Volume 1

LOWER BIG BELLY, SOULIER, AND MANDAN VILL. 323
some time for the natives to come and ferry us over, but
they appeared to take Httle notice of us. We mounted,
and went down river about five miles to that Mandane village"
which is situated on the N. side of the river ; having
noticed, as we passed down, the little Big Belly village," and
the Saulteur [stc^
village," both situated on the S. side.
Before we reached the [Mandan] village, we passed
through a wood about two miles long. The road was bad,
deep with mud and mire, the river having overflowed there
lately. Having got through this wood, we came to several
plantations of corn, beans, squashes, and sunflowers—the
latter, indeed, grow in
every direction, without cultivation,
at some distance from the fields, where the seed has been
carried by the wind ; but such are never gathered by the
natives, as they are not so good as those that have been
properly sown and taken care of. We passed through one
of the old villages, abandoned a few years ago ; the soil in
** The second of the two Mandan villages of L. and C, " which is called
Rooptahee," p. 183. This was on the N. side of the Missouri, and was the only
one of the five thus situated.
It was about 4 m. by river above the site of Fort
Mandan, and somewhat above the first Mandan village, on the S., "at the distance
of three miles across," p. 197. In Rooptahee lived Poscopsahe, or Black
Cat, " the first chief of the village and the grand chief of the whole Mandan
nation," p. 183.
*^ The /ourik of the five villages of L. and C.
— " the fourth village, where the
Minnetarees live, and which is called Metaharta," p. 183 ;
" on the south side of
the same Knife river, half a mile above the Mahaha [village] and in the same
open plain with it is a village of the Minnetarees surnamed Metaharta," p.
198 : see also p. 1178.
" The tkird of the five villages of L. and C. — " the third village, which is
called Mahawha [or Mahaha or Maharhar] and where the Arwacahwas reside,"
p. 183 ;
" a village of Ahnahaways," p. 180 ;
" of the Wetersoon or Ahwahharways,"
p. 180 ;
" situated on a high plain at the mouth of Knife river, and is
the residence of the Ahnahaways, . . . called by the French Soulier Noir or
[Black] Shoe Indians ; by the MandansWattasoons," p. 197: see also p. 1178.
These Indians, whom Henry or his copyist miscalls
Sauiteurs, were known to
the French as Gens des Souliers, and so called by Lewis in his Statistical View,
1809, p. 20. They kept up a separate tribal organization for about 30 years
after Henry found them, and then merged in the Hidatsas. Their proper name
is Amahami. Their village was only about half a mile from Metaharta. The
locality of both is the present site of Stanton, Mercer Co.