between the English and Americans on the Mississippi. All of the bands joined heartily in a treaty of peace and friendship with the Americans.
Among the chiefs whom Manuel Lisa took down for this council was Black Buffalo, who, while waiting for the council to assemble, died on the night of July 14. He was a Minneconjou and a man of a great deal of power. It will be recalled that he was the principal chief with whom Lewis and Clark counciled, feasted, and quarreled at the mouth of the Teton (at the site of Fort Pierre), from September 25 to 28, 1804, when upon the up trip. He was with his band near Fort Randall when the explorers returned in 1806, and fearing trouble and delay they did not stop to hold communion with him. In 1807 he was in league with the Rees and present in the Ree villages when the attack was made upon the party of Sergeant Pryor and Pierre Chouteau, Sr., who were endeavoring to get Big White to his home, and in the skirmish Black Buffalo was dangerously wounded, the whites supposing he was killed. We next find him at the head of a party of Dakotas whom the Astorians met at the Big Bend in 1811, protesting against the carrying of arms to the Rees and Mandans, with whom the Sioux were then at war. At this time, by reason of his appearance and mild deportment, he made a very favorable impression upon Brakenridge, who was the historian of the expedition. During the ensuing war with Great Britain, Black Buffalo was one of the men upon whom Manuel Lisa relied in his efforts to keep the Missouri River Dakotas friendly to the United States.
