University of Virginia Library

[Lewis:]

Saturday August 24th.. 1805.

As the Indians who were on their way down the Missouri
had a number of spare ho[r]ses with them I thought it probable
that I could obtain some of them and therefore desired
the Cheif to speak to them and inform me whether they would
trade. they gave no positive answer but requested to see the
goods which I was willing to give in exchange. I now produced
some battle axes which I had made at Fort Mandan
with which they were much pleased. knives also seemed in
great demand among them. I soon purchased three horses

and a mule. for each horse I gave an ax a knife handkercheif
and a little paint; & for the mule the addition of a knife
a shirt handkercheif and a pair of legings; at this price which
was quite double that given for the horses, the fellow who
sold him made a merit of having bestoed [on] me one of his
mules. I consider this mule a great acquisition. these Indians
soon told me that they had no more horses for sale and I
directed the party to prepare to set out. I had now nine
horses and a mule, and two which I had hired made twelve
these I had loaded and the Indian women took the ballance
of the baggage. I had given the Interpreter some articles
with which to purchase a horse for the woman which he had
obtained. at twelve Oclock we set out and passed the river
below the forks, directing our rout towards the cove along the
track formerly mentioned. most of the horses were heavily
laden, and it appears to me that it will require at least 25
horses to convey our baggage along such roads as I expect we
shall be obliged to pass in the mountains. I had now the
inexpressible satisfaction to find myself once more under way
with all my baggage and party. an Indian had the politeness
to offer me one of his horses to ride which I accepted with
cheerfullness as it enabled me to attend better to the march of
the party. I had reached the lower part of the cove when an
Indian rode up and informed me that one of my men was very
sick and unable to come on. I directed the party to halt at a
small run which falls into the creek on Lard. at the lower part
of the Cove and rode back about 2 Miles where I found
Wiser very ill with a fit of the cholic. I sent Sergt. Ordway
who had remained with him for some water and gave him a
doze of the essence of Peppermint and laudinum which in the
course of half an hour so far recovered him that he was enabled
to ride my horse and I proceeded on foot and rejoined the
party. the sun was yet an hour high but the Indians who had
for some time impatiently waited my return at length unloaded
and turned out their horses and my party had followed there
example. as it was so late and the Indians had prepared their
camp for the night I thought it best to acquiess and determined
also to remain. we had traveled only about six miles.
after we encamped we had a slight shower of rain. Goodrich
who is our principal fisherman caught several fine trout.
Drewyer came to us late in the evening and had not killed
anything. I gave the Indians who were absolutely engaged in
transporting the baggage, a little corn as they had nothing to
eat. I told Cameahwait that my stock of provision was too
small to indulge all his people with provision and recommended
it to him to advise such as were not assisting us with
our baggage to go on to their camp to morrow and wait our
arrival; which he did accordingly. Cameahwait literally translated
is one who never walks. he told me that his nation had
also given him another name by which he was signalized as a
warrior which was Too-et́-te-cań-e or Black gun. these people
have many names in the course of their lives, particularly if
they become distinguished characters. for it seems that every
important event by which they happen to distinguish themselves
intitles them to claim another name which is generally
scelected by themselves and confirmed by the nation. those
distinguishing acts are the killing and scalping an enemy, the
killing a white bear, leading a party to war who happen to be
successfull either in destroying their enemies or robing them
of their horses, or individually stealing the horses of an enemy.
these are considered acts of equal heroism among them, and
that of killing an enemy without scalping him is considered of
no importance; in fact the whole honour seems to be founded
in the act of scalping, for if a man happens to slay a dozen of
his enemies in action and others get the scalps or first lay their
hand on the dead person the honor is lost to him who killed
them and devolves on those who scalp or first touch them.
Among the Shoshones, as well as all the Indians of America,
bravery is esteemed the primary virtue; nor can any one
become eminent among them who has not at some period of
his life given proofs of his possessing this virtue. with them
there can be no preferment without some warlike achievement,
and so completely interwoven is this principle with the earliest
Elements of thought that it will in my opinion prove a serious
obstruction to the restoration of a general peace among the
nations of the Missouri. while at Fort Mandan I was one
day addressing some cheifs of the Minetares w[h]o visited us
and pointing out to them the advantages of a state of peace
with their neighbours over that of war in which they were
engaged. the Chiefs who had already geathered their ha[r]vest
of larals [laurels], and having forceably felt in many instances
some of those inconveniences attending a state of war which I
pointed out, readily agreed with me in opin[i]on. a young
fellow under the full impression of the Idea I have just suggested
asked me if they were in a state of peace with all their
neighbours what the nation would do for Cheifs:? and added
that the cheifs were now oald and must shortly die and that
the nation could not exist without cheifs. taking as granted
that there could be no other mode devised for making Cheifs
but that which custom had established through the medium of
warlike ac[h]ievements.

The few guns which the Shoshones have[16] are reserved for
war almost exclusively and the bow and arrows are used in
hunting. I have seen a few skins among these people which
have almost every appearance of the common sheep. they
inform me that they finde this animal on the high mountains
to the West and S. W. of them. it is about the size of the
common sheep, the wool is reather shorter and more intermixed
with long hairs particularly on the upper part of the
neck. these skins have been so much woarn that I could not
form a just Idea of the animal or it's colour. the Indians
however inform me that it is white and that it's horns are
lunated comprest twisted and bent backward as those of the
common sheep. the texture of the skin appears to be that of
the sheep. I am now perfectly convinced that the sheep as
well as the Bighorn exist in these mountains. (Capt. C saw
one at a distance to day)

The usual caparison of the Shoshone horse is a halter and
saddle. the 1st. consists either of a round plated or twisted
cord of six or seven strands of buffaloe's hair, or a throng of
raw hide made pliant by pounding and rubing. these cords
of bufaloe's hair are about the size of a man's finger and remarkably
strong. this is the kind of halter which is prefered

by them. the halter of whatever it may be composed is
always of great length and is never taken from the neck of
the horse which they commonly use at any time. it is first
attatched at one end about the neck of the horse with a knot
that will not slip, it is then brought down to his under jaw
and being passed through the mouth imb[r]aces the under jaw
and tonge in a simple noose formed by crossing the rope inderneath
the jaw of the horse. this when mounted he draws up on
the near side of the horse's neck and holds in the left hand,
suffering it to trail at a great distance behind him—sometimes
the halter is attatched so far from the end that while the
shorter end serves him to govern his horse, the other trails on
the grond as before mentioned. they put their horses to their
full speed with those cords trailing on the ground. when they
turn out the horse to graze the noose is mearly loosed from
his mouth. the saddle is made of wood and covered with
raw hide which holds the parts very firmly together. it is
made like the pack saddles in uce among the French and
Spaniords. it consists of two flat thin boards which fit the
sides of the horses back, and are held firm by two peices
which are united to them behind and before on the outer side
and which rise to a considerable hight terminating sometimes
in flat horizontal points extending outwards, and alwas in an
accute angle or short bend underneath the upper part of these
peices. a peice of buffaloe's skin with the hair on, is usually
put underneath the saddle; and very seldom any covering on
the saddle (but when they ride they throw on a piece of skin).
stirrups when used are made of wood and covered with leather.
these are generally used by the elderly men and women; the
young men scarcely ever use anything more than a small pad
of dressed leather stuffed with hair, which is confined with a
leather thong passing around the body of the horse in the
manner of a girth. they frequently paint their favorite horses,
and cut their ears in various shapes. they also decorate their
mains and tails, which they never draw or trim, with the
feathers of birds, and sometimes suspend at the breast of the
horse the finest ornaments they possess. the Spanish bridle
is prefered by them when they can obtain them, but they
never dispence with the cord about the neck of the horse,
which serves them to take him with more ease when he is runing
at large. They are excellent horsemen and extreemly
expert in casting the cord about the neck of a horse, (make a
noose & catch him running &c.) the horses that have been
habituated to be taken with the cord in this way, however wild
they may appear at first, surrender the moment they feel the
cord about their necks. There are no horses in this quarter
which can with propriety be termed wild. there are some
few which have been left by the indians at large for so great a
length of time that they have become shye, but they all shew
marks of having been in possession of man. such is that
one which Capt. Clark saw just below the three forks of the
Missouri, and one other which I saw on the Missouri below
the entrance of the Mussle shell river. Capt. Clark set out
very early this morning on his return, he traveled down the
creek to it's entrance by the same Indian track he had ascended
it; at the river he marked his name on a pine tree, then
ascended to the bottom above the second creek, and brekfasted
on burries, which occupyed them about one hour. he now
retraced his former track and joined the party where he had
left them at 4 P. M. on his way Capt. C. fell from a rock
and injured one of his legs very much. the party during his
absence had killed a few pheasants and caught a few small
fish on which together with haws and Serviceburies they had
subsisted. they had also killed one cock of the mountain.
Capt. Clark now wrote me a discription of the river and country,
and stated our prospects by this rout as they have been
heretofore mentioned (related the information of his gu[i]de &
recomd to me to purchase horses &c he had learned from his
guid[e] that he had been on the river to the N. where he saw
people from the other side [of] the mountains and there was a
road, the route he shewed in the sand, which gave me hope of finding
a route across the m.[ountains] in that direction) and dispatched
Colter on horseback with orders to loose no time
reaching me. he set out late with the party continued his
rout about two miles and encamped. Capt Clark had seen
some trees which would make small canoes but all of them
some distance below the Indian Ca[m]ps which he passed at
the entrance of fish Creek.