Thursday August 15th. 1806 (continued)
Mandans Vilg.
after assembling the Chiefs and Smokeing one pipe, I informed
them that I still Spoke the Same words which we had
Spoken to them when we first arived in their Country in the
fall of 1804. we then envited them to visit their great father
the president of the U. States and to hear his own Councils
and recieve his Gifts from his own hands as also See the population
of a government which can at their pleasure protect and
Secure you from all your enimies, and chastize all those who
will shut their years to his Councils. we now offer to take
you at the expense of our Government and Send you back to
your Country again with a considerable present in Merchendize
which you will receive of your great Father. I urged the
necessity of their going on with us as it would be the means
of hastening those Suppl[i]es of Merchindize which would be
Sent to their Country and exchanged as before mentioned for
a moderate price in Pelteries and furs &c. the great chief of
the Menetaras Spoke, he Said he wished to go down and see
his great father very much, but that the Scioux were in the
road and would most certainly kill him or any others who
should go down they were bad people and would not listen
to any thing which was told them. when he Saw us last we
told him that we had made peace with all the nations below,
Since that time the Seioux had killed 8 of their people and
Stole a number of their horses. he Said that he had opened
his ears and followed our Councils, he had made peace with
the Chyennes and rocky Mountains indians, and repieted the
same objecctions as mentioned. that he went to war against
none and was willing to recieve all nations as friends. he Said
that the Ricaras had Stolen from his people a number of horses
at different times and his people had killed 2 Ricaras. if the
Sieoux were at peace with them and could be depended on he
as also other Chiefs of the villages would be glad to go and
See their great father, but as they were all afraid of the Sieoux
they should not go down &c.
The Black Cat Chief of the Mandans Village on the North
Side of the Missouri sent over and requested me to go over to
his village which invertation I axceptd and crossed over to his
Village. he had a parcel of corn about 12 bushels in a pile in
his lodge. he told me that his people had but little corn part
of which they had given me. after takeing a Smoke he informed
me that as the Scioux were very troublesom and the
road to his great father dangerous none of this village would go
down with us. I told the Cheifs and wariers of the village who
were then present that we were anxious that some of the village
Should go and See their great father and hear his good words &
receve his bountifull gifts &c. and told them to pitch on Some
Man on which they could rely on and Send him to see their
Great father, they made the same objections which the Chief
had done before. a young man offered to go down, and they
all agreed for him to go down the charactor of this young
man I knew as a bad one and made an objection as to his age
and Chareckter at this time Gibson who was with me informed
me that this young man had Stole his knife and had it then in
his possession, this I informed the Chief and directed him to
give up the knife he delivered the knife with a very faint
apology for his haveing it in his possession. I then reproached
those people for wishing to send such a man to See and hear
the words of so great a man as their great father, they hung
their heads and said nothing for some time when the Cheif
spoke and Said that they were afraid to Send any one for fear
of their being killed by the Sieux. after smoking a pipe and
relateing some passages I recrossed to our Camp. being informed
by one of our enterpreters that the 2
d. Chief of the
Mandans comonly called the little crow
[5]
intended to accompany
us down, I took Charbono and walked to the Village to see
this Chief and talk with him on the subject he told me he had
deturmined to go down, but wished to have a council first with
his people which would be in the after part of the day. I
smoked a pipe with the little Crow and returned to the boat.
Colter one of our men expressed a desire to join Some trappers
[
the two Illinois Men we met, &
who now came down to us] who
offered to become shearers with [him] and furnish traps &c. the
offer [was] a very advantagious one, to him, his services could
be dispenced with from this down and as we were disposed to
be of service to any one of our party who had performed their
duty as well as Colter had done, we agreed to allow him the
privilage provided no one of the party would ask or expect a
Similar permission to which they all agreeed that they wished
Colter every suckcess and that as we did not wish any of them
to Seperate untill we Should arive at St. Louis they would not
apply or expect it &c.
[6]
The Maharha Chief brought us Some
Corn, as did also the Chief of the little village of the Menetarras
on mules of which they have Several. [
bought from the
Crow. Inds. who get or Steal them from the Spaniards] The
evening is cool and windy. great number of the nativs of
the different villages came to view us and exchange robes with
our men for their Skins we gave Jo Colter Some Small articles
which we did not want and some powder & lead. the party
also gave him several articles which will be usefull to him on his
expedittion. This evening Charbono informed me that our
back was scercely turned before a war party from the two
menetarry villages followed on and attacked and killed the
Snake Indians whome we had seen and in the engagement
between them and the Snake Indians they had lost two men
one of which was the Son of the principal Chief of the little
village of the Menitarras. that they had also went to war from
the Menetarras and killed two Ricaras. he further informed
me that a missunderstanding had taken place between the
Mandans & Minetarras and had very nearly come to blows
about a woman, the Menitarres at length presented a pipe
and a reconsilliation took place between them.
