Journal Entry

William Clark: September 25, 1804

September 25, 1804
William Clark Mouth of the Bad River, South Dakota Thwaites Vol. 1, pp. 164-167

25th Sept. A FAIR Morning the Wind from the S. E. all well, raised a Flag Staff & made a orning or Shade on a Sand bar in the mouth of Teton River, for the purpose of Speeking with the Indians under, the Boat Crew on board at 70 yards Distance from the bar. Met in Council at 12 oClock and after Smokeing, agreeable to the useal Custom, Cap. Lewis proceeded to Deliver a Speech which we [were] oblige[d] to Curtail for want of a good interpeter all our party paraded, gave a Medal to the Grand Chief Calld in Indian Un ton gar Sar bar in French Beeffe nure [Beuffle noir] Black Buffalow. Said to be a good Man.

Envited those Cheifs on board to Show them our boat and such Curiossities as was Strange to them, we gave them ¼ a glass of whiskey which they appeared to be verry fond of, Sucked the bottle after it was out & Soon began to be troublesom, one the 2d Cheif assumeing Drunkness, as a Cloake for his rascally intentions. I went with those Cheifs (in one of the Perogues with 5 men) to Shore with a view of reconsileing those men to us, as Soon as I landed the Perogue three of their young Men Seased the Cable of the Perogue, the Chiefs Soldr Huged the mast, and the 2d. Chief was verry insolent both in words & justures (pretended Drunkenness & staggered up against me) declaring I should not go on, Stateing he had not receved presents sufficent from us.

Source: Thwaites, Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1904–05). Public domain.

Entities mentioned in this entry

Tribes & Nations:

Auto-extracted from the entry text. Hover any entity for context.

Terrain360 · the place today

Mouth of the Bad River, South Dakota in 360°

Verendrye Site · 18 panoramas on this trail Nearest capture is 2.1 mi from the tagged location.

Terrain360 panorama near Mouth of the Bad River, South Dakota

10 frames across 0.1 mi of the route around this location

Help improve this record

See something that needs correcting, or know a source we are missing? The archive gets better through its readers.

Send a correction

Our Partners

Follow the research

New findings, additions, and corrections from the archive. One email a month, no noise.