06 - Lewis and Clark Pt. 3 : Sacajawea

Spring of 1803, after the United States acquired the Louisiana Territory, two men set out with a crew of roughly 33 men to see what the country had purchased.  Meriwether Lewis and William Clark would captain a group of hunters, trappers, and would be mountain men on this journey. In the third part of our series on the expedition, Sacagawea has a baby, the Corps fights off hunger and sickness while encountering new native tribes, and push their way further across the country. Let's put one in the air and continue our tale of the Corps of Discovery.

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Lewis and Clark Pt. 1: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568436/episodes/18444526

Lewis and Clark Pt. 2:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568436/episodes/18462525

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Transcript

Wes 0:34

Welcome to the Stone Day Podcast. My name's Wes, and today we'll be talking about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. And this is part three of our Lewis and Clark series. We're getting through it. If you need to catch up, there'll be links below for the first two parts. And when we left the core, Lewis was busy doctoring, and the year 1805 had just begun. Like I mentioned in part two, we're having a baby this episode. And we'll jump right into that right after we light one up. And I did want to mention the disclaimer from the first episode that's still going to apply for this episode and the next. But now we're going to jump into it. And today I'm going to be smoking a strain called Ghost OG. It's from the brand Connected, and I picked it up for my local true leaf. And the grow I got is going to be 25.35% THC. And on the Connected website, it says, like taking a punch from a poltergeist. Ghost OG envelops you in resin pine and petrol, slightly sweet on the pool, then knocking your whim with its cocoa hazelnut XL. A buzzy hybrid of cerebral mystery, perfect for focus, relaxation, and unlocking creative energy. Even the most timid souls will find themselves chasing shadows after a little time with this one, named after the elusive OG who brought it into this world and now connected across California. Alright, it doesn't sound bad. And on All Buds, it says that Ghost OG is a useful marijuana strain that is Indica dominant. Says it's normally like a 70-30 Indica sativa split. Now I bought this as a sativa. It was sold from True Leave as a sativa. And I do know that uh the different kind of terpenes and stuff that they use, it can really change what a wheel you know kind of a strain is supposed to be. I've seen Indica Sour Diesel vapes. I would never buy one. Uh Sour D is always a sativa strain, in my opinion. But I know that they have them and it's just the way that it's grown. So maybe this has grown to lean a little more sativa. Maybe it leans more Indica. But anyway, that's what we're going to be smoking tonight. And uh yeah, if you want to send me an email or leave me a comment, let me know what you're smoking when you listen to the show. Yeah. Definitely tasting that cocoa hazelnut XL. Real uh kind of nutty there. Nutty and chocolatey kinda. It's a nice one.

The Meat

Wes 2:57

Okay, so we're gonna start out February 11th, 1805. Lewis was present at the labor of Sacajawea. Lewis noted her labor was tedious and pain violent. During labor, Lewis worried about her and consulted Jassam, who said that in such cases it was his practice to administer a small portion of rattle from a rattlesnake. According to him, this always worked. And Lewis wrote in his journal that he had broken the rattlesnake into pieces and mixed them in some water, which Sacajouia drank. And Lewis said after not even ten minutes she brought forth. And the baby was a boy named Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, and he was an active and healthy baby. And I believe with this, Toussaint Charbonneau uh was the father, and he had the right to name the boy, and that's why it had this uh weird ass French name and not a native name. And how weird did this just begin, you know? How how how crazy did this story just get? Uh Sacawea had a baby on a party that she was roaming with, mostly people that she didn't know. She knew uh Toussaint Charbonneau more than anyone else, but she was lost to him in a bet. So really she didn't know anyone. She had a baby and she had to continue this journey. And on top of that, she was 16 years old. Pretty fucking wild. Okay, but Charbonneau, the new father, he was coming to have a whole new view of his importance to the party. He knew that Sacagawea was critical to dealing with the Shoshone, and without Charbonneau there would be no Sacagawea. So on March 11th, Charbonneau sat down with the captains and tried to dictate the terms. They told Charbonneau to kick rocks and to move out of the fort, take his family with him, and they hired Mr. Gravelines as their interpreter. After four days of living in the Mandan village, Charbonneau sent a message to the captains. He had come to his senses and was ready to crawl. And then he had an agreement with the captains on their terms. Back in early February, Lewis had noted that the party had run out of meat. But Private John Shields was a skilled blacksmith. He didn't make firearms, but he did make battle axes, and one particular was prized by the natives and easily made. Lewis disapproved of the design, but the natives loved them. After some haggling, a price was set. Seven to eight gallons of corn for each piece of metal. Had the Mandans not been there, or had they had no corn to spare, or had they been hostile, the core discovery may not have survived the first winter. By the end of March, the ice was coming down in chunks, along with drowned buffalo that had been on the ice when it gave away. By 4 p.m., April 7, 1805, the boat, the pirogues, canoes, and the crew were ready to shove off. In the morning, Lewis walked on the shore. He came to a Mandan village and there he paid a farewell visit to Black Cat. On the 15th, eight days out from Fort Mandan, the expedition passed the furthest point upstream on the Missouri, known by Lewis to have been reached by the white men. On April 29th, Lewis and the party hunters brought in their first grizzly. So Lewis was walking on shore with one man when they spotted two grizzlies. Each man fired and hit a bear. One of the bears was wounded, but he had run away, but the other charged Lewis, pursuing him some 80 yards. Fortunately, the bear was wounded enough for Lewis and the private to reload. They shot again and killed it. It weighed roughly 300 pounds. I don't really know my bear sizes that well, but it seems to me like a smaller one, at least not a huge one. On May 5th, Clark and Druilliard killed another grizzly. Lewis recorded he had five balls through his lungs and five others in various parts, and he swam half the distance across the river to a sandbar, and it was at least 20 minutes before he died. A week later the party saw another grizzly swim the river. But he disappeared before an attack could be made on him. Lewis then wrote, I find that the curiosity of our party is pretty well satisfied with the respect of this animal. But that would not be the last time they encountered a grizzly. The first month of travel to the unknown was splendid all around. On April 25th, Lewis decided to walk ahead, knowing the Yellowstone River could not be far, and four men accompanying him, and that evening they made camp on the Yellowstone. The Hadats had told Lewis that the Yellowstone was navigable for pirogues and canoes nearly to its source in the Rocky Mountains, and that at one point it passed within less than a half a day's march of a navigable part of the Missouri. On May 9th, the party made twenty four and a half miles. The buffalo had become so gentle that the men frequently threw sticks and stones at them in order to drive them out of the way. On May 11th, Private William Bratton came running along the bank, shouting and making signs. He explained that he had shot a grizzly, and it had turned on him and pursued him a considerable distance. Lewis ordered the crew of the White Pierogue to join him on an expedition in quest of this monster. They found the trail and pursued him for a mile and shot him in the head twice. Lewis concluded that he would rather fight two Indians than one bear. Three days later there was another battle between the party and a bear. So they creeped up within forty yards of a bear without being spotted. Four men fired simultaneously while two men held their rifles in reserve. All four balls hit the mark, two passing through the lungs, and the bear rose with a roar and launched an immediate counterattack, charging with his mouth open. The two men reserve force fired. One ball hit one muscle, but the other broke the bear's shoulder. This only slowed him down for an instant. The men didn't stay around and the bear pursued them downriver, where two men got away in a canoe while the remainder took hiding places in the willows to reload and fire. They hit the bear several more times, but this only let him know where they were hiding. He chased two men who threw their rifles and pouches and dove into the river, thinking the bear wouldn't go into the water, but he did, and when he was about to reach the swimmers, a soldier on the bank shot him through the fucking head and killed him. The examination afterwards revealed that eight balls had passed through this freaking bear. As that incident took place, the two captives were on shore as Charbonneau was at the helm of the white pirogue when a sudden squall struck and turned her. Charbonneau, instead of putting her bow into the wind, turned with it. The wind drew the brace of the sail out of the hands of the men attending it. Watching from the shore, the captains were in a state of near panic. They fired their rifles to attract the attention of the crew, but they could not hear the shoots or the shouts. Before Charbonau and the crew could recover, the pirogue was filled within an inch of the gunnels. Articles were floating away. Reacting instantly, Lewis dropped his rifle, threw aside his shot pouch, and began tearing off his coat, but the waves were high, the boat was 300 yards away, and the water was excessively cold, and the current was strong. Charbonneau took up the tiller and the boat rided. Crisette put two men to work bailing with kettles, while the two others paddled her towards shore where she arrived scarcely floating. All this time, Sacagawea was calm, collected, and invaluable. While Charbonneau was losing important items belonging to the corps, Sacagawea caught and preserved most of the light articles which were washed overboard. And I believe a lot of the stuff, like even like the notes that we have, the journals that we have, and some stuff that we don't have, uh like we mentioned Daniel Boone. Maybe they did mint Daniel Boone, but one of these situations uh where the boat flipped over. And this is this is one of the worst ones. This is one of the ones they kind of mention the most. But there gets to be like several times uh where boats or canoes flip over and they lose shit. They lose a little shit. Um, you know, there are times that they're, you know, during the portage, I believe uh some shit happens. They get into some like mountain areas where shit falls down. So it's hard to make this trip. I think it was like 8,000 miles they ended up going, and that may have been one way. Uh I know it sounds impossible, but they weren't going a straight line. They were going like, I don't I don't even know. I haven't really looked at their uh the map that they traveled, but I know people do it. Uh I think there's a group of people, I don't know if they do it annually, but there are a group of people that meet up together and do the whole fucking trip. Okay, so on the afternoon of May 26th, Lewis climbed the surrounding bluffs and was able to see the Rocky Mountains for the first time. The sight brought joy to his heart, but with the never-ending snow covered mountains, it also brought on dismay. I bet. On the 31st of May, there was another scare with an overturned pirogue. Yep, see what I'm talking about? And the crew barely kept it from overturning near the White Cliffs area. When they made it through, the captains gave the men a dram of alcohol to celebrate. On June 1st, Lewis and his men were looking for elk so they could cover the iron frame boat they had been carrying the last two years. The party collected six elk, two buffalo, two mule deer, and a bear. On June 3rd, the party came to an unknown fork and set up camp, and they had to determine which of the routes was the correct way. So far, the Hadatza had been correct about the river, but they said nothing about the river coming from the north. The captain sent Sergeant Pryor up the north fork the scout and Sergeant Gass up the South Fork, or down the South Fork, I guess. The next morning, Lewis set off with Sergeant Pryor and a few other men. After a few days, Lewis determined that the branch in the Missouri had its direction too much to the north for a route to the Pacific. In passing along the face of the bluff, Private Windsor slipped and was holding on to the side of a ninety foot bluff. His dangerous situation frightened Lewis considerably, but although alarmed, Lewis managed to speak calmly. He assured Windsor that he was in no danger, then told him to take the knife out of his belt and with his right hand and dig a hole with it in the face of the bluff for his right foot. Windsor did as he was instructed, and with his foot in the hole was able to raise himself to his knees. Lewis told him to take off his moccasins and crawl forward on his hands and knees and take care to hold the knife in one hand and his rifle in the other. And now with all that they went back to the party. The other men of the party were fully persuaded that the river was the Missouri. But Lewis was so certain that it wasn't, he named this Maria's River after his cousin Maria Wood. And I believe they refer to this today as Maria's River, but it's actually Maria's River, or it was intended to be in the first place. And the captains conferred that both agreed that the South Fork was the true Missouri. And though this wasn't believed by the rest of the crew, even Sacagawea didn't believe this. And despite the crew's opinion on the matter, the captains would not change their minds, nor leave it to a vote. South was the way they would travel, and once the decision was final, they heard no more talk of disagreement from the rest of the party. The captains determined to leave the red progue hidden and secure it on the island at the fork. They also decided to leave much of the heavy baggage behind as well, buried to lighten the load and have supplies available on the return trip. They buried the blacksmith's bellows and tools, beaver belts, bearskins, some axes, an auger, some files, two kegs of parched corn, two kegs of pork, a keg of salt, some chisels, some tin cups, two rifles and the beaver traps. They buried all that shit. And they also buried 24 pounds of powder and leg kegs. And I do believe they even buried the boat. I don't know, it said cache or cash C-A-C-H-E. I'm not sure exactly how to say that. But if my boss told me I had to bury a boat, I would say, uh, I quit. The next day, June 10th, Lewis selected Druyard, Private Silas Goodrich, George Gibson, and Joseph Field to go with him overland as Clark would travel on the white pirogue in six canoes with the rest of the party. The next two nights, Lewis suffered an attack of dysentery. Ugh. Nevertheless, at 8 a.m. he set forward with his small party. He was certain he would discover the Great Falls mentioned to him by the Mandan and the Hadatsa. The other three were certain he would not find them. They had covered some nine miles when they shot an elk. Later that evening, Lewis became in such violent pain in his intestines that he was unable to eat. The pain increased and was accompanied by a high fever. Lewis could not go on. He had the men gather some of the small twigs of the cherry choke, strip them of their leaves, cut them into pieces about two inches long, and boiled them in water. And quote, a strong doctrine of astringent bitter taste was produced. He took a pint of this at sunset. An hour later he forced down another pint. Within a half hour of that he had recorded he was entirely relieved from pain, and every symptom of this disorder abandoned him. Made some magic shit there. At sunrise, Lewis rose feeling much revived. He took another drink of the medicine the Mib made him, and he made twenty seven miles, and the small party killed two bears. Lewis climbed to a height of land from which he could finally view the Rocky Mountains, which were perfectly covered in snow. And this is somewhere around June 11th, maybe or the twelfth. Perfectly covered in snow. What the fuck? And June 13th was an even better day. Lewis climbed to another height in the plains as he and the men were making their way towards the river looking for game, and he began to hear tremendous roarings of water. This could be nothing else but the Great Falls of the Missouri. Druid and the privates met him later with plenty of buffalo meat and Goodrich caught some trout, and this was unknown to science at the time, described by Lewis, delicious to eat. And the following morning, the 14th, Lewis sent Private Field with a letter to Clark, telling him about the discovery of the falls. He sent the rest of the party out to work on drying the meat, and then he took his gun and went for a walk to explore and describe the falls in great detail. On his walk, he passed the biggest buffalo herd he ever saw, and he shot a fat buffalo through the lungs but forgot to reload his rifle, and behind him a grizzly had crept within twenty steps from Lewis, making him now the hunted. Seeing the bear, he brought his rifle up but instantly realized it wasn't loaded. Lewis took off running about eighty yards to the river, thinking that if he could get waist deep in water, the bear would decide to not swim. And when he got waist deep in water, he turned and the bear suddenly wheeled about and declined combat. I guess he just didn't want to deal with it that day. And by June 15th, he was just below Clark in the camp writing about the previous days in his journal. In a week the days would start getting shorter and he could only see the tremendous mountains that lay ahead. By 2 p.m. on June 16th, Lewis rejoined the party and found Sacagawea was ill and had been for almost a week. Clark had tried to bleed her, but this did not work. And did this ever work? I know you read about that or you see that in old timey movies or whatever, but what was one time, literally one time somebody was bled and it kept them alive? I mean, I haven't Googled it. Maybe I should have. Maybe there are some reasons that you just bad blood. I I know I've heard that before, but is this a real thing? Is there such a thing as bad blood? I guess you could have the wrong blood, but that would be by having the wrong blood put inside never mind, I'm getting off subject here. She had a high fever, Saca Julia did, and a scarcely perceptible pulse, irregular breathing and an alarming twitching in her fingers and arms. His therapy was two doses of box and opium, which soon improved her pulse. Lewis recalled a sulfur spring on the opposite bank of the river, and he sent a man to bring him some, and Sacajeuia drank it. That evening he was delighted to see her progress improve. Her pulse had become regular and the twitching had abated a great deal. The next morning Saca Julia was free of pain, clear of fever, with a regular pulse and a healthy appetite. The captains later decided that Clark would oversee the portage while Lewis would go to the termination point, a group of islands that Clark had named White Bear Islands for the presence of so many grizzlies. Oh jeez. Where Lewis would oversee the preparation of his iron frame boat. The portage began shortly after sunrise on June 22nd, 1805. All the enlisted men, save for two left behind to guard the baggage, joined the captains in moving the canoe over the plains. Lewis stayed at the White Bear Island camp while Clark supervised the portage. I do believe Clark had the shittier job here. I know it was 1805 and it wasn't that great anywhere, but at least Lewis, you know, didn't have to move all the shit through the mountains. And this was the most difficult undertaking of the expedition, the portage. They were assaulted by hill as big as apples, by mosquitoes, by hot sun and cold rain. By June 30th, the iron frame was put together, and the skins had been prepared. Meanwhile, the portage was within two days of completion. By this point, Lewis had given up on the idea of reaching the Pacific and making it back to the Mandans by winter. Around this time they also had decided against the original plan of sending three men back to St. Louis carrying specimens, artifacts, journals, and shit. They had decided instead to keep the party full in strength and keep every rifle they could. Lewis spent nearly two weeks trying to get his iron frame boat afloat, with no avail. No matter what they did, they could not get this sucker to float. The failure of the boat left the expedition short of carrying capacity. Clark then decided to look for trees that he could make into canoes. He found sufficient trees and it took five days to hollow them out and prepare them for the journey. By july fourteenth, everything was ready. With two large and six small canoes, the expedition set out for the mountains. If the Hadatza were right, the river would go up the Continental Divide where Lewis and Clark could meet the Shoshone and where a half day's portage could take them into the Columbia River. On july nineteenth, eighteen oh five, Lewis decided to go ahead of the party on land so he could make celestial observations at the place where the river came out of the mountains. Around 10 AM he saw a column of smoke coming out of the creek drainage some seven miles west, big enough to be deliberately set. It had to be done by the natives, more than likely the Shoshone. Meanwhile, Clark and the rest of the expedition were often in the water pulling the canoes along with feet slipping and getting cut on rocks. And you see what I'm saying? Clark definitely had the worst jobs job here. I think Lewis's biggest problem after finding out his boat wouldn't work is kind of boredom waiting on Clark to get there. Clark was like working his ass off the whole time, and the whole group that was with him. Finally towards the evening of July 22nd, Sacagoia recognized the section of the river they were in. It was the river in which the Shoshone lived in the summer. By 4 PM, the men had met Lewis, who had made a camp, and he had found no natives, although he had seen signs, and he had left some presents, clothes and linen for them. But Clark was not in the greatest of conditions. Specifically his feet, they were raw, bleeding, and torn apart by prickly pears. He wrote, I opened bruises and blisters on my feet, which caused them to be. Be painful. He spent the day resting and waiting on Clark in the canoes. And the next morning Clark set out again for the natives. He was out for a few days with no findings of native signs, but he did come back feeling extremely sick. He told Lewis he had been sick all night with a high fever, frequent chills, and constant muscle pains. Sounds like this dude had COVID. Clark then took five of Rush's pills, I'm guessed shit quite a bit. And while Clark was out looking for natives, he came upon a section where the Gallatin, Jefferson, and Madison Rivers converged to form the Missouri River. They called it the Three Forks. The expedition spent two days at the Three Forks. The men were making clothes and hunting. Clark was recuperating, and Lewis made some celestial observations. Sacagawea informed them they were staying at the exact spot where the Shoshone had camped five years earlier when a raiding party of Hadatsas found them. The Shoshone retreated, but the Hadatsas found them, and they killed four men, four women, and a number of boys, and made prisoners of four boys and the remaining women, and this included Sacagawea. Over the next week, Lewis and Druyard, with a small party of men, marched ahead of the canoe searching for natives. By August 7th, they had exhausted enough supplies to lose a canoe, so they hid it in a thicket of brush, and by this point the core discovery was becoming a walking hospital. Clark had developed a tumor on his ankle, which was swollen and inflamed and gave him considerable pain. Sergeant Glass, Charbonneau, and four or five of the enlisted men had various medical issues as well, and the men were beat and exhausted. But that evening, Sacagawea had noticed a point in the high plane. She said the Shoshone's called it beaverhead, because it looked like the face of a smiling beaver, like it had a little smirk on his face. And she said the Shoshoneis had like a little joke that they had between them that the smirk was because he was getting a blowjob, and that's why they call it beaverhead. No. They said it was because it resembled the shape of a head of a swimming beaver, and the captains decided to send out an overland party that would stay out until it located the natives. Clark wanted to lead the party, but his ankle tumor wouldn't allow it. On August 11th, Driller Shields, McNeil and Lewis, would march abreast for five miles. As they marched, Lewis took out his telescope and for sure saw a native on horseback, about two miles ahead coming down the plain towards him. His dress was Shoshone, and he was probably a teenager out on a scowl. Lewis spread out a pitiful supply of trading goods he had brought, left his rifle and pouch with McNeil, and advanced towards the native. The native sat on his horse and watched until Lewis was within two hundred yards, then he turned his horse and rode away slowly. Lewis was convinced it was Shields, who had never stopped advancing that caused the native to avoid them. In August 12th, Lewis and the men made it to the top of the pass and became the first Americans to look on Idaho and the great Northwestern Empire. This is where he saw the immense ranges of high mountains with the tops partially covered in snow. In August. No one knows exactly how happy or terrified he was about crossing the Rocky Mountains, but at this point he must have been somewhat crushed, and hopes for an easy portage to a major branch of the Columbia also seemed highly unlikely. By August 13th, Lewis and his men came upon an elderly Shoshone woman and a child. At first sight, Lewis laid down his rifle and advanced towards them. Lewis took the woman by the hand and raised her up and rolled up his sleeves to show his white skin. Druyard and the privates joined them. They gave the woman some beads, a few moccasinals, a few mirrors, and some paint. There was a team with them that ran off when the men were approaching, and Druard through sign asked the woman to call the teen girl back, and she did. Through Druyard's sign they asked to see their camp, and they were anxious to meet with the chiefs and warriors of the nation. The natives did as requested. About two miles later, sixty Shoshone warriors mounted and armed for war came on at full speed, and when they saw the small party they stopped. This was the first time Americans had seen a Shoshone war party. Lewis laid down his rifle, picked up his flag, and told the party to stay in place while he followed the woman. A man Lewis assumed was a chief, rode up to the woman and spoke to her. She told him the white men had presents and had given her some. This broke the tensions and the chief and warriors dismounted. Chief then put his left arm over Lewis' right shoulder and applied his left cheek to Lewis' right cheek. Lewis then brought out a pipe and smoked with the warriors, and that's how you do it. After smoking, he distributed some presents which the Shoshone were pleased with. He learned the chief's name was Kamiyawaite, and told him they would explain the expedition after they reached Kamiyawaite's camp, and Kamiyawaite spoke to his warriors and soon Lewis's small party set out for the main camp. When they reached the camp, modern Tindoy, Idaho, I'm not sure if I said that right, but it is in Idaho, Lewis was ushered into an old leather teepee. Through Druard's sign, they explained the expedition. Lewis and Druard left believing their point had come across well enough. Afterwards, Camille Waite gave the men some cakes of service berries and choked cherries, whatever that is. Also, through sign, Camille Waite more or less confirmed that there was no all water route to the Pacific. That night the Shoshone entertained the men with a dance. Clark, back on the Jefferson, was making only four or five miles a day due to the shallow, boulder covered river bottom, which was not much more than a large creek. Back at the Shoshone camp, Camille Waite was informing Lewis all he knew about the Rockies, and about the Nez Perce, a major tribe west of the Rockies who crossed to the Missouri River to hunt buffalo each year, and about a river that ran a great way towards the setting sun and finally lost itself in the great lake of water. This was the first time a white man had a map to connect the Great Rivers to the Western Empire. Lewis said that he had already induced the Hidatsis to promise they would no longer raid against the Shoshone, and that when the expedition returned to the United States, quote, white men would come to them with an abundance of guns and every other article necessary for their defense and comfort. Yeah, I'm not sure how true that was. Lewis told Camilla Waite that he wanted a band to cross the Limit Pass with him to meet Clark and the main party at the forks of the Jefferson, and Camilla Waite agreed. Lewis was overjoyed and went to his teepee in a happy mood, and the natives danced until midnight. The following morning, after breakfast, Camilla Waite spoke to his men about going with Lewis to meet his party, and six warriors mounted their horses to go along. Later six more warriors and three women joined. They crossed the Limi Pass and descended to Shoshone Cove where they camped on the creek. The next morning, august sixteenth, eighteen oh five, Lewis sent Druilliard and Shields out to kill some meat, and asked Kamiyawite to keep his young men in camp as to not scare the game, and this reawakened suspicions of the Shoshone. They feared the white men were trying to make contact with the Blackfeet, so two parties of warriors set out to spy on Druyard and Shields, and Druyard killed three deer. Lewis kept some for his men and gave the rest to Kamiyawaite. As the party approached the forks, Kamiyawaite insisted on halting. Lewis realized the chief's suspicions were still pretty strong, so he took off his cocktail and put it on Kamiya Wait, then his men did the same. He gave another warrior a flag to carry, and when they arrived at the forks, Clark had not yet made it. This was even worse for the natives' suspicions. Desperate, Lewis gave Camillawaite his rifle and told him that if the Blackfeet were around he could use it to defend himself. Lewis had his men give up their rifles too, and that seemed to inspire them with more confidence. Lewis told Camillawaite that in the morning he would send Druyard ahead to meet Clark, and proposed that a warrior accompany Druyard to see the truth of his words. Lewis Shields and McNeil will remain with the main Shoshone party. The following morning around 9 AM, a native had returned and reported that the white men were coming. Shortly thereafter, Clark arrived, accompanied by Charbonneau and Sacagawea. One of the Shoshone women recognized Sacagawea from the day she was taken prisoner. Lewis had a camp set up just below the forks, and at 4 PM he had called for conference. He decided to use a pretty fucked up translation chain that ran from Sacagawea speaking Shoshone and translating it to Hadatsa to Charbonau, who translated that to French to Private Francis Le Bic, who translated that into English. After they began the process, Sacagewea realized that Kamiya Wait was her freaking brother. She jumped up and embraced him, crying profusely, and when she recovered herself, the council began. They explained in the process of making it appear that the number one object was to help the Shoshone by finding a more direct way to bring arms to them, while in the process making them sensible to the dependence on the will of the United States government. This could not be accomplished without Shoshone horses, or without a guide to take them over the Nez Perce Trail. Kamiyawaite quote, declared his wish to serve us in every respect. He would return to his village in the morning and encourage his band to come and help. The captains gave Kamiyawaite a medal, with Jefferson's likeness on one side, clasping hands of a native and a white man on the other side, and gave smaller medals with George Washington on them to two inferior chiefs. Next they presented Camille Waite with a uniform coat, a pair of scarlet leggings, and some tobacco. The lesser chiefs got a shirt, leggings, a handkerchief, a knife, and some tobacco. I do wonder what these leggings are all about. I'm picturing yoga pants, but I'm sure it was very different. The captains distributed paint, awes, knives, beads, mirrors, and other items to the remaining natives. Lewis then shot off his air gun, adding to the joyous mood. The hunters brought in four deer and a prong horn. On August twenty fifth, Charbonot explained that Sakagawea had overheard Kamiyawaite say to some of his young men to tell the band to meet him the next day, so the reunited band could go to the Missouri River. That would not be good for Lewis and his men. Lewis then called Kamiya Waite and the two lesser chiefs for a smoke. He directed the chiefs to send a young man over the pass to the village to tell the people to stay where they were until Lewis, Kamiyawaite, and the others arrived. The two lesser chiefs spoke up. They wanted to help, and it was Camillawaite who had instructed the band to cross the Missouri side of the divide. Camillawaite remained silent for a time, and he told Lewis that he knew he was wrong, but his people were starving and Buffalo Country wasn't far away, but he had given his word, and Lewis shamed him into keeping it. Clark had left about a week earlier ahead of the party to determine if the Salmon River was navigable or if they had to portage. That evening, on the twenty fifth of August, Lewis and the men made a camp in the Limme River where Clark had been, and Private John Coulter was there with a letter from Clark in which he described the Salmon River route was impassable. Lewis told Kamiyaway he wished to purchase twenty additional horses. The next morning the natives were ready to sell, but the captains discovered that the price had gone up considerably. Clark later found out that Lewis had offered his pistol, a knife, and 100 rounds of ammunition for one friggin' horse. Eventually they bought 29 horses, but they were the cast offs of the herd. The party set out on early September 1st to today's North Fork on the Salmon River following the Shoshone guide they called Old Toby. They were headed towards the Continental Divide in rough, seldom traveled mountainous country with no native trails or sign of human existence. September 3rd it started to snow. There was no game on the mountains, and the party had consumed the last of their salt pork, but they had made it to the divide, which they had followed for some miles along the present Idaho-Montana border before descending into the Bitterroot Valley west of the divide. There was a hard freeze overnight. The next day the party descended to the north flowing river that Lewis named Clark River, today's Bitterroot River. At today's Ross's hold, the expedition encountered a band from the Salish tribe around 400 people strong. The Salish were friendly. They were on their way to meet Kamiowate's people at the Three Forks. There was at the time a theory that there was a lost tribe of Welsh in North America, and Jefferson believed this and had instructed Lewis to look for this tribe. Lewis made a vocabulary of the Salish, thinking they might be this lost tribe, but alas they were not the lost Welsh tribe. The Salish would be thought of by the party as one of the nicest and honest tribes, and they were also generous. They shared their berries and roots. They traded horses at much better prices than the Shoshone, so the captains bought thirteen of them, and they were kind enough to exchange seven of their well kept horses for seven of the rundown Shoshone horses. The expedition had now around thirty-nine horses, three colts, and a mule. And we'll leave the party here with the Salish. The corps covered a lot of ground through ups and downs, but they're pushing forward, determined to complete what no American has yet completed, and with the newborn nonetheless. Join us again in two weeks when we finish the long track to the Pacific for the last episode in our Lewis and Clark series. And thanks for tuning in. If you have something to say or a good subject to explore, leave a comment or send an email to stonedatepod at gmail.com. 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