The Journals of Lewis and Clark: Dates November 8, 1804 - November 16, 1804
The following excerpts are taken from entries of the Journals of Lewis and Clark. Dates: November 8, 1804 - November 16, 1804

November 8, 1804
Thursday 8. The morning again cloudy; our huts advance very well, and we are visited by numbers of Indians who come to let their horses graze near us: in the day the horses are let loose in quest of grass, in the night they are collected and receive an armful of small boughs of the cottonwood, which being very juicy, soft and brittle, form nutritious and agreeable food: the frost this morning was very severe, the weather during the day cloudy and the wind from the northwest. We procured from an Indian a weasel perfectly white except the extremity of the tail which was black: great numbers of wild geese are passing to the south, but their flight is too high for us to procure any of them.

November 10, 1804
November 10. We had again a raw day, a northwest wind, but rose early in hopes of finishing our works before the extreme cold begins. A chief who is a half Pawnee came to us and brought a present of half a buffalo, in return for which we gave him some small presents and a few articles to his wife and son: he then crossed the river in a buffalo skin canoe; his wife took the boat on her back and carried it to the village three miles off. Large flocks of geese and brant, and also a few ducks are passing towards the south.

November 11, 1804
Sunday 11. The weather is cold. We received the visit of two squaws, prisoners from the Rock mountains, and purchased by Charbonneau. The Mandans at this time are out hunting the buffalo.

November 12, 1804
Monday 12. The last night had been cold and this morning we had a very hard frost: the wind changeable during the day, and some ice appears on the edges of the rivers; swans too are passing to the south. The Big White came down to us, having packed on the back of his squaw about one hundred pounds of very fine meat: for which we gave him as well as the squaw some presents, particularly an axe to the woman with which she was very much pleased.

November 13, 1804
Tuesday 13. We this morning unloaded the boat and stowed away the contents in a storehouse which we have built. At half past ten ice began to float down the river for the first time: in the course of the morning we were visited by the Black Cat, Poscapsahe, who brought an Assiniboine chief and seven warriors to see us. This man, whose name is Chechawk, is a chief of one out of three bands of Assiniboines who wander over the plains between the Missouri and Assiniboine during the summer, and in the winter carry the spoils of their hunting to the traders on the Assiniboine river, and occasionally come to this place: the whole three bands consist of about eight hundred men. We gave him a twist of tobacco to smoke with his people, and a gold cord for himself: the Sioux also asked for whiskey which we refused to give them. It snowed all day and the air was very cold.

November 14, 1804
Wednesday 14. The river rose last night half an inch, and is now filled with floating ice. This morning was cloudy with some snow: about seventy lodges of Assiniboines and some Knistenaux are at the Mandan village, and this being the day of adoption and exchange of property between them all, it is accompanied by a dance, which prevents our seeing more than two Indians to-day: these Knistenaux are a band of Chippeways whose language they speak; they live on the Assiniboine and Saskashawan rivers, and are about two hundred and forty men. We sent a man down on horseback to see what had become of our hunters, and as we apprehend a failure of provisions we have recourse to our pork this evening. Two Frenchmen who had been below returned with twenty beaver which they had caught in traps.

November 15, 1804
Thursday 15. The morning again cloudy, and the ice running thicker than yesterday, the wind variable. The man came back with information that our hunters were about thirty miles below, and we immediately sent an order to them to make their way through the floating ice, to assist them in which we sent some tin for the bow of the pirogue and a towrope. The ceremony of yesterday seem to continue still, for we were not visited by a single Indian. The swan are still passing to the south.

November 16, 1804
Friday 16. We had a very hard white frost this morning, the trees are all covered with ice, and the weather cloudy. The men this day moved into the huts, although they are not finished. In the evening some horses were sent down to the woods near us in order to prevent their being stolen by the Assiniboines, with whom some difficulty is now apprehended. An Indian came down with four buffalo robes and some corn, which he offered for a pistol, but was refused.

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