OMAGUA, t.-mii'gwa. or CmmEvA. A famous and powerful tribe of Tupian stock (q.v.), formerly centring chiefly about the :Maranon (Amazon) from the Javary to the Ica, on the Perullrazil frontier. but now mostly retired to the headwaters of the Yapura and l'aupes. South eastern Colombia. Both names signify 'Flat heads,' in allusion to a custom practiced in the tribe. At the time of the Spanish conquest. the Omagua were reputed to be the richest and most civilized tribe east of the Cordilleras. with cities, temples. and stores of golden Ireasnre. Three siweessive attempts were made to conquer their country in 1536, 1:i41. and 1560, hut in each ease invaders acre 41riven hack with loss. In 1615 the Jesuit missionary Cujia en tered their territory. and after several years of hard work succeeded in gathering them into villages along the Amazon. Forty years later these mission villages numbered forty, all in flourishing, condition, and continued to prosper in spite of attacks by Portuguese slave-hunters, until the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Span ish colonies in 1767. The mission settlements were gradually broken up. and the Indians re tired to the forests and relapsed into their original condition.
They still maintain their reputation as a su perior tribe, being of tine physique and light complexion, intelligent, industrious, honest, kindly, and cleanly in house and person. They bury their dead in large earthen jars beneath the floors of their huts, the relatives wailing constantly for a month after the funeral. Young men are subjected to a whipping ordeal to try their fortitude, while girls are hung up in a net over a smoldering fire. They have. long since
abandoned the practice of bead-fiattening. Our knowledge of caoutchoue or india-rubber was derived first from this tribe.
OMAHA, 5'ma-lia. Au important Siouan tribe, formerly claiming an extensive territory on the west side of the Missouri, between the Platte and Niobrara, within the present limits of Nebraska, and now gathered, together with the Winnebago, upon a reservation in the north eastern part of that State. The name signifies 'upper-stream' people, in distinction from the Qua paw, o• 'down-stream' people. They speak a dialect of the same language used also by the Ponca, Qualm w, KaW, and Osage, from whom, according to their tradition, they sepa rated at no very distant period. They made a treaty of peace and alliance with the Pawnee in 1800, but were constantly at. war with the Sioux, from whom they repeatedly suffered until the States Government interfered and put a stop to hostilities. In spite of war and smallpox. they have held their own in popula tion, and number now about 1200, being slightly on the increase, while the Winnebago, on the contrary, are decreasing. Their agent reports them as prosperous and steadily improving in industry and civilized habit. The majority still occupy the circular long house, covered with earth, formerly common to the semi-sedentary tribes of the Missouri region.