History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. 2. / To the Sources of the Missouri, Thence Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed During the Years 1804-5-6.

by Meriwether Lewis; William Clark

Some of the stipulations contained in the licenses usually granted our Indian traders, are totally incompatible with the local situations, and existing customs and habits of almost all the Indian nations in Upper Louisiana. I allude more particularly to that clause in the license, which compels them to trade at Indian towns only. It will be seen by referrence to my statistical view of the Indian nations of Upper Louisiana, that the great body of those people are roving bands, who have no villages, or stationary residence. The next principal division of them, embracing the Panias, Ottoes, Kanzas, &c. have not their villages on the Missouri, and they even pass the greater portion of the year at a distance from their villages, in the same roving manner. The third, and only portion of those Indians, who can with propriety be considered as possessed of such stationary villages as seems to have been contemplated by this clause of the license, is confined to the Ayaways, Sioux, and Foxes of the Mississippi, and the Ricaras, Mandans, Minnetarees, and Ahwahaways of the Missouri. The consequence is, that until some further provision be made, that all the traders who have intercourse with any nations except those of the last class, will form their establishments at the several points on the Missouri, where it will be most convenient to meet the several nations with whom they wish to carry on commerce. This is their practice at the present moment, and their houses are scattered on various parts of the Missouri. In this detached situation, it cannot be expected that they will comply with any of the stipulations of their licenses. The superintendant of St. Louis, distant eight hundred or a thousand miles, cannot learn whether they have forfeited the penalty of their licenses or not; they may, therefore, vend ardent spirits, compromit the government, or the character of the whites, in the estimation of the Indians, or practice any other crimes in relation to those people, without the fear of detection or punishment. The government cannot with propriety, say to those traders, that they shall trade at villages, when in reality they do not exist; nor can they for a moment, I presume, think of incurring the expense of sending an Indian agent with each trader, to see that he commit no breach of the stipulations of his license. These traders must of course be brought together, at some general points, where it will be convenient for several nations to trade with them, and where they can be placed under the eye of an Indian agent, whose duty it should be to see that they comply with the regulations laid down for their government. There are crimes which may be committed without a breach of our present laws, and which make it necessary that some further restrictions than those contained in the present licenses of our traders, should either be added under penalties in those licenses, or punished by way of a discretionary power, lodged in the superintendent, extending to the exclusion of such individuals from the Indian trade. Of this description I shall here enumerate three:

First, That of holding conversations with the Indians, tending to bring our government into disrepute among them, and to alienate their affections from the same.

Second, That of practising any means to induce the Indians to maltreat or plunder other merchants.

Third, That of stimulating or exciting by bribes or otherwise, any nations or bands of Indians, to wage war against other nations or bands; or against the citizens of the United States, or against citizens or subjects of any power at peace with the same.

These appear to me to be crimes fraught with more real evil to the community and to the Indians themselves, than vending ardent spirits, or visiting their hunting camps for the purpose of trade; yet there are no powers vested in the superintendents, or agents of the United States, to prevent their repeated commission; nor restrictions or fines imposed by our laws, to punish such offences.

It is well known to me that we have several persons engaged in the trade of the Missouri, who have, within the last three years, been adopted as citizens of the United States, and who are now hostile to our government. It is not reasonable to expect, that such persons will act with good faith towards us. Hence, the necessity of assigning metes and bounds to their transactions among the Indians. On my way to St. Louis, last fall, I received satisfactory evidence that a Mr. Robideau, an inhabitant of St. Louis, had, the preceding winter, during his intercourse with the Ottoes and Missouris, been guilty of the most flagrant breaches of the first of those misdemeanors above mentioned. On my arrival at St. Louis, I reported the case to Mr. Broom, the acting superintendent, and recommended his prohibiting that person from the trade of the Missouri, unless he would give satisfactory assurances of a disposition to hold a different language to the Indians. Mr. Broom informed me, that the laws and regulations of the United States on this subject, gave him no such powers; and Mr. Robideau and sons still prosecute their trade.

The uncontrolled liberty which our citizens take of hunting on Indian lands, has always been a source of serious difficulty, on every part of our frontier, and is evidently destined to become quite as much so in Upper Louisiana, unless it be restrained and limited within consistent bounds. When the Indians have been taught, by commerce, duly to appreciate the furs and peltries of their country, they feel excessive chagrin at seeing the whites, by their superior skill in hunting, fast diminishing those productions, to which they have been accustomed to look as the only means of acquiring merchandise; and nine-tenths of the causes of war are attributable to this practice. The Indians, although well disposed to maintain a peace on any other terms, I am convinced will never yield this point; nor do I consider it as of any importance to us that they should; for with what consistency of precept and practice can we say to the Indians, whom we wish to civilize, that agriculture and the arts are more productive of ease, wealth, and comfort, than the occupation of hunting, while they see distributed over their forests a number of white men, engaged in the very occupation which our doctrine would teach them to abandon. Under such circumstances, it cannot be considered irrational in the Indians, to conclude, that our recommendations to agriculture are interested, and flow from a wish on our part to derive the whole emolument arising from the peltries and furs of their country, by taking them to ourselves.

These observations, however, are intended to apply only to such Indian nations as have had, and still maintain a commercial intercourse with the whites: such we may say are those inhabiting the western branches of the Mississippi, the eastern branches of the Missouri, and near the main body of the latter, as far up as the Mandans and Minnetarees. Here it is, therefore, that it appears to me expedient we should draw a line; and temporarily change our policy. I presume it is not less the wish of our government, that the Indians on the extreme branches of the Missouri to the west, and within the Rocky mountains, should obtain supplies of merchandise equally with those more immediately in their vicinity. To effect this, the government must either become the merchant themselves, or present no obstacles to their citizens, which may prevent their becoming so with those distant nations; but as the former cannot be adopted (though I really think it would be best for a time) then it becomes the more necessary to encourage the latter. Policy further dictates such encouragement being given, in order to contravene the machinations preparing by the Northwest company for practice in that quarter.

If the hunters are not permitted in those distant regions, the merchants will not be at the expense of transporting their merchandise thither, when they know that the natives do not possess the art of taking the furs of their country. The use of the trap, by which those furs are taken, is an art which must be learned before it can be practised to advantage. If the American merchant does not adventure, the field is at once abandoned to the Northwest company, who will permit the hunter to go, and the merchant will most probably be with him in the outset; the abundance of rich furs in that country, hold out sufficient inducement for them to lose no time in pressing forward their adventures. Thus those distant Indians will soon be supplied with merchandise; and while they are taught the art of taking the furs of their country, they will learn the value, and until they have learnt its value, we shall run no risk of displeasing them by taking it. When the period shall arrive that the distant nations shall have learned the art of taking their furs, and know how to appreciate its value, then the hunter becomes no longer absolutely necessary to the merchant, and may be withdrawn; but in the outset, he seems to form a very necessary link in that chain which is to unite these nations and ourselves in a state of commercial intercourse.

The liberty to our merchants of hunting, for the purpose of procuring food, in ascending and descending the navigable water-courses, as well as while stationary at their commercial posts, is a privilege which should not be denied them; but as the unlimited extent of such a privilege would produce much evil, it should certainly be looked on as a subject of primary importance: it should, therefore, enter into all those compacts which we may think proper to form with the Indians in that country, and be so shaped as to leave them no solid grounds of discontent.