Pike holds a "grand council" with the…
September 1806 CE
At this council, one of Melgares's Spanish flags is displayed at the chief's lodge. Pike urges the Pawnees to haul it down and replace it with that of the United States. When the Pawnee chiefs demurred,
...I again reiterated the demand for the flag, adding "that it was impossible for the nation to have two fathers; that they must either be the children of the Spaniards, or acknowledge their American father". After a silence of some time an old man rose, went to the door, took down the Spanish flag, brought it and laid it at my feet; he then received the American flag, and elevated it on the staff which had lately borne the standard of his Catholic Majesty. (Coues, Elliott (1895). The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike. Reprinted by Ross & Haines, Inc., 1965. p. 415).
This is favorably received by the Osages and Kanzas, but apparently causes distress to the Pawnees.
Perceiving this, Pike returns the Spanish flag to them, asking only that they not fly it during his party's stay in the village.
Pike had planned for the Pawnees to guide him to the Comanches.
However, upon his arrival at the village, he had been informed that the two tribes are at war.
When Pike expresses his intention of continuing inland toward the headwaters of the Arkansas, Sharitarish urges him to turn back: he had prevented the Spanish from going further into American territory, and would likewise resist an American movement toward Spanish land.
Pike refuses to be intimidated.
The Pawnees relented, though unwillingly and with much dissent.