Lewis and Clark are not, by far, the first white men to visit the area of Pierre and Bismarck. In 1743, two bothers, Chevalier and Louis Verendrye travelled from French Canada, trying to find an easy route to the Pacific Ocean. They only got as far as the Black Hills. They did, however plant a lead plate with an inscription claiming the area for France. In 1913 some high school students from Fort Pierre found the plate and decided to try to sell it to a local printer, since it was lead. Fortunately someone noticed the inscription, and the plate now resides in the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. It seemed to us that this was an immensely important artifact, since it is the only evidence of of the first European to reach this far west of the Mississippi. So this was our first stop in Pierre yesterday morning.
The Verendrye plate
Although the Verendrye brothers did not reach the Pacific, they did a great deal to promote trade between Europeans and the Indian
The other stop has to do with the confrontation with the Teton Sioux. At Council Bluffs on 3 August the corps had its first meeting with important Indian chiefs. These meetings were with Oto and Missoria Indians. The success of these meetings bode well for the prospect of meeting President Jefferson's wish to establish peaceful relations with the Indians.
We next visited a place, now called Farm Island, where the Indian situation began to deteriorate.
This is where John Colter (whose memorial we visited back in Missouri) reported that several Sioux Indians had stolen his horse.
On 25 September the Captains met with the leaders of the Teton Sioux. After they were given gifts, the Indians complained that they were inadequate, and the expedition must stop going up river, or give up one of the pirogues filled with gifts. The Captains invited three chiefs to visit the keelboat, where Lewis demonstrated his air gun, and offered the Indians some whisky. One of the chiefs, pretending to be drunk, staggered into Clark. Clark drew his sword and ordered the others to prepare for action. Some of the young warriors grabbed the bow of the pirogue. Suddenly soldiers and Indians faced off against one another, weapons at the ready. After several days of visits to several villages and more gifts the situation deteriorated again until, on 28 September, Partisan, the second chief announced that the expedition would not be allowed to go up river. Lewis forcefully announced that he would not give in to the Indians demands, tossed Black Buffalo some tobacco, and the chief grabbed the bow line from the brave holding it, tossed it aboard, and the confrontation ended.
Since several of the sites we wished to visit that day had closed, we headed off for Bismarck.
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