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NEGOTIATIONS WITH INDIANS.

237

beside them. At Cutler Park there were friendly negotiations made with Big Elk, chief of the Omahas, who said: "I am willing you should stop in my coun- try, but I am afraid of my great father at Washing- ton. "^

As the United States pretended to hold the title to the land, it was thought that the Pottawattamies had no right to convey their timber to others; so Brigham enjoined that there should be no waste of timber within these limits, but that as much as was necessary might be used. A permit for passing through their territory, and for remainhig while

About the Missouri.

necessary, was obtained from Colonel Allen, who was acting for the United States.'

Although it was late in the season when the first bands of emigrants crossed the Missouri, some of them still moved westward as far as the Pawnee villages on Grand Island, intending to select a new home before winter. But the evil tidings from Nauvoo, and the destitute condition in which other parties of the

' ' The Omahas caused them some trouble, as they would steal with one hand while we fed them with the other.' Hist. B. Young, MS., 46, Oct. ISth.

^ Hist. B. Young, MS., 1846, 98-9. Maj. Harvey brought the Mormons at Winter Quarters letters from Washington, expecting them to leave the Pottawattamie lands in the spring. See cor., Hist. B. Young, MS.