On the opposite
bank, years later, the United States built a military post known as Fort
Clark, which may be found on some of the present-day maps. The huts were
built of logs, and were arranged in two rows, four rooms in each hut,
the whole number being placed in the form of an angle, with a stockade,
or picket, across the two outer ends of the angle, in which was a gate,
kept locked at night. The roofs of the huts slanted upward from the
inner side of the rows, making the outer side of each hut eighteen feet
high; and the lofts of these were made warm and comfortable with dry
grass mixed with clay, Here they were continually visited during the
winter by Indians from all the region around. Here, too, they secured
the services of an interpreter, one Chaboneau, who continued with them
to the end. This man's wife, Sacajawea, whose Indian name was translated
"Bird Woman," had been captured from the Snake Indians and sold to
Chaboneau, who married her. She was "a good creature, of a mild and
gentle disposition, greatly attached to the whites." In the expedition
she proved herself more valuable to the explorers than her husband, and
Lewis and Clark always speak of her in terms of respect and admiration.
It should not be understood that all the interpreters employed by white
men on such expeditions wholly knew the spoken language of the tribes
among whom they travelled. To some extent they relied upon the universal
language of signs to make themselves understood, and this method of
talking is known to all sorts and kinds of Indians.
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