November 5, 1804
38.48% Complete
Aug 30, 1803 Sep 30, 1806

November 5, 1804

 

I rose verry early and commenced raising the 2 range of Huts 〈proe〉 the timber large and heavy    all to Carry on Hand Sticks, Cotton wood & Elm Som ash Small, our Situation Sandy, great numbers of Indians pass to and from hunting    a Camp of Mandans, A fiew miles below us Cought within two days 100 Goat, by Driveing them in a Strong pen, detected by a Bush fence widening from the pen &c. &.    the Greater part of this day Cloudy, wind moderate from the N. W.    I have the Rhumitism verry bad, Cap Lewis writeing all Day—    we are told by our interpeter [2] that 4 Ossiniboin Indians, [3] have arrived at the Camps of the Gross Venters & 50 Lodges are Comeing

 

Monday 5th Nov. 1804.    a clear & pleasant morning.    all hands to work eairly raiseing the other line of our huts & Splitting out punchiens for to lay the loft which we intend covering over with earth in order to make the huts more warm and comfortable.   we dug a vault [4] 100 yds abo. the huts to make or keep the place healthy.

1. There is no entry for November 5 in the Field Notes. (back)
2. As with some other references to an unnamed interpreter during the winter at Fort Mandan, it is not clear whether the man referred to is Jusseaume or Charbonneau. (back)
3. The Assinniboines called themselves Nak'ota and spoke a dialect of the Sioux language. Although closely related, the two groups maintained distinct identities from their first mention by whites in 1640. By the time of Lewis and Clark the Assinniboines, like the Sioux, were nomadic buffalo hunters, ranging north of the Missouri on both sides of the present United States–Canadian border, in northeastern Montana, northwest North Dakota, and southern Saskatchewan. Their linguistic relationship with the Sioux did not preclude hostilities between the two. Hodge, 1:102–5; Denig, 63–98; Lowie(TA); Kennedy; Coues (NLEH), 2:516–23. (back)
4. A latrine. (back)