Clark: May 14, 1806

Wednesday, 14th of May 1806, a fine day. We had all our horses collected by 10 a.m. During that time we had all our baggage carried across the Flathead River, which is rapid and about 150 yards wide. After the baggage was over on the north side, we crossed our horses without much trouble and hobbled them in the bottom. After that we moved a short distance below to a convenient situation and formed a camp around a very convenient spot for defense, where the Indians had formerly had an underground house — a hollow circular spot about 30 feet in diameter, 4 feet below the surface with a bank of 2 feet above. This situation we concluded would be sufficiently convenient to hunt the woodlands for bear and deer and for the salmon, which we were told would be here in a few days, and also a good situation for our horses. The hills to the east and north of us are high, broken, and only partially timbered; the soil is rich and affords fine grass. In short, as we are compelled to reside a while in this neighborhood, I feel perfectly satisfied with our position.

Immediately after we had crossed the river, the chief called the Broken Arm, or Tin-nach-e-moo-toll, and another principal chief, Hoh-host'-ill-pitp, arrived on the opposite side and began to sing. We sent the canoe over, and those chiefs, the son of the Broken Arm, and the son of a great chief who was killed last year by the Big Bellies of the Saskatchewan River, came across. Those two young men were the ones who gave Capt Lewis (Capt. Lewis) and myself each a horse with great ceremony in behalf of the nation a few days ago, and the latter gave a most elegant mare and colt the morning after we arrived at the village. Hohastillpilt, with much ceremony, presented Capt. Lewis with an elegant gray horse which he had brought for that purpose. Capt Lewis gave him in return a handkerchief, two hundred balls, and four pounds of powder, with which he appeared perfectly satisfied, and seemed much pleased.

Soon after I had crossed the river, and during the time Capt Lewis was on the opposite side, John Collins, whom we had sent out very early this morning with Labiche and Shannon to hunt on the north side of the river, came in and informed me that he had killed two bears about 5 miles distant on the uplands, one of which was in good order. I immediately dispatched Jo. Fields and P. Wiser with him to fetch the flesh. We made several attempts to exchange our stallions for geldings or mares without success; we even offered two for one. Those horses are troublesome and cut each other up very much, and as we cannot exchange them, we think it best to castrate them, and we began the operation this evening. One of the Indians present offered his services on this occasion. He cut them without tying the cord of the testicle, as is usual. He scraped it very clean and separated it before he cut it. About midday Shannon came in with two grouse and 2 squirrels common to this country. His moccasins were worn out, which obliged him to come in early.

Collins returned in the evening with the two bears which he had killed in the morning. One of them, an old male, was in fine order; the other, a female with cubs, was meager. We gave the Indians about us, 15 in number, two shoulders and a ham of the bear to eat, which they cooked in the following manner: on a brisk fire of dried wood they threw a parcel of small stones from the river. When the fire had burned down and heated the stones, they placed them level and laid on a parcel of pine boughs. On those they laid the flesh of the bear in slabs, placing boughs between each layer of meat, and then covered it thickly with pine boughs. After this they poured on a small quantity of water and covered the whole over with earth to the depth of 4 inches. In this situation they let it remain about 3 hours, when they took it out fit for use. At 6 o'clock P.M. Labiche returned and informed us that he had killed a female bear and two cubs at a long distance from camp, toward the mountains. He brought in two large dark brown pheasants which he had also killed. Shannon also returned with a few black pheasants and two squirrels which he had killed in the woodland toward Collins Creek. This nation esteems the killing of one of those tremendous animals (the bear) equally as great as killing an enemy on the field of action. We gave the claws of those bears which Collins had killed to Hohastillpelp.