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29. Triumphant Return
As the Expedition left, the Cheyennes ask Clark to send traders to teach them how to trap beavers so they could trade with the Americans. They would then no longer need to deal with the Sioux who were causing so much unrest along the river.
It was now time to get downriver; Clark noticed the prairies were changing colors from the green of summer to the browns and golds of fall. However, he did want to replace some of the specimen that had been ruined by water in the caches upriver. He mentioned trying to collect specimen of antelope, mule deer, prairie dog and magpie. Collecting these would cost the Expedition several days.
Clark also realized they still had to get past the Sioux who had given them trouble on the trip upriver. That encounter had almost resulted in armed combat. Their chief, Black Buffalo, had not been able to get all the trade goods he had wanted, so he might very well be more aggressive if encountered now. It was a situation that added to the hunters’ normal difficulties of finding enough meat to feed the Expedition. They were sure the Sioux knew they were on their way down river and would be watching very carefully for them so the hunters, in turn, had to watch very carefully for Sioux while trying to find game and find specimen for Clark.
For the first few days it may have seemed as though nature was creating an additional challenge. What could have been a rapid descent was frequently stopped by strong winds that made the water so rough the Expedition was forced to halt their travel. They camped the night of August 25th below the mouth of Chantier Creek in the area of several old Ricara villages that had been destroyed by the Sioux. Clark notes that the Sioux had recently departed the area of the river they were now passing through.
The next day’s weather was more favorable for travel; the Expedition made 60 miles. That morning the Expedition passed the site of their encounter with Black Buffalo two years before, then at the mouth of the Bad Teton River they found a bullboat and a raft. They also saw the campfires that were about two weeks old. Clark knew they were in Sioux country. That fact and the signs of Sioux recently being in the area must have put him in a very defensive mood. Only a few days earlier he had been very positive and in good spirits, but now it was just the opposite. He notes in his journal that “we are much on our guard determined to put up with no insults from those bands of Sioux.” They camped that night about ten miles below Regis Loisel’s Fort and about four miles above Medicine River. Lewis was walking a little by now, and recovering fast from his wound.
The Expedition now has a real problem. They are entirely out of meat and need to send out hunters, but they are in country that has recently been occupied by the Sioux who they do not want to meet. The Corps of Discovery went four miles to the Medicine River, but the hunters had no luck so they proceeded on into the Big Bend. Fortunately they were able to kill an elk for their noon meal. At the lower end of the Big Bend the roar of buffalo was heard. Hunters were sent out and soon satisfied the Expedition’s requirements for meat.
With the food problem solved Clark decided they would try in earnest to collect some new specimen to replace those that had been ruined in caches. He sent out hunters to get mule deer and antelope. All were to rendezvous downriver where they had camped September 16 and 17 on the upriver trip in 1804. This area was rich in wildlife so Clark wanted to spend an extra day here to collect specimen. In particular he was trying to get a prairie dog and a magpie. Their camp was near present day Oacoma, South Dakota. This day and the next proved futile for specimen collection. Although there was an abundance of animals it was not of the kind Clark needed.
They proceeded downriver slowly with all the hunters out and the rest of the party making several stops. At one stop Clark climbed a hill out of the river bottom where he observed “a greater number of buffalo than I had ever seen before at one time. I must have seen nearly 20,000 of those animals feeding on this plain.” He went on to make a very remarkable observation, “I have observed that in the country between the nations which are at war with each other the greatest numbers of wild animals are to be found.” This was a rather profound observation at the time. The same topic became the subject of several lengthy treatises in academic circles one hundred and fifty years later.
August 30th proved to be the day that Clark did not want to happen. A few miles below their camp of the previous night Clark saw several men on horseback. Using his spyglass he found more on other hills. Altogether he located nearly 100 Indians who had seen the Expedition. The Indians fired some guns as a salute and the Expedition returned the salute. At this point Clark could not be certain what tribe they belonged to. Their actions appeared hostile which meant Sioux, but the country they were indicated they could be from one of several friendly tribes. Clark wanted to find out, but would not take any chances so he sent three Frenchmen from the Expedition over to a sandbar to talk with the group on the shore. Sure enough they were Teton Sioux from Black Buffalo’s tribe. Clark flatly told them that their chief had been deaf to council and ill-treated the Expedition two years before. Clark considered them to be bad people and they should not cross the river or he would kill them. To complete the tongue lashing, Clark told them that there would be no more traders trading with them and that white men would come upriver whenever they wished. If the Tetons tried to stop them an army would come upriver and whip anyone who dared to oppose them. He concluded with a statement that he knew the Tetons were at war with the Mandans, Ricaras, Minetares and Cheyennes, but the Teton would lose because the Mandans had more guns and the Expedition had given them a cannon. The Indians did not challenge this bluff and departed. Clark notes they were watched for the next two days.
The Expedition camped for the night of September 1st across the river from Calumet Bluff just below present day Gavin’s Point Dam. This was the same location they stayed for five days during the upriver trip and counseled with the Yanktons. Clark commented that the flag pole they had put up two years before was still standing.
After examining Bon Homme Island and making sketches of the old fortifications there, the Expedition set off down river. Travel this day was cut short by strong afternoon winds, but during the 22 mile trip Clark noted remains of a trading house that had not been there when the Expedition had made their way upriver two years earlier.
The next day, September 3, the Expedition met the first of two dozen trading parties they would meet before they reached St. Louis. The race for the fur trade had begun in earnest. The Captains would spend time talking with each party they met. Sometimes this would only be a short greeting while other times they would spend half a day as the Expedition caught up on all the news from home. Many groups of traders recognized the Captains and showed surprise at meeting them. Most people had accepted the rumor that the Expedition had perished in the wilderness.
From the first trading party, which was lead by James Aird, the Expedition learned about the Hamilton/Burr duel and that General Wilkenson had been appointed governor of Louisiana. Clark advised another party of traders who were working for the Choteaus, lead by Henry Delorn, “to treat the Tetons with as much contempt as possible.” Clark continued by retelling the Expedition’s adventures with that tribe in 1804 and again in 1806. From another group of traders the Expedition learned Governor Wilkenson had sent Zeb Pike out to explore the Arkansas River. The traders also informed the Captains that Wilkenson had departed St. Louis with all 300 army troops, in favor of New Orleans.
On September 12th the Expedition met a trading party that included one of the French engages that had been with the Expedition on the trip upriver from St. Louis to the Mandan villages in 1804. He had been part of the group that took the keelboat back downriver the following spring. Only a few miles downriver they met yet another group that included Graveline and Dorion. Lewis had hired these two men to escort a Hidatsa Chief to Washington to meet President Jefferson. From these two the Captains learned the Chief had died while in Washington and they were on their way back to the Chief’s people with an explanation of the Chief’s death and presents.
Clark again passed on some more of the knowledge the Expedition had gained in their travels when they met a group of traders the afternoon of the 14th. These traders were young and “very much afraid of meeting with the Kansas Indians.” Clark was wary of that same thing since he knew in the fall these Indians liked to stop traders going upriver and take whatever they wanted as “payment” to allow passage up the river. Clark advised this group to show no fear and explained how to prevent the Indians from exacting a toll.
Clark’s journal entries do not contain detailed descriptions of the river and land they were passing through or of the plants and animals they saw. Because the descriptions were given during the upriver trip, Clark’s notes are limited to the differences they encounter and their daily activities. He commented several times that sandbars in the river had changed locations as old ones were carried away by the river and new ones were formed; also changes in the river channel as large chunks of the bank caved in.
The trip downriver was much different than the one upriver. They went upriver during the spring floods so the river level was high and the current strong. The return trip was made in the fall with low water and a slow current. He does note several places where the nature of the river changes as it goes from a stream meandering through the prairies to a major river draining a significant section of the continent. Clark was mystified by the fact that although 20 rivers and countless streams added their water to the Missouri the volume of water remains the same. The best he could reason was the very warm temperatures created immense amounts of evaporation.
On September 17th while passing the mouth of the Little Osage River the Expedition crept through two miles of river that was full of snags and a narrow, fast channel that continually bounced water of the rock walls that constrained it, creating wicked whirlpools. If a boat ever got into one of these whirlpools there was no way to get back out. This was considered by Clark to be the worst spot on the entire river.
Clark remarked several times when they passed their camps from the upriver trip. He noted with a certain melancholy that the Expedition stopped at Floyd’s Bluff and visited their fallen comrade’s grave. They found it had been opened and only partially covered so they repaired it before departing. He commented on other places including Council Bluffs where they had their first council with Indians and the Platte River which was flowing hardly more than a trickle of water. On September 15th the Expedition stopped just below the mouth of the Kansas River. While the Captains climbed a hill to look around, several of the men picked wild apples. Today this area is in downtown Kansas City.
Finally on September 20th the Expedition reached the village of La Charette. The next day they were in St. Charles. They made the short trip to Fort Bellefontaine on the 22nd and reached the end of their journey at noon on September 23 when they saluted the town of St. Louis. At each stop “the entire population turned out” to greet the Expedition, pleased the rumors of their death were false.
Clark had written on September 9th “our party appears extremely anxious to get on to their country and friends.” The last 1,000 miles had been covered with a pace quickening the closer they got to home. They averaged 50 miles each day, covering as much distance as they had in five days when going upriver. The last week of the trip the men subsisted on nothing but wild fruit and biscuits, giving up hunting in favor of going the extra distance each day to shorten the time between themselves and home.
The day after they reached St. Louis, Clark wrote a letter to friends in Kentucky. This letter became the first published report of the Expedition. Clark made the last entry in his journal on September 26, 1806 writing “A fine morning we commenced wrighting.”
As the Expedition left, the Cheyennes ask Clark to send traders to teach them how to trap beavers so they could trade with the Americans. They would then no longer need to deal with the Sioux who were causing so much unrest along the river.
It was now time to get downriver; Clark noticed the prairies were changing colors from the green of summer to the browns and golds of fall. However, he did want to replace some of the specimen that had been ruined by water in the caches upriver. He mentioned trying to collect specimen of antelope, mule deer, prairie dog and magpie. Collecting these would cost the Expedition several days.
Clark also realized they still had to get past the Sioux who had given them trouble on the trip upriver. That encounter had almost resulted in armed combat. Their chief, Black Buffalo, had not been able to get all the trade goods he had wanted, so he might very well be more aggressive if encountered now. It was a situation that added to the hunters’ normal difficulties of finding enough meat to feed the Expedition. They were sure the Sioux knew they were on their way down river and would be watching very carefully for them so the hunters, in turn, had to watch very carefully for Sioux while trying to find game and find specimen for Clark.
For the first few days it may have seemed as though nature was creating an additional challenge. What could have been a rapid descent was frequently stopped by strong winds that made the water so rough the Expedition was forced to halt their travel. They camped the night of August 25th below the mouth of Chantier Creek in the area of several old Ricara villages that had been destroyed by the Sioux. Clark notes that the Sioux had recently departed the area of the river they were now passing through.
The next day’s weather was more favorable for travel; the Expedition made 60 miles. That morning the Expedition passed the site of their encounter with Black Buffalo two years before, then at the mouth of the Bad Teton River they found a bullboat and a raft. They also saw the campfires that were about two weeks old. Clark knew they were in Sioux country. That fact and the signs of Sioux recently being in the area must have put him in a very defensive mood. Only a few days earlier he had been very positive and in good spirits, but now it was just the opposite. He notes in his journal that “we are much on our guard determined to put up with no insults from those bands of Sioux.” They camped that night about ten miles below Regis Loisel’s Fort and about four miles above Medicine River. Lewis was walking a little by now, and recovering fast from his wound.
The Expedition now has a real problem. They are entirely out of meat and need to send out hunters, but they are in country that has recently been occupied by the Sioux who they do not want to meet. The Corps of Discovery went four miles to the Medicine River, but the hunters had no luck so they proceeded on into the Big Bend. Fortunately they were able to kill an elk for their noon meal. At the lower end of the Big Bend the roar of buffalo was heard. Hunters were sent out and soon satisfied the Expedition’s requirements for meat.
With the food problem solved Clark decided they would try in earnest to collect some new specimen to replace those that had been ruined in caches. He sent out hunters to get mule deer and antelope. All were to rendezvous downriver where they had camped September 16 and 17 on the upriver trip in 1804. This area was rich in wildlife so Clark wanted to spend an extra day here to collect specimen. In particular he was trying to get a prairie dog and a magpie. Their camp was near present day Oacoma, South Dakota. This day and the next proved futile for specimen collection. Although there was an abundance of animals it was not of the kind Clark needed.
They proceeded downriver slowly with all the hunters out and the rest of the party making several stops. At one stop Clark climbed a hill out of the river bottom where he observed “a greater number of buffalo than I had ever seen before at one time. I must have seen nearly 20,000 of those animals feeding on this plain.” He went on to make a very remarkable observation, “I have observed that in the country between the nations which are at war with each other the greatest numbers of wild animals are to be found.” This was a rather profound observation at the time. The same topic became the subject of several lengthy treatises in academic circles one hundred and fifty years later.
August 30th proved to be the day that Clark did not want to happen. A few miles below their camp of the previous night Clark saw several men on horseback. Using his spyglass he found more on other hills. Altogether he located nearly 100 Indians who had seen the Expedition. The Indians fired some guns as a salute and the Expedition returned the salute. At this point Clark could not be certain what tribe they belonged to. Their actions appeared hostile which meant Sioux, but the country they were indicated they could be from one of several friendly tribes. Clark wanted to find out, but would not take any chances so he sent three Frenchmen from the Expedition over to a sandbar to talk with the group on the shore. Sure enough they were Teton Sioux from Black Buffalo’s tribe. Clark flatly told them that their chief had been deaf to council and ill-treated the Expedition two years before. Clark considered them to be bad people and they should not cross the river or he would kill them. To complete the tongue lashing, Clark told them that there would be no more traders trading with them and that white men would come upriver whenever they wished. If the Tetons tried to stop them an army would come upriver and whip anyone who dared to oppose them. He concluded with a statement that he knew the Tetons were at war with the Mandans, Ricaras, Minetares and Cheyennes, but the Teton would lose because the Mandans had more guns and the Expedition had given them a cannon. The Indians did not challenge this bluff and departed. Clark notes they were watched for the next two days.
The Expedition camped for the night of September 1st across the river from Calumet Bluff just below present day Gavin’s Point Dam. This was the same location they stayed for five days during the upriver trip and counseled with the Yanktons. Clark commented that the flag pole they had put up two years before was still standing.
After examining Bon Homme Island and making sketches of the old fortifications there, the Expedition set off down river. Travel this day was cut short by strong afternoon winds, but during the 22 mile trip Clark noted remains of a trading house that had not been there when the Expedition had made their way upriver two years earlier.
The next day, September 3, the Expedition met the first of two dozen trading parties they would meet before they reached St. Louis. The race for the fur trade had begun in earnest. The Captains would spend time talking with each party they met. Sometimes this would only be a short greeting while other times they would spend half a day as the Expedition caught up on all the news from home. Many groups of traders recognized the Captains and showed surprise at meeting them. Most people had accepted the rumor that the Expedition had perished in the wilderness.
From the first trading party, which was lead by James Aird, the Expedition learned about the Hamilton/Burr duel and that General Wilkenson had been appointed governor of Louisiana. Clark advised another party of traders who were working for the Choteaus, lead by Henry Delorn, “to treat the Tetons with as much contempt as possible.” Clark continued by retelling the Expedition’s adventures with that tribe in 1804 and again in 1806. From another group of traders the Expedition learned Governor Wilkenson had sent Zeb Pike out to explore the Arkansas River. The traders also informed the Captains that Wilkenson had departed St. Louis with all 300 army troops, in favor of New Orleans.
On September 12th the Expedition met a trading party that included one of the French engages that had been with the Expedition on the trip upriver from St. Louis to the Mandan villages in 1804. He had been part of the group that took the keelboat back downriver the following spring. Only a few miles downriver they met yet another group that included Graveline and Dorion. Lewis had hired these two men to escort a Hidatsa Chief to Washington to meet President Jefferson. From these two the Captains learned the Chief had died while in Washington and they were on their way back to the Chief’s people with an explanation of the Chief’s death and presents.
Clark again passed on some more of the knowledge the Expedition had gained in their travels when they met a group of traders the afternoon of the 14th. These traders were young and “very much afraid of meeting with the Kansas Indians.” Clark was wary of that same thing since he knew in the fall these Indians liked to stop traders going upriver and take whatever they wanted as “payment” to allow passage up the river. Clark advised this group to show no fear and explained how to prevent the Indians from exacting a toll.
Clark’s journal entries do not contain detailed descriptions of the river and land they were passing through or of the plants and animals they saw. Because the descriptions were given during the upriver trip, Clark’s notes are limited to the differences they encounter and their daily activities. He commented several times that sandbars in the river had changed locations as old ones were carried away by the river and new ones were formed; also changes in the river channel as large chunks of the bank caved in.
The trip downriver was much different than the one upriver. They went upriver during the spring floods so the river level was high and the current strong. The return trip was made in the fall with low water and a slow current. He does note several places where the nature of the river changes as it goes from a stream meandering through the prairies to a major river draining a significant section of the continent. Clark was mystified by the fact that although 20 rivers and countless streams added their water to the Missouri the volume of water remains the same. The best he could reason was the very warm temperatures created immense amounts of evaporation.
On September 17th while passing the mouth of the Little Osage River the Expedition crept through two miles of river that was full of snags and a narrow, fast channel that continually bounced water of the rock walls that constrained it, creating wicked whirlpools. If a boat ever got into one of these whirlpools there was no way to get back out. This was considered by Clark to be the worst spot on the entire river.
Clark remarked several times when they passed their camps from the upriver trip. He noted with a certain melancholy that the Expedition stopped at Floyd’s Bluff and visited their fallen comrade’s grave. They found it had been opened and only partially covered so they repaired it before departing. He commented on other places including Council Bluffs where they had their first council with Indians and the Platte River which was flowing hardly more than a trickle of water. On September 15th the Expedition stopped just below the mouth of the Kansas River. While the Captains climbed a hill to look around, several of the men picked wild apples. Today this area is in downtown Kansas City.
Finally on September 20th the Expedition reached the village of La Charette. The next day they were in St. Charles. They made the short trip to Fort Bellefontaine on the 22nd and reached the end of their journey at noon on September 23 when they saluted the town of St. Louis. At each stop “the entire population turned out” to greet the Expedition, pleased the rumors of their death were false.
Clark had written on September 9th “our party appears extremely anxious to get on to their country and friends.” The last 1,000 miles had been covered with a pace quickening the closer they got to home. They averaged 50 miles each day, covering as much distance as they had in five days when going upriver. The last week of the trip the men subsisted on nothing but wild fruit and biscuits, giving up hunting in favor of going the extra distance each day to shorten the time between themselves and home.
The day after they reached St. Louis, Clark wrote a letter to friends in Kentucky. This letter became the first published report of the Expedition. Clark made the last entry in his journal on September 26, 1806 writing “A fine morning we commenced wrighting.”