What The Corps Found
In 1804, Knife River Villages was a hub of trade activity among the Native Americans. More than 3,000 people lived here -- more people than in the expedition's starting point in the thriving metropolis of St. Louis. Here the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa people farmed the rich bottomlands, they hunted game, and they fished the bountiful river.
But their far-reaching influence came from their trading skills. This was the hub of trade and commerce for the entire upper Missouri River region. As they traveled up the Missouri, Lewis and Clark eagerly anticipated reaching the Mandan and Hidatsa villages near the Knife River confluence. It was here they hoped to learn all they needed to know about conditions and tribes along their route.
Arrival at Knife River Villages
Lewis and Clark had planned a stop at Knife River to gather information to help them select their westward route and then push on to the headwaters of the Missouri before winter set in. But when they finally reached the Knife River in late October of 1804, the days were already becoming shorter and the nights colder. The river was dropping and timber for their winter quarters would be scarce further upstream. And it had already begun to snow. Clearly, they would have to abandon their original plan. Fortunately for Lewis and Clark, deciding to build their winter fort here among the Mandans, Arikara and Hidatsa probably saved the expedition… and their very lives.
Wintering at Fort Mandan
Lewis and Clark built their winter quarters across the river from the Knife River Village and named it Fort Mandan to honor these people who befriended them. The Corps of Discovery spent five months in Fort Mandan gathering information, replenishing their supplies, crafting dugout canoes from the huge cottonwood trees they found here, and preparing for the next stage of their long journey.
Both the Corps and the local tribes benefited greatly from their trade. Corps members provided blacksmithing, doctoring, and other skills the natives did not have. The tribes included Lewis and Clark on buffalo hunts and supplied the Corps with corn, fresh meat and other food supplies, without which they may well have starved.
A Fateful Meeting
On November 4th an event took place that would pass into legend.
"A Mr. Charbonneau, interpreter for the Gros Ventre nation, came to see us and informed that he came down with several Indians from a hunting expedition up the river, to hear what we had told the Indians in council. This man wished to hire as an interpreter." ---Captain Clark, 4 November 1804
Captains Lewis and Clark hired Toussant Charbonneau on, but as time would tell, it was Charbonneau's wife Sakakawea who would become a most valuable member of the expedition. Sakakawea was 15 or 16 and was pregnant with her first child when her husband signed them up to join the Corps of Discovery. She would make the long journey by boat and on foot to the Pacific and back with her baby strapped to her back.
Contrary to popular legend, Sakakawea did not actually serve as a guide although her presence in the expedition probably ensured its peaceful reception by tribes along the rest of their route. No tribe would mistake the Corps of Discovery for a war party with a woman and child among them.
The original Fort Mandan was burned but has been reconstructed from the Corps' journal and sketches near Washburn, North Dakota.
What The Corps Found