Missouri River near Cheyenne River — John Ordway: October 2, 1804

over to us this morning, we found him to be Mr Valley,2 the
Trador among The Souix nation he could talk English, he in-
formed us that we Should not see many more of the Souix to
Trouble us. he came with us a Short distance & returned, we
proceeded on passed a large Bottom on s. s. Some Timber on
the edge of the river, about 2 o. Clock we came round a bend
where we had come 20 miles round, & it was only 2 miles across
by land.3 we discovered Some Indians on the hills N. S. one of
them came down to the River, we asked him what he wanted
he Said (there was 20 lodges) or so in the Yanktown Souix lan-
guage that he wanted us to come to Shore, we told him we had
Spoke to his chief &.C. & proceeded on. the wind Shifted to
N. W. passed an Island4 on N. S. to a creek on the S. Side.
souri. The explorers made the obvious mistake of confusing the Indian name
Cheyenne with chien, the French word for dog.
1 In Sully County, eleven miles above the mouth of Cheyenne River.
2 Thwaites supposes this man to have been some connection of the Valle
family, prominent in Spanish Louisiana. Clark records that he had spent the
previous winter “300 Leagues up the Chien River under the Black mountains” —
the Black Hills of western South Dakota.
3 They had completed the passage of the Little Bend of the Missouri, a loop
similar to the Grand Detour, farther below.
4 “This Island we call Isd of Caution.” Clark. It is modern Plum Island,
shown on the M. R. C. map at the 1,240 mile point.
146 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS [Oct. 3
Camped on a Sand bar in the middle of the River. — no hunting
for Indians Troublesome.