Following Meriwether Lewis and William Clark – The Corps of Discovery II – Chapter 2: South Dakota and North Dakota

We cross the imaginary line that separates Iowa from South Dakota in our trip that follows the trail of discovery.  Most of the travels of the Corps of Discovery in today’s South Dakota (excepting the hunters) stayed on or near the Missouri River.  A quick look at any recent map will show you that the Missouri River in South Dakota consists of three massive lakes created by three dams.  As such, nearly all of the places visited by the Corps of Discovery have long been inundated by these great lakes.

There are some exceptions.  Spirit Mound or Paha Wakan, is one of them.  Located about 9 miles north of Vermillion, South Dakota, the mound is not all that impressive.  Standing only about 71 feet above the surrounding prairie, it is not anything like the Rocky Mountains that they would later encounter.  The Omaha, Oto and Yankton Sioux tribes believed that the mound was occupied by little people, who would shoot their small arrows into any who had the audacity to trespass.  Apparently, we were okay as we saw no little people.

August 25, 1804 (Clark) . . . from the top of this Mound we beheld a most butifull landscape; Numerous herd of buffalo were Seen feeding in various directions.

While we did not see any buffalo, the view was pleasing of the surrounding prairie and many farms.  We made the arduous climb, actually a nice easy 1 mile walk up the gentle slope of the mound. 

The mound was privately owned until recent years when its historical significance was realized.  A cattle feedlot and various farm buildings were on the east side of the mound.  Because prairie flowers do not thrive in such rich soil left by the feedlot, this side of the mound is still farmed with corn as the crop.  The corn will eventually reduce the nutrient content of the soil, making reintroduction of prairie grasses and flowers more successful.  Wildflowers and grasses do proliferate on the other parts of the mound and surrounding property.

It has been determined that the mound is a bedrock formation shaped by the last glacial period of 13,000 years ago.  On the trail one can see several rocks that have been determined to have been moved to southern South Dakota all the way from northern Minnesota and the area around Winnipeg, Canada.

During our trip, we took several side trips, which I’ll include with the respective state.  In South Dakota, we left the Lewis and Clark trail for a couple of days.    Viborg is a small community in southeast SD.  Its first settlers were Danish, and it still remains predominantly so.  It just happened to be Danish Days in Viborg.  We went and observed the festivities and then retired to the quiet of nearby Swan Lake.

We also spent a day in Sioux Falls, where we stayed with friends and met up with one of Jim’s brothers, who lives there. 

On the way back to the Lewis and Clark Trail, we passed through Mitchell, the home of the world famous Corn Palace.   After harvest, murals made of corn are placed on the outside of the building in various designs.  Jim said he had played basketball in high school in this building.

From there we rejoined the trail at Chamberlain, SD.  Somewhere between present day Vermilion and Chamberlain, the Corps of Discovery met up with the Teton Sioux Indian tribe.  When given the usual song and dance about how the Great White Father in Washington was now the owner of all this land and he had gifts for them if they behaved themselves.  The Sioux reaction was “Say what?  You 50 travelers say you now own this land, no one owns the land, but this is our land and your gifts are pretty chintzy.”  Needless-to-say, the Sioux were not impressed.

September 26, 1804 (Ordway) the chief Sayed he had warriors to and if we were to go on they would follow us and kill [us].

Saw our first evidence of Buffalo at Al’s Oasis in Oacoma, SD when were ordered buffalo burgers for lunch.   Never did see a live buffalo on the whole trip.  I guess we should have visited a zoo along the way.

An excellent cultural center can be found at St. Joseph’s Indian School north of Chamberlain.  I remember that my mother (in Connecticut) would send her dollar donation from time to time to this school.  By coincidence, Elaine’s mother in South Dakota did the same.  Also, two friends of mine taught at this school many years ago.  I believe that these Indian Schools had as their purpose to assimilate the Indians into the white culture.  This has changed over the years.  Today, they celebrate their native culture.  The Akta Lakota Museum and culture center gave us a very good introduction to the Plains Indian culture.  Elaine and Sandy liked the teepee, but as it was 100 degrees outside, we opted to go into the air-conditioned museum.

Indian artwork adorned the walls of the museum.  I really like their use of color.

The displays showed how they lived and what tools etc. they used.  It is laid out to represent the four cardinal directions.  1.  East:  shows how the Plains Indians lived before the advent of the Europeans.  2. South:  first meeting of the cultures – explorers (like Lewis and Clark) traders, missionaries and settlers.  3. West:  how the US government took their lands.  4.  North:  adaptation and the preservation of their heritage and traditions.  Don’t pass this place by if ever in the area. 

The diorama includes some of the props used in the movie “Dances with Wolves.”  They are the partially skinned buffalo and the staked hide.  After the movie was made, its star, Kevin Costner, took a big interest in all things Sioux.  Thanks to you for arranging for these items to be a part of the Cultural Center.

The school is still in operation.  The Catholic chapel is a work of art in itself.  First time we have seen Christ and Mary depicted as Native Americans.  The stained glass windows focus on the school and its history.

South Dakota has named two of its state highways along the Missouri River in honor of Lewis and Clark.  If traveling on the east side of the river, you are on highway 1804 and if on the west side, it is 1806.  We opted on 1806 (I thought 1804 would be better, but was outvoted).  Nice scenery, but the road is not the best and it is easy to miss an intersection that you should follow.  We missed one turn and ended up traveling 10 or more miles and then the road dead ended.  Turned around and found the right road.  We stayed in Pierre (capital of SD) that night and had a nice visit with Elaine’s sister Eileen and husband Bob the next morning.  The picture shows the typical scenery along hwy 1806 (and probably 1804 too).

Pierre and neighboring Fort Pierre have many historic sites to see, as written up in  a previous slutigram (Summer of 2009 – 3 months and 4 trips – see trip #2 for Fort Pierre and Pierre attractions).

Our next state on the quest is North Dakota.  The state held many pleasant surprises for our group.  I had spent very little time in this remote state until this trip and only had seen the Interstate leading to Fargo.  Is the state tree really a telephone pole and the state bird the mosquito?  These myths were shattered during our time in ND.  The mosquito may be the state bird.

Often the Great Plains states are dry and burnt to a golden brown by mid-July, not so in 2014.  All through Nebraska, Iowa, South and North Dakota the land was a lush green.  It seemed like spring in these 4 states.

Lewis and Clark entered what is now North Dakota on October 14, 1804, where they were to spend a total of 212 days (in 1804-5 and on the return trip in 1806), longer than any other state that they crossed on their journey.  Their first night’s campsite, like so many other camps in the Dakotas, is submerged under the waters of Lake Oahe.  On October 20, 1804, they camped near an abandoned Mandan Indian Village, which would later become the location of Fort Abraham Lincoln.

The On-A-Slant village (so named because the site tilts toward the Missouri River) was occupied by the Mandan Indians from c1575 to 1781.  It has been partially reconstructed and served as a good outing to learn about the Mandan culture.  The Mandan’s were a farming tribe and of course went on buffalo hunts.

 

The North Dakota Park Service provides a guided tour of the village.  There were at least 86 earth lodges here when the village was at its best.  The earth lodge provided protection from the harsh winters of the upper plains.  Each lodge held an extended family and also served as storage for their crops in underground caches.

Smallpox epidemics and attacks from other tribes forced the abandonment of this settlement.  They moved to the Knife River area, where they joined the Arikara and Hidatsa tribes, who were also much reduced by the scourge of smallpox.

Jumping past the Lewis and Clark era ... adjoining the Slant Village is the grounds of Fort Abraham Lincoln, established in 1873.  This Fort was the station of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer from 1873 until he rode out on his ill-fated campaign on May 17, 1876.  Once the Fort was decommissioned in 1891, local residents found the Fort’s structures a ready source of lumber and the fort essentially disappeared except for some foundation stones of the buildings.

However, the blueprints for fort Commander Custer’s home had been preserved and a replica of his home and some of the forts other buildings have been reconstructed.  As funds become available, more will be rebuilt.

 

A guided tour of the home is offered, with the guide (Nora) taking on the role of a house maid of the Custer’s in 1875.  While on the porch of the home, the guide is in 2014 and will talk about what is to be seen inside.  She informs us that once inside the door, it is 1875 and she will take on the manners of that age.  She did a great job and injected a lot of humor in her talk inside.  Some of the articles in the home were Col. and Mrs. Custer’s actual possessions in this home.  The guide asked if anyone played the piano.  Since I have been taking lessons for the past 7 years, I indicated that I did.  Nora invited me to sit at the Custer piano and play a tune, which I gladly did.

Some of the other original possessions included a photo of Custer and his friend General Pleasanton, Mrs. Custer’s dresser, her sewing machine and a turkey serving platter.

A little bit more about General George Armstrong Custer.  Custer attained the brevet (temporary) rank of Brigadier General (that is a one star general) during the American Civil War (War Between the States for those south of the Mason Dixon (Dixie) Line).  His academic performance and demerits at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY placed him last in his class.  Yet, he became a general.  He was a very successful general and attained the nickname "Lucky Custer" after he had survived having 11 horses shot out from under him during various engagements.  After 1865, the Army was reduced in size and there were simply too many generals for the size of the Army.  As a result, his rank was reduced to his permanent rank.  In 1873, he was a Lieutenant Colonel, which is 2 ranks below a Brigadier.  The unit under his command was the 7^th cavalry.  We will meet up with Lucky Custer in Montana at a place known as Little Big Horn.

Bismarck is the capitol of North Dakota.    A must see stop is the ND Heritage Center and State Museum, which is on the Capitol Building grounds in Bismarck.  Just outside the entrance to the museum, a statue of an unlikely hero of the expedition stands.  It is of the Shoshone Indian woman known as Little Bird Woman.  This girl was kidnapped by another tribe in her pre-teen years and eventually was traded to a French fur trapper, who made her one of his wives.  She enters the Clark’s diary:

November 4, 1804 [Clark] a French man by Name Chabonah, who speaks the Big Belley language visit us, he wished to hire and informed us his 2 Squars were Snake Indians, we engage him to go with us and take one of his wives to interpret the Snake language.

 

History has come to know her as Sacagawea (or Sakagawea).  She was born c1788 and was about 16 years old when events transpired making her a member of the Corps of Discovery as an interpreter, not a guide, as you may have been taught years ago in American history class.  The circumstances of her death are not known for certain.  Some tales relate that she died in 1812.  Oral tradition of the Indians says that she left Charbonneau and married into the Comanche tribe.  In her final years, she was said to have moved back to her tribal origins with the Shoshone, dying in 1882.  The truth will probably never be known for sure.  I'd like to think that she had a very long life.

Upon entering the Museum, volunteers greet you and handle admission fees.  Apparently, there was to be a big reception later in the day, as two tables were laid out with tasty pieces of chocolate cake.  I joked with the ladies about how nice it was to give us a piece of cake.  Good-heartedly, they told us that they were not for us.  So we went into the exhibit halls, some of which were being remodeled, but we saw quite a bit.  One exhibit hall is about North Dakota before the time of humans.   Geology, dinosaurs, extinction and climate change, the rise of mammals and the Great Ice Age.  Everyone seems to like dinosaurs.  I guess that’s because being extinct we have nothing to fear from them.  When we left, we were told to have at it with the cake - yum yum.  Thank you North Dakota.

ND was home to this critter too, a 50 foot long ancestor of the alligator.  Glad it’s not with us today, although down in Louisiana a 25 foot monster was recently encountered by three good ole boys fishing when they caught more than they could handle.

Things were much bigger way back when.  Take the bison (or buffalo as we call it).  An ancestor of today’s animal was twice as large, at least.  The skull on the right is the animal we know.

North Dakota also had wooly mammoths and mastodons until as recently as 10,000 years ago when they vanished.

The other gallery we explored was about the early peoples of ND, the various Indian tribes, their way of life and dress and their first encounters with the white man, notably the Corps of Discovery and earlier fur trappers and traders.

 

The eagle is a sacred bird to many Indian tribes.  To this day, only Native American Indians are allowed to gather and keep eagle feathers.  This photo shows how they would catch an eagle – no easy thing to do.  A pit would be dug and an Indian would hide in it after it was covered with brush.  A dead rabbit would serve as bait for the carrion-eater.  When the eagle would land to eat the rabbit, the Indian would quickly grab the bird’s feet.  Presto, more eagle feathers would be attained.  Look closely at the picture to see the hand grabbing the feet.  Eyes getting old?  Click to enlarge picture.

The winter of 1804 was one of the coldest and snowiest in North Dakota; which isn’t known for warm weather.  How cold was it?  It started at 40 below zero Fahrenheit and then got colder and colder.  None of the Corps members had ever experienced such cold and without the aid of the Mandan Indians, who provided food in exchange for trade goods and blacksmith services, the venture would most likely have failed then and there. 

December 31, 1804 [Clark] a Number of Indians here every Day  our blck Smith mending their axes hoes &c. for which the Sqars bring corn for payment.

 I temporarily move to 1832-4 when European Prince Maximilian of Austria and Swiss artist, Karl Bodmer, came to explore and paint the Native Americans in their environment.  An exhibit of Bodmer’s work was recently on loan to the Museum of Nebraska Art in Kearney.  His print of “Winter at a Hidatsa village gives an idea of how the Indians survived the frigid North Dakota winter.  Should you wish to see much of Bodmer’s work, the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska has the largest collection of his art.  Due to a recent benefactor, the Joslyn charges no admission to see its many works.

 

There are two sites that focus on the Corps and that winter of 1804-5, one is a Lewis and Clark visitor center at Washburn and the other is a recreation of Fort Mandan, where they wintered from November 1804 to early April of 1805.

The visitor center focus is on the winter of 1804-5 and a collection of native artifacts from just about every one of the 50 or so tribes that they encountered on their journey.  I don’t believe that any artifacts are from the actual Lewis and Clark expedition, but they give a good idea of what was encountered on their journey. The large sculpture  depicts Lewis & Clark in conversation with Chief Shesheke.

Later in the trip, canoes had to be carved out of cedar trees.

Most of the old history textbooks were show the Corps members in buckskins.  Actually, until the cloth wore out, they dressed in their military uniforms.

In the general area of Washburn, a uniform button was found years ago.  According to experts on military dress, this military button would be of the type that was in use in 1804.  So, this button is likely to be from the Lewis and Clark expedition.

 

The actual site of Fort Mandan is unknown.  The wanderings of the Missouri River probably washed it away long ago.  Plans of the Fort were recorded in Clark’s diary.  A reconstructed fort with appropriate replicas of that era is at the site near Washburn by the Missouri River.  The swivel gun, a type of small canon was mounted on the keel boat and was shot in order to impress the natives of the power of their weaponry. 

A park ranger gives a guided tour of the interior of the fort and can answer many of the questions about daily life at the fort.  Pictured are enlisted quarters and the surveying tools used.  Modern measurements have shown that Lewis' calculations were remarkably accurate.

On days when the weather was tolerable, the hunters would accompany the Mandan on Buffalo hunts.

December 7, 1804 [Clark]  Capt Lewis took 15 men & went out joined the Indians …his party killed 14 Buffalow, five of which we got to the fort.

Without the skilled tracking and hunting of the Mandan, it would have been a long hungry winter.  The Mandan also shared their abundant harvest with the Corps.

While at Fort Mandan, Sacajawea gave birth to her son Jean Baptiste Charbonneau.  William Clark took a liking to this boy and in later years acted as his guardian.  Most of his later life he lived with the Mandan and Hidatsa.  Little is known of the circumstances of his death, which some say was in 1843.

February 11, 1805 [Lewis] about five oclock this evening one of the wives of Charbono was delivered of a fine boy.

Oh those balmy North Dakota winters.

December 17, 1804 [Clark] the Thrmt. Stood at 43 degees below 0.

After the long winter, the expedition bade farewell to the keel boat, its crew and a few others.  The keel boat would need deeper water than the upper Missouri could reliably afford.

An hour drive from Fort Mandan is the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site.    The villages are believed to have been in this location since the early 1300s.  Other nearby sites show evidence of occupation going back 11,000 years.  The villages were the home of the Three Affiliated Tribes:  The Arikara, Hidatsa and Mandan.  Lewis and Clark located Fort Mandan nearby, demonstrating how dependent they were on the natives for their success and survival.  One can take the short hike from the visitor center to view the site of some of the sites of the original villages.  As it was over 100 degrees, we opted to learn from the visitor center, as we had already visited the On-A-Slant village south of Bismarck.

 

There is a good movie about the area at the center.  The exhibits focus on village life.  The inside of an earth lodge gives an idea of life in the village.  They were an agricultural society, but also hunted buffalo and other animals for their sustenance.   The translucent bag in the picture is a buffalo urinary bladder.  It made a handy pouch for carrying water or other liquids. 

Our route differed from the Corps of Discovery as we wanted to cover distance with speed, so we took the Interstate to the Montana border.  On the way, a torrential rainstorm welcomed us to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  The rain stopped and so did we, as we were treated with a most exquisite view of the park.  Enlarge the first picture - what beauty.

So ends Chapter 2 of the trip.  Hope you enjoyed it.  On to Montana and Idaho in Chapter 3.