Page:History of Utah.djvu/288



CHAPTER IX.

AT THE MISSOURI.

1846-1847.

Nativb Races of the Missouri — The Pottawattamies and the Omaiias— The Moemons Welcomed as Brethren — War with Mexico — Califor- nia TERFaTORY — Mexican Boundaries— Application to the United States Government for Aid — An Offer to Serve as Soldiers Ac- cepted—Organization OF the Mormon Battalion — Departure o» THE Battalion — Bounty Money— March across the Continent — The Battalion in California — Matters on the Missouri.

Among the savages on either side of the Missouri, the Pottawattamies on the east side and the Omahas on the west side, the outcasts from Nauvoo were warmly welcomed. "My Mormon brethren," said the chief Pied Riche,^ "the Pottawattamie came sad and tired into this unhealthy Missouri bottom, not many years back, when he was taken from his beauti- ful country beyond the Mississippi, which had abun- dant game and timber and clear water everywhere. Now you are driven away in the same manner from your lodges and lands there, and the graves of your people. So we have both suffered. We must help one another, and the great spirit will help us both."

Extreme care was taken not to infringe in any way upon the rights of the Indians or the government. Brigham counselled the brethren to regard as sacred the burial customs of the natives; frequently their dead were deposited in the branches of trees, wrapped in buffalo robes and blankets, with pipes and truikets

Le Clerc, on account of his scholarship.

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