Charles McKenzie was a clerk for the North West Company assigned to the Knife River Villages in the winter of 1804–05. His journal provides useful information about the Missouri tribes as well as the expedition’s stay at Fort Mandan. Several excerpts are included on this site.
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November 8, 1804
Riving cottonwood logs
Fort Mandan, ND Ordway is hopeful that cottonwood logs will split into boards, but reports that they will have to give up on that plan. Jusseaume says that traders from Canada have arrived at the Hidatsa villages.
November 27, 1804
Mandan deceptions
Fort Mandan, ND Lewis returns with two Hidatsa chiefs, and the captains learn that the Mandans and one fur trader have been telling lies to the Hidatsas to keep them away from the fort. In Philadelphia, an eccentric botanists asks why no trained botanists is on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
January 3, 1805
Providing a safe refuge
Fort Mandan, ND Nine men go out bison hunting with small success. A Hidatsa husband is looking for his wife who has come to the fort seeking refuge.
January 18, 1805
The "Brarow" (badger)
Fort Mandan, ND François-Antoine Larocque and Charles McKenzie, who are staying in a nearby Hidatsa village, visit the captains. The hunters bring in a badgers and four wolf skins.
January 19, 1805
Fort Mandan departures
Fort Mandan, ND One of the interpreter’s wives leaves due to jealousy and two fur traders return to their Hidatsa host’s village. Two men with three horses are sent to retrieve meat.
February 9, 1805
Climbing the back wall
Pvt. Howard climbs the wall and for his offense is placed under military guard. Clark turns his hunting party around and camps about 40 miles south of the Knife River Villages.
February 10, 1805
Howard's court-martial
Fort Mandan, ND Joseph Field, a member of Clark’s hunting party, suffers frostbite. At Fort Mandan, Howard’s sentence of 50 lashes—given for climbing the back wall—is forgiven.
February 17, 1805
Hunting deer and elk
Fort Mandan, ND Lewis’s group finds elk and deer as they work their way back to the fort. At the fort, The Coal and Charles McKenzie—owner of a horse recently stolen by Sioux Indians—visit.
February 18, 1805
Making maps
Fort Mandan, ND Lewis’s group works to butcher and haul the elk and deer meat and secure it in a meat pen. At the fort, Clark works on his list of tributaries of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers.
March 9, 1805
Grand Hidatsa Chief Le Borgne
Fort Mandan, ND The Grand Chief of the Hidatsas pays his first visit to Fort Mandan. He is given gifts and Lewis demonstrates the air gun. York is the first black man ever seen by the chief.
March 13, 1805
Busy blacksmiths
Fort Mandan, ND The Indians living around Fort Mandan are anxious for the blacksmiths to make war axes before the expedition leaves for the western sea.
March 14, 1805
Charbonneau moves out
Fort Mandan, ND According to Sgt. Ordway, Toussaint Charbonneau moves outside the fort and is replaced as expedition interpreter by Joseph Gravelines. The men shell corn. In Washington City, Thomas Jefferson suggests a new expedition in the Southwest.
March 22, 1805
Little Wolf visits
Fort Mandan, ND The second chief of the Big Hidatsa Village pays his first visit and is given the standard diplomatic treatment: a peace medal, gifts, and a speech.
March 23, 1805
A Hidatsa vocabulary
Fur trade clerks Charles McKenzie and François-Antoine Larocque end their visit at Fort Mandan in present North Dakota. A Hidatsa man helps the captains record a vocabulary of his language.
April 4, 1805
McKenzie's recollections
At Fort Mandan, the barge is loaded and made ready for its return to St. Louis. Interactions with Canadian traders François-Antoine Larocque and Charles McKenzie are recalled by McKenzie several years later.
August 11, 1806
Cruzatte shoots Lewis
White Earth River and Four Bears Village, ND While hunting elk, Pierre Cruzatte accidentally shoots Lewis through the buttock. Clark meets fur traders who share news of the barge, Indian wars, and shifting trade alliances.
