Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/324

307 THE KANSAS SDPERIOK TO PAWNEES. 307 commanded that my three fattest dogs should be iserved up." This quotation is from the work written by the priest himself. It was a by-word in the early seventies all around the Pottawatomie and Kitekapoo reservations in Jack- son and Brown counties, whenever a fat dog was Seen, for the settlers to remark: "What a picnic for the Indians," meaning what a feast the Indians would have if they could steal thfe dog. Now, you don't be- lieve polecats make good eating, do you? But as you know, in 1820, the Long expedition was at the Kansas villages, and Dr. James, who was vnth Major Long's party, wrote: "The polecat is a favorite food among the Indians. The flesh of the skunk we sometimes had dressed for dinner, and found it to be remarka- bly rich and delicate food." In Kansas, July is the month when almost all vegetables and grain mature; so at the date of the vis- it there was ample good things to eat without the dogs and polecats. The old Spanish chroniclers did not record the name of the chief of the City of the Twenty-four, so it cannot be given here; but he was a noble Red Man. Here is what the reverend Father De Smet says of the Kansas Indians: "Though the Piwnees were six times more numerous than the Kansas, they have on almost every occasion been con- quered by the latter, because they are far inferior to them in the use of arms, and in strength and courage." Please bear in mind that these intrepid Spaniards are now sojourning on the mighty Missouri, the long- est river in the world, 4125 miles in length; and