believe, however, there were occasions when the Winnebago, Omaha, and Ponca tribes hunted here also.

They had a form of religion (notable in their uncivilized state). They believed in a "Great Spirit" and in some of their ceremonies it even appeared that some knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Savior of all mankind, was not unknown to them.

There was, however, one trait for which the white man was in part to blame and which only he could subdue; that was, that when they met anyone other than from their tribe, such a person was an enemy until proven otherwise. The first impulse was to kill and then, if possible, ask questions afterwards.

One historian of Indian lore relates that the Pawnees, after having a battle with the Wichitas on their trek north from the southwest where they probably originated 200 or more years ago, found that the Wichitas spoke somewhat the same dialect, thereby indicating that they were at one time "blood brothers." Then after battles between the Pawnees and the Omahas, Winnebagos and Poncas, they too became friends. This was not true of the Sioux, Ogalalas, and Cheyennes. The Pawnees enlisted with the U. S. troops to fight the Cheyennes in 1869 under the leadership of Major Frank North of Columbus. A book written by Donald F. Danker, titled "The Journal of an Indian Fighter," mentions Chief Peta-Le-Shar-ru, who was the Indian Chief who surrendered to General Thayer and Governor Black on the site just northwest of our town in 1859.

We talk about the savage and uncivilized Indian who first had to meet his enemies on the field of battle. How much removed from this are we civilized people of the 20th century? First, we have to meet our "enemies" in a bloody war, then the victor helps bind the wounds of the vanquished to strengthen bonds of friendship.

The earliest recorded incident in the immediate area of Battle Creek occurred in July, 1859, as taken from a story found in a history of early Nebraska.

During the spring and in the early part of the summer of that year, the settlers, particularly in the Platte Valley and about the Elkhorn River, as well as other places, were subject to depredations and outrages by an aggravated character of the Pawnee Indians. For a season, no one within their reach was safe in person, habitation or estate. The citizens residing in districts not very thickly settled, were exposed to personal violence and injury, and their property not only secretly stolen, but boldly taken or driven away in the presence of themselves and their families. Houses were broken into and plundered of their contents, and in some cases families were driven from their homes. Post offices were entered by violence and the mail of the United States either robbed or destroyed. On June 21, 1959, a band of 700 or 800 Pawnees stole a hundred head of cattle on the Elkhorn near Fontanelle. The next day, near West Point, they stole an ox.

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