Chapter 6
The Teton Standoff
The mouth of the Bad River, near present-day Pierre, South Dakota
On 25 September 1804, near present-day Pierre, South Dakota, a council with the Lakota, whom the captains called the Teton Sioux, turned into an armed standoff over whether the boats could pass. The chief Black Buffalo stepped in, and after several tense days the Corps went on.
24 September 1804
The Lakota, whom the journals call the Teton Sioux, are the most powerful nation on the middle Missouri. They control the trade on this stretch of the river, and traders coming up from St. Louis have to give them goods to pass. The captains have been warned about them for weeks. Jefferson has told Lewis he especially wants the Lakota as friends.
On 24 September, at the mouth of a river the captains name the Teton (today the Bad River), they meet them. The traders have told Clark who is who. Black Buffalo, the leading chief, is “said to be a good man.” The second chief, whom the French call the Partisan, is “bad.”
25 September 1804
The next day the captains set up an awning on a sandbar and hold a council. It goes badly from the start. They have no good Lakota interpreter, so their long speech barely gets across. They hand out medals and gifts, show off the air gun, and take the chiefs on board the keelboat for a drink.
When Clark takes the chiefs back to shore in a pirogue, three young men grab the rope that ties it to the bank. The Partisan, whom Clark describes as “assumeing Drunkness, as a Cloake for his rascally intentions,” says the gifts are not enough and the boats will not go any further.
The standoff
Clark writes that the Partisan’s “justures were of such a personal nature I felt My Self Compeled to Draw my Sword (and made a Signal to the boat to prepare for action).” On the keelboat, Lewis orders every man to his weapons, and the swivel gun is swung round to face the bank. On shore, Clark sees that “most of the warriers appeared to have ther Bows strung and took out their arrows from the quiver.”
For a long moment the whole expedition is one wrong move away from ending in bloodshed.
Then Black Buffalo takes hold of the rope himself and orders the young men away. Clark, still angry, writes: “I felt My Self warm & Spoke in verry positive terms.” Nobody fires. Slowly, the crowd breaks up.
26–27 September 1804
The next two days are strange. The Lakota invite the captains to their village, and young men carry them into the council lodge on a painted buffalo robe. There is a feast of “the dog which they had been cooking, & Pemitigon & ground potatoe”: dog meat, pemmican made of dried buffalo and fat, and prairie turnips.
At night, around a big fire, about ten musicians beat on drums and shake rattles, and the women dance “with the Scalps and Tropies of war of their fathers Husbands Brothers or near Connections.” Clark learns that the Lakota have just raided an Omaha village. He sees “25 Squars and Boys taken 13 days ago in a battle with the Mahars.” The captains sleep badly, and keep a guard all night.
28 September 1804
When the Corps tries to leave on the 28th, warriors seize the rope again and ask for tobacco. Lewis is angry. Black Buffalo says a small gift will settle it. Clark throws a twist of tobacco onto the bank, the rope is let go, and the boats pull out into the current.
They part as uneasy rivals. For the rest of the journey up the river, the captains think of the Lakota as the people most likely to stop them.