Clark: August 30, 1806

Saturday 30th of August 1806. Capt. Lewis (Capt. Lewis) is mending slowly. We set out at the usual hour and proceeded on very well a few miles. Jo Field, who was on the shore, being behind, I directed one of the small canoes with R. Fields and Shannon to remain at the point of a sand bar until he came up. I took 3 hunters and walked on the NE shore with a view to kill some fat meat. We had not proceeded far before we saw a large plum orchard of the most delicious plums. Out of this orchard 2 large buck elk ran, and the hunters killed them. I stopped the canoes and brought in the flesh, which was fat and fine. Here the party collected as many plums as they could eat, and several pecks more, which they put by, etc.

After a delay of nearly 2 hours we again proceeded on downwards, passed 3 small islands, and as we were about to land at the place appointed to wait for the two Fields and Shannon, I saw several men on horseback. With the help of a spy glass I found them to be Indians on the high hills to the NE. We landed on the SW 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 blanket capote and a handkerchief around his head. Immediately after, 80 or 90 Indian men, all armed with fusees, bows, and arrows, came out of a wood on the opposite bank about 1/4 of a mile below us. They fired off their guns as a salute, and we returned the salute with 2 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 Omahas, either of which nations are well disposed towards the white people. I determined to find out who they were without running any risk to the party and Indians, and therefore took three Frenchmen who could speak the Omaha, 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, 3 young men set out from the opposite side and swam over to me on the sand bar. I directed the men to speak to them in the Pawnee and Omaha 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 belonged to. They informed me that they were Tetons and their chief was Tar-tack-kah-sabbar, or 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 councils 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 certainly kill them. I left them on the bar and returned to the party and examined the arms, etc. 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 whom understood Pawnee, and as our Pawnee interpreter was a very good one, we had it in our power to inform them 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, etc.; 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 had gone to war against the Mandans, etc., and that they would be well whipped, as the Mandans and Minitarees had a plenty of guns, powder, and ball, and we had given them a cannon to defend themselves. I 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, etc., etc.

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. After they had informed the chiefs, etc., as I suppose, what we had said to them, they all set out on their return to their camps back of a high hill. 7 of them halted on the top of the hill and blackguarded us, told us to come across and they would kill us all, etc., of which we took no notice. We were all this time extremely anxious for the arrival of the two Fields 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. Jo. Fields had killed 3 black-tail or mule deer.

We then set out, as I wished to see how those Indians on the hill would act. We steered across near the opposite shore. This motion put them in some agitation as to our intentions; some set out in the direction towards their camps, others walked about on the top of the hill, and one man walked down the hill to meet us and invited us to land, to which invitation I paid no kind of attention. This man I knew to be the one who had, in the fall of 1804, accompanied us 2 days, and is said to be a friend to the white people. After we passed him, he returned to the top of the hill and gave 3 strokes with the gun he had in his hand. This, I am informed, is a great oath among the Indians.

We proceeded on down about 6 miles and camped on a large sand bar in the middle of the river, about 2 miles above our encampment on Mud Island on the 10th Septr. 1804, having made only 22 miles today. Saw several Indians on the hills at a distance this evening viewing us. Our encampment this evening was a very disagreeable one, bleak, exposed to the winds, and the sand wet. I pitched on this situation to prevent being disturbed by those Sioux in the course of the night, as well as to avoid the mosquitoes. Killed 9 whistling squirrels.