Thomas Jefferson Archives - Lewis & Clark Research Database

Pierre Chouteau to Thomas Jefferson, November 19, 1804

admin — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 18:47:43 +0000

English Translation

Sir, Captain Lewis on his visit engaged the chief of the [Iowa, Baxoje] tribe to come here, more chiefs of this tribe came a few days ago and after the promise that Captain Lewis made them, so that the Sioux tribe would go see you in the federal Cite, these chiefs demanded that I guide them. I observed them as they need your orders before everything and I promised to ask you. I satisfied with this promise in this way that the counsel I gave them and the expectations that they have conceived that they are worthy of your benevolence. The [Sauk, oθaakiiwaki] have also asked that two or three of their chiefs be on the same voyage: If you judge this necessary, Sir, I will execute your orders with precision and I think that they will result in the best effects of such a voyage. These Chiefs of tribes, who are all considerable, pass down to their descendants immense strengths that have been seen in the United States and beyond evidence of this physical superiority that will be very be very easy to maintain in dependence and subordination. They return home like the [Osages, Wazhazhe] persuaded that their genuine interest is to always maintain their peace with the United States. The [Odawa, Adaawe] asked me to remind you, Sir, the promise that you made them to build a mill in the home of the [Osages, Wazhazhe], and they asked me to write to you, I am informed of the price that this structure could cost, an opening committed to being delivered entirely finished for the sum of $1200. I believe that it is not possible to obtain a lesser price seeing the remoteness of the location and the difficulty of transporting the necessary materials for this structure. In my last I had the honor to write you that my brother is going to the Federal city as the representative of the inhabitants of this district, but a bit of Gout forced him to renounce his journey. Enclosed is an overview of the savage population of this district. I have the honor to be, with profound respect Sir, Your very humble and very obedient servant. Pierre Chouteau Enclosure

Original French Text

St. Louis le 19 nobr. 1804 Monsieur Le Capitaine Lewis a son passage avoit engagé les chef de la Tribus Ayoua a venir ici, plusieurs chefs de cette Tribus y sont venus il y a peu de Jours et d’Après la promesse que le Capne Lewis leur avoit fait, ainsi qu’a la Tribus Sioux d’aller vous voir a federal Cité, ces chefs m’ont demandés a ce que Je les y Conduisent. Je leurs ai observé qu’il faloit vos ordres avant tout et Je leurs ay promis de vous les demander, Je les ai renvoyé satisfait de cette promesse ainsi que des Conseils que Je leurs ai donné & des esperances qu’ils doivent Concevoir sils se rendoient digne de votre bienveillance; les sakias ont egalement demandés a ce que deux ou Trois de leurs chefs soyent du même voyage: Si vous Jugez la chose necessaire, Monsieur, J’executerai vos ordres avec exactitude et Je pense qu’il resulteroit les meilleurs effets d un pareils Voyage, Ces chefs de tribus, qui Toutes sont Considerables, Transmetteroient a leurs descendants les forces immense qui auroient vu dans les Etats Unis et d après l evidence de cete Superiotée phisique il seroit bien plus facile après de les maintenir dans la dependance et dans la subordination, ils retourneroient chez eux Comme les Ozages bien Persuadés que leur veritable interêt est de se maintenir Toujours en paix avec les Etats Unis. Les cheveux, ma prié vous rappeller Monsieur la promesse que vous lui avez fait de faire faire un moulin chez les Ozages, il ma bien prié de vous l’ecrire. Je me suis informé du Prix que pourroit coûter cette batisse, un ouvrier s’engageroit a le livrer entierement fini pour La somme de 1200$. Je crois qu’il ne seroit Pas Possible dobtenir un moindre prix vu l’eloignement des lieux et les difficultés du transports des choses nécessaire pour cette batisse. Dans ma precedente J’avais l’honneur de vous marquer que mon frere se rendoit a federal Cité comme Representant des habitants de ce District, mais un accez de Goutte la forcé de renoncer a ce voyage; Cy Joint un apperçu de la population sauvage de ce District. J’ay l’honneur dêtre avec un profond respect Monsieur, Votre très heumble et trés obeissant serviteur Pre. Chouteau

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Auguste Chouteau to Thomas Jefferson, November 20, 1804

admin — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 18:47:42 +0000

English Translation

Sir, Captain Lewis, during the stay he had here before departing for Missouri, charged me with sending you some notes relating to the savage nations, and the trade that they do in Louisiana and to whom this district is sensitive. As I occupied myself with this important work, I was named by the people of the district of Louisiana to present their petition to congress; a mission I accepted with joy, hoping they It would offer me the occasion to make your acquaintance and assure you of my devotion. So, I have suspended my work, preferring to respond in person to the questions that Mr. Lewis left me via writing. However, after five days of travel, I was stopped by the sweat and forced to return to my home. I cannot express to you, sir, the extent of my sorrow at this setback, which prevented me from responding to the trust of my principals and at the same time satisfy the desires of Captain Lewis; but to remedy this as soon as possible, I sent to Mr. J. Wm. Eppes, following the advice of Mr. Harrison our governor, the petition of our inhabitants begging him to wish to be the advocate of our cause and to help with his council Mr. Eligius Fromentin who is like me a representative of the people of the District of Louisianna: I shall pick up my work again with ardor, to send it to you as promptly as possible; but as it will demand much thought and time, I believed it necessary, at this time, to send you some notes, which may interest you, although they do not entirely respond to Captain Lewis’ questions. As for news that is certain, I learned that Captain Lewis arrived without any accident 850 miles from the mouth of the Missouri around the 19th of August, as the savages received him perfectly well; and I presume that he will pass the winter season with the Mandanes, about 1300 miles from here. If I have the pleasure to see you, my intention will be to recommend to you the inhabitants of Louisianna as submitted and loyal citizens but who need encouragement and for you to inspire for them the state that they deserve. I dare to flatter myself that you will not find what I have done here by writing wrong. I intend to do so if I have the honor to see you. My supporters and I, Sir, we are infinitely jealous to earn your esteem, and have decided to do everything to earn it. If I can be happy enough to be useful to you in anything whatsoever, I beg you to state it without reserve, to the one who has the honor to be with the sentiments of most profound respect Sir. Your Very humble & very obedient servant, Auguste Chouteau

Original French Text

St. Louis Le 20. Novembre 1804 Monsieur Monsr. le capitaine Lewis dans le séjour qu’il a fait ici avant son depart pour le Missoury, m’avoit chargé de vous envoyer des notes relatives aux nations sauvages, et au commerce qui se fait dans la Louisiane, et dont ce district est susceptible; Comme Je m’occupois de ce travail conséquent, J’ai été nommé par les habitans du District de la Louisiane, pour présenter au Congres leur petition; Mission que j’ai accepté avec joie, espérant qu’elle me fourniroit l’occasion de faire votre connoissance, et de vous assurer de mon entier dévouement. J’ai alors suspendu mon travail, préferant répondre de vive voix, aux questions que Mr Lewis m’a laissées par écrit. Mais après cinq jours de route, J’ai été arreté par la goutte, et forcé de revenir chez moi. Je ne puis vous exprimer, Monsieur, combien Je suis peiné de ce contretems, qui m’empêche de répondre à la confiance de mes cometans et en même temps de satisfaire aux desirs du Cape. Lewis; mais pour y remedier autant que possible, J’envoye à Mr. J. Wm. Eppes d’après le conseil de Mr Harrison notre gouverneur, la petition de nos habitans, en le priant de vouloir bien être l’avocat de notre cause, et d’aider de ses conseils Mr Eligius Fromentin, qui est comme moi réprésentans des habitans du District de la Louisiane: Je vais reprendre avec ardeur, mon travail, pour vous l’envoyer le plus promptement possible; mais comme il exige beaucoup de reflexions et de temps, Je crois devoir par cette occasion, vous envoyer quelques notes, qui pourront vous intéresser, quoiqu’elles ne repondent point entierement aux questions du Capitaine Lewis. Par des nouvelles certaines, J’ai appris que le Cape. Lewis étoit arrivé sans aucun accident a Huit cent cinquante mille de l’ambouchure du Missoury a l’époque du 19. d’aoust dernier, que les sauvages l’avoyent parfaitement reçus; et Je presume qu’il passera la saison de L’hivers chez les Mandanes, à environ 1300 Miles d’ici. Si J’avois eu le bonheur de vous voir, mon intention étoit de vous recommander les habitans de la Louisiane comme des Citoyens soumis et fidels, mais qui ont besoin d’encouragement, et de vous inspirer pour eux, l’état qu’ils meritent. J’ose me flatter que vous ne trouverez pas mauvais, que Je fasse par ecrit, ce que Je conptois faire si J’avois eu L’honneur de vous voir. Mes cometans et moi, Monsieur, nous sommes infiniment jaloux de meriter votre estime, et sommes décidés à faire tout pour l’obtenir Si J’étois assez heureux pour pouvoir vous être utile en quelque chose que ce soit, Je vous prie de disposer sans réserve, de celui que a L’honneur d’etre avec les sentiments du respect le plus profond Monsieur Votre Très humble & très obeissant serviteur. Augte. Chouteau

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Pierre Chouteau to Thomas Jefferson, December 1, 1805

admin — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 18:47:42 +0000

English Translation

Sir, The [Osage, Wazhazhe] chiefs who arrives last in St. Louis gave me indirect news of Captain Lewis. At the time that they departed their nation they saw two Indians of the [Otoe, Jiwére] nation who were going to St. Louis and were afraid of continuing their route by the unfortunate blow that was struck on the [Osages, Wazhazhe]. These [Otoes, Jiwére] reported that they had accompanied Captain Lewis to just a short distance from the sea to the South when they arrived at an establishment of whites where Captain Lewis procured some horses that they needed to continue their route. I desire and I hope good news is confirmed by next spring. Governor Wilkinson has no doubt informed you that I returned to him a commission of captain that was sent to me by a Panismahas chief to whom it was granted by the Governor of New Mexico. This step and several others of which we were only informed by hearsay are the plans by which the Spanish government seeks to become close with the Nations of Missouri. Be convinced, Sir, that I will do I in my power to entice the Indian Nations and attach them to the American government in all the respects. The United States can only withdraw the largest advantages from an intimate liaison and frequent communication with the Missouri and Mississippi Nations. Believe, sit, the I am doing all that is in my power to respond to the confidence that it pleased you to honor me with. I have the honor to be with the most profound respect Sir Your very humble and very obedient servant. Pierre Chouteau

Original French Text

St Louis Le 1er Decembre 1805. Monsieur Les chefs osages qui sont arrivés dernierement a St Louis m’ont donné des Nouvelles indirectes de Mr. Le Capn Lewis au moment de leur depart de leur nation ils ont vu deux Indiens de la Nation otto qui venoient a St Louis et qui ont craint de Continuer Leur route par le coup malheureux qui venoit d’être frappé sur les osages, ces ottos rapportent qu’ils ont accompagné le Capitaine Lewis jusqu’a peu de distance de la mer du Sud qu’ils sont arrivés a un etablissement de blancs où le Capn Lewis s’est procuré des chevaux dont il avoit besoin pour continuer sa route, Je desire et j’espere que ces heureuses nouvelles seront Confirmées au printems prochain. Monsr. le Gouverneur Wilkinson vous a sans doute informé que je lui ai remis une commission de capitaine qui m’a été envoyée par un chef Panis auquel elle avoit été accordée par le Gouverneur du Nouveau Mexique, Cette demarche et plusieurs autres dont nous ne sommes informés que par oui dires sont des preuves que le Gouvernement Espagnol cherche a se lier intimement avec les Nations du Missoury, soyez persuadé Monsieur, que je ferai tout ce qui sera en mon pouvoir pour attirer les Nations indiennes et les attacher au gouvernement americain sous tous les rapports Les Etats Onis ne peuvent que retirer les plus grands avantages d’une Liaison intime et d’une Communication frequente avec les Nations du Missoury et du Mississipy, Croyez, Monsieur, que je ferai toujours tout ce qui sera en mon pouvoir pour repondre a la confiance dont il Vous a plu de m’honorer. J’ai l’honneur d’etre avec le plus profond respect Monsieur Votre très humble et tres obeissant serviteur. Pre. Chouteau

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Pierre Chouteau to Thomas Jefferson, July 20, 1805

admin — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 18:47:42 +0000

English Translation

Sir, Captain Lewis has sent by his barge returning from high on the Missouri, some magpies, a pheasant, and a prairie dog with two trunks that followed their instructions that they must be sent to you. I sent them down to New Orleans and addressed them to Governor Clayborn. I believe that this journey is the best sure that the animals will arrive sage and sound in the Federal city. Captain Lewis sent 45 savages from nations from the high Missouri to be sent to the seat of the government but the warm season is too unfavorable for traveling for the savages accustomed to cold countries, as they expressed in the talks that I held with them, Governor Harrison and I have judged it more prudent and absolutely necessary to put back the journey to autumn and to gather at the same time the [Sauk, oθaakiiwaki] and Fox [Meskwaki, Meshkwahkihaki] already requested by the government. As a consequence, several of these savages have returned to their nations and I will make a party of Sioux leave who are presently here because the closest village of their nation is established on the Mocus river where they will return at the end of next September to assemble with different chiefs of other nations and with [Sauk, oθaakiiwaki] and Fox [Meskwaki, Meshkwahkihaki] already requested by the government that I am ready to bring to the Federal city. I have the honor to be with the greatest respect Sir your very humble and very obedient servant. Pierre Chouteau

Original French Text

St. Louis [on or before 20 July] Monsieur Mr Le Capn Lewis ayant envoyé par sa barge revenue dernierement du haut Missoury, des Pies, un faisan, et un chien de prairye avec deux Malles qui suivant ses instructions doivent vous etre envoyés, Je les ai fait descendre à la Nouvelle Orleans et les ai addressé à Mr Le gouverneur Clayborn, J’ai cru que cette Voye etoit La plus sure pour que ces animaux arrivent sain et sauf à Federal city. Mr Le capn Lewis a envoyé quarante-cinq Sauvages des nations du haut du Missoury pour etre envoyé au siege du gouvernement mais la saison des chaleurs etant trop defavorable pour faire voyager des sauvages accoutumés aux païs froids, comme eux mêmes l’ont exprimé dans les conseils que j’ai tenu avec eux, Mr Le gouverneur harrison et moi avons jugé plus à propos et même de necessité absolue de remettre ce voyage à L’automne et de reunir en même tems Les sackias et Renards deja demandés par le gouvernement. En consequence plusieurs de ces Sauvages sont retournés dans leurs nations et je vais faire partir un parti de sioux actuellement ici pour le plus proche village de leur nation etabli sur La rivière des Mocus d’ou ils reviendront à la fin de Septembre prochain pour se reunir aux differens chefs des autres Nations et aux sakias et Renards deja demandés par le gouvernement que je serai pret a conduire a Federal city. J’ai L’honneur d’etre avec Le plus profond respect Monsieur Votre trés humble et très obeissant serviteur Pre. Chouteau

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Thomas Jefferson and the Changing West

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 01:27:42 +0000

Ronda examines Thomas Jefferson’s complex and evolving vision for the trans-Mississippi West, tracing how the Lewis and Clark Expedition both realized and undermined the president’s expectations. The article explores Jefferson’s pre-expedition assumptions — the passage through the continent by water, the orderly integration of Native peoples into American agriculture, and the potential for a continental commercial empire — and how the expedition’s findings challenged each of these ideas. Ronda demonstrates that the West Lewis and Clark actually encountered — vast, arid, mountainous, and populated by powerful and autonomous Native nations — bore little resemblance to Jefferson’s imagined landscape of navigable rivers and cooperative indigenous populations. The article argues that Jefferson’s response to the expedition’s reports was selective, embracing information that supported his vision while downplaying evidence that contradicted it, a pattern that would shape American western policy for decades.

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Lewis and Clark and the Route to the Pacific

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 01:27:42 +0000

Allen provides a seminal analysis of the geographic knowledge and misconceptions that shaped the Lewis and Clark Expedition from conception through execution. The article traces the evolution of European and American understanding of trans-Mississippi geography, focusing on the persistent myth of a short, easy portage between navigable tributaries of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. Allen demonstrates how this “passage through the garden” concept, rooted in Renaissance-era geographic theory and reinforced by speculative 18th-century cartography, fundamentally shaped Jefferson’s instructions and Lewis’s expectations. The article examines how the expedition’s actual discoveries — the vast, mountainous barrier of the Rockies, the absence of an easy water route, the complexity of the Columbia River system — systematically dismantled these optimistic assumptions. Allen argues that understanding this “geography of the imagination” is essential for interpreting the expedition’s decisions, frustrations, and ultimate achievement in crossing a continent far more formidable than anyone had anticipated.

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Jefferson’s Instructions to Meriwether Lewis

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 01:27:40 +0000

Jackson provides a close reading and contextual analysis of Thomas Jefferson’s June 20, 1803 letter of instructions to Meriwether Lewis, one of the most important documents in the history of American exploration. The article examines each section of Jefferson’s instructions — the geographic objectives, diplomatic goals with Native nations, scientific observations required, and commercial intelligence to be gathered — and situates them within the broader context of Jefferson’s continental vision and the recent Louisiana Purchase. Jackson demonstrates how Jefferson’s instructions reflected the intellectual currents of the Enlightenment, the practical concerns of a nation seeking to control its western territory, and the president’s personal scientific curiosity. The article also traces the evolution of the instructions through multiple drafts, showing how Jefferson incorporated suggestions from members of the American Philosophical Society and other advisors.

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Steve McCracken on Trade Beads and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:36:07 +0000

for well good afternoon everyone and welcome to the tent of mini voices T many voices is part of the core of Discovery 2 traveling Lewis and Clark exhibit this exhibit has been on the road since 2003 started at monello Thomas Jefferson’s home it’s been traveling along the Lis and Clark Trail and we traveling through 2006 through the return journey and what we do is at each venue at each stop along the way is when we set up our tenam mini voices we bring in a wide variety of presenters speakers to give us a little taste of the history and the culture of the L and Clark expedition and what we’re going to hear about this afternoon is something that’s often overlooked on the L and Clark expedition we’re going to talk about the some of the importance of trade beads we’re going to hear from Steve McCracken about the whistling Hawks trade bead collection Steve mcra McCracken has been described as a modernday mountain man his hobbies and interests led to his business whistling Hawks in 1989 whistling Hawks is the trade name given given to him by a black feet Onida Indian while on a Vision Quest Steve is an accomplished silver smith as well as a trade bead expert he’s been working and researching uh working on and researching trade bead since 1989 he draws on many different references and research to formulate dates names and history of old trade beads the word bead is derived from the Old English word Badu meaning prayer and Steve has requested that his collection is not to be photographed so we would certainly appreciate your cooperation and please give a warm tenam many voices welcome to Steve McCracken in his whistling Hawks trade bead collection thank you I’m going to start out today with just a short introductory history to the beads and then uh proceed into the beads of Lewis and Clark when we look here I we’ve put a list together and before Christ in uh wrong one in in 10,000 45 and to 720 glass beads were made in China because the reason I pointing that out as Le and Clark had beads from China and from Venice and then in 300 to 400 uh ad the Roman Empire had a vast Market of uh industry in in the trade be error then in 585 benice founded by the Lum Lombards then the records indicate window glass was ordered from Venice glass beads believed to have been made in Bohemia then the German Peddlers were prohibited from carrying more than 10 layers worth of glass rods for making glass beads uh the glass furnaces in Venice were ordered to be moved to the island of Morano and that was just off the city of benis because they were afraid that if the factories started on fire that they would burn down the whole city then as we proceed there were strict rules enacted about taking information from outside Venice and they they enacted the death penalty was imposed in 1526 the first leak of glass secrets from Venice were went went to factories in Paris the process of the wound lamp work beads was invented in benice in 1528 in 1731 the W bead process consumed 800 lb of oil daily in benice in 1740 the Bohemians export export set up permanent warehouses in All Imports and Inland cities of Europe and then in the 17 uh 64 and 46 they produced more than 2,228 th000 lbs of beads that was before the 1800s all this was done so as we start back in the history of beads the earliest beads would have been the fossilized bone here this bone bead here is fossilized this is Ivory and shell these were some of the earliest beads known to man The Quill work which is well known in our areas by the Native American culture in that here’s shells that were found on the Columbia River uh they were found with several other artifacts this comb and and the bone beat or bone pick there is fossilized we talked about the Roman Empire there for a minute this here the reason I’m showing you this is because you see the blue glass here and the ibeads they the blue glass was really common and they they had it before Christ I don’t know where my speakers are okay uh these are Islamic and these were folded over but these were wound so even before Christ they knew how to make the wound beads this bead here here is from China it’s a molded faceted bead this was done before Christ This is a Waring States type bead it’s the I the I beads were were made for to ward off evil looking at you so the people in all different cultures wore ibeads from before Christ and after Christ and uh so you’re going to see these the ibeads in a lot of different collections here that were made in Venice and all over Europe along along with being made in China and they had the ability to make these molded beads before Christ and I have that bead in my collection these beads here are from a Afghanistan that’s jet that’s coal and that’s fiance those were all made in Europe too there the first beads that were being made were the Bubble Glass so you see the the gentleman here he’s making the bubble he’s making a a large bubble and they would they would stretch that out and then make many bubble beads from that piece of glass here he’s they took the rods home and they’re making glass bubble beads right there at the kitchen table here’s a bet the Bellows underneath the table this lady’s over here she’s measuring the beads they use oil lamps like this plus there’s their old measuring tool here’s your bubble glass beads which are very rare and hard to find because they were so thin that they broke and uh we we just don’t find many of them out in the world today the next beads that were made were the cane beads and your Russian faceted beads the molded ones they were pulled through a mold and then they were hand faceted here’s Bubble Glass that’s faceted with the Russian faceted there’s some that’s not as you see here the the blue is a dominant color here’s samples of Russian faceted beads in different colors they uh they Ed several different things to make the the color of these beads green took copper and the blue took cobalt blue and the red beads uh they took gold to make as they mixed with the silica here’s your deep cobalt blue that’s most sought after this is the oldest strand of faceted beads I have as you can see here they’re not fasted very much this strand also White Russians and red this bead here was a noev cadz bead Columbus actually brought those with him when he came and they were used in the ships as bases so when Columbus and actually I have books that date back to Captain Cook when Captain Cook came they brought beads with him too and they were in barrels that were used as Banes in the ships so as they at ate their food and and supplies they could move the barrels of beads around and balance the ship out so that’s why they came with Columbus and and all the early explorers the next bead that was made real common is the cane bead the seven layer Chevron then they made the sixth layer and then on the far right you see the four layer Chevron the reason they started they started out with the the seven layer was because that was what the venetians learned to make in the 1500s and that was the hardest bead to make because each process they had to pull that cane of glass through a mold then on the six layers were easier to make and the four layers got made the process faster because as the years went on the demand for the beads was more and more here’s some pictures of of them working in the old factories in Venice uh they work very close to the furnaces the fires were large it took a lot of wood so they used the podach from the wood to to help make the beads so they didn’t have to mine potash when they were making beads in Venice because they used wood in the furnaces I was telling you about the Bubble Glass and then they went on to making the cane re the way they made the cane as you can see on the far right the young man joining his Rod to the other man with the bubble then they run in opposite directions and they with with the glass being hot and it would stretch up to sometimes up to 300 feet long then they would take it and the guy would break it into bundles 3 or 4T long and then they would take it back in the process and pull it through the mold cuz to make the Chevron it has the 12 teeth on it right there to make that pattern they had to pull it through the mold each time and as you look at a Chevron when you look up close here The Collection you’ll be able to see that each time when they pulled that bead through the mold before they broke those canes to make the individual beads the top one here is the Russian faceted there’s the noev cadz these are all cane beads and then some of these were tumbled and feted you’ll see here this is a picture out of Germany they’re actually being pedal and water was dripping down here in his bucket onto that stone he’s fast hand fasting beads these are two other styles of the same thing but these were these were set at and pedal with their feet the fastet the beads in the early days here’s a closeup of the Russian facet and and the star pattern I’m talking about here the blue gleen glass is the rarest on the on the center of them and this one here actually has nine layers in it if you look close to it here’s a red layer uh seven layer Chevron uh the red core is is not common mostly it was Green Glass like this one here the other thing you can see here is they made mistakes even though they were Master artists what they did they still ended up with bubbles in the glass these are smaller uh collection there of uh smaller Chevrons and you can see the different patterns and then when they ground the sides down how you can see the edge of the the different colors laying underneath here’s this shows you real good we call this a a Chevron salami because they cut it at an angle so you can see each layer was pulled through the mold there and the last layer was not then it would have been this like this is a cane a piece of cane out of a Venice Warehouse they found them in the corner they had uh bundles of canes in in warehouses over there in Venice and they broke them up into about 6 in long and uh shipped them out and sold them all over the world but the red Chevron is very rare and hard to come by so so is the green there’s a green Chev seven layer Chevron with the blue Center there’s a large seven layer and other other examples there this one here is broken so you can see inside different patterns that it’s not just done on the outside edge of the bead it’s the full length of the bead and a lot of people think that these beads were painted on none of these beads are painted on they’re all solid glass and this one here you can see where there’s a crease in that bead that bead was still hot when they laid a rod across it and put that crease in it in the 1500s and they went to the six layer of Chevron there’s a good example of that and the four layer here this one was probably a five layer Chevron but the women like the red on the outside of the bead so they would grind the beads down so the red would show so we call this a woman Chevron the Yellow Jacket five layer Chevron and the black Chevron there these are really rare to come by now and we get to the the beads of Lewis and Clark and that’s that’s a real uh subject that a lot of people argue about because we have a hard time proving the exact history and science of the beads that they had with them and this list we put together here me and a few of my historical friends here you’ve got white WAM and the 5 lbs of glass beads mostly small uh 20 lbs of red glass beads assorted 5 lbs of yellow or orange beads assorted two cards of beads three lbs of beads 73 Bunches of beads 8 and2 lbs of red beads this whole list mostly talks about different color of beads and when Lewis took off on the trip he knew that the blue bead was the most valued and sought after bead for the Native Americans when he when he left before he left but yet he ordered this list of beads so that’s why uh and these were actually Indian presence people are really misund understand that these were bought to be Indian presents they were to be given to the Native Americans these would have been beads that would could have been with Louis and Clark we talked about orange and yellow your Reds the blues these are cane beads then uh we’ll move on to some of these are wound beads in here that’s the next process the wound bead they work real close to the furnace right there and and grabbed the glass and pulled it out and wound it around a rod these beads right here Lewis requested in the letters of Donald Jackson’s he requested the cheap blue beads from China paying less than 13d in Europe for them so Lewis actually requested these beads from China when you look into the documentation of the letters of Lewis and Clark it shows that he asked for those beads from China and they’re all wound this one here I’m showing you the wound process up close where you can see it the wound pattern in it those beads were all made one at a time they weren’t made like the cane beads the wound beads were made one at a time here we’re showing the Bellows the the furnace right there in front of them the vent up above and guess who sitting around the table working at night do making the beads it’s the women here we have a mixture of wound beads with uh a few cane beads in it so you can tell the P beads are cut off straight and then some of them they would take back and put dots in them these yellow Arts here were wound they were made in the 1600s also these are I beads that we’re referencing to there with uh the Roman Empire beads the the ibeads have lasted since the beginning of time here’s a sample of more ibeads of rare colors that are hard to come by these were all made one at a time also this Str here is the best strand I’ve ever had in 15 years and it has blue and pink dots on the white eyes that’s the rarest strand I’ve had of the ibeads and then you have the red I bead and and these names are the original names that were brought with the beads when they were shipped over here because the Crow Nation down where I live in in Montana they call the I beads Crow Beads no matter if they’re black red or white or they call them Crow beads and that’s that’s not Soul uh the these are actually ibeads and I’ll show you CR beads here as we proceed these are Medicine Man ibeads and here’s your black ibeads this strand here I tell everyone this was a a beginning artist because when when he started making the ibeads he wasn’t sure if they were to be black or white and what color dots were supposed to be on them but when we really look at the master artwork that those people did in Europe they really had a fine art and they knew what they were doing we talked about making the cane beads and how they cut them the old way was to break them off like that on an edge or they made like a paper cutting device and then we talk about the the the round beads and the pony beads they were hot pinched beads they were the the pony beads were the size of about an apple seed and that that that size is what LS and Clark would have had with them them but they’re hot pinched beads so they would have been that Rod would have been hot and they would have pinched them off and you’ll see up close here that what I’m talking about when I the hot pinched beads here’s a fine example of these are two wound beads that should have been done individually and they stuck together and then here’s two other examples of where the beads had dirt in them and popped out these are good beads except they were made that way originally and that one there to be formed here’s a closeup of the cobalt blue bead that I feel is the chief bead even though there’s other opinions out there that I’ll talk about here and the sky blue Padre which is the most common and then they made white ones too also there in China you look here now and we can do it real nice with this machine because these were made in Venice and they actually have bigger holes than the ones from China and they’re more uniform there this strand here is bodmer blue they would not have had that with them because bodmer that blue didn’t come out until he was out here painting In 1832 me we can go back I want see look at those there from China how they’re they’re strung and then look at the Venetian ones that shows you a good example of the difference in the product then we talked about the way that they measured the beads was in fathoms these two strands I actually have laying down here on the table and and a fathom was 6 ft when Louis and Clark started out I’m sure that the the big guy on the on the trip he would give them six feet of beads because they were giv them to him by the fathom but as we all know by the end of the trip his six his fathom of beads probably was getting a little short because the beads that he had the red ones and the yellow ones and all that color they didn’t do him any good out there in on the west coast because they were already getting these blue beads here were coming down from Alaska through Canada and and the natives on the west coast already had the cobalt blue beads and that’s what they they actually sought were after here’s the wound bead the doughnut here’s uh the Doan are the large ones and these are Padres here there’s your wound bead there then we talk about mock garnets and when they were made and who they were made by in the 1800 exactly 1800s the Bohemians started making molded beads and that’s this one here is a fine example to show you how that glass was poured in there and it feathered out in the mold these are ducks blood and these are doans and the yellow wouldn’t have been until after 1800s normally this strand here is Dutch donuts and you can see how they’re wound F they were wound fast the reason I kept this strand is because that’s actually seaweed graded together so that strand actually came from Venice over here and was left on that you can see it down here also this is what happens to beads that are dug up is the soil eats at them and uh as we all know in the archaeological world and that we don’t dig up any areas uh they’ve they’ve dug up beads overseas and that and that’s okay but not here in the United States because we don’t dig up the graves in that actually some of these beads were traded in Africa the same exact beads that were traded here and in Africa they measured their wealth by how many beads they had and instead of burying their beads with their dead they may have buried their beads because it was it was their wealth it was their livelihood and that’s why we we get a lot of beads that were traded in the fur trade over here are being found in Africa and other other countries you know and Alaska also they’re still being traded in Alaska today these are common beads that would have been with Lewis and Clark the cobalt blue right there with that $7 million collection that’s coming out of St Louis we’re calling those the chief beads those would have been like gold to the Native Americans these white beads right here the pony beads would have been like silver and the greatest thing in between the white bead and the blue bead was tobacco those were the three biggest things that they wanted on the from the the white people the Native Americans wanted the the blue beads and the white beads in tobacco Here’s Your Greens that would have been common then there’s your greasy yellows like I say a lot of the yellows weren’t made until after the 1800s so they could have had these these with them and you got white beads in there one of the biggest things about the old beads also is you’ll see strands down here that are on string they that’s they were on cotton string that’s what they were shipped over on and some of them that are restrung on elant grass some of them came out of Africa some of them actually came from Europe on grass then we get into the wound beads with the trail designs and these here were done one at a time these these are French cross and we call these Trail beads this is a bumblebee that’s because it it represents the body of the Bumblebee this is a snake bead that’s found on many of the invoices and people are wondering what the snake bead is and it’s actually that trail bead right there because if you put a bunch of those together it actually looks like a snake skin I’ve had a lot of historians come to me and and ask me what’s the snake bead on those invoid es and they’re looking back on the invoices from the 1800s forwards and that’s what they’re looking looking at that’s the bead they’re looking for and I have a strand down here with some on it after the during the trail beads they made the feather designs here’s your Red Feather which is very common these are not there’s black feather beads and cobalt blue here’s showing you the different bead artists the earlier ones actually made finer lines this one here is a worn out bead and these show thicker lines on them they actually made the swirl bead at the same time they all date to the 1700s these are French Ambassador beads there’s a lot of people like to come up with names for different beads and why did they name it that was it named after a French Ambassador or not we have no written proof that that was true no documentation this one here when you hold the light up to it you can see that it’s green on the inside instead of black like the other one here’s another ibad Trail bead designed mixed together cobalt blue and these are fancy lampor beads these we call Cal Lupe uh like the Hudson Bay white hearts and florals we kind of categorized several different beads in that same area because of the White Center and the yellow Center these are Trail beads and these are Dutch dels and it’s because of the the blue and the white that it’s called a Del but these were all done in Venice we talk about skunk beads this is the true actual skunk bead and they were made cobalt blue and black and you can see the skunk tail right there these are actually called skunk tail beads in the beginning some of them were done fancier than others and some of them were plainer and you’ll see examples of these down here also the L and Clark bead that is a big controversy uh is story and friends of mine we we’ve tossed this around back and forth and Peter Francis who’s gone now uh him and me had several emails back and forth and talked about the loose and Clark bead and just like all the beads that I’ve showed you before here they were made in the 1700s that LS and Clark bead was started being made in the 1740s and and were quit being made in the 1850s and if you look at this one here you can see there’s mostly white on that band that goes around it that would be the earliest one and then as they went along they got better with their designs but that Twisted cane became a candy cane in the Louis and Clark bead and that one there would have been closer to 1850s these are fancier Lewis and Clarks because they’ve got the different color in the in the white and that but we cannot prove there is documentation from Wyoming but I would not use that as documentation for the truth because all the archaeological digs and that we can’t prove that LS and Clark had these beads with them French Ambassador bead there it’s a large bead with a nice design or French yeah this is French Ambassador the other one was arabes I made a mistake there uh these are kind of similar to the Le and art then here’s your fancier ey beads elongated beads then we got the gold Florine beads that’s what these are called and these are similar to the Lewis and Clark but what this is is this is brass inlaid or sometimes copper and that was inlaid in the bead while it was hot and there’s different sizes and shapes of those beads also then we talk about the raised florals these were done actually in the 1700s some with the white Hearts some not uh the earlier beads that I showed you with the trails on them they were raised little rods of raised glass like you see here and they were paddled into the bead these were not and that’s why they’re called raised floral beads fancy raised floral and these tend to be the more expensive ones then we talked about the the molded beads these are the type of molds they would have used they’re just like the gun mold the for molden bullets they could do four at a time or six at a time sometimes one at a time uh they were just as hard to make as as the wound beads and that because they still had to heat the glass to C certain temperature and pour it into the mold and plus have a rod in the for the holes we talk about the mock garnets that they had with them the Bohemians started making these pressed beads in 1800s and right here would have been your mock garnet they’re about the size of the pony beads There’s real garnets there and that’s the mock garnets here that I have enlarged there these were done one at a time and when you look at them down here you’ll actually see that the color of them is like a mock Garnet the red white heart though has several different colors so that shows you the variation in those also we talked about the Press beads these are corn barley corn beads these were pressed Lewis and Clark had them with them and these are Crow beads there’s more press beads these are podr uh you can see the the lines in them the molds these were pressed uh faceted beads these are actually cumba beads for the African trade you can see the seam though in those easier and you can see in that picture here’s your melon beads that are pressed here’s your Manhattan Bead that bead has been said that that uh uh a gentleman bought Manhattan with $27 worth of beads that’s a bead they’re referring to but there’s no truth to that story here’s a pend piece there that is actually made out of slate and that piece was found in North Dakota and that’s the exact shape of the glass beads that the Mandan Indians were making when Lis and Clark wintered with them over over in North Dakota they were taking the blue beads and smashing them up and making them into a pendant just like that so that that dates back before the the glass beads ever got here this is an iroy bag it has the Russian facet beads here with the pony beads here’s some Hudson Bay crosses uh with pressed beads with the the signatures on these and some of these have the Hudson Bay symbol on them they were made in Canada they were in a museum there and they were sold out of museum uh some of these were done by Richard Chuck shank I actually have one on that was made by him here’s your Hudson Bay Metals a big brooch that has uh several hearts cut out of it another brooch from that time period that would have been Indian gifts the the the big item that I told you about between between the the the blue and the white beads is the tobacco and this this is a snuff box made out of buffalo horn and that dates back to the 1800s this pipe case here is out of wood the the man would have carried their pipes in a case like that so they wouldn’t end up broken like this long one here uh this one actually dates back to 1775 in Civil War time as the pipe got plugged up with uh uh our favorite nicotine they would break the end of the pipe off and make it smaller in the pubs they would start out with a long pipe like that and they would come in and and grab the pipe and use it over and over and they’d break it off as it filled up with nicotine here’s my list of references start out with the voyage to Paradise exploring in the wake of Captain Cook beads of Lewis and or before Lewis and Clark 16th century glass beads the letters of Lis and Clark expedition by Don Jackson world of shipwrecks a bead Premiere a history of beads all these combined is what I come up that we use to come up with this presentation this here is actually a buffalo bone knife and that was uh a kids toy now here we go with blue beads the blue pony beads what if Lewis had more of them Indian presence became the clothing for the core of of Discovery to survive and they were not given as gifts like I said some Native Americans rep these beads represented the spirit world and when the classics proved great hegers and trade when why did the captains take that as an insult tobacco and blue beads they do prefer to everything December 20th 1805 Lewis wrote I Bartered my Al skins old irons and two canoes for beads one of the canoes for which they had given us but little had I cut up for fuel April 20th 1806 so on the way back they knew the blue beads were so valuable that they actually traded canoes and got blue beads back from the Indians to trade on their way home and as we end here uh everything we need to survive is out there on the Prairie will we ever understand what’s there and we are products of the fur trade whether people want to admit it or not we are products of the fur trade and always remember that the ground is an open book to those who can read the writing and understand it and that’s all I have for now for my presentation up here but I’ve brought beads along here and I’ll field questions for any of you and you’re welcome to touch these beads and that but like I asked at the beginning you don’t take pictures other than the park personnel because I’m actually being paid by the park service okay so is there any questions if you have any questions please raise your hand I’ll bring the microphone around to you so everybody can hear your question we’ll be up here and you can handle the beads and ask questions up here also if you want any questions all right well let’s give Steve e

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Clint Brown on Gros Ventre Culture and History

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:36:05 +0000

good afternoon ladies and gentlemen welcome to the ten many voices in the core Discovery 2 just tell you a little about us we are traveling exhibit we’ve been traveling since January of 2003 we started off at monachella at Thomas Jefferson’s house and we’re going on to the ocean and back just like Louis and Clark did 200 years ago we’ll finish up in October of 2006 in St Louis and uh that’s what we’ve been doing for the past 2 and a half years and the next person coming has probably been with us since the very beginning um his name is Clint Brown he is grovont and he does live on the grovont reservation here in Montana he’s going to be talking about their history and culture along with his wife Wanda and they also have with them today their three-year-old son Clint Jr so I’m going to hand this over to Clint anybody understand that that’d be cool if he did I introduced myself in my my first language my grovont language my ceremonial name is wasbe aot which means bar robe in in my grovont language uh I’m an enrolled member of the grovont tribe and the fort balp Indian Reservation here in the state of Montana up on The High Line Highway 2 um Grant is a French word for big belly kind of fits me some of my partners but not all of us have big bellies the way we got that name is uh when our people met uh a French Trapper up in the Saskatchewan area they were uh trapping along the the South Saskatchewan River the the these French fur Trappers were and they ran into our people we call ourselves the Anin which means the white clay that’s what we call ourselves when we when we address each other but we met this Trapper a long time ago he had no idea what I was saying and I could not understand him so the only way we could communicate at that time was through sign language and where we stayed at that time on the south saskatchwan Rivers was by the waterfalls The Falls there’s a huge uh set of falls on the south sukatan river and our sign language at that time for Falls which meant waterfalls to us in Sign Language this French f rapper with a pen or some ink and a paper he wrote down hey we met some big bellied Indians today we’ll call them the grovont and that’s how we got our name that’s that is our government name so to speak is is grovont and we call ourselves the white clay uh I’m here today to explain to you folks a little bit about the north central plain’s Native American way of life the Indian people when LS and Clark came through the Missouri River and and they uh they kind of came through our hometown our hom ground I’m going to explain to you folks a little bit about the way our people lived a little bit about some of the things that I’m wearing I’ve chosen to wear my dance regalia everything that I have on is something that my ancestors would have wore at one time probably during the Lewis and Clark area before and after I’m sure it’s a great way to explain each and every part it goes into a little bit of history and a little bit of of our our Legends and our our beliefs I also I’m very fortunate today I have my wife to come here with me usually I have my daughter come and she dances with me my daughter is now at starting high school so that kind of got put on the back burner H but I brought my wife today and she does all of the bead work I thought it would be excellent to bring her along and kind of explain to you the different stitches I guess there’s different ways of putting them beads upon the fabric and uh we’re going to have her explain that a little bit later on and uh and show maybe show you how to do some of that first of all what I’m wearing on the top of my hat is what we call uh a roach this right here is a roach and it’s made out of porcupine hair um in the winter time the porcupines have really long guard hair and this is what we we make a roach out of our ancestors would have used this for a type of camouflage back long ago when the grass was tall where we came from along with all of the fringes that you see it would help us kind of blend into our surroundings they would use turkey beards horse hair and of course porcupine hair and this is It’s called a roach the men would wear it inside that roach I have two eagle feathers these two eagle feathers represent my grandmother’s one on my mother’s side and one on my father’s side I believe that every time I put these two feathers on that I too would carry that same wisdom that the makushi carry or the old ladies we all know how grandma knows when we’re doing wrong and we’re doing right and Grandma pretty much knows everything but I believe that when I put these two feathers on I carry that same wisdom that them two ladies carry my father my father’s side and my mother’s side the way I hold my roach on is I have a braid coming straight out of the top straight out of the top of my head and there’s a hole in the bottom of this roach I run that s uh braid up through there and then I poke the stick through that braid and I call it a scalp block that’s how I hold my hold my hat on so to speak I don’t know if you’ve ever been on the Eastern front of the Rocky Mountains but we get some pretty good wind over there and I’ve never lost my hat yet so but that’s that’s the headgear there’s another headgear that our men would wor wear this right here is a War Bonnet it’s made out of eagle feather this was something that our leaders our uh spiritual leaders our our probably some of our most we would say our most respected people would wear their bonnets this way or wear their feathers this way I wear the two feathers on top of my head that represent my grandmothers the men that would wear their feathers this way were probably the most respected people in those camps those were the men that uh had all of the knowledge and the wisdom that we would look up to or that we would yearn to uh to learn eagle fethers Native Americans are the only one who can legally possess eagle feathers we’re the only ones in the whole United States who can legally possess these eagle feathers even as Native Americans as Indians I have to earn the right to carry these eagle feathers I have to prove to my grandparents my uncles my grandfathers my father I have to prove to them that I will take care of them in a manner that is is is uh that they that they I guess they wish me to we treat these like one of our brothers each one of these eagle feathers we also have to do a good deed to earn them just because I’m a Native American doesn’t mean that I could have an eagle feather for each feather that I have I have to earn the earn it these Four Feathers were given to me for going to college and uh getting my Bachelor’s degree my family believed that I had done good things for my family my people by going away to school so the four years that I was gone they gave me an eagle feather for each year now as a I guess it would be a warrior or uh a a just an everyday common man this is where I would carry my eagle feathers all of the Good Deeds that I had done I would carry them on a staff or a stick something similar to this the men who are our leaders this is where they would carry their eagle feathers they would put theirs on their head and wear them around the camp so if you walked into camp and you’ve seen a gentleman carrying a stick a staff and it had no eagle feathers on it and you seen a gentleman standing next to him with about 8 10 12 eagle feathers on it that gentleman with eagle feathers on it would be the person that you would want to talk to because that would be the person who has probably a little higher ranking in the social status and then if this person with eagle feather is on his staff was standing next to one of these gentlemen with a War Bonnet on that would be the person you would want to speak to we have to earn these feathers we treat them like a family member they’re very respected to us uh we take really good care of them people always uh you might see at a pow out if their feathers ever dropped on the ground we have a ceremony to pick that up it’s it’s it’s a a retreat ceremony it would be like during the battle we would go and get our wounded and bring it back that is the way we would treat a fallen eagle feather now below my my hat and my my roach I guess so to speak is one of the most important things to our our Indian people and that’s our hair we believe a hair is our hair is a direct link to Mother Earth we believe that is what we are made of that sand and that that dirt is the same thing that our hair is made of that kind of go goes along with the fact that uh when the men would go and scalp if you took that man’s hair you took his soul this braid right here was one of the most important braids probably for the enemies of the the Northern Plains Indians this braid right here is what the young a braid that the young men would wear when they were going to battle and this right here was the only way you could tell if them young men were going to battle this braid right here I would put in my hair before I left my camp for my enemy if I believed that my enemy was so good that he could overtake me in battle I would fix my hair for him meaning I would hang a braid in my face and he could grab that braid with one hand make one slice and take that hair my soul then or my my spirit then belonged to that man at the same time at e and at day I was challenging that man to come and get my hair when we brush our hair we never take it and we never throw it away we never cut our hair on a full moon once we’ve been married we never let another woman touch our hair meaning I’ve never been to a a a a beauty salon and had that somebody else wash your hair and make you fall asleep you know once I once I became came married that never happened nobody no other female will ever touch my hair I guess one of the things that uh you know when you when you brush your hair and you get a little bit of hair in your brush my grandmother gave me a little bag I take that hair and I put it in that little bag and when I’m someplace where I feel really good someplace where I feel comfortable some place where I feel at home and it doesn’t necessarily have to be on the reservation it’s someplace where I feel good maybe I’m fishing or hunting I’ll take that hair out of that little bag and I’ll put it back in Mother Earth cuz that’s where I come from and I believe that hair belongs to Mother Earth and nobody else it is my sole belonging my sole wish to never let anybody else take my hair or touch it that’s why Indians are really they’re really um superstitious about our hair even our race horses or our rope horses I grew up on a ranch I grew up Team Roping and roping calves bulldog and I’ve done all of that I’ve tagged calves my dad had some uh horses that he used to race now and then at the crow Fair some of them other Indians they’d go over and try to pull hair out of them horses tails you know try to use medicine on each other we believe that we believe that if if uh my wife always teases me I don’t know if this is true or not she never told me she said I have a piece of your hair You’ll Never Leave Me thought whoa but we believe that way that that’s one of our beliefs our our our one of our things that we base our our life around so the hair is very important you could tell if a person was married by the way they wore their hair if it was braided or unbraided you could tell if a person was unmarried you could tell if a person was looking for a mate you could tell if a person was mourning if they had lost a loved one you could tell if a person was just coming out of a ceremony meaning uh maybe the young ladies the young uh females they’re unable to touch the eagle feathers until they’ve had their first moon or their first menstrual cycle and there’s a ceremony for that they cut their hair a certain way now besides the the I guess um what a person would wear for headgear and the type of hair we have colors that belong to certain tribes long ago it’s not so much today but long ago where I my people lived the grovont people the the white clay people where we lived we could go outside of our lodges and make the colors red and black real easy by the by the plants that grew there farther east from us the Asino people the nakota Lakota and Dakota people they could go outside their lodges and they make the color yellow and blue real easy so it was kind of a geographical thing the colors that you would see on on a a regalia or a person’s moccasins or in their shirts or or their their bead work or their quill work without ever talking to them you would know which basically where they came from Simply by the color that they would use in their dye and the color that they would might use in their bead work or or that type of thing the cins would use a blue and a yellow growant would use the uh black and the red the crow people they live south of the muscle shell on the Yellowstone River there’s a a a MTH that grows only in that Yellowstone River that makes a pink a mauve and a yellow and those are the colors that the show The Crow people would put on their their regalia so we could tell each other apart simply by our colors it’d be like if this side of the room was all wearing green and this side of the room was all wearing black I might think these were uh Green Bay Packer fans and these might be Raiders fans so without ever opening our mouth and talking and of course our languages are different we would know who that person was what his rank was what his social standing was what tribe he belonged to what was going on in his life meaning by which way he wore his hair without ever opening your mouth or talking to that person all of that could be relayed by what you’d wear what you would have on the way you wore your hair now within the colors we’ have certain designs that would belong to certain families we would call him Clan system some of you might have heard that the term Clan Clan is a family system it’s a group of people that did their ceremonies together they named their children together they raised each other’s children if we had a camp of a thousand lodges inside them lodges there may be six or seven maybe up to 10 people would live in one Lodge long ago so of course if we went to move and we had a th000 lodges and may say 10 people in there that’d be 10,000 people of course the natural resources couldn’t sustain a movement of a group that large so we’d break down into smaller groups Clans family systems we might move in a group of 10 or 20 lodges it would make it much easier for us to find berries to find firewood to travel in smaller groups than it was to travel in the larger groups that’s what we call a clan system or a family system each Clan system or family system would have a certain design this design right here belonged to my clan the Bear Lodge Clan and so um once again without ever opening our our mouths there was a lot could be told by what we were wearing and and uh the colors and the way we wear our hair this right here is a breastplate the men would wear it for a type of of uh armor before the guns came we fought with sticks and stones and this was kind of a way to help protect our chest the men would wear chokers they would trade hides they would trade uh horses they would trade weapons for one little shell the shell is something that they would put on their neck and it was there to help protect their neck during battle all of this was something that they would wear probably they would have worn before the the firearms made it to our people uh on my back I have what I call a bu a bustle is an arrangement of eagle feathers uh once again there was different tribes would arrang their eagle feathers different ways a good example is the Battle of the Little Big Horn there was approximately six or seven different tribes there some were friendly some were not in the the late light of the uh of the end of the day or the early morning the smoke and the fog if you could look in front of you and see these people moving you might not be able to distinguish the colors or the design but you could see that outline of that bustle that arrangement of feathers would let you know hey this man belonged to this certain tribe the style that I have on belonged to the Sue tribe or or the cabin or the Su people and it’s a large we call it a men’s Northern traditional today and it’s the round bustle design on that bustle we have you’ll see some of them feathers have these white dots we call them a hail Stone right here those dots that you see on that bustle they represent that my family had sponsored a ceremony for a whole year or for the whole ceremony for instance for instance my family had sponsored a Sundance and that’s a four-year commitment those little white dots on them eagle feathers represent that they represent that my family fed they helped uh shelter all of the people that came to the Sundance for four years in a row we provided them with food shelter water a lot of times gas money to help get there and back that’s what that little white dot represents that little white dot that you see on that inside row of feathers I wear very proudly because it says that my family had sponsored that ceremony for them four years now on the end of them feathers we have horse hair just like the end of these feathers we have horse hair hanging out of the end horse hair to us uh our once the horses came to our people it represented longevity before that our people simply carried everything on our backs or we carried them on dogs by the way our people didn’t eat dogs cuz if we ate dogs then I carried everything that don’t make much sense to me once the horses came we could put our lodges and all of our furnishings and belongings on that horse and it would travel on and on forever and ever it represented longevity so for each Good Deed that was done to earn this eagle feather for each good thing that had I had done for my family for my people I put horse hair on the end of it I believe that that good deed that I had done will go on forever and ever with that horse hair hanging out of the end it represents longevity that way and we believe that okay I am going to I I like to dance so I’m going to dance one for you guys I’m going to dance one song and then I’m going have my wife stand up and explain a little bit about the bead work uh some of the different stitches this song that I’m going to dance to is what we call a stooping song and it’s a a duck and dive song and this song uh is something that came from the npers people this is a stooping song and this story you could that’s good I’ll stay right here this song came from a a gentleman I’m not sure what the gentleman’s name was but it was told to people uh before the the Treaty of 1855 that a stooping song represented the calvary that came above a large surrounding or a large Gathering of nesper people and this Calvary pulled up on this Ridge up above this camp and they fired their cannons off and you will hear during this song as this song is going along all of a sudden it’s got a boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom there’s two to each little interval we call it a duck and a dive or a stooping when the men are dancing and you hear that downbeat it’s like we’re ducking that cannon fire and there’s two to each one and we always tease each other about getting shot cuz if you’re dancing along and you don’t duck then we say you got shot but as I’m dancing to this song each time that stick hits the drum as he dancer my feet have to hit the ground that’s why I got these loud bells on before it was see this guy right here this park ranger he made me wear them before because I kept sneaking up on him and stealing his lunch can’t sneak up on him no more but it’s the men would put these bells on their ankles to challenge that drum when that stick hits that drum my feet have to hit the ground when that drum stops I too have to stop and the style of dance that I’m dancing the men’s Northern traditional I also tell a story while I’m keeping in time with that drum during the stooping song I’m telling a story of how I’ve gone and picked up my Fallen brother and I had carried him home I had gone and picked up my Fallen neighbor and carried him home there’s four push-ups to this song so I’ll pick up four people I’ll will think of four four people that I have in my family that have been in a service I have a couple of uncles that I lost in Vietnam I have a uh uh my one of my dad’s real close friends that we lost in Korea those are the type of people that I think of when I do these these uh this is a military style song It’s a song that the only the men would dance to and it’s called a stooping or a ducking di here we are ready to go Midnight Express the contest is on all he where all right I’m getting too old for this I’d like to have my wife introduce herself hi my name is Wanda Brown and I’m enrolled at the Fort bellut reservation I’m an enrolled as cabin my husband is an enrolled grov on and our children are enrolled to cins um I’m here to talk a little bit about the bead work and uh the different styles I think the first thing people need to realize is bead work is actually an uh art form you just don’t jump into bead work and start beating um I learned this from my mother and she learned this from her mother uh there are many different styles of bead work there’s a flat s or flat we also have a Peyote Stitch which is a round Stitch uh like Clinton has the geometric designs it’s more grov on and these are also his colors this uh flat is also this is my daughter’s and it’s more of the cinin colors we also have called The Lazy stitch on the outside of these is a lazy Stitch and I’ll explain all of these to you uh first of all when when you’re beating and I brought some examples to show you I started this this um work for my husband when I got hurt last fall so this is a long process um you don’t go inch by inch you go millimeter by millimeter when you’re working on this so when if if you get a j chance to come up and look I this is unfinished work and you can look at the back of it to see how each Stitch is going we lay beads out in a straight line and every two to three beads we come back through the f Fabric and and uh tack it down okay and another form of bead work is the Brits um you’re also welcome to come up here and look at them this also has our seal on it as does Clint’s uh vest has a seal on it no uh there we also have earrings that will match it uh this actually this bead work was done by Clint himself he made this for our son you come up and look at that it’s got a form of flat Stitch and lazy stitch on it what I didn’t mention was the lazy Stitch um on the outside instead of going flat in one line like these we go over we go five beads through the fabric back up five more beads down through the fabric back up on a peot stitch which is these you go round in a circle you start in one Circle and you continually move up making a design these are interchangeable you could take the uh different handles on these fans and you could match them up and interchange them they’re actually what they are is uh this piece is a 3 and 1/2 inch choke out of a 12 gauge shotgun yeah for certain they uh this little piece right here bolts out of the top of that shotgun choke and the bottom piece you can get them in lengths and what my wife does is she’ll cover it in leather I guess or fabric and she’ll pee Stitch around it and then I do the Feather work on these fans my wife has done all of the bead work this vest that I’m wearing tell them about this vest how long it took couple years uh Clint’s vest took approximately two years a vest of this size would run a vest of this vest of this size would run approximately two three $4,000 easy um Clinton’s hold bead work set if we were to if I were to sell the set that I’m starting on now we could easily run into $10,000 to purchase a set like this what we’re going to do is something a little different than what we usually do we usually you might see people talking about this bead work we’ve got it set out here we didn’t bring anything that we wouldn’t want you to touch other than our eagle feathers we would ask that you might be real gentle with those and respect those for what they are but what we wanted to do was open it up we’ve got plenty of time left we’d like to ask you guys if you’re interested to come forward handle this take a look at some of her bead work her stitches her knots if that’s something that you were interested in we could tell you about it till we’re blue in the face but if you come up and have a look at it while it’s in progress it might make a little bit more sense to you uh so if any right now if anybody’s got any questions we have a a mic uh if you folks would like maybe we’ll just open it up for you folks to come on up have a look for those of you that want to if any of you have any questions raise your hand we do have a mic mik I can bring it around so Clint and everyone else can hear you hi I want to ask where where first of all the gro Ventra uh are located where was your traditional territory and where is your reservation our reservation right now is in North Central Montana which is where uh up by H uh we’re I think I’m about 431 miles from home from where I live right now uh we’re about 50 mil about 40 some miles south of the Canadian border and about 2 miles north of the Missouri River our reservation runs between the milk and the Missouri River right in North Central Montana right on Highway 2 and our our traditional home ground long ago was farther east and up in the uh Saskatchewan area so we’re we’re actually pushed farther south I I come and do talks with them I come and do lectures with them as often as I can uh like I said um my dad owns cattle he’s getting about 70 some years old and so that he’s kind of slowing down and I’m I’m getting kind of bumped into that a little more than I really wanted to but you know how that goes we just finished hanging by the way hey the headdress you know we’re so used to seeing that in movies and what have you is it what tribe or is that typical or where does that come from it’s typical of the Northern Plains people you know uh there’s one thing I didn’t explain and it’s a war paint huh anybody hear the term war paint there’s no such thing as or paint there never was the paint that the men would be wearing is something that they would earn for completing all of our Ceremonies for instance uh just like our teachers today they have to go to school they got to learn certain ways to pass information on to our children and US same thing long ago we would have to learn our ceremonies the best places to find these certain items as each as we completed each ceremony and one once we finished all of our ceremonies as an adult male we then were called a teacher or a painter we were then given paint and what that paint would represent is if there was a young man or a young male that had no male figures a young boy had no male figures in his life he could go to any one of them people with paint on and that man would show him how to fish how to take care of his horse how to hunt paint was something that you were given once you you completed all your ceremonies granted some of the men did put it on their face when they go into battle but that wasn’t the idea there’s no such thing as war paint that paint that them men would wear would be they would be proud to wear it because they have completed all their ceremonies they were a bigger and a stronger man because of so we have one more C the the headdress is very similar to that as well it it was only the the leaders like I said before you know like in the movies you see um all these men with paint on they’re all wearing warb Bonet first of all we got too many CH you know all of these people and they were all yipping you know making this this noise that noise uh you know like woo woo woo woo like that that was something only the females did so unless they were one of them funny ones you know I I don’t know but that there’s a lot of things that Hollywood and and even I as a little boy used to run around and do that and my grandmother please don’t do that only the females would do it and they would do it when they were calling their relatives good question very good question we have one question back here Clinton uh the voices that accompany the drum beat uh do they have does that have significance good question some of the uh some of the songs like that one we just heard it had it had words in it those words were sung by a cre a Creed drum from Canada uh I I’m not exactly sure what they say but when that that same song is sung in in the the cineo people those words and they say grandpa I have come for you in the first pushup Uncle I have come for you dad I have come for you and brother I have come for you and what that that’s a retreat song and those words will they they say it’s our songs are one little bitty songs hang over four times and each one has a different saying in that one some of them are kind of like chants you know um we have uh a song that my little boy this little three-year-old he sings in the morning and it’s our coming Day song in the morning him and I sing this when we wake upy hey hey hey and to our people that’s a coming Day song we thank the crater for a chance to use something else that nobody nobody in this I get something every morning that nobody in this room gets nobody the Pope the president at the same time you folks all get that exact same thing we get a chance to use a day that nobody else has ever been in we get a chance to use a day that nobody else has ever roed or made better what we do to that with that day is up to each and every one of them thank you good our enrollment at this time is approximately 6,000 enrolled members we live on a reservation with two tribes the cabin and the groon there’s approximately 10,000 enrolled members on the reservation total about 6,000 are a cine I mean a grovont and about 4,000 are a cine of which approxim imately about 3,500 live on the reservation so roughly half of our enrolled members do live on the reservation a few years back our grovont language was falling to the Wayside we now have a community college on our reservation we’ve got some great uh I guess some some longevity programs that have been put in place this gentleman right here Mr Daryl Martin not too long ago was our president of our community council at home at Fort balet he’s from the same reservation I’m from and his gentleman like this who had put things in place uh to help preserve our culture and our language we now as a speaker I go into the elementary school and teach our language to the second third and fourth graders hour and a half each morning and each afternoon we teach that in our 2-year Community College so we are language is coming back long ago the very first born was given to the grandparents and you then learn your language your culture and your way I’m the the oldest in our family I lived with my grandmother as a little boy I learned a lot about our culture and our ways I learned how to speak grovont but guess what I learned the female dialect huh I grew up talking like a woman and now my uncles and everybody they would you know they would have to straighten me out but still I learned a lot of our ceremonies and our songs it it I may have learned it in the female dialect but it wasn’t hard to transfer it over to the male dialect so I I I’m very fortunate that way that I I did learn some of that you know a lot of our our young kids go through their whole lives and don’t even know that they’re uh White Clay people they go through their whole life thinking they’re groon you know I mean that’s a government name that was given to us no um he asked a good question about uh problem between the different tribes and marriages long ago um we used to always teach tease each other as Indians that was tease us grovont of being big bellies I said there’s a reason for that in the winter months when all of you Indians are sitting along the river you could see all your ribs us growant are just full we’re good Hunters that’s why I tell them long ago we used to uh the crow people would come up to our country and they would steal women and take women home so that they wouldn’t interbreed they wouldn’t intermar once that Crow woman or once that grovont woman left the grovont people and became she then on any rolls no matter what she was full blood Crow she then belonged to the crow people our people used to uh take cre women there was a lot of I guess stealing of of females long ago and it’s kind of funny you know because uh the females used to do everything they would put up The Lodges they’ take them down they tan hides they would teach the children they’d make our clothing they did a lot of work I used to ask my grandmother why was it why did the females do everything and she’d say grandson we wanted it done right the first I want to tell you a little quick story about our people there’s a gentleman named his name was red whip EA he was a leader of one of our Clans one of our family systems in the early 1800s before um before the reservations were formed our reservation was formed in the late 1800s probably the mid 1800s early 1800s the government used to come and they would bring wagon loads of things to our people and it was a way to get our people to concentrate in one area they would get um four or five Clans together they’d four or five family groups together and they would trade with them maybe once a month once every two months these wagons would come through and all of these Clans these Indians they would meet there that was kind of the way they formed our reservations too that’s how they’d say well this group was from right here this is where they would meet the wagon so that would be their Homeland it’s Nikita he he would with these this certain group once a month maybe once every two months he would take his people there he showed up there one time and there was no no wagons to trade with nobody there he found a little uh a square kind of a suitcase or a leather leather box a leather suitcase metal frame and had leather in it he camped there that where that suitcase was is that same place where he would meet the the government each and every time certain time of the Moon he would meet them there there was no government there there was no wagons no trade they would trade for glass metal uh clothing sometimes Firearms whiskey they got there and there was nothing so they camped there was just that little box they camped two nights nothing third night third day he he woke it’s he called all of the people to come up he opened that box and had hundreds and hundreds of little square pieces of wool he took them pieces and he handed them out to the elderly ladies first then to the mothers with children then to the old men then to the fathers each one of those little pieces were infected with small poox our people at one time stories say they were up to 10,000 Plus or more they dwindled down to less than 2 or 3,000 in about 700 days so when I leave home and I have uncles and I have my clan uncles and I have my ceremonial uncles who say why are you going to Al and Clark thing and talking about our people don’t you know what happened to our people that was the beginning of the end to our people this may be true but there’s nobody in this tent myself included who could change anything about that there’s nothing I can do to change that the reason why I’m going is so that I could tell people just like you folks about my way of life about some of the things that we believe in the way that we dress in our beliefs that I could come and tell you firsthand I personally and truly believe that what the park service is doing for us Indian people is a a great thing it’s a chance for us to come and tell you guys about our way of life firsthand as opposed to that little piece that you might read in a history book or you might see in the paper or or something on the Internet I I have people at home will say you should not be doing that but I look at it from an educational point of view and every chance I get I lecture all over I was actually I’m a licensed drug and alcohol counselor at home that’s that was my life before I started doing lectures I work in the school I teach our language I look at it from a purely an educational point of view it’s a chance for us to come and tell you guys about us I know we only get a short amount of time but I’m going to pretty much guarantee you that most of you folks will leave here knowing something a little bit more about the people in this area these areas that you didn’t know when you came here I want to thank each and every one of you for coming hej H hey thank you Clint and Wanda for coming folks our next program will be our last PR of the day it’ll be at 6 o’cl and it’s called Lewis and Clark

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Clark: September 17, 1806

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 20:37:59 +0000

Wednesday 17th September 1806 We Set out as usial early pass the Island of
the little Osage Village which is considered by the navigater of this
river to be the worst place in it. at this place water of the Missouri is
confined between an Island and the S E main Shore and passes through a
narrow chanel for more than 2 miles which is crouded with Snags in maney
places quite across obligeing the navigater to pica, his passage between
those Snags as he can, in maney places the current passing with great
velocity against the banks which cause them to fall &c. at 11 A.M. we
met a Captain McClellin late a Capt. of Artily of the U States Army
assending in a large boat. this gentleman an acquaintance of my friend
Capt. Lewis was Somewhat astonished to See us return and appeared rejoiced
to meet us. we found him a man of information and from whome we received a
partial account of the political State of our Country, we were makeing
enquires and exchangeing answers &c. untill near mid night. this
Gentleman informed us that we had been long Since given out by the people
of the U S Generaly and almost forgotton, the President of the U. States
had yet hopes of us; we received some civilities of Capt. McClellin, he
gave us Some Buisquit, Chocolate Sugar & whiskey, for which our party
were in want and for which we made a return of a barrel of corn & much
obliges to him. Capt. McClellin informed us that he was on reather a
speculative expedition to the confines of New Spain, with the view to
entroduce a trade with those people. his plan is to proceede up this river
to the Entcrance of the river platt there to form an establishment from
which to trade partially with the Panas & Ottoes, to form an
acquaintance with the Panias and provail Some of their principal Chiefs to
accompany him to Santa Fee where he will appear in a stile calculated to
atract the Spanish government in that quarter and through the influence of
a handsome present he expects to be promited to exchange his merchindize
for Silver & gold of which those people abound. he has a kind of
introductory Speach from Govr. Wilkinson to the Panias and Ottoes and a
quantity of presents of his own which he purposes distributing to the
Panias and ELeatans with a view to gain their protection in the execution
of his plans, if the Spanish Governmt. favour his plans, he purposes
takeing his merchendize on mules & horses which Can easily be procured
of the panias, to Some point convenient to the Spanish Settlements within
the Louisiana Teritory to which place the inhabitants of New mexico may
meet him for the purpose of trade &c. Capt McClellins plan I think a
very good one if strictly prosued &c.

we Sent 5 hunters a head with directions to halt below Grand river and
hunt untill we arived which would be in the morning. This day proved
worme. we decended only 30 miles to day and encamped 4 miles above Grand
river on S E. Side.

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