The Journey Begun. Having made ample preparation, the Lewis and Clark party began their long voyage up the Missouri on the 14th of May, 1804. On the 25th day of May they came to LaCharette, the home of Daniel Boone, the famous Kentucky hunter, and they passed the Kansas and the Platte June 5th and 14th respectively. Conforming to the suggestions of President Jefferson, the party held councils of peace with the Indian chiefs wherever possible. Probably the most important council was held with the Missouris and Ottos at Council Bluffs. The journey was steadily continued till the end of October, when the party arrived at the Mandan village near what is the City of Bismark, capital of South Dakota. Here they went into winter quarters.
Their Winter at Mandan. The Lewis and Clark party, while established in winter quarters at the Mandan[1] village, gathered much valuable information from the Indians. They built a fort in the shape of the letter V. It was made of elm and cottonwood logs. They made reports of their explorations thus far, and they completed preparations for their journey in the spring. They also negotiated a treaty of peace and friendship between the Mandans and the Ricarees[2] who had been enemies of long standing.
Sacajawea.[3] At the Mandan village was found Sacajawea, "The Woman Pilot, who was born not to die." When a child she had been taken into captivity from the Shoshones
- ↑ "The Mandan tribe contained about two thousand persons. As a tribe it was almost extinguished by small-pox, in 1838, the few whom the pestilence spared being made captives by the Ricarees, who took possession of their village. This the Sioux soon after attacked, and in the thick of the fight the unhappy Mandans rushed out beyond the pickets and called upon the Sioux to kill them, for they were Ricaree dogs, their friends were all dead, and they did not wish to live. They fell upon their besiegers at the same time with such impetuosity, that they were to a man destroyed."—Catlin's "North American Indians."
- ↑ Also spelled "Ricaras."
- ↑ Also "Sacagawea."
