Iowas, but was careful to see that no general war took place.

Lisa kept his Indians busy hunting and trapping and gave them good trade so that they were generally prosperous, while the Mississippi Sioux, between their expeditions to help the English, and their fear of trouble from the Tetons, neglected their hunting; the British found it very difficult to bring goods to them for trade, owing to the war, and they were thus left very poor and in a miserable condition. By these methods Lisa held the Sioux of the Missouri very strongly to the American interests and was perfectly successful in his plan to make the Mississippi Sioux not only of no value to the English, but actually a burden to them.

When the war was finally over, Manuel perfectly understood conditions among the Indians on both rivers, and he hurried to St. Louis to propose that a great council be immediately called in which all of the Sioux should be invited to participate and that they be thereby drawn to the American interest, both for citizenship and for trade. Clark, now governor of Missouri territory, fully agreed with him, and authorized a council to be held at Portage des Sioux, at the mouth of the Missouri River. Manuel went back to the upper Missouri and gathered up forty of the chiefs and head men of his Dakota Sioux, while Lieutenant Kennerly went to the Mississippi Sioux and secured representatives of all of the bands residing there. The council was called for the fifteenth day of July, 1815, and was within ninety days of the close of hostilities