Before finally selecting the spot on which to build their winter
quarters, Lewis and Clark held councils with the chiefs of the tribes
who were to be their neighbors during the cold season. These were
Mandans, Annahaways, and Minnetarees, tribes living peacefully in the
same region of country. The principal Mandan chief was Black Cat; White
Buffalo Robe Unfolded represented the Annahaways, and the Minnetaree
chief was Black Moccasin. This last-named chief could not come to the
council, but was represented by Caltahcota, or Cherry on a Bush. The
palaver being over, presents were distributed. The account says:--
“One chief of each town was acknowledged by a gift of a flag, a medal
with the likeness of the President of the United States, a uniform coat,
hat and feather. To the second chiefs we gave a medal representing some
domestic animals and a loom for weaving; to the third chiefs, medals
with the impressions of a farmer sowing grain. A variety of other
presents were distributed, but none seemed to give them more
satisfaction than an iron corn-mill which we gave to the Mandans. . . .
“In the evening the prairie took fire, either by accident or design, and
burned with great fury, the whole plain being enveloped in flames.
So rapid was its progress that a man and a woman were burned to death
before they could reach a place of safety; another man, with his wife
and child, were much burned, and several other persons narrowly escaped
destruction. 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, covering him with the fresh hide of a buffalo, escaped herself from
the flames. As soon as the fire had passed, she returned and found him
untouched, the skin having prevented the flame from reaching the grass
on which he lay.”
Next day, says the journal,--
“We were visited by two persons from the lower village: one, the Big
White, the chief of the village; the other, the Chayenne, called the Big
Man: they had been hunting, and did not return yesterday early enough to
attend the council. At their request we repeated part of our speech of
yesterday, and put the medal round the neck of the chief. Captain
Clark took a pirogue and went up the river in search of a good
wintering-place, and returned after going seven miles to the lower point
of an island on the north side, about one mile in length. He found the
banks on the north side high, with coal occasionally, and the country
fine on all sides; but the want of wood, and the scarcity of game up the
river, induced us to decide on fixing ourselves lower down during the
winter. In the evening our men danced among themselves, to the great
amusement of the Indians.”
It may be said here that the incident of a life saved from fire by a
raw-hide, originally related by Lewis and Clark, is the foundation of
a great many similar stories of adventures among the Indians. Usually,
however, it is a wise and well-seasoned white trapper who saves his life
by this device.
Having found a good site for their winter camp, the explorers now built
a number of huts, which they called Fort Mandan. The place was on the
north bank of the Missouri River, in what is now McLean County, North
Dakota, about sixteen hundred miles up the river from St. Louis, and
seven or eight miles below the mouth of Big Knife River. On the opposite
bank, years later, the United States built a military post known as Fort
Clark, which may be found on some of the present-day maps. The huts were
built of logs, and were arranged in two rows, four rooms in each hut,
the whole number being placed in the form of an angle, with a stockade,
or picket, across the two outer ends of the angle, in which was a gate,
kept locked at night. The roofs of the huts slanted upward from the
inner side of the rows, making the outer side of each hut eighteen feet
high; and the lofts of these were made warm and comfortable with dry
grass mixed with clay, Here they were continually visited during the
winter by Indians from all the region around. Here, too, they secured
the services of an interpreter, one Chaboneau, who continued with them
to the end. This man’s wife, Sacajawea, whose Indian name was translated
“Bird Woman,” had been captured from the Snake Indians and sold to
Chaboneau, who married her. She was “a good creature, of a mild and
gentle disposition, greatly attached to the whites.” In the expedition
she proved herself more valuable to the explorers than her husband, and
Lewis and Clark always speak of her in terms of respect and admiration.
It should not be understood that all the interpreters employed by white
men on such expeditions wholly knew the spoken language of the tribes
among whom they travelled. To some extent they relied upon the universal
language of signs to make themselves understood, and this method of
talking is known to all sorts and kinds of Indians. Thus, two fingers of
the right hand placed astraddle the wrist of the left hand signifies a
man on horseback; and the number of men on horseback is quickly added by
holding up the requisite number of fingers. Sleep is described by gently
inclining the head on the hand, and the number of “sleeps,” or nights,
is indicated by the fingers. Killed, or dead, is described by closed
eyes and a sudden fall of the head on the talker’s chest; and so on, an
easily understood gesture, with a few Indian words, being sufficient to
tell a long story very clearly.
Lewis and Clark discovered here a species of ermine before unknown
to science. They called it “a weasel, perfectly white except at the
extremity of the tail, which was black.” This animal, highly prized on
account of its pretty fur, was not scientifically described until as
late as 1829. It is a species of stoat.
The wars of some of the Indian tribes gave Lewis and Clark much trouble
and uneasiness. The Sioux were at war with the Minnetarees (Gros
Ventres, or Big Bellies); and the Assiniboins, who lived further to the
north, continually harassed the Sioux and the Mandans, treating these as
the latter did the Rickarees. The white chiefs had their hands full
all winter while trying to preserve peace among these quarrelsome and
thieving tribes, their favorite game being to steal each other’s horses.
The Indian method of caring for their horses in the cold winter was
to let them shift for themselves during the day, and to take them into
their own lodges at night where they were fed with the juicy, brittle
twigs of the cottonwood tree. With this spare fodder the animals thrive
and keep their coats fine and glossy.
Late in November, a collision between the Sioux and the Mandans became
almost certain, in consequence of the Sioux having attacked a small
hunting party of the Mandans, killing one, wounding two, and capturing
nine horses. Captain Clark mustered and armed twenty-four of his men,
crossed over into the Mandan village and offered to lead the Indians
against their enemies. The offer was declined on account of the deep
snows which prevented a march; but the incident made friends for white
men, and the tidings of it had a wholesome effect on the other tribes.
“The whole religion of the Mandans,” like that of many other savage
tribes, says the journal, “consists in the belief of one Great Spirit
presiding over their destinies. This Being must be in the nature of a
good genius, since it is associated with the healing art, and ‘great
spirit’ is synonymous with ‘great medicine,’ a name applied to
everything which they do not comprehend. Each individual selects for
himself the particular object of his devotion, which is termed his
medicine, and is either some invisible being, or more commonly some
animal, which thenceforward becomes his protector or his intercessor
with the Great Spirit, to propitiate whom every attention is lavished
and every personal consideration is sacrificed. ‘I was lately owner of
seventeen horses,’ said a Mandan to us one day, ‘but I have offered them
all up to my medicine and am now poor.’ He had in reality taken all his
wealth, his horses, into the plain, and, turning them loose, committed
them to the care of his medicine and abandoned them forever. The horses,
less religious, took care of themselves, and the pious votary travelled
home on foot.”
To this day, all the Northwest Indians speak of anything that is highly
useful or influential as “great medicine.”
One cold December day, a Mandan chief invited the explorers to join them
in a grand buffalo hunt. The journal adds:--
“Captain Clark with fifteen men went out and found the Indians engaged
in killing buffalo. The hunters, mounted on horseback and armed with
bows and arrows, encircle the herd and gradually drive them into a plain
or an open place fit for the movements of horse; they then ride in among
them, and singling out a buffalo, a female being preferred, go as close
as possible and wound her with arrows till they think they have
given the mortal stroke; when they pursue another, till the quiver is
exhausted. If, which rarely happens, the wounded buffalo attacks the
hunter, he evades his blow by the agility of his horse, which is trained
for the combat with great dexterity. When they have killed the requisite
number they collect their game, and the squaws and attendants come up
from the rear and skin and dress the animals. Captain Clark killed ten
buffalo, of which five only were brought to the fort; the rest, which
could not be conveyed home, being seized by the Indians, among whom the
custom is that whenever a buffalo is found dead without an arrow or
any particular mark, he is the property of the finder; so that often a
hunter secures scarcely any of the game he kills, if the arrow happens
to fall off.”
The weather now became excessively cold, the mercury often going
thirty-two degrees below zero. Notwithstanding this, however, the
Indians kept up their outdoor sports, one favorite game of which
resembled billiards. But instead of a table, the players had an open
flooring, about fifty yards long, and the balls were rings of stone,
shot along the flooring by means of sticks like billiard-cues. The white
men had their sports, and they forbade the Indians to visit them on
Christmas Day, as this was one of their “great medicine days.” The
American flag was hoisted on the fort and saluted with a volley of
musketry. The men danced among themselves; their best provisions
were brought out and “the day passed,” says the journal, “in great
festivity.”
The party also celebrated New Year’s Day by similar festivities. Sixteen
of the men were given leave to go up to the first Mandan village with
their musical instruments, where they delighted the whole tribe with
their dances, one of the French voyageurs being especially applauded
when he danced on his hands with his head downwards. The dancers and
musicians were presented with several buffalo-robes and a large quantity
of Indian corn. The cold grew more intense, and on the tenth of the
month the mercury stood at forty degrees below zero. Some of the men
were badly frost-bitten, and a young Indian, about thirteen years old,
who had been lost in the snows, came into the fort. The journal says:--
“His father, who came last night to inquire after him very anxiously,
had sent him in the afternoon to the fort; he was overtaken by the
night, and was obliged to sleep on the snow with no covering except a
pair of antelope-skin moccasins and leggins, and a buffalo-robe. His
feet being frozen, we put them into cold water, and gave him every
attention in our power. About the same time an Indian who had also been
missing returned to the fort. Although his dress was very thin, and he
had slept on the snow without a fire, he had not suffered the slightest
inconvenience. We have indeed observed that these Indians support the
rigors of the season in a way which we had hitherto thought impossible.
A more pleasing reflection occurred at seeing the warm interest which
the situation of these two persons had excited in the village. The boy
had been a prisoner, and adopted from charity; yet the distress of the
father proved that he felt for him the tenderest affection. The man was
a person of no distinction, yet the whole village was full of anxiety
for his safety; and, when they came to us, borrowed a sleigh to bring
them home with ease if they had survived, or to carry their bodies if
they had perished. . . .
“January 13. Nearly one half of the Mandan nation passed down the river
to hunt for several days. In these excursions, men, women, and children,
with their dogs, all leave the village together, and, after discovering
a spot convenient for the game, fix their tents; all the family bear
their part in the labor, and the game is equally divided among the
families of the tribe. When a single hunter returns from the chase with
more than is necessary for his own immediate consumption, the neighbors
are entitled by custom to a share of it: they do not, however, ask for
it, but send a squaw, who, without saying anything, sits down by the
door of the lodge till the master understands the hint, and gives her
gratuitously a part for her family.”
By the end of January, 1805, the weather had so far moderated that the
explorers thought they might cut their boats from the ice in the river
and prepare to resume their voyage; but the ice being three feet thick,
they made no progress and were obliged to give up the attempt. Their
stock of meat was low, although they had had good success when the cold
was not too severe to prevent them from hunting deer, elk, and buffalo.
The Mandans, who were careless in providing food for future supplies,
also suffered for want of meat, sometimes going for days without flesh
food. Captain Clark and eighteen men went down the river in search of
game. The hunters, after being out nine days, returned and reported that
they had killed forty deer, three buffalo, and sixteen elk. But much of
the game was lean and poor, and the wolves, who devour everything left
out at night, had stolen a quantity of the flesh. Four men, with sleds,
were sent out to bring into camp the meat, which had been secured
against wolves by being stored in pens. These men were attacked by
Sioux, about one hundred in number, who robbed them of their game
and two of their three horses. Captain Lewis, with twenty-four men,
accompanied by some of the Mandans, set out in pursuit of the marauders.
They were unsuccessful, however, but, having found a part of their game
untouched, they brought it back, and this, with other game killed after
their chase of the Sioux, gave them three thousand pounds of meat; they
had killed thirty-six deer, fourteen elk, and one wolf.
By the latter part of February, the party were able to get their boats
from the ice. These were dragged ashore, and the work of making them
ready for their next voyage was begun. As the ice in the river began to
break up, the Mandans had great sport chasing across the floating cakes
of ice the buffalo who were tempted over by the appearance of green,
growing grass on the other side. The Indians were very expert in their
pursuit of the animals, which finally slipped from their insecure
footing on the drifting ice, and were killed.
At this point, April 7, 1805, the escorting party, the voyageurs, and
one interpreter, returned down the river in their barge. This party
consisted of thirteen persons, all told, and to them were intrusted
several packages of specimens for President Jefferson, with letters
and official reports. The presents for Mr. Jefferson, according to the
journal, “consisted of a stuffed male and female antelope, with their
skeletons, a weasel, three squirrels from the Rocky Mountains, the
skeleton of a prairie wolf, those of a white and gray hare, a male
and female blaireau, (badger) or burrowing dog of the prairie, with a
skeleton of the female, two burrowing squirrels, a white weasel, and the
skin of the louservia (loup-servier, or lynx), the horns of a mountain
ram, or big-horn, a pair of large elk horns, the horns and tail of a
black-tailed deer, and a variety of skins, such as those of the red fox,
white hare, marten, yellow bear, obtained from the Sioux; also a number
of articles of Indian dress, among which was a buffalo robe representing
a battle fought about eight years since between the Sioux and Ricaras
against the Mandans and Minnetarees, in which the combatants are
represented on horseback. . . . Such sketches, rude and imperfect as
they are, delineate the predominant character of the savage nations.
If they are peaceable and inoffensive, the drawings usually consist of
local scenery and their favorite diversions. If the band are rude and
ferocious, we observe tomahawks, scalping-knives, bows and arrows, and
all the engines of destruction.--A Mandan bow, and quiver of arrows;
also some Ricara tobacco-seed, and an ear of Mandan corn: to these were
added a box of plants, another of insects, and three cases containing a
burrowing squirrel, a prairie hen, and four magpies, all alive.” . . .
The articles reached Mr. Jefferson safely and were long on view at his
Virginia residence, Monticello. They were subsequently dispersed, and
some found their way to Peale’s Museum, Philadelphia. Dr. Cones, the
zealous editor of the latest and fullest edition of Lewis and Clark’s
narrative, says that some of the specimens of natural history were
probably extant in 1893.