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Nothing mattered to this Iowa warrior, as he told Colonel McKenney, but waging war, killing one's enemies, stealing their horses, and taking prisoners. His skill and ruthlessness in battle and the contempt with which he viewed life, his own or his enemy's, had gained him his name. He was fifteen and a veteran of the tribal wars of the plains when he joined a large war party led by his brother White Cloud, an important war captain in the Iowa nation. Notchimine (or Nacheninga, No Heart of Fear) had no horse of his own so he rode double behind his brother. At dawn he swept into a Sioux villagefrom all sides. When White Cloud leaped from his horse to chase some prisoners, Notchimine took command of the raiders. Before the surprised Sioux could make a stand the Iowa had killed several and driven off their herd of horses. A later raid on the Osage was not so successful. The weary, disgruntled Iowa were returning home without scalps or prisoners to what they knew would be the taunts and jeers of the women and the elders of their villages, when they came upon the camp of a few Kansa (a Siouan tribe living northwest of the Osage on the Kansas River). White Cloud ordered an attack, and the Kansa braves and their families were killed and scalped. Notchimine worshiped war. No raideing party was too small, he told McKenney, he joined them all. He soon became a living legend and women sang songs about his greatest raid, a solitary strike at an Osage village. He returned with three scalps and fifty-six ponies. In his oral autobiography that he gave Colonel McKenney through an interpreter, the Iowa warrior emphasized the importance of dreams in waging war. "Previous to going out as a leader of a [war] party," McKenney wrote,"he dreamed of taking two prisoners; in the event, one of the enemy was taken, and one killed, which he deeemed a sufficient fulfilment." Dreams were so important, Notchimine told McKenney, that war chief frequently tried to mold events within the structure of their dreams. In 1836, when he was thirty-eight, Notchimine grew weary of war and bloodletting and visited the Osage with a peace proposal. He was a hated but respected enemy so the Osage called a council and listened to his proposals. His offer was refused. It was now either a choice of continuing to fight or seeking new ways to promote peace. The Iowa chose the latter. The following spring with the approval of his people he journeyed to St. Louis to ask General William Clark to arrange a peace betweeen the two tribes. Clark failed but agreed that Notchimine should go to Washington to seek the aid and advice of the Great Father. In 1837, a treaty was finally hammered out between representatives of the Osage and Iowa and signed in the War Department. As the Iowa calmly smoked his pipe and the interpreter translated, McKenney
took notes of the endless recital of bloody raids, scalping, killing of helpless
prisoners, and stealing horses. By now, after all his years of close association
with the tribes, the deadly ritual of primitive survival on the plains was all
too familiar to McKenney. He wrote:
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