Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/138

128 two thousand five hundred souls. They claim no particular country, nor assign themselves any limits; their tradition is that they have always resided in their present villages. Their customs, manners, and dispositions, are similar to the Mandans. Their villages are on both sides of Knife river, near the Missouri, five miles above the Mandans. On account of the scarcity of wood, they leave their villages in the cold season, and reside in large bands, in camps, on different parts of the Missouri, as high up as Yellow Stone river, and west of their villages, about Turtle mountain. These people have suffered by the small pox, but have been able to resist the attacks of the Sioux.

The Ayauwais nation, reside forty leagues up the river Demoin, and consist of two hundred warriors, and about eight hundred souls. They are descendants from the ancient Missouri, and claim the country west of them to the Missouri, and to the boundary of the Saukees and Foxes; are a turbulent savage people, who frequently abuse their traders, and commit depredations on those who are ascending and descending the Missouri.

Saukees and Ranars or Foxes, are two nations so nearly consolidated into one, that they may be considered as the same people. They speak the same language, and live near together, on the west side of the Mississippi, one hundred and forty leagues above Saint Louis. Formerly they