Page:A Brief History of South Dakota.djvu/78

 CHAPTER XII MANUEL LISA, AMERICAN

, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, had before 1812 become General Clark, Indian agent and commander of the militia of the upper Louisiana territory (later called Missouri territory), which included South Dakota and all of the American Northwest. When Manuel Lisa, the wily Spanish trader, returned to St. Louis from his famous boat race to the Ree towns in the summer of 1811, he reported to General Clark that "the Wampum was carrying by British influence along the banks of the Missouri, and all the nations of this great river were excited to join the universal confederacy, then setting on foot, of which The Prophet was the instrument and the British traders the soul."

At this time the Sioux Indians of the Mississippi River were wholly under the influence of the British traders from Canada, from whom they obtained their goods. On the other hand, the Sioux Indians of the Missouri River were under the influence of the French Americans from St. Louis, with whom they traded. It was the British policy to secure the assistance of the Dakota Sioux in the War of 1812, first for whatever assistance they might be able to render in the war, but chiefly that through 72