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200 years ago, Lewis & Clark and the Corps of Discovery
were moving with the current down the Missouri River through present-day
South Dakota. They were traveling 60 to 70 miles per day in a south-easterly
direction. The end of the journey was less than a month away. As they
drew closer to “civilization,” they began meeting traders coming
upriver. They seized the opportunity to acquire the things they wanted
most…tobacco, liquor, and clothes.
The explorers’ journals tell the story…August 26, 1806, William
Clark noted, “As we were now in the country where we were informed
the Sioux were assembled we were much on our guard determined to put up
with no insults from those bands of Sioux, all the arms etc. in perfect
order...”
On the 28th, Clark noted, “[We] went to some plum bushes in the bottom
and gathered more plums than the party could eat in 2 days.” And
on the 29th, “… I had a view of a greater number of buffalo
than I had ever seen before at one time. I must have seen near 20,000
of those animals feeding on this plain.”
On August 30 Patrick Gass summarized an encounter with the Sioux, “...
About 2 o'clock met a band of the Tetons, fifty or sixty in number, and
halted on the opposite side of the river as we did not wish to have any
intercourse with them. ... We found that they were the same rascals who
had given us trouble as we went up. We could not converse with them, but
one of our men understanding the language of the Pawnees, of which they
understood some words; we through him let them know that we wanted to
have nothing to do with them...”
On the first day of September, Clark noted they were encamped on the same
island they had inhabited on September 1st, exactly two years before…
“I observed our old flag Staff … standing as we left it.”
Patrick Gass noted on the same day, “... met nine of the Yankton
band of the Sioux nation of Indians on the south side of the river. We
halted and gave them some corn, and then proceeded on ...”
On September 03, as they were leaving South Dakota, they met the first
of many white traders they would meet ascending the river from St. Louis.
They camped with him and Clark pumped him for news of the President, politics,
and other events of the last two years. The trader shared the two-year
old news “that [Aaron] Burr & [Alexander] Hamilton fought a Duel,
[and] the latter was killed.”
On September 4 Patrick Gass noted, “We exchanged some corn with Mr.
Aird for tobacco, which our party stood much in need of; and his party,
having lost a boat load of provisions in their way up, wanted the corn.”
On September 6 they met another trader and Clark noted, “We purchased
a gallon of whiskey of this man … and gave to each man of the party
a dram which is the first spirituous liquor which had been tasted by any
of them since the 4th of July 1805. Several of the party exchanged leather
for linen Shirts and beaver for course hats… The Chief & the
Squaws & children are [a-weary] of their journey. Children cry etcetera.
Today’s Dakota Datebook is the last weekly update on the Corps’
return through our region. We’ll have a final update on the 200th
anniversary of the end of the journey…on September 23rd.
Written by Russell Ford-Dunker
Note: Spelling is corrected in journal quotes for ease of reading.
Sources:
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/archive
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