Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/141

131 neighbours. An Indian fair is attended in the month of May, at a place agreed upon, on the waters of James river, where this band repair and meet the Tetons, Yanktons of the North, and Ahnah. Here a considerable traffic is carried on, and merchandise exchanged for horses and other articles. These people are devoted to the interests of their traders.

Yanktons of the North inhabit a country which is almost one entire plain, destitute of wood, but a good soil and well watered.

Yanktons Ahnah are considered the best disposed Sioux, who rove on the banks of the Missouri; but they will suffer no trader to ascend the river if they can prevent it: they arrest the progress of all they meet with, and generally compel them to sell their merchandise at a price very nearly what they themselves fix upon it; but they do not often commit any other acts of violence on the whites. Their country is very fertile, consisting of wood land and prairie.

Tetons Bois Brule, Tetons Okandandas, Tetons Minnakineazzo, and Tetons Sahone are four bands which rove over a country, almost entirely level, where a tree is scarcely to be seen, unless it be by water courses, or steep declivities of a small number of hills. It is from this country that the Missouri derives most of its colouring matter; the earth is strongly impregnated with glauber salts, allum, copperas, and sulphur, and when saturated with water, large bodies of the