On August 27 Lewis and Clark came to the mouth of the James River and met some Yankton Sioux there, who informed them there was a large camp of the Sioux a few miles up the James. The captains, therefore, sent messengers to the Indians inviting them to a convenient point a few miles up the Missouri. They proceeded up the stream and made their camp on Green Island, on the Nebraska shore, near the site of Yankton. There they remained from Tuesday the 28th until Saturday, September 1, enjoying a grand council, powwow, and carousal with the Yanktons. They set up a tall flag pole over their camp and raised a beautiful American flag upon it. The days were occupied with feasting and speech-making, and the nights with feasting and dancing. The principal chiefs of the Yankton were Shake Hand,—known to the French as the Liberator,—White Crane, and Struck by the Pawnee.
One day a male child was born in one of the Indian lodges. Learning of this fact. Captain Lewis sent for the child and it was brought to him. He wrapped it in the American flag and made a speech in which he prophesied that the boy would live to become eminent among his people and a great friend of the white men. His prophecy came true, for the boy grew up to be the famous Struck by the Ree, chief of the Yankton tribe, who was probably the means of saving the entire settlement at Yankton from massacre in the War of the Outbreak in 1863. All his life Struck by the Ree took great pride in his Americanism, and in the fact that he was first dressed in an American flag.
