History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 8

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198

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This chief became frightened later at the narrow escape of the boat from upsetting caused by high wind and when we landed took his gun and went ashore, telling us we would see no more Tetons. We gave him a blanket, knife and some tobacco and he disappeared. We camped on a sandbar near the north, having come 2012 miles.

CHAPTER V LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION (Concluded)

CHEYENNE RIVER ; HOW NAMED-MEET A WHITE TRADER-THIE BLACK MOUNTAINS -CHEYENNE INDIANS-FRENCIIMAN TAKES PASSAGE-AN ARICKARA VILLAGE -MR. GRAVELINES-TIIE NEGRO, YORK, ATTRACTS ADMIRATION-INDIANS DO NOT WIIIP CHILDREN-CAPTURING GOATS-INDIANS NUMEROUS-ENTER MAN- DAN COUNTRY-MR. M CRACKEN-THE MINATAREES-SEARCH FOR WINTER QUARTERS-A PRAIRIE FIRE, AND AN INDIAN MOTHIER S PRESENCE OF MIND- WINTER CAMP LOCATED-FORT MANDAN-WINTER EMPLOYMENTS, PASTIMES, VISITORS-LEWIS AND CLARK'S CAMPS.

October Ist was cold and windy. At three miles we passed a large island in the middle of the river and two miles beyond a river coming from the southwest about four hundred yards wide, but discharging very little water. It takes its rise in the second range of the Cote Noire, or Black Mountains. It is occasionally called Dog River under a mistaken opinion that its French name was Chien, but its true appellation is Cheyenne and it derives this title from the Cheyenne Indians who lived on the Cheyenne, a branch of the Red River of Lake Winnipeg. The invasion of the Sioux drove them westward; in their progress they halted on the southern side of the Missouri, below the Warrecome, where their ancient fortifications still exist ; the same impulses drove them to the heads of the Cheyenne where they now rove, and occasionally visit the Ricaras. They number 300 men. This part of the river has but little timber, the lands are rich. As we proceeded we passed two ereeks on the south which are named Sentinel Creek and Lookout Creek. At a distance of sixteen miles we camped on a sandbar. On the opposite shore we saw a house among the willows and a boy to whom we called and brought him on board. He was a young Frenchman in the employ of Mr. Valle, a trader, who was here pursuing his commerce with the Sioux. October 2d Mr. Valle visited us in the morning and sailed with us for two miles. Ile is one of three French traders who are awaiting the Sioux, who are coming down from the Ricaras to trade. Mr. Valle passed the last winter 300 leagues up the Cheyenne under the Black Mountains. That river he represented as very rapid, liable to sudden swells, the bed and shores formed of coarse gravel and difficult of ascent even by canvas. One hundred leagues from its mouth it divides into two branches, one coming from the north and the other at forty leagues from its junction enters the Black Mountains.

The Cheyennes reside chiefly on the head of the river and steal horses from the Spanish settlements, a plundering excursion which they performed in a month's time. The Black Mountains, Valle represents as very high, covered with great quantities of pine and in some parts the snow remains during the summer. Its animals are goats, white bear, prairie cocks. and a species of animal resembling a small elk with large circular horns. We took a meridian altitude a short distance from Lookout Bend and found the latitude to be 44º 19' 36". This bend is twenty miles around and two miles across. In the afternoon we heard a shot fired and observed some Indians on a hill. One of them came to the shore and wished us to land, as there were twenty lodges of Yanktons, or Boisbrules, there. We declined, referring them to Mr. Durion. We passed a long island on the north and eneamped on a sandbar in the middle of the river, having made twelve miles. We were not able to hunt today. There are so many Indians in the neighborhood we were in constant expectation of being attacked and therefore forced to keep the party together. October 3d, at noon, we landed on a bar to examine our boats and found the mice had been cutting the bags of corn and spoiled some of our clothes. At eight miles we encamped on a sandbar and at daylight the next morning started to retrace our sailing three miles, having got into the wrong side of the river, where there was no practicable ontlet. The Indians were seen in small numbers. They wanted us to land and seemed willing, had they been more numerous, to molest us. One of them gave three yells and fired a ball ahead of the boat. We took no notice of it and landed for break- fast on the south. An Indian swam across and begged for powder. We gave him only tobacco. We made twelve miles and camped on a bar. A white frost fell and the next

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

morning, October 5th, was Very cold. Passed a large creek from the south, which we named White Bramt Creek, trom seeing several white brants among flocks of colored ones. Camped on a sandbar at a distance of twenty miles. Our game was a deer, prairie wolf and some goats. October oth was a cold morning. At eight miles we came to a willow island on the nerth, opposite a point of timber, where there were many large stones near the middle of the river which seemed to have been washed from the hills and high plains on both sides or driven from a chstance down the stream. At twelve miles we halted for dinner at a village which we supposed to have belonged to the Ricaras. It is situated in a low plain on the river and consists of eighty lodges of an octagon form, neatly covered with earth, placed as closely together as possible and picketed round. The skin canoes, mats, buckets and articles 01 turmture found in the lodges induce us to suppose it had been left in the spring. We found three varieties of squashes growing in the village and killed an elk and saw two wolves. At 14', miles we stopped for the night at Otter Creek on the north. Geese, ducks, etc., are abundant.

Sunday, October 7, 1804, was cold and rainy. At two miles we came to the month of a river called Sawawkana or Park River ( Moreau). Its sources are in the first range of the Black Mountains. Shortly after we saw two Teton Indians, who asked us for something to cat, which we gave them. They were going to visit the Ricaras. At eighteen miles we passed Growse Island, where there is an old village. We camped at twenty-two miles. Saw tracks of white bear near Park River. Next day, the 8th, we halted on the south and took the meridian altitude, which is 45 39' 5" north latitude. Here we came to a river on the south called by the Ricaras Wectacopas ( Grand River). It rises in the Black Mountains and is 120 yards wide. Two miles above is a small river called Maropa. A mile from the Maropa a number of Ricara Indians came out to see us. We took a Frenchman on board, who accom- pamed us to camp on the north after sailing twelve miles. Captain Lewis with four of the party visited the Ricara village, which was situated near the center of an island near the southern shore, and contamed fifty lodges. The island is three miles long and covered with fields in which the Indians raise corn, beans and potatoes. Several Frenchmen are living with them and particularly a Mr. Gravelines, who had acquired their language, and who returned with Captain Lewis to the boats. On the 9th the wind was so high and cold we coukl not assemble the Indians in council. We received visits from some of the chiefs and gave them presents. Their names were Kakawissana, or Lighting Crow; Pocasse, or Hay ; Piahato, Eagle's Feather. Notwithstanding the high waves two or three squaws rowed to us in little canoes made of a single buffalo skin stretched over a frame of boughs interwoven like a basket. The object which appeared to astonish the Indians was Captain Clark's negro servant, York, a remarkably stout, strong negro. They had never seen a being of that color and therefore flocked around him to examine the extraordinary monster. He told them, by way of amusement, he had once been a wild animal, and caught and trained by his master. He showed them feats of strength that made him more terrible than we wished. The 10th of October was a fine day, and after breakfast we dispatched Mr. Gravelines and Mr. Tabeau, two French traders, to invite the chiefs of the Ricaras to a conference. They assembled at i o'clock and after the usual ceremonies we addressed them as we had the Sioux, after which we made them the customary presents. The Ricaras would accept no whiskey nor taste any, the example of the traders who bring it to them having disgusted them. One of the chiefs remarked that he was surprised their father would present them a liquor which would make them fools. The council being over the chiefs retired to consult on their answer, and the next morning, the 11th, we again met in council at our camp. The grand chief made a short speech of thanks for the advice we had given and promised to follow it, adding that the door was now open and no one dared to shut it, and that we might depart whenever we pleased, alluding to the treatment we had received from the Sioux. 'They brought us corn, beans and dried squashes, and we gave them a steel mill which pleased them very much. We spent the day with these Indians and the following day counciled with the chief and warriors of the second village, who requested us to take one of their chiefs up to the Mansions and negotiate a peace between the two nations. We then repaired to the third village, where similar ceremonies were had. We explained the magnitude and power of the United States and three chiefs accompanied us aboard the boat, to whom we gave some sugar, salt and some glass. Two of them then left us and the third, Ahketahnasha, er Chief of the Town, accompanied us to the Mandans. We then left these Indians, who croweled to the shore to take leave of us, and after 71/2 miles landed on the north side and encamped. These Ricaras were originally colonies of the Pawnees and lived below the Cheyenne, but had been distressed by the Sioux until they emigrated to the Mandans in 1507, but a new war ensued between them and the Mandans, and they came down the river to their present position. (Very near the boundary line between North and South Dakota. ) They cultivate Indian corn, beans, pumpkins, watermelons, squashes and a species of tobacco peculiar to themselves. Their commerce is chiefly with the traders, who supply them with goods in exchange for pelters which they procure not from their own hunting but in exchange for corn from their less civilized neighbors. They express a disposition to keep at prace with all nations, but they are well armed with fusees and being much under the influence of the Sioux, who exchanged the goods they got from the British for Ricara corn, their minds are sometimes poisoned and they cannot be depended upon. Mr. Grave- Ines tells us that the Yankton. or Jacques. River rises about forty miles northeast of this place. Our visitors left us on the morning of the 13th except the chief, his brother and one

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

squaw. We made eighteen miles and encamped on the north near a timbered lone plain. On Sunday, the 14th, we set out in a rain. At five miles we came to a crest on the south which we named Piahato, or Eagle's Feather, in honor of the third chief of the Ricaras. After dinner we stopped on a sandbar and executed the sentence of a court-martial which inflicted corporal punishment on one of the soldiers. This operation affected the Indian chief very sensibly, for he cried aloud during the punishment. We explained the offense and the reason for it. He acknowledged that examples were necessary, and that he himself had given them by punishing with death, but his nation never whipped even children from their birth.

We encamped in a cove on the south, having made twelve miles. On the 15th met a num- ber of Ricara encampments, halted and exchanged presents at different camps. Made ten miles and encamped near the Indians on the north. The squaws left us at this camp. The next morning at seven miles a river came in from the north named Warreconne, or Elk Shed Their Horns. An island here is called Carp Island by Evans, a former trader. As we proceeded there were great numbers of goats on the banks of the river ; and we soon after saw large flocks of them in the water; they had gradually been driven into the river by the Indians, who now lined the shore to prevent their escape and were now firing on them, while sometimes boys went into the river and killed them with sticks. We counted fifty-eight which they had killed. We also killed some, then passing the Indians encamped at 141/2 miles on the south. The Indians flocked into our camp, made a feast, and we had music and merriment until quite late. On the 17th the wind was strong . we made six miles and stopped to hunt goats. Mr. Gravelines, explaining the abundance of these animals, says they migrate in the, spring to the plains east of the Missouri, returning to their haunts in the Black Mountains in the fall. Our latitude today was 46° 23' 57". The next day after sailing three miles we reached the mouth of Cannon Ball River. Its name is derived from the round large stones in the river and in the bluffs above. Its channel is 140 yards wide and it comes in from the south, rising in the Black Mountains. October 18th we made thirteen miles and encamped on a sandbar. Goats, buffalo and elk are seen in great number.

Friday, the 19th. Fine morning. Set sail with southeast wind. The creeks running into the Missouri are all impregnated with salts. In walking along the shore we counted fifty-two herds of buffalo in a single view. Encamped at 1716 miles on the north, opposite to the uppermost of a number of round hills. The chief says the Calumet bird lives in the holes in these hills. On a point of a hill ninety feet above the plain are the remains of an old village ; this, our chief tells us, is the remains of an old Mandan village and are the first ruins we have seen of that nation since ascending the Missouri.

The 20th made twelve miles and encamped on the south near a vein of stone coal of inferior quality. Passed the ruins of another Mandan village covering six or eight acres, and great numbers of buffalo and elk; we also wounded a white bear and saw some fresh tracks of those animals which are twice as large as the track of a man. On the 21st, Sunday, it began to snow at daylight and continued till afternoon. We set out early, and soon passed a large lone oak tree about two miles from the river on the north which the Indians hold in great veneration because it has withstood the prairie fires while all the other trees have been destroyed. The Indians ascribe it to extraordinary powers. One of their ceremonies is to make a hole in the skin of their necks, pass a string through it and fasten one end by a knot, the other end is tied to the body of the tree. After remaining so attached for some time they think they become braver. Another Mandan village was passed the following day early, and at 7 o'clock we came to a camp of eleven Teton Sioux, who are almost perfectly naked, having only a piece of skin or cloth around the middle, while we are suffering with cold. They are a war party, going to or returning from the Mandan country. We passed two Mandan villages today and encamped at twelve miles on the south. Beaver are abundant. There are nine of these deserted Mandan villages in a span of twenty miles on either side of the river. The 23rd made thirteen miles to encamp on the south

Wednesday, October 24th, at four miles, found one of the grand chiefs of the Mandans with five lodges of his people on an island to the north on a hunting excursion. He met his enemy, the Ricara chief, with great ceremony and smoked with him. The grand chief and his brother came on board our boat for a time. We proceeded and camped on the north at seven miles and below the old village of the Mandans Here four Mandans came down and our Ricara chief returned with them, from which we augur favorably of their pacific views. The 25th was cold. Passed several deserted villages of both Mandans and Ricaras. The river seemed filled with obstructions. Saw Mandan Indians on the banks but could not land. En- camped after making eleven miles. Our Ricara chief joined us here with our Indian com- panion. On the 26th we set out early. after putting our Ricara chief ashore to join the Mandans, who are in great numbers along the shore. We went on to the camp of the grand chiefs. four miles distant. Here we met Mr. MeCracken, one of the Northwest. or Hudson's Bay Company, who arrived with another person nine days before to trade for horses and buffalo robes. We encamped for the night on the south at eleven miles distance, and within a mile of the Mandan village. A crowd of Mandan men, women and children came to see us, and Captain Lewis returned with the principal chief to the village, the others remained at our camp during the evening. At an early hour Saturday, October 27th. we proceeded and anchored off the village. Captain Clark went ashore and after smoking a pipe with the chiefs declined an invitation to eat with them. His refusal gave great offense to the Indians, who considered it disrespectful not to eat when invited, but it was explained that

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

the captain was ill and they were satisfied. We proceeded four miles and encamped on the north, opposite to a village of the Ahuahawago. We here met with a Frenchman named Jesscaume, who lives among the Indians as an interpreter and has a wife and children. flere we camped. Sunday, the 28th, we were joined by many of the Minnatarees and Ahauhaways from above, but the wind was so violent from the south that the lower chiefs could not come up. Finding that we shall have to pass the winter at this place, we made some expeditions, searching for a favorable location for our quarters, but found nothing suntable owing to the scarcity of timber. The following day we held a grand council with the Indians, where speeches and ceremonies similar to those at the Yankton meeting were gone through with and a large number of chiefs recognized with presents. In the evening a fierce prairie fire occurred. So rapid was it that a man and woman were fatally burned before they could reach a place of safety.

Among the rest a boy of the half white-breed escaped unhurt in the midst of the flames ; his safety was ascribed to the Great Medicine Spirit who had preserved him on account of his being white. But a much more natural cause was the presence of mind of his mother, who, seeing no hopes of carrying off her son, threw him on the ground and covered him with the fresh hide of a buffalo, escaping herself from the flames. As soon as the fire had passed she returned and found him untouched, the skin having prevented the flames from reaching the grass on which he lay.

The winter encampment of Lewis and Clark was in latitude 47º 21' 47", longitude 101°, very near to the site of the present Town of Washburn, McLean County, North Dakota, and 1,000 miles from the mouth of the Missouri of date November 1, 1804. A suitable site was found below the Mandan village for winter quarters with an abundance of timber, elm and cottonwood. The fort was on the north side of the Missouri. The works consisted of two rows of cabins forming an angle where they joined each other, each containing four rooms, fourteen feet square and seven feet high, with plank ceiling, and the roof slanting so as to form a loft above the rooms, the highest part of which was eighteen feet from the ground. The backs of the huts formed a wall of that height. Back of the angle of the plan of the wall was supplied by picketing. Here the command passed the winter of 1804-5, gathering from the Indians and an occasional white trader visitor much valuable informa- tion regarding the country. The weather at times was cold enough to gratify an Esquimaux, but their quarters were very comfortable and the health of the garrison remained good, due in great measure to the abundant exercise afforded in various employments and in hunt- ing. . \ large herd of buffalo and elk strayed into the shelter of the timber near the post during December, affording the explorers the finest hunt they ever engaged, enabling them to bountifully replenish their fresh meat supply and yielding a rich harvest of buffalo robes and elk skins. The post was named Fort Mandan, as a testimonial of esteem and friendship for the people who showed the whites the most friendly disposition in many ways during their residence among them. There was one extreme cold period during the winter when a spirit thermometer congealed on short exposure, but the men were not seriously disturbed in their out-door employments and suffered only slightly. Three white fur traders represent- ing the Hudson's Bay Company on the Assiniboine, one of whom was a Mr. Hanley, visited the fort and partook of its hospitality on the 16th of December and learned for the first time from Captain Lewis that the United States had purchased the country. The visitors manifested great surprise and thought England had been very lax in permitting such a prize to be captured by the infant republic, which was looked upon by foreigners generally as an uncertain quantity and a doubtful experiment in government. Christmas and New Years were celebrated at Fort Mandan with services appropriate and in feasts and dances in which the Indians participated.

The expedition left Fort Mandan on Sunday evening. April 7, 1805, at 5 o'clock. It con- sisted of thirty-two persons, namely: Capt. Meriwether Lewis, Capt. William Clark, Sergt. Jolın Ordway, Sergt. Nathaniel Pryor, Sergt. Patrick Gass (successor to Charles Floyd. who died before the expedition passed the mouth of the Big Sioux), Privates William Bratton, John Colter, John Collins, Peter Cruzatte. Robert Frazier, Reuben Fields, Joseph Fields, George Gibson, Silas Goodrich, Hugh Hall, Thomas P. Howard, Baptiste Lapage, Francis Labische, Hugh MeNeal, John Potts, John Shields, George Shannon, John B. Thomp- son, William Werner, Alexander Willard, Richard Winsor. Joseph Whitehouse, Peter Wiser and Captam Clark's black servant, York. The interpreters were George Druillard and Toussaint Chaboneau and Chaboneau's Indian wife, Skagaweah, a Snake Indian woman, who had been stolen from her tribe years before and sold to Chaboneau. She had an infant child with her and was now to be taken back to her own people. This Indian woman, because of her acquaintance with the Snake River Indians, whose language she spoke, and her familiarity with the mountain regions, proved an invaluable aid to the expedition, which might have resulted quite chisastrously but for her prudent and timely counsels and guidance. She did not stop after reaching her own people, but continued on to the end of the long journey on the shores of the Pacific, Hore she remained kindly cared for by Captains Lewis and Clark during the winter and returned with the expedition in the spring of 1806 to her own people, where she was loath to be separated from the pale faces, for one of whom she is said to have formed a profound affection. When she came at last to say the final farewell she was over- come with grief. Provision was made that she would not be deserted. but such was her fate, and nothing further was ever known of the brave and dauntless woman.

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

We shall not attempt to follow the daily incidents of this party further and will conclude with a brief summary of its experiences. While they had much to interest and enjoy they also encountered serious hardships and faced death on numerous occasions. Above the Yellowstone the grizzly bear was encountered. This was regarded as one of the most dangerous and formidable of all the wild animals, and members of the Lewis and Clark party had a number of hair- breadth escapes from its jaws and claws. On one occasion, when Captain Lewis had been exploring a section of the country alone, he met a herd of buffaloe on his return and being desirous of providing for supper shot at one of them, who immediately began to bleed. Captain Lewis, who had forgotten to reload his rifle, was intently watching to see him fall when he beheld a large brown bear who was stealing on him unperceived, and was already within twenty steps. In the first moment of surprise he lifted his rifle, but, remembering that it was not loaded and that he had not time to reload, he felt that there was no safety but in flight. It was in the open level plain, not a bush nor a tree within 300 yards, the bank of the river sloping and not more than three feet high so that there was no possible mode of concealment. Lewis therefore thought of retreat- ing in a quick walk as fast as the bear advanced toward the nearest tree, but as soon as he turned the bear ran, open mouthed, at full speed upon him. Lewis ran about eighty yards, but finding that the animal gained upon him fast, it flashed into his mind that by getting into the water to such a depth that the bear would be obliged to attack him swimming, that there was still some chance of his life ; he, therefore, turned short, plunged into the river waist deep and facing about presented his espontoon. The bear arrived at the water's edge within twenty feet of him, but as soon as Lewis had himself in the posture of defense the bear seemed frightened, and, wheeling about, retreated as rapidly as he had pursued. From this adventure, which occurred near Medicine River, June 14th, Lewis made up his mind he would never for a moment suffer his rifle to remain unloaded. These bears were monsters in size and very tenacious of life, sometimes requiring as many as ten balls to bring them down.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 8

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1198

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198