Thousands of Indians, with different traditions, backgrounds, and languages lived along this stretch of the Missouri River, and they were often at war with one another.  The Middle Missouri Indian world that Lewis and Clark entered had been changed very recently by smallpox epidemics that killed at least half of the total native population in the area of the Platte River.

The largest of these nations was the Pawnee, who once numbered as many as 25,000 people and are believed to be the oldest continuous residents of the Great Plains, settling there about 1150 AD.  In 1804, their population was down to 4,000, due to disease and almost constant warfare with the Sioux, Osage, Kansa, and Cheyenne.  So many Pawnee were captured and sold that their tribal name became a synonym for "slave." 

The Pawnee spoke the rare Caddoan language (along with the related Wichita and Arikara tribes in this region), hunted buffalo, and lived in agricultural villages of large dome-roofed earth houses dug into the ground.  They were divided into three branches: the Skidi or Grand Pawnee ("Pania"), along the south bank of the Platte about 50 miles from the river's mouth, and the Loup ("Wolf") and the Republican Pawnee – both of the latter named after the rivers they lived on.

Lewis and Clark were not able to find the Pawnee or many other area Indians to talk with in this season of empty villages because whole tribes had traveled westward for the annual summer buffalo hunt.  Not until 28 July did the captains talk to the first Indian since leaving St. Charles!   The Expedition's trusted Shawnee-French scout, Drouillard or "Drewyer," found a Missouria Indian, "one of the few remaining of that nation," while he was hunting for the Corps.  The next day, the French boatman, "La Liberte," was sent to the nearby Oto-Missouria village to invite the chiefs to a "parley" (official meeting or council) with Lewis and Clark.

The Oto/Otoe ("Wah-toh-tana") lived with their refugee Missouria kinsmen about 30 miles up the Platte from its mouth.  They had adapted to large Pawnee-style earth lodges, about 40 feet in diameter, since reaching the Plains from their original northern Great Lakes homeland.  They were related to the Winnebago, who remained in the north country, and the Ioway across the Missouri River, as well as the Missouria.  The Oto had split with the Missouria generations before over a Romeo and Juliet-type of love affair between a Missouria chief's daughter and an Oto suitor.  In 1804 the two tribes had a total population of about 800 (200-250 of them warriors), living together in harmony, while keeping their separate tribal names and leaders.

It was fitting that Lewis and Clark held the Expedition's first diplomatic meeting with the Missouria, whom they considered the original, "real proprietors" of the Lower Missouri River.  On 2-3 August, an Oto-Missouria delegation of chiefs, bearing gifts of watermelons, met with the American captains at a site they named "Council Bluffs" (near later Fort Atkinson, Nebraska – not the Iowa city of that name).  The captains paraded their Corps, gave gifts, and honored the Indian leaders with Jefferson peace medals or printed certificates from "the great chief of the Seventeen nations" (U.S. states).  They promised more presents from St. Louis merchants, a regular fur trade, and protection from the American government if the Oto agreed to make peace with their Indian neighbors. 

As late as 19 August, Oto-Missouria chiefs continued to visit with the Corps of Discovery as it proceeded slowly up the Missouri River.  Their names should be remembered because they were the first Indians that Lewis and Clark parleyed with in the West:

      Main Oto chiefs – Little Thief, Big Horse

      Lesser Oto chiefs – Iron Eyes, Big Ax, Big Blue Eyes,
                                  Brave Man, White Horse

      Missouria chiefs – Crow's Head, Black Cat, Hospitality