Arikara villages near present-day Mobridge — John Ordway: October 10, 1804

Journal continued from 90th page at R. Ree vilP 10th Oc4
About 2 oClock P. M. the Chiefs & Warries of the RickaRees
Nation assembled at our Camp under the american flag to
Counsel with our Officers. Cap* Lewis read a Speech to them
Giving them Good counsel &. C. after the talk was inded to
them three Guns was fired from our Bow peace, then our officers
Gave the three Chiefs1 Some presents & 3 flags & each Chief a
meddel. their is 3 villages of this nation & three chiefs one at
each village, our officers Gave Each an equal proportion of the
Goods. [To] Each [an] american flag, a red coat & cocked hat
& feathers & meddels as ab° mn [and] Some Paint they divided
the Goods & paint among themselves & tobacco &.C. &.C. after
all was over our Capts Shot the air Gun they appeared to be
astonished at the Site of it & the execution it would doe.2 they
were verry thankful to us for what they had Recd from us, & Sd
that all were So Good that we must go where we pleased after
they would have a talk tomorrow & Give us Some Corn &. C.
the chiefs Shook hands with our officers in the most friendly
manner, & returned to thier villages. I & one man went to the
2nd village with them in the evening which is about 4 miles from
the lower village, the chief took us into his lodge which was
verry large & their village is built nearly in the Same form as the
lower village, the chiefs wife Brought us a bowl full of Beans
& corn. We Eat Some of it. She then brought 3 more one after
another of different kinds of victuals, we Eat some of each &
found it verry Good, we Smoaked a while with them, they were
> There were three Arikara villages in the vicinity, the one on the island
below the camp, and two others on the river above it. The chiefs of the two
latter were late in coming to the council. Lewis and Clark attributed this to
a feeling of “gellousy” between the villages, inspired by the fear that the leader
of the lower village would be made first chief by the explorers.
2 Another prodigy displayed to the wondering red men was woolly-headed
York. Clark records that they “wcr much astonished at my Servent, they
never Saw a black man before, all Hocked around him & examind him from
top to toe, lie carried on the joke and made himself more turribal than we
wished him to doe.” “By way of amusement,” adds Biddle, “he told them
that he had on.c been a wild animal! and caught and tamed by his master.”
1804] SERGEANT ORDWAY’S JOURNAL 151
verry friendly to us & Seemed to be desirous to talk with us &
Scarcely kept their Eyes off us (we returned to camp late)