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Historical Background

Stopoff at the Arikara villages

Such proved to be the case at the Arikara, or Ree, villages, in north central South Dakota, visited between October 8 and 12. [73] About 600 men and their families resided in a cluster of villages located just above the mouth of the Grand River along the Missouri. The lower village was situated in the center near the west, or south, side of a 3-mile-long island, whose lower end was 3 miles north of the Grand; the other two villages, about 2-1/2 to 3 miles above the upper end of the island, were on the north bank only one-half mile apart.

The Arikaras lived in pole-and-brush framed octagonal earth-lodges with dome-shaped roofs. Basically an agricultural people, they cultivated extensive fields of corn, beans, tobacco, squash, and melons—a trade lure to other Plains tribes from several hundred miles around. As a matter of fact, at the time of the Lewis and Clark visit, some Cheyennes were at the villages. The Tetons, the nearest tribe downstream, persistently intimidated and pretty much dominated the Arikaras, who from time to time fought with their other neighbors. They were then warring with the Mandans, and one of the chiefs was to accompany the expedition to the Mandan villages in the hope that Lewis and Clark could arrange a peace.

Clark was surprised to find that the Arikaras, unlike the other tribes, had no thirst for whisky. But, as a result of their liberal sex practices and their numerous contacts with traders, venereal disease was rampant. From two of Régis Loisel's resident employees—Pierre Antoine Tabeau and Joseph Gravelines—Lewis and Clark learned much about the surrounding country and its tribes. Lewis, seeing that Gravelines would be useful, hired him as an interpreter, and he later went along with the expedition to the Mandan villages. The councils with the Arikara leaders went smoothly. They seemed pleased with their gifts and expressed amazement at the air gun.

While the captains counciled, their command took advantage of the respite from the wearying journey upriver and the recent tension with the Tetons. Particularly diverting were the Arikara women. The giant York was tremendously popular with men, women, and children alike. Because they had never seen a black man, they excitedly flocked around him and examined him carefully from head to toe. Tongue in cheek, he told them he had been a wild animal until his master caught and tamed him. To "verify" his story, he displayed his unusual strength and roared at the children, who would flee screaming. Clark, fearing York was carrying his teasing too far, said he "made himself more turribal than we wished him to doe."

Another disciplinary problem

On October 13, the day after setting out from the Arikara villages, the captains were confronted with another disciplinary problem. A court-martial found John Newman guilty of "criminal and mutinous expressions" and sentenced him to 75 lashes and dismissal. [74] On a sandbar the next noon, he felt the slash of the whip—the last corporal punishment inflicted during the expedition. The Arikara chief accompanying the party cried aloud and explained his tribe never whipped anyone, even children. He said a man might be killed but never lashed, the worst possible disgrace. Until Newman could be returned to St. Louis, he was attached as a laboring hand to the red pirogue, occupied by the French boatmen, and stripped of his arms and equipment.

Winter's portents

By this time, almost into present North Dakota, Lewis and Clark were eager to reach the Mandan villages and set up winter quarters. During the past month, on some days biting fall winds had been sweeping out of the north. Dense masses of gray clouds often moved overhead. Many of the nights were frigid, and frost painted the ground white. The men bundled themselves in heavier clothes.

Signs of the approach of the villages, too, soon became apparent. Near the mouth of the Cannonball River, 4 days after Newman's lashing, the party met two of Gravelines' trappers descending the river in a pirogue. They reported that the Mandans had stolen their traps. Lewis and Clark persuaded them to turn back with the expedition by promising help in obtaining redress.

Two nights later, on October 20, a stop was made just above the site of later Fort Abraham Lincoln, a few miles south of and across the river from present Bismarck, N. Dak. Above and below that camp, mostly on the west side of the river, a number of deserted Mandan villages were noted. The Sioux had forced their occupants to move northwestward. Mandan and Minitari hunting parties began to be encountered. On October 21 the first snow fell.

Sites of the most northerly two of the three Arikara villages that Lewis and Clark stopped at. By the time this photograph was taken, before Oahe Reservoir inundated the locale, the river channel had shifted some distance to the east. (Preston Holder, University of Nebraska.)

Arrival at the Mandan villages

On October 26, 1804, roughly 60 miles upstream from the site of Bismarck near the junction of the Knife and Missouri Rivers—1,600 miles from Camp Wood according to the leaders' estimates—they arrived at the relocated Mandan villages. There they were to build a fort to endure the icy blasts of winter on the northern Plains before they could set out westward.

The so-called "Mandan villages," five in number, were actually occupied by Minitaris and Amahamis as well as the Mandans. These three groups lived harmoniously together; joined forces against their principal enemy, the Sioux; and traded their agricultural products with other tribes in the region. The Minitaris, also known as "Minitaris of the South," Gros Ventres ("Big Bellies") of the Missouri, and later as Hidatsas, were close kin of the Crows, but had stayed behind when the latter emigrated westward. The Mandans lived in the lower two villages, along the Missouri south of the mouth of the Knife; the Amahamis, protected and absorbed by the ethnically related Minitaris, in the center one, at the mouth of the Knife; and the Minitaris in the upper two, farther up that river.

Lewis and Clark estimated that the population of the five villages, located within an 8 by 2 mile rectangle, totaled 4,400. About 1,400 of these were adult males, 700 Mandans, 650 Minitaris, and 50 Amahamis. This was clearly the largest concentration of Indian population on the Missouri River and probably in the upper Great Plains area. Rather well armed with white men's weapons and ammunition, the three tribes still were able to hold their own against the Teton Sioux, who had pressed far enough upriver by this time to harass them continually.

The Minitaris, Mandans, and Amahamis were agriculturists-hunters. They raised large quantities of corn, beans, squash, tobacco, and sunflowers; and hunted buffalo and other game on the surrounding plains. The Mandans specialized in raising crops; the Minitaris, in hunting. The latter, whose hunting and war parties ranged far to the west, also were less friendly than the other two groups and aroused some mistrust on the part of Lewis and Clark. The five villages, consisting of large, round, domed earthlodge houses, most accommodating several families, were surrounded by picket enclosures.