CHAPTER XII.
HISTORY OF THE FAMILY OF LE GROS FRAN~OIS.1
A Lewis and Clark Indian -A Catlin Indian-Tales of a traveler - Destroyed by his own good fortune - Progress of the feud - An c,utlawed desperado - Prowess of La Main - Things that sometimes happened at the trading posts.
HEN Messrs. Lewis and Clark made their voyage up V~L the Missouri, the only Assiniboins they met with numbered about sixty lodges of the Gems des Roches or
Stone Indians, who were the only band of this nation then inhabiting the upper Missouri region. The rest of the nation, about 1,500 lodges in all, resided on the plains of Red river and its tributaries, and traded altogether with the Hudson Bay Company. At the head and as chief of the small band above named was Wahemugga, or Iron Flint, surnamed by the Canadian voyageurs and traders Le Gros Frangois, a sturdy, bulky Indian, no doubt. Several gentlemen of the American Fur Company, now residing in St. Louis, have been well acquainted with this chief, who died some years ago, in an advanced age, near the Minnetaree, or Grosventre, village. He was the father of a numerous family and is supposed to have had fifty children by different wives. His children were scattered in the course of time through the different bands, composing the Assiniboin nation. About the time of his death there remained with him as follows: Wahjanjana, or Light, his oldest son, called by the whites Jackson, from his having visited the President of that name at Washington City. His second son was called Le Sucre, or Sweet. The third was named Bowundapa, or Broken Cloud; the fourth Nappana, or the Hand; the fifth Lakakeana, or Le Premier qui volle (the
1 From the Linton Album, pp. 118-124.