This boat had a skeleton fn.me made of wood four feet wide, twenty feet long, and eighteen inches deep, and it took five elk hides to cover it.

As Lisa says : he put great activity into his operations, and went long distances alone into

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

the wilderness, and for long periods he was buried in the forest, or wandered about upon the plains. He introduced the "mammoth pompon," "the large bean." "the potato," and "the turnip." He loaned traps to the Indians, and tools, and made his habitations the refuge of those too old to follow the tribe.

"The Pompon," which he introduced flourished in the wilderness, and sometimes grew to the enormous size of one hundred and sixty pounds, but in these higher and drier altitudes its size was much less. The Pawnees planted it in the valley of Gonneville creek a hundred years ago, and the run out species are now called "wild pumpkins." The cowmen found them there and named the creek "Pumpkinseed creek," which they afterward shortened to the "Pumpkin creek, of song and story.

One large Pawnee village had heard of the fine buffalo ranges of western Nebraska, and after much "fuss and feathers" it was determined to move westward into the land of the Sioux. They knew that such a movement would entail conflicts with their hereditary enemy, hence no village of small proportions would hazard the undertaking.

In the village was one very old and neglected squaw, who, by silent consent and the custom of the tribe, was to be left behind. What cruel purpose or tradition originated this custom, I know not, but frequently the old and infirm, particularly squaws, were left behind, when villages moved, and when the meagre supply of food left them was exhausted, they generally died of starvation.