Lewis And Clark Relationship

Relationships with the Mandan’s Thomas Jefferson has just expanded the United States territory immensely. This purchase is known as the Louisiana Purchase, which is arguably the best decision in US history. With all the new land resulted in lots of unknown questions. Some of them were what does this land provide, what animals are out there, who can be found on this land? To answer some of these mysterious questions Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to go explore the Louisiana Purchase. One of their stops on their journey was at what now is known as Fort Mandan, in Bismarck, North Dakota. Here is where Lewis and Clark’s relationship with the Indians (Mandan Tribe) was crucial because their next stops have never been explored
This was a difficult time for the explorers because they were not adequately prepared for the harshness that the winters in North Dakota brought. First off they did not have a permanent hut built yet so they were exposed to the cold. Lewis and Clark stated in their journal that many of their men had suffered from frostbite on the coldest night of their entire journey. Seventy-four degrees below zero read their thermometer. In order to treat themselves the men with frostbite locked themselves in a hut with a fire to avoid these harsh conditions and warm up. Generously, the Mandan tribe gifted the explorers during this rough time with corn (Chuinard 260). Most of the time they Indians would want to trade but occasionally they would just give them gifts because of their generosity. Lewis and Clark were fascinated on how developed the Mandan’s were at growing their own vegetables. They were experts at eating fresh, dried, and storing foods in caves under their lodges. Especially with corn, squash, and beans (Chuinard 254). “They preserved their meat in a variety of ways: fileting and drying it, pounding it with berries to make pemmican, and taking advantage of the natural refrigeration of the cold winters by hanging their meat high in trees or enclosing it within a stockade to keep the wild animals from it” (Chuinard 254) reported Robert Chuinard in Only One Man
They were invited to the Buffalo Dance. Woolworth described the dance in Into the World of Lewis and Clark as “a ritual involving sexual relations which the natives believed would transfer the white man’s power to husbands of the the woman participants” (Saindon 489). Clark described the dance in detail in his journal saying:
“The old men arrange themselves in a circle and after smoking a pipe which is handed them by a young men, … the young men who have their wives back of the Circle go to one of the wife and the Girl then takes the Old Man and leads him to a convenient place for business, … all this to cause the buffalow to Come near So that they may kill them” (Chuinard 262).
Including the white explores in their traditional rituals was a sing that they trusted them and have built a strong and close