Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/401

395 MERIWETHER LEWIS. 395 A show of force, and the tact and skill of Lewis and Clark, soon commanded the Indians' respect. The two captains were afterwards carried in a buffalo robe by their young men, dressed for the occasion, to the Council House, and were feasted on dog and buffalo meat. Lewis, in the de- scription of the Sioux, mentions their shaved heads, scalp locks, painted faces, the noise of the drums, scalp dance, buffalo robes adorned with porcupine quills, and buffalo- skin lodges. They next found a tribe who refused whisky. From here they entered the Mandan country, near Bis- marck, North Dakota, where they spent the winter. They built two rows of log huts protected by a stockade, the roofs of which were thatched with grass and clay. Here they engaged Charboneau and Sacajawea to accom- pany them. Sacajawea was a Shoshone Indian, who was captured by the Minnetarees near the head of the Missouri, and sold by them to Charboneau, who made her his wife. Lewis believed she would be of great service to the expe- dition when they arrived in the Shoshone country. On April 7, 1805, the soldiers sent as an escort started back. The expedition, consisting of thirty-two persons, again started up the Missouri. Lewis says : "I esteem this moment of our departure as among the most happy of my life." On April 25, Lewis, with four men, found the river known as the La Roche Jaune. He named it the Yellow- stone. On the 26th, from the summit of some high hills, Lewis saw for the first time the Rocky Mountains. On the 2d day of June they reached a point of great importance, two rivers, one from the north, and one from the southwest. Lewis wrote, "On our right decision much "of the fate of the expedition depends ; since, if after "ascending the Rocky Mountains, or beyond them, we "should find that the river we were following did not come "near the Columbia, and be obliged to return, we should