and arrangements within and without the post. He then entered into a conspiracy to surprise the post and destroy the garrison, but as he was about to carry it into execution, Colonel Snelling, then in command, got information of it. Snelling promptly arrested Waneta, took him into the post, and put him through a sweating process which thoroughly naturalized him. Colonel Snelling took his British medals and flags away from him, destroyed them before his eyes, and compelled him to swear allegiance to the American flag. Waneta came out from the fort thoroughly reformed in his views, and for the rest of his life was as proud of his Americanism as he formerly had been of his English allegiance.
When Major Long, in 1823, was sent out by the government to establish the boundary line between the United States and Canada where the Red River crosses the line, Waneta met him at Big Stone Lake, where he had prepared a great ovation for the military. He was dressed for the occasion in a magnificent array of finery in which he had combined the most striking features of civilized and savage clothing. In 1825 he signed the trade and intercourse treaty at Fort Pierre, and a few weeks later, signed the boundary treaty at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. In 1832 Catlin found him at Fort Pierre, where he painted a fine likeness of him.
Waneta was easily the most able, and the most distinguished chief of all the Sioux nation of his period. He was shrewd, crafty, and diplomatic. After the conquest of the Rees in 1823, Waneta removed his home from the Elm River, in northern South Dakota, to the mouth
