Tribal Nations

Arikara

Tribal Nation

Arikara villages, Grand River, South Dakota

A Caddoan-speaking agricultural people along the Missouri River in present-day South Dakota. The expedition held councils with Arikara chiefs in October 1804. The Arikara were notable for refusing...

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Assiniboine

Tribal Nation

Upper Missouri & Milk River country, NE Montana

A Siouan-speaking people of the northern Great Plains. Encountered near the Mandan-Hidatsa villages; important players in the northern plains trade network.

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Blackfeet

Tribal Nation

Two Medicine River encounter, Montana

An Algonquian-speaking people of the northern Great Plains. The expedition's only violent encounter with Native Americans occurred on July 27, 1806, when Lewis's party met eight Blackfeet warriors...

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Cayuse

Tribal Nation

Blue Mountains region, Oregon

A people of the Columbia Plateau closely allied with the Nez Perce and Umatilla. Known as skilled horse breeders; the term "cayuse" later became a generic word for...

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Chinook

Tribal Nation

Columbia River estuary, Oregon-Washington

A powerful trading people who controlled commerce at the mouth of the Columbia River. Led by Chief Comcomly, they were skilled diplomats who viewed the Corps as another...

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Chippewa Tribe

Anishinaabe (Ojibwe/Chippewa), Algonquian people of the Great Lakes

Western Great Lakes, Minnesota & Wisconsin

An Algonquian people, the Anishinaabe or Ojibwe, spread across the western Great Lakes in present-day Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. By 1804 they were among the largest nations of...

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Clatsop

Tribal Nation

Near Fort Clatsop, Oregon

A Chinookan people on the southern shore of the Columbia River estuary. The expedition built Fort Clatsop in their territory and wintered there from December 1805 to March...

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Coeur d'Alene

Tribal Nation

Lake Coeur d'Alene region, northern Idaho

An Interior Salish-speaking people of present-day northern Idaho and eastern Washington. Part of the broader Salishan cultural world. French traders gave them their name, meaning "heart of the...

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Crow (Apsaalooke)

Tribal Nation

Yellowstone & Bighorn River country, Montana

A Siouan-speaking people of the Yellowstone River region. Clark's party passed through Crow territory during the return journey in 1806. Known as expert horsemen.

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Delaware Nation

Lenape (Delaware), Algonquian people originally of the eastern seaboard

Diaspora; communities near Cape Girardeau, Missouri

An Algonquian people, the Lenape, displaced westward from their eastern-seaboard homeland over the eighteenth century. By 1804 many Lenape lived in the Ohio Valley and on Spanish land...

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Flathead Salish

Tribal Nation

Ross's Hole, Bitterroot Valley, Montana

An Interior Salish people of western Montana. The expedition were the first whites to encounter the Salish in person at Ross's Hole in September 1805. The Salish provided...

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Hidatsa

Tribal Nation

Knife River villages, North Dakota

Close neighbors of the Mandan living at the Knife River villages. The Hidatsa were the tribe from whom Sacagawea had been captured as a girl. The expedition had...

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Iowa Tribe

Báxoje (Ioway), Chiwere Siouan people of the Missouri-Iowa region

Lower Missouri-Iowa country

A Chiwere-Siouan people, the Baxoje, related to the Otoe and Ho-Chunk. Their villages lay in the country between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. The expedition passed through their...

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Kathlamet

Tribal Nation

Lower Columbia River, Oregon

An Upper Chinookan people living along the Columbia River below the Cowlitz River. The expedition had several recorded encounters with the Kathlamet for trade during the winter at...

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Kaw Nation

Kanza (Kaw), Dhegihan Siouan people of the Kansas River region

Kansas River valley

A Dhegihan-Siouan people for whom the Kansas River, and later the state, are named. In 1804 their principal village stood on the Kansas River. The expedition reached the...

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Kickapoo Tribe

Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo), Algonquian people of the Great Lakes and central Plains

Illinois country & lower Missouri frontier

An Algonquian people of the Great Lakes and Wabash country who by 1804 also ranged through Illinois and Missouri. Kickapoo hunters were among the first Native people the...

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Lemhi Shoshone

Tribal Nation

Lemhi River, Idaho

A band of Eastern Shoshone led by Cameahwait (Sacagawea's brother) near the Lemhi Pass on the Continental Divide. Their trade of horses was absolutely essential to the expedition's...

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Makah Tribe

Kwih-dich-chuh-ahtx (Makah), Wakashan people of the Pacific Northwest

Cape Flattery, Olympic Peninsula

A Wakashan-speaking people of Cape Flattery, the northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula, known as skilled whalers and ocean traders. The Corps did not reach Makah territory, but...

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Mandan

Tribal Nation

Mandan villages, near present-day Bismarck, North Dakota

Sedentary agricultural people living in earth lodge villages along the Missouri River in present-day North Dakota. The expedition built Fort Mandan near their villages and spent the winter...

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Menominee Nation

Mamaceqtaw (Menominee), Algonquian people of Wisconsin

Green Bay region, Wisconsin

An Algonquian people of present-day Wisconsin, gatherers of wild rice in the Green Bay region. They lay well outside the expedition's route, and Lewis included them among the...

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Multnomah

Tribal Nation

Willamette River confluence, Oregon

A Chinookan-speaking people living near the mouth of the Willamette River (which the expedition initially called the "Multnomah River"). Clark explored up the Willamette on the return journey...

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Nez Perce

Tribal Nation

Clearwater River, Idaho

The Nez Perce people of present-day Idaho saved the expedition from starvation when the Corps descended from the Bitterroots in September 1805, feeding them roots and dried fish....

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Omaha

Tribal Nation

Omaha territory, eastern Nebraska

A Siouan-speaking people of the eastern Great Plains in present-day Nebraska. They had been devastated by smallpox and warfare with the Teton Sioux. Pierre Cruzatte was half Omaha.

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Osage Nation

Wazhazhe (Osage), Southern Siouan people of the Missouri-Arkansas region

Osage River country, Missouri

A Dhegihan-Siouan people who were the dominant power of the lower Missouri and Arkansas country. Relations with the Osage were a priority for the United States, and Jefferson...

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Otoe-Missouria

Tribal Nation

Council Bluff, near present-day Fort Calhoun, Nebraska

Two allied tribes that held the expedition's first formal council with Native Americans on August 3, 1804, at "Council Bluff" near present-day Fort Calhoun, Nebraska.

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Ottawa Tribe

Odawa (Ottawa), Algonquian people of the Great Lakes

Northern Great Lakes, present-day Michigan

An Algonquian people, the Odawa, of the Great Lakes, longtime traders allied with the Ojibwe and Potawatomi in the Council of Three Fires. Their homeland lay north of...

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Palouse

Tribal Nation

Palouse River, Washington-Idaho

A Sahaptian-speaking people living along the Palouse River in present-day Washington. Part of the broader Sahaptian-speaking cultural complex.

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Pawnee Nation

Chaticks si Chaticks (Pawnee), Caddoan people of the central Plains

Platte & Loup River country, Nebraska

A Caddoan people of the central Plains, organized in several bands along the Platte and Loup rivers in present-day Nebraska. The Pawnee were a major power in Plains...

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Piankashaw

Peanguichia (Piankashaw), Miami-Illinois Algonquian people of the Wabash region

Lower Wabash valley, Indiana-Illinois

A Miami-Illinois Algonquian people of the Wabash valley in present-day Indiana and Illinois. By 1804 the Piankashaw had been greatly reduced and were ceding land to the United...

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Ponca Tribe

Ponka (Ponca), Dhegihan Siouan people of the Missouri River region

Mouth of the Niobrara River, Nebraska

A small Dhegihan-Siouan people closely related to the Omaha, living near the mouth of the Niobrara River. The expedition reached the Ponca village area in early September 1804,...

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Potawatomi Nation

Bodewadmi (Potawatomi), Algonquian people of the Great Lakes

Southern Lake Michigan, Illinois & Indiana

An Algonquian people, the Bodewadmi, or keepers of the fire, of the southern Great Lakes, allied with the Ojibwe and Odawa in the Council of Three Fires. By...

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Quapaw Nation

Ogaxpa (Quapaw), Dhegihan Siouan people of the lower Mississippi-Arkansas region

Lower Arkansas River, near the Mississippi

A Dhegihan-Siouan people, the Ogaxpa, or downstream people, of the lower Arkansas and Mississippi confluence. They share ancestry with the Omaha, Osage, Ponca, and Kaw. Their homeland lay...

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Sac and Fox Nation

Meskwaki (Fox) and Sauk, Algonquian peoples of the upper Mississippi

Upper Mississippi; Saukenuk on the Rock River

The Sauk and Meskwaki, allied Algonquian peoples of the upper Mississippi. In 1804 a disputed treaty signed at St. Louis ceded vast Sauk and Fox lands to the...

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Shawnee Tribe

Shaawanwa (Shawnee), Algonquian people of the Ohio Valley and beyond

Diaspora; communities near Cape Girardeau, Missouri

An Algonquian people of the Ohio Valley, widely dispersed by 1804. Some Shawnee held Spanish land grants in Missouri near Cape Girardeau, where the expedition encountered them in...

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Shoshone

Tribal Nation

Lemhi Valley, Idaho-Montana border

Sacagawea's people. The Lemhi Shoshone's trade of horses was absolutely essential to the expedition's survival and ability to cross the Rocky Mountains in August 1805.

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Sioux Tribe/Nation

Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation), Siouan peoples of the Northern Plains

Upper Missouri & Northern Plains (Oceti Sakowin)

The Oceti Sakowin, the Seven Council Fires, encompassing the Dakota, Yankton, and Lakota divisions, and the dominant presence on the upper Missouri. The expedition's tense standoff with the...

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Teton Sioux (Lakota)

Tribal Nation

Bad River confrontation, near Pierre, South Dakota

The most powerful nation on the upper Missouri. The September 1804 confrontation between the Corps and the Brule Lakota at Bad River was the most dangerous diplomatic encounter...

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Tillamook

Tribal Nation

Tillamook Bay area, Oregon coast

A Salishan-speaking people of the northern Oregon coast encountered during the winter at Fort Clatsop. Clark's whale-blubber trading party visited a Tillamook village in January 1806.

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Umatilla

Tribal Nation

Umatilla River, Oregon

A Sahaptian-speaking people of the Columbia Plateau in present-day Oregon. The expedition passed through their territory along the Columbia River during both journeys.

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Walla Walla

Tribal Nation

Walla Walla Valley, southeastern Washington

A Sahaptian-speaking people led by Chief Yelleppit. On the return journey in 1806, Yelleppit hosted the Corps for two days and provided canoes and horses.

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Winnebago Tribe

Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), Chiwere Siouan people of Wisconsin

Lake Winnebago region, Wisconsin

A Chiwere-Siouan people, the Ho-Chunk, of present-day Wisconsin, related in language to the Iowa and Otoe. They lay outside the expedition's route and appear in the survey of...

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Wishram-Wasco

Tribal Nation

Celilo Falls, Columbia River, Oregon

Chinookan-speaking peoples who controlled the important fishery and trade center at The Dalles on the Columbia River, one of the greatest Native American trading sites in North America.

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Yakama

Tribal Nation

Yakima Valley, Washington

A Sahaptian-speaking people of the Columbia Plateau. The expedition identified them as "Chimnapams" and encountered them during the downstream journey on the Columbia in October 1805.

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Yankton Sioux

Tribal Nation

Calumet Bluff council, near Yankton, South Dakota

A Dakota-speaking people met by the expedition on August 30, 1804. Their chiefs, including Weucha, were generally friendly and warned the expedition about the hostile Teton Sioux upriver.

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