I saw several men on horseback which with the help of a spyglass I
found to be Indians on the high hill to the N.E. We landed on the S.W.
side, and I sent out two men to a village of barking squirrels to kill
some of those animals.
Immediately after landing, about 20 Indians were discovered on an
eminence a little above us on the opposite side. One of those men I took
to be a Frenchman from his having a blanket Capote and a handkerchief
around his head. Immediately after, 80 or 90 Indian men-all armed with
fusees and bows and arrows-came out of a wood on the opposite bank,
about a quarter of a mile below us. They fired off their guns as a
salute. We returned the salute with two rounds.
We were at a loss to determine of what nation those Indians were.
From their hostile appearance, we were apprehensive they were Tetons,
but from the country through which they roved we were willing to believe
them either the Yanktons, Poncas, or Mahas, either of which nations are
well disposed toward the white people. I determined to find out who they
were without running any risk of the party and Indians, and therefore
took three Frenchmen who could speak the Maha, Pawnee, and some Sioux,
and in a small canoe I went over to a sand bar which extended
sufficiently near the opposite shore to converse. Immediately after I
set out, three young men set out from the opposite side and swam next me
on the sand bar. I directed the men to speak to them in the Pawnee and
Maha languages first, neither of which they could understand. I then
directed the man who could speak a few words of Sioux to inquire what
nation or tribe they belong to. They informed me that they were Tetons
and their chief was the Black Buffalo. This chief I knew very well to be
the one we had seen with his band at Teton river, which band had
attempted to detain us in the fall of 1804 as we ascended this river,
and with whom we were near coming to blows.
I told those Indians that they had been deaf to our counsels, and
ill-treated us as we ascended this river two years past, that they had
abused all the whites who had visited them since. I believed them to be
bad people and should not suffer them to cross to the side on which the
party lay, and directed them to return with their band to their camp;
that if any of them came near our camp we should kill them certainly. I
left them on the bar and returned to the party and examined the arms,
&c. Those Indians, seeing some corn in the canoe, requested some of it,
which I refused, being determined to have nothing to do with those
people.
Several others swam across, one of which understood Pawnee, and as
our Pawnee interpreter was a very good one, we had it in our power to
inform what we wished. I told this man to inform his nation that we had
not forgotten their treatment to us as we passed up this river, &c.,
that they had treated all the white people who had visited them very
badly - robbed them of their goods, and had wounded one man whom I had
seen. We viewed them as bad people and no more traders would be suffered
to come to them, and whenever the white people wished to visit the
nations above, they would come sufficiently strong to whip any
villainous party who dared to oppose them, and words to the same
purpose.
I also told them that I was informed that a part of all their
bands were going to war against the Mandans, &c., and that they would be
well whipped, as the Mandans and Minnetarees, &c., had a plenty of guns,
powder and ball, and we had given them a cannon to defend themselves.
And directed them to return from the sand bar and inform their chiefs
what we had said to them, and to keep away from the river or we should
kill every one of them, &c., &c. Those fellows requested to be allowed
to come across and make comrades which we positively refused, and I
directed them to return immediately, which they did; and after they had
informed the chiefs, &c., as I suppose, what we had said to them, they
all set out on their return to their camps back of a high hill. Seven of
them halted on the top of the hill and blackguarded us, told us to come
across and they would kill us all, &c., of which we took no notice. We
all this time were extremely anxious for the arrival of the two Fieldses
and Shannon, whom we had left behind, and were somewhat concerned as to
their safety. To our great joy, those men hove in sight at 6 P.M.
Captain Clark, 30 August 1806