ground whom they killed, and many more were wounded, some of whom afterwards died.
The Pillager chief was very much exasperated at the death of his two cousins, and he lost no time in collecting a war party to avenge them. His war-pipe and war-club were carried by fleet messengers from village to village of his people, to inform them of his intention, and inviting the warriors to join him. In the mean time a messenger came to him from a trading post on Red River, belonging to Col. Dickson, with a message from the Yankton chief Shappa, denying all participation in the late war party of his people, and appointing a day when he should meet him at the trading post for the purpose of smoking the peace pipe and strengthening good-will between their respective people. Flat Mouth chose thirty of his best warriors, and on the appointed day he arrived at the trading post on Red River, where he found four Frenchmen who had charge of the establishment. On the next day, the Yankton chief arrived, accompanied by only two men.
The warriors of Flat Mouth made demonstrations to kill them at once, but Flat Mouth ordered them to desist, as he did not wish "to sully the door-steps of a white man with blood." He refused to smoke from the proffered pipe-stem of the Dakota chief, and Shappa knew from this that his treachery was fully known, and his enemies had met to punish him. All night it rained and thundered heavily, and mingled with the roaring of the storm without, there arose the voice of the doomed chieftain, as he prayed and sang to the spirits of his belief for protection against the threatened danger. Early in the morning, Sha-wa-ke-shig, the principal warrior of Flat Mouth, asked his chief for permission to kill the three Dakotas. The Pillager chief answered: "You know that since the death of my cousins, my heart has been sore; the road which I have followed in coming here, is red with blood. The
