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The Journals
of Lewis and Clark: Dates October 11, 1804 - October 13,
1804
The following
excerpts are taken from entries of the Journals of Lewis
and Clark. Dates: October 11, 1804 - October 13, 1804
October 11,
1804
Thursday, 11th, at eleven o'clock we again met in council
at our camp. The grand chief made a short speech of thanks
for the advice we had given, and promised to follow it;
adding that the door was now open and no one dare shut it,
and that we might depart whenever we pleased, alluding to
the treatment we had received from the Sioux: they also
brought us some corn, beans, and dried squashes, and in
return we gave them a steel mill with which they were much
pleased. At one o'clock we left our camp with the grand
chief and his nephew on board, and at about two miles anchored
below a creek on the south, separating the second and third
village of the Ricaras, which are about half a mile distant
from each other. We visited both the villages, and sat conversing
with the chiefs for some time, during which they presented
us with a bread made of corn and beans, also corn and beans
boiled, and a large rich bean which they take from the mice
of the prairie, who discover and collect it. These two villages
are placed near each other in a high smooth prairie; a fine
situation, except that having no wood the inhabitants are
obliged to go for it across the river to a timbered lowland
opposite to them. We told them that we would speak to them
in the morning at their villages separately.
October
12, 1804
Thursday, 12th.
Accordingly after breakfast we went on shore to the house
of the chief of the second village named Lassel, where we
found his chiefs and warriors. They made us a present of
about seven bushels of corn, a pair of leggings, a twist
of their tobacco, and the seeds of two different species
of tobacco. The chief then delivered a speech expressive
of his gratitude for the presents and the good counsels
which we had given him; his intention of visiting his great
father but for fear of the Sioux; and requested us to take
one of the Ricara chiefs up to the Mandans and negociate
a peace between the two nations. To this we replied in a
suitable way, and then repaired to the third village. Here
we were addressed by the chief in nearly the same terms
as before, and entertained with a present of ten bushels
of corn, some beans, dried pumpkins, and squashes. After
we had answered and explained the magnitude and power of
the United States, the three chiefs came with us to the
boat. We gave them some sugar, a little salt, and a sunglass.
Two of them then left us, and the chief of the third, by
name [104]Ahketahnasha or Chief of the Town, accompanied
us to the Mandans. At two o'clock we left the Indians, who
crowded to the shore to take leave of us, and after making
seven and a half miles landed on the north side, and had
a clear, cool, pleasant evening.
The three villages which we have just left, are the residence
of a nation called the Ricaras. They were originally colonies
of Pawnees, who established themselves on the Missouri,
below the Chayenne, where the traders still remember that
twenty years ago they occupied a number of villages. From
that situation a part of the Ricaras emigrated to the neighborhood
of the Mandans, with whom they were then in alliance. The
rest of the nation continued near the Chayenne till the
year 1797, in the course of which, distressed by their wars
with the Sioux, they joined their countrymen near the Mandans.
Soon after a new war arose between the Ricaras and the Mandans,
in consequence of which the former came down the river to
their present position. In this migration those who had
first gone to the Mandans kept together, and now live in
the two lower villages, which may thence be considered as
the Ricaras proper. The third village was composed of such
remnants of the villages as had survived the wars, and as
these were nine in number a difference of pronunciation
and some difference of language may be observed between
them and the Ricaras proper, who do not understand all the
words of these wanderers. The villages are within the distance
of four miles of each other, the two lower ones consisting
of between one hundred and fifty and two hundred men each,
the third of three hundred. The Ricaras are tall and well
proportioned, the women handsome and lively, and as among
other savages to them falls all the drudgery of the field
and the labors of procuring subsistence, except that of
hunting: both sexes are poor, but kind and generous, and
although they receive with thankfulness what is given to
them, do not beg as the Sioux did, though this praise should
be qualified [105]by mentioning that an axe was stolen last
night from our cooks. The dress of the men is a simple pair
of moccasins, legings, and a cloth round the middle, over
which a buffalo robe is occasionally thrown, with their
hair, arms and ears decorated with different ornaments.
The women wear moccasins, legings, a long shirt made of
goats' skins, generally white and fringed, which is tied
round the waist; to those they add, like the men, a buffalo
robe without the hair, in summer. These women are handsomer
than the Sioux; both of them are however, disposed to be
amorous, and our men found no difficulty in procuring companions
for the night by means of the interpreters. These interviews
were chiefly clandestine, and were of course to be kept
a secret from the husband or relations. The point of honor
indeed, is completely reversed among the Ricaras; that the
wife or the sister should submit to a stranger's embraces
without the consent of her husband or brother, is a cause
of great disgrace and offence, especially as for many purposes
of civility or gratitude the husband and brother will themselves
present to a stranger these females, and be gratified by
attentions to them. The Sioux had offered us squaws, but
while we remained there having declined, they followed us
with offers of females for two days. The Ricaras had been
equally accommodating; we had equally withstood their temptation;
but such was their desire to oblige that two very handsome
young squaws were sent on board this evening, and persecuted
us with civilities. The black man York participated largely
in these favours; for instead of inspiring any prejudice,
his color seemed to procure him additional advantages from
the Indians, who desired to preserve among them some memorial
of this wonderful stranger. Among other instances of attention,
a Ricara invited him into his house and presenting his wife
to him, retired to the outside of the door: while there
one of York's comrades who was looking for him came to the
door, but the gallant husband [106]would permit no interruption
before a reasonable time had elapsed.
The Ricara lodges are in a circular or octagonal form, and
generally about thirty or forty feet in diameter: they are
made by placing forked posts about six feet high round the
circumference of the circle; these are joined by poles from
one fork to another, which are supported also by other forked
poles slanting from the ground: in the centre of the lodge
are placed four higher forks, about fifteen feet in length,
connected together by beams; from these to the lower poles
the rafters of the roof are extended so as to leave a vacancy
in the middle for the smoke: the frame of the building is
then covered with willow branches, with which is interwoven
grass, and over this mud or clay: the aperture for the door
is about four feet wide, and before it is a sort of entry
about ten feet from the lodge. They are very warm and compact.
They cultivate maize or Indian corn, beans, pumpkins, watermelons,
squashes, and a species of tobacco peculiar to themselves.
Their commerce is chiefly with the traders who supply them
with goods in return for peltries, which they procure not
only by their own hunting, but in exchange for corn from
their less civilized neighbors. The object chiefly in demand
seemed to be red paint, but they would give any thing they
had to spare for the most trifling article. One of the men
to-day gave an Indian a hook made out of a pin, and he gave
him in return a pair of moccasins.
They express a disposition to keep at peace with all nations,
but they are well armed with fusils, and being much under
the influence of the Sioux, who exchanged the goods which
they get from the British for Ricara corn, their minds are
sometimes poisoned and they cannot be always depended on.
At the present moment they are at war with the Mandans.
We are informed by Mr. Gravelines, who had passed through
that country, that the Yankton or Jacques [107]river rises
about forty miles to the east or northeast of this place,
the Chayenne branch of the Red river about twenty miles
further, passing the Sioux, and the St. Peter's about eighty.
October
13, 1804
Saturday, 13th.
In the morning our visitors left us, except the brother
of the chief who accompanies us and one of the squaws. We
passed at an early hour a camp of Sioux on the north bank,
who merely looked at us without saying a word, and from
the character of the tribe we did not solicit a conversation.
At ten and a half miles we reached the mouth of a creek
on the north, which takes its rise from some ponds a short
distance to the northeast: to this stream we gave the name
of Stoneidol creek, for after passing a willow and sand
island just above its mouth, we discovered that a few miles
back from the Missouri there are two stones resembling human
figures, and a third like a dog; all which are objects of
great veneration among the Ricaras. Their history would
adorn the metamorphoses of Ovid. A young man was deeply
enamoured with a girl whose parents refused their consent
to the marriage. The youth went out into the fields to mourn
his misfortunes; a sympathy of feeling led the lady to the
same spot, and the faithful dog would not cease to follow
his master. After wandering together and having nothing
but grapes to subsist on, they were at last converted into
stone, which beginning at the feet gradually invaded the
nobler parts leaving nothing unchanged but a bunch of grapes
which the female holds in her hands to this day. Whenever
the Ricaras pass these sacred stones, they stop to make
some offering of dress to propitiate these deities. Such
is the account given by the Ricara chief which we had no
mode of examining, except that we found one part of the
story very agreeably confirmed; for on the river near where
the event is said to have occurred, we found a greater abundance
of fine grapes than we had yet seen. Above this is a small
creek four and a half miles from Stoneidol creek, which
is fifteen yards wide, comes in from the south, and [108]received
from us the name of Pocasse or Hay creek, in honor of the
chief of the second village. Above the Ricara island, the
Missouri becomes narrow and deeper, the sandbars being generally
confined to the points; the current too is much more gentle;
the timber on the lowlands is also in much greater quantities,
though the high grounds are still naked. We proceeded on
under a fine breeze from the southeast, and after making
eighteen miles encamped on the north near a timbered low
plain, after which we had some rain and the evening was
cold. The hunters killed one deer only.
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