540 - Lewis and Clark
Interpretive Center 2

Among Jefferson’s general instructions for Lewis and Clark, he emphasized intertribal peace and trade contacts. In order to cultivate peaceful relations and fruitful diplomacy with native peoples, Lewis and Clark exchanged gifts at each ceremonial meeting with a new tribe. The act of reciprocal gift giving symbolized their concern for one another. Neglecting to give gifts meant failure to brighten the chain of friendship, and “to venture up the Missouri without a carefully selected store of goods was to challenge foolishly the river gods.”

Lewis was aware of this tradition and early in 1803 made note of just under $700 to be set aside for gifts and trade goods. Blue glass beads headed his list of most sought after objects, and second on his list were brass buttons, which fur traders told him were “more valued than anything except beads. Red-handled knives, axes, tomahawks, moccasin awls, and camp kettles rounded out Lewis’s catalog of high priorities.

As the fall days of 1804 grew colder and shorter, the Lewis and Clark expedition struggled toward what has been called, “the keystone of the Upper Missouri region” --the Mandan and Hidatsa villages. The American explorers were only the latest in a long series of traders and travelers making the journey to the earth lodge villages along the Missouri. The Mandan and Hidatsa towns were the center of the northern plains trade, attracting Indian and white merchants over vast distances. At trading times, especially during the late summer and early fall, the villages were crowded with Crows, Assiniboins, Cheyennes, Kiowas, Arapahoe, and after the mid-century, with whites representing various trading companies and St. Louis interests. That winter offered Lewis and Clark ample opportunity to utilize their expedition’s diplomatic skill and expand it’s ethnographic boundaries. One way they benefited from each other’s presence was through trade. William Clark journals on December 31st, 1804 writing, “A number of Mandan Indians are here every day. Our blacksmith mending their axes, hoes, etc. for which the women bring corn for payment.”