He seemed now quite reconciled to
the whites, and requested that some traders might be sent among the
Chayennes, who lived, he said, in a country full of beaver, but did
not understand well how to catch them, and were discouraged from it by
having no sale for them when caught. Captain Clark promised that they
should be soon supplied with goods and taught the best mode of catching
beaver.
"Big White, the chief of the Mandans, now addressed them at some length,
explaining the pacific intentions of his nation; the Chayennes observed
that both the Ricaras and Mandans seemed to be in fault; but at the end
of the council the Mandan chief was treated with great civility, and
the greatest harmony prevailed among them. The great chief, however,
informed us that none of the Ricaras could be prevailed on to go with us
till the return of the other chief; and that the Chayennes were a wild
people, afraid to go. He invited Captain Clark to his house, and gave
him two carrots of tobacco, two beaver-skins, and a trencher of boiled
corn and beans. It is the custom of all the nations on the Missouri to
offer to every white man food and refreshment when he first enters their
tents."
Resuming their voyage, the party reached Tyler's River, where they
camped, on the twenty-seventh of August. This stream is now known as
Medicine River, from Medicine Hill, a conspicuous landmark rising at a
little distance from the Missouri. The voyagers were now near the
lower portion of what is now known as South Dakota, and they camped in
territory embraced in the county of Presho.
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