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Peek Inside...Entries For August 14:
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1806:
Captain Clark (current)
Captain Clark:
August 14, 1806
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Set out at sunrise and proceeded on. When we were opposite the Minnetarees' grand village, we saw a number of the natives viewing us. Soon after we came to at a crowd of the natives on the bank opposite the village of the Shoe Indians, or Mahas, at which place I saw the principal chief of the little village of the Minnetarees and the principal chief of the Mahas. I proceeded on to the Black Cats' [Mandan] village, where I intended to encamp, but the sand blew in such a manner that we determined not to continue on that site. I walked up to the Black Cats' village.
I had, as soon as I landed, dispatched Charbonneau to the Minnetarees, inviting the chiefs to visit us, and Drouilliard down to the lower village of the Mandans to ask Mr. Jussome to come and interpret for us.
After assembling the chiefs and smoking one pipe, I informed them that I still spoke the same words which we had spoken to them when we first arrived in their country. We then invited them to visit their Great Father, the President of the U. States, and to hear his own counsels and receive his gifts from his own hands, as also to see the population of a government which can, at their pleasure, protect and secure you from all your enemies and chastise all those who will shut their ears to his counsels. They were all afraid of the Sioux. They would not go down.
Reprinted by permission of the American Studies Programs at the University of Virginia.
The complete text can also be downloaded for printing from their website.
