by
KRISTEN LOKEMOEN
There
was never truly an easy day for Meriwether Lewis, William
Clark and the other men who comprised the Corps of
Discovery. There was nothing easy about tugging heavily
loaded boats upstream against the current, constantly
battling the elements, including the always loathsome
mosquitoes. Still, the first months of the Lewis and Clark
Expedition had gone well. Aside from the death of Sgt.
Charles Floyd, there had been no major catastrophes. The
captains and their men enjoyed the new country through
which they were traveling, and their initial encounters
with native tribes had been peaceful and positive.
It was now early September and the Corps had entered the
High Plains and what is now northern Nebraska. Here Lewis
and Clark encountered a small, chattering animal. Sgt. John
Ordway wrote in his journal on September 7, 1804: "Shields
killed a prarie dog, which was cooked for the Capts dinner.
The Captains went out with Some men of the party to See the
Ground covered with their holes. They attempted to drown
Several of them out of their holes, but they caught but one
which they brought in alive. They are a curious animal
about the Size of a little dog. They will stand on their
hind feet and look and chatter."
A matter of growing concern as they headed into the country
of the Teton Sioux was the prolonged absence of Pvt. George
Shannon. The youngest member of the Corps had been missing
since August 26, when he had gone out hunting. John Colter
and George Drouillard were sent to search for him, but were
unsuccessful. Aside from their worries for Shannon himself,
the captains knew that they would need every man armed and
ready when they met the Sioux.
The inevitable meeting with the Teton Sioux finally came
about on September 23, when three teenage boys swam across
the river to check out the white men's camp. As the corps
was preparing to leave the next morning, Colter's horse was
stolen by members of the tribe. The captains reacted with
some degree of anger, telling the five braves that they had
come in peace, but were not afraid to fight.
That afternoon the keelboat and pirogues docked near what
is now Pierre, South Dakota. The men were put on full
alert, with most of the party kept aboard the boats in case
a hasty getaway became necessary.
The council with the Teton Sioux was held on the morning of
September 25, aided by the interpreting efforts of
Cruzatte, who had been convinced to join the expedition
after it had already headed up the Missouri.
As had been the case with the Oto and Yankton Sioux, the
Tetons were greatly disappointed in what they were given by
the white men, and they were much more vocal about it. They
demanded one of the pirogues loaded with goods in return
for allowing the expedition to continue upriver. One of the
chiefs became especially belligerent and angered Clark
enough that he drew his sword and ordered the men to arms.
Lewis was on the keelboat, where the men loaded musket
balls into the swivel gun, put up the breastworks and made
ready to fight. Lewis held a lighted taper over the swivel
gun, as hundreds of Indians faced him from the bank,
including three braves holding onto the keelboat's towline.
Another Indian hugged the mast.
It was one of those moments on which history turns. Had the
standoff ended in violence, the progression of westward
expansion might well have been very different. Black
Buffalo, the head Teton chief, was the first to act,
telling his braves to let go of the boat. Clark, however,
was furious with what he considered personal insults from
another chief, known as the Partisan.
Black Buffalo and two of his warriors asked to spend the
night on the keelboat. They were given permission and, at
least for the moment, tensions ebbed.
The next day the Corps of Discovery visited the lodge of
Black Buffalo. A dance was held in the Indian camp that
night as a way to entertain the captains and their crew.
The Sioux's scalp dance celebrated their recent victory
over the Omaha tribe. They had taken many women and
children as prisoners.
As Clark was returning to the keelboat after a second night
of dancing, the pirogue he was in swung wildly and severed
the keelboat's anchor. Clark shouted for hands to help. The
Partisan thought that the Omaha's were attacking and soon
the bank was lined with two hundred warriors. Lewis, on
shore, feared that the Indians were about to attack, but
finally, the Indians realized what had really happened, and
another tense moment passed without a shot being fired.
The expedition prepared to continue upriver the next day,
but the Teton Sioux were still reluctant to let them pass
without receiving more presents. Warriors again held the
bowline of the keelboat and angry words were exchanged.
Black Buffalo asked for more tobacco and Lewis refused on
principle. The situation escalated to the point that Clark
lit the taper for the swivel gun and threatened to use it.
To defuse the situation and get his party moving again,
Lewis finally threw a few carrots of tobacco onto the
riverbank. The Sioux let go of the keelboat's towline and
the Corps of Discovery proceeded on.
While Lewis and Clark had managed to avoid armed conflict
with the Teton Sioux, it was clear that the meeting had not
gone well. What that would mean for other Americans coming
upriver or for the expedition when it came back downriver
was a cause for some concern.
With the Sioux behind them, the Corps of Discovery settled
into beautiful fall days on the river. The weather had
cooled, early frosts had killed off the mosquitoes and
hunting was good. Lewis and his dog, Seaman, would
sometimes walk 30 miles a day, as the captain investigated
the new terrain and the wildlife that it held. He also
passed many abandoned Indian villages, once home to the
Arikara, whose numbers had been decimated by smallpox.
Where the Arikara still lived, Lewis and Clark visited with
the chiefs and persuaded one of them to travel upriver with
the party to council with the Mandans, with whom the
Arikara were at war. They reached the Mandan villages, west
of present day Bismarck, North Dakota, in late October.
Here the Corps of Discovery would build a fort and dig in
for the winter. Here, during that winter, they would meet a
teenage Indian girl who would later save their lives. Her
name was Sakakawe (more commonly known as Sacajawea.)
Kristen
Lokemen is a staff writer and travel specialist for Show-Me
Missouri. She assisted in conducting several tours of the
Lewis and Clark Trail from Missouri to the Oregon
coast.