Day-by-Day / August 3, 1804

August 3, 1804

The Otoe council

North of Fort Atkinson, NE Most of the day is spent exchanging speeches, gifts, and knowledge with the Otoes and Missourias at Council Bluff Camp in present-day Nebraska. At 3 p.m. the boats travel six miles up the Missouri.

Addressing the Otos and Missouris at Council Bluffs

Charles Fritz

32″ x 36″ oil on canvas

The Indians sit under a tarp and the soldiers in the sun in full dress uniforms

© 2009 by Charles Fritz. Used by permission.

Council with the Indians[1]Originally aired weekdays by Yellowstone Public Radio during the Bicentennial observance of 2003-2006. Narrated by Hal Hansen. Scripts by Whit Hansen and Ed Jacobson. Produced by Leni Holliman. © … Continue reading

First Council

This morning the two Captains held a Counsel With the Zottous [Otoe] Indians & made 6 Chiefs under the american government, they all Recd their medel & other presents With Great kindness & thankfulness they all appeared to be Glad that they had Got freed from all other powers &C—
—John Ordway

Related: Indian Presentation Flags | Peace Medals | Indian Commissions (paroles)

Indian Gifts

We gave them a Cannister of Powder and a Bottle of whiskey and delivered a few presents to the whole after giveing a Br: Cth: [breech cloth] Some Pain guartering & a Meadele to those we made Cheifs after Capt Lewis’s Shooting the air gun a feiw Shots (which astonished those nativs)
—William Clark

Related: Indian Gifts

Place for a Trading House

Some place near Councile Bluff is arround the most proper place for a tradeing house as their are these three or four nations, the ottoes Ponies [Pawnees] & mahar [Omahas] &C.
—John Ordway

Proceeding On

We renewed our voyage at 3 o’clock; went six miles and encamped on the south side; where we had a storm of wind and rain, which lasted two hours.
—Patrick Gass

 
logo: Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail logo: National Park Service

Fort Atkinson is a High Potential Historic Site along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail managed by the U.S. National Park Service. The Fort, the first site of a formal meeting between U.S. Government officials and a western Indian Tribe, is a National Historic Landmark open to the public as a Nebraska State Park.

 

Notes

Notes
↑1 Originally aired weekdays by Yellowstone Public Radio during the Bicentennial observance of 2003-2006. Narrated by Hal Hansen. Scripts by Whit Hansen and Ed Jacobson. Produced by Leni Holliman. © 2003 by Yellowstone Public Radio.

Discover More

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.

This page was funded in part by the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, U.S. National Park Service.

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Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation
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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).