Thomas Jefferson Papers
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Enclosure: Indian Populations in Louisiana District, 19 November 1804

Enclosure: Indian Populations in Louisiana District

Aperçu de la Population des differentes Tribus sauvages du District de La Louisiane

Nombre d’hommes portant armes
Arcansas 130
Loup ou Delaouois 100
chawnon 100
Péorias 50
Sakias 500
Ayouas 250
Renards 450
Sioux 12,000
Grands Ozages 1200
Petits Ozages 300
Cancés 350
hotos 120
missoury 80
Panis 500
Republique 300
Loups 400
Mahas 300
Poncas 250
Mandanne 400
chayanne 400
Ricaras 500
Gros Ventre 700
Padodos 300
Laytanne qui bordent les Côte d’espagne, environs 15000
 34,680

MS (DLC: TJ Papers, 145:25163); in a clerk’s hand.

In a letter of 7 Nov. to Gallatin, Chouteau also sent this Aperçu, or estimate, of the number of fighting men in Indian nations in upper Louisiana, as well as a survey of the annual amount of merchandise needed to trade with the largest tribes (Nasatir, Before Lewis and Clark description begins A. P. Nasatir, ed., Before Lewis and Clark: Documents Illustrating the History of the Missouri, 1785-1804, St. Louis, 1952, 2 vols. description ends , 2:758-60).

Arcansas: the Quapaws. The chawnon were likely a group of Shawnees settled west of the Mississippi River. The group listed as the Gros Ventre were more likely the Hidatsas, as French traders had for some time confused the nations. The Padodos were probably a band of Apaches living on the plains, while Laytanne was a French name for the Comanches (Sturtevant, Handbook description begins William C. Sturtevant, Handbook of North American Indians, Washington, D.C., 1978- , 15 vols. description ends , 13:511-12, 515, 518, 564, 693, 903, 939; 15:223-4, 631, 634; Vol. 42:9-11).

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