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Extend the Hand of Peace

By: Phil Scriver, LC200 Historian

Keep your eyes open for any movement and your ears keen to any sounds! The next few days will decide if the Corps of Discovery will succeed where most other journeys up this river have failed! These could very well have been the admonitions Captain Lewis and Captain Clark gave their men on September 20, 1804 as they entered the Big Bend of the Missouri River.

Although traders had been working the Missouri River as far upstream as the Mandan and Hidatsa Villages, in present day North Dakota, for the last dozen years, very few reached that area by traveling up the river from St. Louis; most traders using that route were stopped or had their trade stock measurably reduced by the Teton Sioux who lived in the area between the Big Bend and the Cheyenne River. Those who traded with the Mandans and Hidatsa mainly, French Canadians and British, came overland from Detroit.

The Captains knew these details, but were determined to successfully traverse the entire course of the Missouri River and find its headwaters which lay in the mountains to the west. They had to pass through the area of the Teton Sioux.

On the third day into the Teton country, three Indian messengers flagged down the Expedition and gave them the information that a large band of Tetons were camped on the next river up and a second band was just a little farther upriver from the first. This was good news insofar as the Tetons had been located, but the Captains probably hoped for much fewer in numbers. Without letting any doubts show, the Captains sent the messengers back with a request for a council in two days at the mouth of the next river. Lewis named the river the Teton after those Indians; today it is known as the Bad River.

The Expedition arrived at the Bad River on September 24th camping near present day Fort Pierre. The next morning he raised the American flag and set up a large awning on a sandbar in the mouth of the Bad River. Here he would council with the Teton Sioux.

For the next four days the drama of “prairie diplomacy” played out as the three main Chiefs and the two Captains negotiated, gave presents, took harsh stands, threatened armed conflict, entertained and otherwise tried to get what they wanted. The Captains worked for unimpeded passage up the river while the Tetons worked to exact the largest payment possible from these strange travelers. On two occasions warriors seized the anchor rope of the boat to prevent its movement; both times they were met with equally determined shows of force on the part of the Expedition. Force by either side was not the answer.

Eventually the Captains’ will won out over the Tetons whose Chiefs could not totally agree among themselves. They did not quite know how to deal with such determination since past traders had always given in to their demands. One Chief wanted reconciliation and would be satisfied with little more than token payment while another favored seizing the entire load of supplies and refusing passage. The third was silent as the Expedition bluffed its way through the impasse and continued upriver having paid little.

Groups of Indians followed along on either shore for the next two days making several attempts at further talks, but the Captains read through the façade and recognized the real intent. On the evening of September 30, 1804 the Expedition reached the Cheyenne River and, much to the relief of every member of the Expedition, passed out of the Teton Sioux lands. They had successfully met the first hazardous and potentially violent encounter with the Indians of the Missouri River.

Undoubtedly the Captains carefully reviewed this episode in detail during their days wintering at Fort Mandan and gleaned any lessons to be learned. Most Indians encountered on the remainder of the trip to the Pacific and back were peaceable except for the area from The Dalles to Celio Falls on the Columbia River during the return trip in 1806.

How much of the peacefulness was due to the lessons learned during the episode with the Teton Sioux at Bad River?

Pierre History
Traveling the Lewis And Clark Trail: Pierre