Home The Missouri River Voyage of Recovery conference
St. Charles, Missouri
November 9, 1999
Historic Preservation and Heritage Tourism: Tribal Focus
Richard Bad Moccasin, Executive Director
Mni Sose Intertribal Water Rights Coalition
The Indian Tribes in the Missouri River Basin formally organized the Mni Sose Intertribal Water Rights Coalition in 1993 as a vehicle to seek legal, administrative, economic, and physical control over their significant water resources to achieve sustainable reservation economies, cultural well-being, and sovereignty of the tribal people in the watershed.
Mni Sose (Lakota for Missouri River) is currently comprised of 27 of the 28 Indian Tribes located in the Missouri River Drainage Basin. The Tribes are geographically distributed from the headwaters in Montana to the mouth of the Missouri River in Kansas and Missouri.
The objectives of the Coalition are to provide a medium to address issues relating to the protection and development of tribal water resources in the Missouri River Basin and to provide technical assistance to the Coalitions membership.
The Tribes in the Missouri River Basin played an important part in Lewis and Clarks expedition. Through the Mni Sose Coalition, the Tribes in the Basin would like to participate in the observation of the Lewis and Clark bicentennial. This paper reviews the Missouri River Basin Tribes contact with the Lewis and Clark expedition. Following the review is the Missouri River Basin Tribes proposed plans for participating in the bicentennial celebration.
Missouri River Basin Tribes contact with the Lewis and Clark Expedition
| Missouri and Oto Indians | Yankton Sioux Indians | Teton Sioux Indians |
| Arikara Indians | Mandan Indians | Hidatsa Indians |
| Assiniboin Indians | Shoshone Indians | Blackfeet Indians |
During the course of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Corps of Discovery came in contact with nearly 50 Native American Tribes. Lewis and Clark quickly learned how many different derivatives there were for the word "Indian." The Mandans lived in earthen lodges, farmed corn and were amenable to trade with America. The Teton Sioux slept in teepees, hunted buffalo, and guarded their territory fiercely against anyone who passed through. Some Tribes had never seen a white or black man before Lewis and Clark. Others spoke bits of English and wore hats and coats they received from European sea captains.
Lewis and Clark developed a ritual that they used when meeting a Tribe for the first time, a ritual they had inherited from generations of Indian policy that began in the Northeast woodlands.
First, there was a parade in which European-style technology was displayed. The intent of the Corps was to impress the Indians by showing them uniforms, guns and objects of the industrial revolution. The Corps gave the Indians presents, usually trade goods and showed them objects they might gain if they became part of the industrial world.
Then came the serious negotiations, which represented Lewis and Clarks diplomatic power. The Corps would show the flag, the great American symbol of sovereignty and power, explain to the tribal leaders that their land now belonged to the United States, that a man far in the east, President Thomas Jefferson, was their new "great father," and that they were now part of the United States. This carried with it the message for the Indians to stop fighting one another in order to strengthen the nation. After Clark tried to explain to an Hidatsa warrior that the Corps had plans for peace, the warrior, said "If we have peace, how do we exist, how will we have chiefs?" Their culture ennobled ranks in the Tribe through warfare. However, the Corps could not understand how hunting grounds and raiding were imbedded in the Plains warrior culture.
The Corps would also give the Indians a peace medal with Jefferson on one side and two hands clasping on the other. Peace medals symbolized two very different things for the two cultures. Euro-Americans saw peace medals as a sign of subjection. But native people saw it as a gift; as a recognition of equality. For Lewis and Clark, the peace medal represented a recognition of American sovereignty. If the Tribes accepted a peace medal, it meant they accepted the sovereignty of the American president. For native people, accepting a peace medal possibly meant a recognition that both parties were equals.
Timeline of the Lewis and Clark Expeditions Encounters with Missouri River Basin Tribes
August 2 and 3, 1804
On August 2, a small group of Missouris and Otos arrived at the Corps camp site, which Clark had named Council Bluff, near what is now Council Bluffs, Iowa. The main chiefs were away hunting, but Lewis and Clark invited six or seven lesser chiefs to a council the next morning. On August 3, with great ceremony, Lewis and Clark held the first formal meeting between representatives of the United States and western Indians. The Indians watched as the soldiers marched in full regalia and displayed their skills with weaponry. The Corps show of decorum and military strength established the routine for subsequent councils.
During the council, they told the Indians they were the "children" of a new "great father" who would give them trade and protection in place of their unreliable commerce with the French and the Spanish. It was a speech Lewis would deliver to numerous Tribes throughout the expedition.
The Missouri and Oto Indians were part of the Southern Sioux Tribes who lived along the Missouri River near the present-day border of Missouri and Nebraska. They were buffalo hunters and farmers who lived in oven-shaped, earthen-covered houses grouped into towns. Because smallpox had depleted the numbers of both bands, the surviving Missouri Indians lived with the neighboring Oto Indians. Combined, this band included about 250 people.
August 18, 1804
The leading Missouri Chief, Big Horse, and the main Oto Chief, Little Thief, met with the Corps. Lewis advised the Tribes to make peace with other Indian Tribes in order to bring the trade Lewis promised. Big Horse responded with pointed requests for goods and whiskey. The Corps gave them tobacco, paint and beads, but the Missouri warriors were not satisfied and went away unhappily. Before departing, however, Little Thief indicated he would go to Washington in the spring.
August 29 and 30, 1804
"The Scioues Camps are handsom of a Conic form Covered with Buffalow Roabs Painted different colours and all compact & handsomly arranged," wrote William Clark in his journal on August 29, 1804. He was describing a teepee-populated village. Teepees were a common sight near the mouth of the James River. The site, located in present-day southern South Dakota, was in the territory of the Yankton Sioux.
The first council between the Yanktons and the expedition took place with a good deal of pomp on August 30, 1804. Some 70 Yanktons journeyed to the Corps camp, proceeded by musicians. During the meeting, the Yankton chief Weuche explained to Lewis and Clark his peoples poverty and their need for a reliable trading partner. Afterward, Yankton braves displayed their proficiency with one of the weapons of their peoplethe bow and arrowand then performed a series of ceremonial dances.
On the whole, the Yanktons talks with Lewis and Clark were not particularly successful. The Yanktons wanted rifles, ammunition, and possibly whiskey from the Americans, but they received none of these. Instead, they received and accepted an invitation to send a delegation to Washington, D.C., to begin trade discussion with President Jefferson.
According to Yankton oral tradition, when a baby was born during the Corps visit, Lewis wrapped him in a United States flag and declared him "an American."
When they met the expedition at the end of August 1804, the Yanktons were ready to open a trade relationship with the United States. The Yanktons had already entertained British and French traders and were aware that their place in the world was changing. Furthermore, the Tribe lacked firearms and many of its women and children were destitute. Yankton chiefs wanted to preserve their nation and believed the Corps could help make that possible.
September 25, 1804
At the first council with the leaders of the Teton Sioux (Lakota) Tribe, near what is now Pierre, South Dakota, the expedition went through its practiced ritual for meeting Indians, parading in uniform, and demonstrating an air gun. But the display did not impress the Tetons, who perceived the Americans as competitors for control of trade in the region. Tensions increased when the Teton Sioux demanded one of the Corps boats as a toll for moving farther upriver, which nearly resulted in an armed conflict. Fortunately, the Teton chief Black Buffalo intervened and brought things to a more diplomatic level.
No one in the Corps spoke Sioux, and the inability of the two groups to communicate effectively played a significant part in several misunderstandings. Thee days later, after another argument between the Tetons and the expedition escalated into fighting, Lewis and Clark continued upriver.
At the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Teton Sioux occupied two villages near present-day Pierre, South Dakota. One village was located on the Missouri River itself, while the other was situated off a tributary, the Bad River. Among French and Canadian traders and neighboring Tribes, the Tetons were known for their aggressiveness and power. Intent on controlling traffic through their portion of the river, they would demand large gifts from passing merchants. Sometimes, they even used more violent tactics.
Given their reputation, one of the more interesting aspects of Teton culture concerned the Tribes relationship with their Arikara neighbors. Although the Tetons made their military might clear to the Arikaras, the Arikaras had one thing to offer that kept their relationship with the Tetons a good one: corn. The Arikaras were exceptional farmers, and their corn was essential to the survival of the Teton. In exchange for clothes, guns, and other supplies provided by the Teton, the Arikaras shared their horses and corn.
October 8, 1804
The expedition made contact with the Arikaras at the Arikara homeland, located in what is now northern South Dakota and stayed with the Tribe for five days. Relations between the Corps and the Arikaras were warm. Keeping with the directives of the expedition, the Corps observed and recorded descriptions of their hosts. Arikara men wore buffalo robes, leggings and moccasins, and many warriors wielded guns they had acquired in trade. Women were clad in fringed antelope dresses.
Much of the negotiations between the expedition and the Arikaras centered on future trade with America, toward which the Indians showed interest. Also, as the Oto and Missouri Indians had already done, the Arikara agreed to dispatch a representative east to visit President Jefferson. Lewis also encouraged the Arikaras to make peace with their chief enemies, the neighboring Mandan, and the tribal chiefs consented to his suggestion.
The Arikaras were primarily farmers. Their crops included corn, beans, squash, tobacco, watermelon, and pumpkins. Farm fields were owned by family groups and women did the farming. The women used two simple, yet effective, tools to do their work: digging sticks made from the shoulder blades of buffalo or deer, and rakes made by fastening reeds to a long handle. The Arikaras supplemented their food supply by hunting buffalo.
October 24, 1804
North of present-day Bismarck, North Dakota, the Corps of Discovery reached the earthen-lodge villages of the Mandans and Hidatsas. Some 4,500 people lived there, more than lived in St. Louis or even Washington, D.C. at the time. Lewis and Clark decided to build Fort Mandan across the river from the main village of Matootonha.
The Mandan Indians inhabited territory in the center of trade along the Upper Missouri River near what is now central North Dakota. At the time of Lewis and Clarks arrival, they lived in two villages, Matootonha and Rooptahee. Matootonha was located on the western bank of the Missouri, while Rooptahee was directly north, on the rivers eastern bank.
In Mandan culture, the village was the focus of political, economic, and ceremonial activity. It represented a collection of households, all working together to better each family, clan, and the village itself. A sacred cedar post stood at the center of the Mandan village, symbolizing the Tribes primary cultural hero. An open plaza surrounded the post. At the north end of the plaza was the villages primary medicine lodge. Approximately 50 additional lodges populated the plaza. The more powerful a family was, the closer its lodge would be to the center. On average, 10 people lived in each lodge. Throughout most of the year, the Mandans lived in these permanent lodges. But in the winter, to avoid brutal storms, they constructed temporary lodges in wooded, low-lying areas next to the river.
The Hidatsas, allies of the Mandan, inhabitated a stretch of the Knife River in what later became central North Dakota. Along with the Mandans, they formed the hub of trade in the Upper Missouri region and attracted a variety of Indian and European traders each fall. Hidatsa villages were designed similar to their Mandan counterparts. Earth lodges were clustered irregularly around a central plaza. A log wall surrounded the village to protect it from invaders.
November 4, 1804Sacagawea
Lewis and Clark hired Toussaint Charbonneau, a French Canadian fur trader living among the Hidatsas, as an interpreter. His young Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, had been captured by the Hidatsas several years earlier and sold to Charbonneau. Having been told that the Shoshone lived at the headwaters of the Missouri and had many horses, Lewis and Clark believed the two would be helpful when the expedition reached the mountains. Sacagawea saved the expedition on a number of occasions, sometimes even from starvation, when she could find roots no one else knew about.
November 18, 1804
In the autumn of 1804, the Assiniboins traveled to the Mandan villages and learned of the presence of the Corps of Discovery. The Mandan chief, Black Cat, arranged for a chief and several prominent men of the Assiniboins to meet with Lewis and Clark. Clark awarded the chief with some ribbons, and the meeting went without incident.
During the next several days, a festival was held to iron out trade relations between the Mandans, Hidatsas, and Assiniboins. The Assiniboin representatives mocked the Mandans friendship with the Corps. Due to the proposed trade between the Mandans and the Americans, the Assiniboins threatened military retaliation. Clark noted in his journal on November 18, 1804, "The Ossiniboins &c. have the trade of those nations in their power and treat them badly, as the Soux does the Ricarees."
The northeastern section of present-day Montana and the adjoining areas of Canada were home to the Assiniboins, a Tribe that once belonged to the Sioux Nation. At the time of the expedition, the British had claimed these regions. As a result, the Assiniboins and the British had established a trading relationship. A Tribe of hunters, the Assiniboins exchanged dried meat for British guns, brass kettles, and cloth. Because the British could not meet all the Assinobions trading needs, the Assiniboins headed south for the villages of the Mandans each fall.
December 24, 1804
The expedition moved into Fort Mandan for the winter.
Spring 1805
The Corps of Discovery departed Fort Mandan and headed west. Lewis and Clark avoided the Assiniboin bands that hunted the upcoming stretch of the Missouri. Throughout April, the expedition, finding signs of the Assiniboins, feared an encounter. But the encounter never came.
August 11, 1805
Lewis came across a single, mounted Indian, the first Indian the expedition had seen since leaving Fort Mandan on April 7, 1805, and tried to signal his friendly intentions. But the Indian rode off.
August 13, 1805
Some Shoshone women gathering food a few miles from their village, saw Lewis and three of his men drawing near. Fearful at first, the women saw the men were friendly after Lewis laid down his gun, gave them trinkets, and painted their faces with vermilion, a symbol of peace. The women convinced an arriving war party of 60 Shoshones that the strangers were friendly, and Lewis confirmed this with gifts for the warriors, including an American flag. The principle chief, named Cameahwait, welcomed Lewis and his men, treated them as guests, shared what food the Indians had, and provided the men with a teepee for their stay.
Communicating via a translation chain, the Shoshones and the Corps had begun negotiations when a great coincide occurred. Sacagawea, who was raised as a Shoshone but had been kidnapped years earlier by the Hidatsas, recognized Cameahwait as her brother. After an emotional reunion, the negotiations continued, and Cameahwait agreed to sell the Corps the horses they needed.
In August 1805, the Lemhi Shoshone Indians lived in teepees in the east and north Rocky Mountains. The Shoshone lived on roots, berries, and occasionally, fish and small game. They had once lived and hunted buffalo on the plains of what is now Montana. However, their musket-bearing enemies, the Blackfeet, Atsinas, and Hidatsas, had driven the band from the rich buffalo plains into the mountains.
July 26 and 27, 1806
Eight Blackfeet warriors encountered Meriwether Lewis and a party of the Corps in present-day northern Montana. After their initial apprehension, the Indians decided to camp with the Americans. During the first day and night, Lewis explained the United States intent to bring about a comprehensive peace among all the Indian Tribes of the west. He said the Shoshones and Nez Perces, enemies of the Blackfeet, had already agreed to this peace and would be receiving guns and supplies because of it.
The American plan represented a direct threat to the Blackfeet. Giving guns to their adversaries could only result in a weakening of Blackfeet power. That night, the Blackfeet attempted to steal the expeditions guns. In the chaos that followed, Lewis and Reuben Field each killed a Blackfeet warrior. The incident marked the first act of bloodshed between the western Indians and representatives of the United States. Lewis left a peace medal around the neck of one of the corpses "that they might be informed who we were."
The surviving Blackfeet returned to their Tribe and communicated what they had learned of Americas goals for the region. From that point forward, the Blackfeet regarded the Americans with hostility. In the years that followed, Blackfeet war parties were responsible for the deaths of three former members of the Corps of Discovery.
Fifty years before the expedition, the Blackfeet Indians had a reputation of being hospitable to Europeans who occasionally wintered with the Tribe. By 1806, however, the world inhabited by the Blackfeet had grown increasingly complex. The Blackfeet were regular commerce partners with Canadian-based British merchants, and in their frequent visits to trading posts, the Indians exchanged wolf and beaver pelts for guns, ammunition, and alcohol. This relationship had lasted more than 20 years, and during that time, the Blackfeet, armed with guns, had been able to dominate their rivals, the Nez Perce and the Shoshone.
Participation by the Missouri River Basin Tribes in the Bicentennial Observation of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Mni Sose Intertribal Water Rights Coalitions 27-member Tribes are currently conducting preliminary planning sessions to develop tribal participation in the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial. The major theme of the tribal presentation is to expand on the observations of the Lewis and Clark expedition of the Tribal Nations in the Northern Plains Region and to provide a year-2004 update on the status of the Nations.
The observation will include the presentation of each Tribes culture and lifestyle at the time of the expedition. The Tribes will provide an overview of their histories in the 1800s and 1900s. Each tribal presentation will conclude with a statement of the Tribes goals for the new millennium.
Tribal ceremonies, annual dances, and other events will be highlighted in public information material. Coordination with state tourism departments will be strengthened, and tribal activities will be integrated with federal and state activities.
The Tribes envision three education centers located in the lower, middle, and upper Missouri River Basin, which will be staff by tribal historians and artists. The education centers will provide displays, video presentations, and audio travel tapes on tribal histories, tribal exhibits, and tribal visions for the future.
The Tribes extend an invitation to federal and state agencies to cooperate and collaborate in providing this tribal perspective to visitors in the Missouri River Basin during the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial.
BIBLIOGRAPHY for the Lewis and Clark Expedition Data
PBS Online - Lewis and Clark