Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/95

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 35 went to the South were called Quapas, Ca- pahas, Pacahas, and other similar names; all meaning "downstream Indians" and having reference to their going down the river from the time of their separation. Those who turned to the north were called Omahas, meaning "upstream Indians." These Omahas made their way to the Missouri river, where some of them settled and long remained. These were called Missouris. Others of them passed up this river toward the west. Some of them settled on that branch of the Missouri aftei'- ward called for them the Osage. These were the famous Osage Indians whose doings fill such a large part of the aboi'iginal history of Missouri. Still others of these Indians pressed their way further west to become known as the Kansas and Omahas. If this legendary account as preserved bj' the Indians themselves is correct, there ex- isted a close relation between all the Indians named. That this relation did exist is shown by the similarity of their language. They spoke, it is true, different dialects, but these were not so dissimilar as to preclude all com- munication. Indeed it was possible for one speaking either of these various dialects to learn the others in a very short space of time. The third tribe of Indians found by DeSoto were these Osages, who at this time lived in the great bend of the Missouri, but whose hunting ground extended east to the Missis- sippi and south to the Arkansas. Wlien the French came, the Casquins had migrated to a new seat on the Illinois river, if indeed the Kaskaskias of Illinois were identical with the Casqiiins described by De- Soto. The Capahas had moved down the ^lississippi to the Arkansas where they con- tinued to reside. Others think, however, that their principal seat was on the St. Francois and that one of their villages, called Tori- man, was in Dunklin county. This is the con- clusion of Houck who has given the matter very careful study. ( Houck 's "History of Missouri, " Vol. I, p. 173). Of all these early aboriginal inhabitants of Southeast Missouri none are more interesting than the Osages. A part as we have seen of that great Siouan family which at an early date migrated from their original home in the valley of the Ohio to its mouth where they divided; the Osages, at the time of the French, were living on the Missouri and the Osage. From here their hunting parties went out to cover that great stretch of terri- tory extending east to the Mississippi and south to the Arkansas. They continued to reside on the Osage until, with the Missouris, the tribe which for a time lived near the mouth of the Missouri but which afterward moved up the stream and united with the Osages, they came into conflict with Sacs and Foxes. A deadly strife ensued between these Indians, and later, between the Osages and the Cherokees when the latter were moved to this side of the river by the govern- ment. The Osages resented the coming of the Cherokees to their hunting grounds and tried to drive them out. They gradually degenerated, however, and finally disap- peared from the Missouri country. During the time of their prosperity they had been induced by the Indian traders to found some settlements on the Arkansas, and, when the pressure of other tribes and the whites became too strong for them, the rem- nant made their way to the south. Some of their descendants reside yet in Oklahoma. These Indians lived principally by hunt- ing, but they also cultivated little patches of soil. Usually each band of them had two or more places of residence. Near one of them