A number of lodges of the Yanktons were indeed waiting. They proved very friendly, and Captain Clark held a council with them. They even took Chief Sha-ha-ka by the hand and asserted that they were obeying the words of the great white father and were at peace with the Mandans. They said that as a token they had kept the flag-pole standing, by the big tree of the council ground below, where they had first talked with the white men. And sure enough, when the boats passed the spot opposite the mouth of the James River, the flag-pole showed plainly.
Soon another white man was met. He was James Airs, a trader on his way up from St. Louis, to the Sioux. Being so lately from the United States he gave the captains much news, and they sat up nearly all night with him.
Now the region was very familiar ground, to Peter. The Omaha village was close before. Soon after leaving Mr. Airs they sighted the bluff where Sergeant Charles Floyd had been buried. They landed, to pay the grave a visit, and found that the Indians had opened it. The captains ordered the earth filled in again. That night camp was made on the sand-sprit, at the old Omaha village—the very spot where the council had been held with Chief Little Thief and his Otoes and Missouris, and where Peter had "come aboard." How long ago that seemed!
The Omaha village was still deserted. In the morning Captain Clark called Peter.
