The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1855-06-23
Prom the cOrfsspOndsncsO Ofths Commercial AurOfa)
Western Iowa, Nebraska, COueil
Bluffs, Omaha Indians.


ire rusticating beyond the "muddy water"
When we were boys the Yankees stared at
Is az curious specimens of the Buckeye
State. But here we breathe the pure winds
that sweep over a thousand miles Of prarie, |
before you snuff the same breeze in Ohio
They come to us fresh from the tops Of the
Rocky mountains, and they fan US grandly. |
Palm Leafs and feathers, so necessary tot
the pentler sex in the sweet vale of Muskin- |
gum, are useless encumbrances here. /
have not seen one for five hundred miles
Heaven fans the matron and the maiden on
these Elysians plains. Ht
The western part of Iowa is much more bro
ken than the eastern, and a great deal less
level land than through illinois or Indiana.
Timber becomes scaroer too, as the country
becomes hilly, and many years must elapse
before the prarie hills can be made available
by speculators. Only on streams is Valua-
BILE wood to be found. None of these be-
tween the Des Monies and Missouri are as
large as the licking, few larger than Tim
Der run. .. .- ....
We gathered many boguets Of flowers by
the way, embracing the Pea, which is large
and snowy, covering an arch of six or eight
inches in length, the white and pink
Sweet William, white Morning Glories,
Dandelions, Butter Cups, Lark Spurs, sew
eral kinds Of single Roses, Red Root and
Mocasin The last is curiosity rare even
here, and as pretty as a Tulip. The BIOS
som on the shrub is called Red Root or Tea
Plant is of the same character with the Snow
Ball, and equally pretty, though not near so
large, and the bush only about two feet
high abounds on the highest prairies.
We gathered wild Pepper and Tongue
Grass along the road, identical in kind with
that you cultivate, but much larger and more
luxuriant. Cherry should import the seed
Plums hang thickly on thousands of bush
es not eight feet high, and several varieties
of cherries grow on shrubs even smaller
Young America displays precocity in her
fruits and fertile soils as in the early man.
hood Of her western boys. Every thing on
these mountains of ashes and mari must
grow fast or get out of the way for some
thing else to grow. Cities, villages and
country grow as if by magic.
Council Bluff is laid out on the very
toughest piece of ground ever thrown into
chaotic confusion of hill and vale, BY fire
or flood. Located among the Bluffs of the
Missouri, and the chief business street
through narrow, crooked, muddy valley,
but little elevated above a swampy plain of
three miles between it and the river. Coun-
Gil Bluffs is pre-eminently the most repul-
sive site for town or city it has been my
lot to visit.
Omaha City in Nebraska, opposite and
four miles from G. B.; is laid out upon the
southern point of beautiful plain, about
seven miles long by an average of one mile
in width and fifteen oil twenty feet above
high water mark. Enclosing this plain, in
an elongated elipsis, are a succession OF
prairie eminences, reached by ascent; of
various grades from gentle slope to the
steepest bluff, and offering tempting allure
ments for handsome residences, where can
be had most magnificent view of the riv-
er Omaha, Florence, Council Bluff, the
plain below, the bleak and barren, Jagged
points in Iowa and the surrounding country
in Nebraska. The residences are rather
primitive in appearance being of all grades
from Turf to brick. The first boarding
house of last year was built of prairie sod
and still stands comfortable shelter from
the ''stormy winds that blow" Several fair
hotels entertain the crowd that passes over
"Big Muddy" the Indian name for Missonrij
and all are overfilled. Boarding at the first
class Hotel of this city is fifteen dollars per
week, for man and wife with one small
room.
The entire tribe of Omaha Indians pass.
ed northward to-day, toward their future
home on the Black Bin ILLS, a hundred
miles up the river. We drove to their camp
No pen could adequately describe the squa.
lid misery displayed in their camp, and on
their march. The women struck the tents
which uniformly y consist of eight poles, lock.
ed together at the top and forming q cone
covered with buffalo skins, the hair inside
Ponies, mules and women carried on theil
backs the entire worldly wealth of tribe,
including kitchen and parlor furniture ant
all the children under three or four years
old. Mountains of leather rags were piled
on the ponies, twelve or fifteen feet long,
lashed to the sides ofthe pile SO that the
smaller ends dragged on either side upon the
ground. Across these poles, behind the
mule or pony, were tied ropes or skins to
form litter for the sick or lame, in few
cases. Fortunately most of them were able
to walk and carry load heavy enough for
an ass. Savage life degrades the man to
brute and crushes woman beneath intolera.
Bile burthens. Christianity elevates all, but
especially exalts the gentler sex to her Gre.
ator's intended lot. Our Government should
adopt more liberal, benevolent and wiser
policy toward these miserable remnants oi
70 frih J
common sense, and with true benevo)ence
should be supplied in sufficient numbers to
train the boys from infancy to manhood in
agricultural life. The process of civilizing
is necessarily slow, but under the genial in.
fluence of Christian benevolence as certain
as it is slow. The cursed love of money
engendered and nursed in the white mans
heart, elhbltters life which might be made
sweet to the poor Indian. A day of retri-
button comes. Driven from the valley oi
the Mississippi and the slopes of the Pacific;
they are sorrowfully pacing their march to
final destruction, when they meet on the arid
wastes of our western desert. For that an.
Inhalation the cupidity of the white man ia
responsible. Begging, lying, stealing, SEN
sual, devilish, they drag away their scanty
pittance of wretched existance on earth and
exhaust a worthless life of weary emptiness
at the gate ofa tomb all dark with the gloom.
|y superstition of ages. Would that thai
path were illumined by the sun of righte.
BUSINESS to compensate for the darkness OF
a degraded life before. In all the elements
Of true greatness the unhappy African as he
lands in chains on our shores, greatly
excels the Gebased and brutal Omaha
G.B.