About 1820–1821, news of these sacrifices reached the East Coast; it caused a sensation among European Americans. Before this, US Indian agents had counseled Pawnee chiefs to suppress the practice, as they warned of how it would upset the American settlers, who were arriving in ever greater number. Superintendent William Clark in St. Louis had pointed out the government's view on the ceremony to a visiting Pawnee delegation already in 1811. Slowly, a Skidi faction that opposed the old rite developed. Two Skidi leaders, Knife Chief and his young relative Petalesharo, spearheaded the reformist movement. Knife Chief ransomed at least two captives before a sacrifice. Petalesharo cut loose a Comanche captive from the scaffold in 1817 and carried her to safety. For this, he received lasting fame among the whites. Indian agent John Dougherty and a number of influential Pawnees tried in vain to save the life of a captive Cheyenne girl on 11 April 1827. For any individual, it was extremely difficult to try to change a practice tied so closely to Pawnee belief in the renewal of life for the tribe. In June 1818, the "Missouri Gazette" of St. Louis contained the account of a sacrifice. The last known sacrifice was of "Haxti", a 14-year-old Oglala Lakota girl, on 22 April 1838.