Fort Clatsop, Astoria, OR Patrick Gass and George Shannon travel through the marshes and dunes of the Clatsop Plain on their way to the salt makers’ camp. Lewis describes Clatsop Indian views on material goods. In Washington City, President Jefferson meets with an Indian delegation organized in part by Lewis and Clark while they were in St. Louis.
Lewis Bargains with an Indian[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
Tillamook Head from the Clatsop Plains
© 20 December 2010 by Kristopher K. Townsend. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
The Clatsop Plain
We got into low ground, passed through a marsh about ½ a mile in breadth, where the water was knee-deep; then got into a beautiful prairie, about 5 miles wide, and which runs along the sea shore about 30 miles from Point Adams on the south side of Hayley’s Bay, in nearly a southwest course and ends at a high point of a mountain, called Clarke’s View on the sea shore.
—Patrick Gass
A Mild and Inoffensive People
Comowooll and the Clatsops who visited us yesterday left us in the evening. These people the Chinnooks and others residing in this neighbourhood and speaking the same language have been very friendly to us; they appear to be a mild inoffensive people but will pilfer if they have an opportuny to do so
—Meriwether Lewis
Conflicted Bartering Methods
. . . they invariably refuse the price first offered them and afterwards very frequently accept a smaller quantity of the same article; in order to satisfy myself on this subject I once offered a Chinnook my watch two knives and a considerable quantity of beads for a small inferior sea Otter‘s skin which I did not much want, he immediately conceived it of great value, and refused to barter except I would double the quantity of beads; the next day with a great deal of importunity on his part I received the skin in exchange for a few strans of the same beads he had refused the day before.
—Meriwether Lewis
Jefferson’s Indian Speech
In Washington City on 4 January 1806, Jefferson gives a speech to a delegation of several Indians organized by Lewis and Clark while they were wintering in St. Louis:
My friends & children, Chiefs of the Osages, Missouris, Kanzas, Ottos, Panis, Ayowas, & Sioux.
I take you by the hand of friendship and give you a hearty welcome to the seat of the govmt. of the U.S.
. . . .
I therefore sent our beloved man Capt. Lewis one of my own family, to go up the Missouri river, to get acquainted with all the Indian nations in it’s neighborhood, to take them by the hand, deliver my talks to them, and to inform us in what way we could be useful to them.
—Thomas Jefferson[2]Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 280–81.
Delegation Response
The Indians, likely through a clerk, provide a signed response to Jefferson’s speech. Signees represented the Osages, Otoes and Missourias, Kansas, Pawnees, and Iowas.
fathers
You do not know yet your new red Children, & we see that you are as much worthy of pity as we are; flatterers Came Before you, made vast promises, but when far away, they Constitute themselves masters, deceive you & your Children Suffer.
Signed by 14 Indian representatives[3]Ibid., 285.
Weather Diary
aspect of the weather at rise
Wind at Weather at 4 OC. P.M. Wind at 4 OC. P.M. cloudy after rain & hail S W rain after fair & rain S. E. the sun visible about 2 hours
—Meriwether Lewis[4]To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the “Day of the month” column and spelled out some of the abbreviations.
Fort Clatsop is a High Potential Historic Site along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail managed by the U.S. National Park Service. The site is managed by the Lewis and Clark National and State Historic Parks.
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. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 280–81. |
| ↑3 | Ibid., 285. |
| ↑4 | To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the “Day of the month” column and spelled out some of the abbreviations. |
