CHAPTER VIII
THE FIRST BLOODSHED
When Lewis and Clark returned down the Missouri, they induced Big White, a chief of the Mandan tribe, with his wife and children, to accompany them to Washington. René Jesseaume, a Frenchman
A Mandan Chief
long known on the frontier, and his Mandan wife went along as interpreters. These Indians were taken to Washington, where the appearance of Big White created a great sensation. He was an extraordinarily large man, nearly seven feet high, and as white as an albino. He was received by President Jefferson and made much of by Washington society.
In the spring of 1807 Big White was to return to his people, and Lewis and Clark had pledged the faith of the United States government that he should have safe conduct to his home. Captain Clark came back to St. Louis with him, and there fitted out an expedition under the command of Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor, who had been a prominent member of the exploring party. Pryor had in his command two noncommissioned officers and eleven soldiers. Pierre Chouteau, Sr., with a trading party of thirty-two men, bound for trade on the head waters of the Missouri, also accompanied the expedition. Earlier in the season Manuel Lisa, a well-known Spanish trader of that day, had gone up the river with a party of traders and their supplies.
Pryor and his party left St. Louis in May, 1807. Proceeding prosperously, although slowly, and passing all of the lower Sioux bands in safety, they reached the lower of the two Ree villages at Grand River on the morning of September 9. The Rees fired several guns in the direction of the boats. Pierre Dorion, who accompanied the expedition as interpreter, asked what they wanted. The Indians replied by inviting the party ashore to obtain a supply of provisions. The kind treatment Lewis and Clark had received from the Rees the year before threw the party off their guard, and the boats were ordered to land.
At the Ree village it was learned that the Rees and Mandans were at war with each other and that several of the Teton Sioux bands were joined with the Rees and were present in the village. A Mandan woman who had been captive among the Rees for several years came on board one of the boats and gave the whites some important information. She said that Lisa had passed up a few days before and when he found that the Rees intended to stop him, he told them that a large party of whites, with the Mandan chief, would soon arrive; and after giving them a large part of his goods, including some guns, he was allowed to go on. The Rees made up their minds to kill Lisa upon his return, but let him pass for the present for fear rumors of their acts and intentions might reach the parties below and cause them to turn back. She warned the white men that the Rees were bent on mischief.
Sergeant Pryor at once ordered Big White to barricade himself in his cabin, and prepared his men for action. After a good deal of parleying and speechmaking, Pryor explained the purpose of his journey, and after making some presents he was allowed to go on to the upper village.
The two interpreters, Dorion and Jesseaume, went by land through the villages, and they learned that the Indians clearly had evil intentions. The Indians ordered the boats to proceed up a narrow channel near the shore, but the whites discovered the trap in time and refused to comply. The Rees now openly declared that they intended to detain the boats, saying that Lisa had promised them that Pryor's party would remain and trade with them. They seized the cable of Chouteau's boat and ordered Pryor to go on. This Pryor refused to do, but seeing the desperate state of affairs, he urged Chouteau to make some concessions to them. Chouteau offered to leave a trader and half of the goods with them, but the Indians, feeling sure that they could capture the whole of the outfit, refused the offer.
The chief of the upper village now came on Pryor's boat and demanded that Big White go on shore with him. With great insolence he demanded a surrender of all arms and ammunition. The chief, to whom a medal had been given, threw it on the ground, and one of Chouteau's men was struck down with a gun. Raising a general war whoop, the Rees fired on the boats and on Chouteau and a few of his men who were on shore, and then withdrew to a fringe of willows along the bank, some fifty yards back. The willows were more of a concealment than a protection, and Pryor replied with the fire of his entire force. The contest was maintained for fifteen minutes, but the number of Indians was so great that Pryor ordered a retreat.
To retreat was a very hard thing to do, for Chouteau's barge had stuck fast on a bar and the men were compelled to wade in the water and drag it for some distance, all the while under the fire of the Indians. At length the boats were gotten off and floated down the current, the Indians following along the bank. It was not until sunset that the pursuit was abandoned by the Indians, and then only on account of the serious wounding of Black Buffalo, the Teton Sioux who had entertained and quarreled with Lewis and Clark at the site of Fort Pierre three years before.
This was the first engagement between troops of the United States and Indians upon Dakota soil. Three of Chouteau's men were killed, and seven wounded, one mortally. Three of Pryor's men were wounded, among them the boy, George Shannon, who was lost for a time while hunting Lewis and Clark's horses in August, 1804. He was so severely wounded that his right leg had to be amputated by Dr. Sauguin, the man who made the thermometer, when he returned to St. Louis. Shannon later studied law and became a successful lawyer of Lexington, Missouri, and a judge of his district.
The party with Big White returned to St. Louis, and it was not until 1809 that the government succeeded, at great expense, in getting him back safely to his people.