| Summary: | to the Mandan villages. Upon the arrival of the runners the Mandans chose a meeting place about fourteen miles from their villages, where on the 28th, Verendrye arrived and where he met a Mandan chief and thirty men. In his journal Verendrye says: "I had the Mandan chief brought to my hut (tent) and one of his men presented me with Indian corn, on the ear, and tobacco which is not good. Certain authorities claim that two sons of Verendrye, who were with him on the exploration of 1738, made extensive explorations as far west as the present site of Helena, Mont., that they returned in a southwesterly direction until they came to a point in the territory which is now South Dakota. At this point they turned north and again visited the Mandan Indians on the Missouri river near Shell creek in the year 1743. This may be true, but cannot be verified because of inability to secure a copy of their journal, but much light will be thrown on this period (1740 to 1800) when the records of the Hudson Bay company become accessible to the general public. There is no doubt in my mind that the Hudson Bay company traders and the French Canadian voyageurs visited the Mandans during this period. Nothing daunts your French-Canadian voyageur; one of whom, Charles Le Raye, came to this territory in 1802. Charles Le Raye In his journal we find that he visited the Mandan and Grosventre villages at Batteau river (Knife river, Mercer county, North Dakota). Of their agricultural pursuits he says: "The Indians raise corn, beans, melons, pumpkins and tobacco. They carry on at these villages a considerable commerce with these productions; having much more than they want for their own consumption. It is a barter trade with neighboring nations, who never cultivate the ground, for such articles of European goods, as they have procured at the British establishments, at the falls of St. Anthony, or from traders; and also for horses, mules, dried meat, and other articles. Their principal customers are the Sioux, the Chein Indians (Cheyenne), Kites (Crows), Dotaime (Kiowa) the most of whom, except the Sioux reside on the river Chein (Cheyenne.)" Elsewhere he mentions a religious festival which was held annually when the first thunder was heard in the spring; this being the time of testing the seed corn to discover if it would germinate. Le Raye is the first to mention the Knife river; which he explored to its source, the big spring in the Killdeer mountains. In his journal he says, he camped at the forks (near the present site of Beulah) then followed the north fork, (which we call Spring Creek), discovered the "Salt Mountain" (alkali bluffs near Golden Valley) and then followed the fork west to the "Big Spring," and thence west thru the "Bad Lands." He went as far west at the Yellowstone river (Montana) and on his return to these Indian villages learned from the Indians that a large party of soldiers were on their way up the Missouri river. This was undoubtedly the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Lewis and Clark Expedition This expedition was sent out by President Jefferson to explore the northern portion of the Louisiana Territory.' The subjects of this sketch, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, started from St. Louis, Mo., which was then a frontier town, made their way up the Missouri 7 SUTE LIBRARY COtfWiSSIOf* BISMARCK, H. DAK. ' Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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