he most
numerous were the Dakotas, comprising the Sioux, Poncas, Omahas, Iowas,
Kaws, Otoes, and Missouris. From the headwaters of the Mississippi their
territory extended westward on both sides of the Missouri for a thousand
miles. One of their tribes, the Winnebagos, had crossed the Mississippi
and pressed into the region between that river and Lake Michigan.

[Sidenote: The Minnitarees and Mandans.]

A second group, very small in numbers but extremely interesting to the
student of ethnology, comprises the Minnitarees and Mandans on the upper
Missouri.[35] The remnants of these tribes now live together in the same
village, and in personal appearance, as well as in intelligence, they
are described as superior to any other red men north of New Mexico.
From their first discovery, by the brothers La Verendrye in 1742, down
to Mr. Catlin's visit nearly a century later, there was no change in
their condition,[36] but shortly afterward, in 1838, the greater part of
them were swept away by small-pox. The excellence of their horticulture,
the framework of their houses, and their peculiar religious ceremonies
early attracted attention. Upon Mr. Catlin they made such an impression
that he fancied there must be an infusion of white blood in them; and
after the fashion of those days he sought to account for it by a
reference to the legend of Madoc, a Welsh prince who was dimly imagined
to have sailed to America about 1170. He thought that Madoc's party
might have sailed to the Mississippi and founded a colony which ascended
that river and the Ohio, built the famous mounds of the Ohio valley, and
finally migrated to the upper Missouri.[37] To this speculation was
appended the inevitable list of words which happen to sound somewhat
alike in Mandan and in Welsh. In the realm of free fancy everything is
easy. That there was a Madoc who went somewhere in 1170 is quite
possible, but as shrewd old John Smith said about it, "where this place
was no history can show."[38] But one part of Mr. Catlin's speculation
may have hit somewhat nearer the truth. It is possible that the
Minnitarees or the Mandans, or both, may be a remnant of some of those
Mound-builders in the Mississippi valley concerning whom something will
presently be said.

[Footnote 35: An excellent description of them, profusely
illustrated with coloured pictures, may be found in Catlin's
_North American Indians_, vol. i. pp. 66-207, 7th ed., Londo