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which the expedition could not hunt effectively. Shortly after, five Sioux were seen on shore, and the expedition stopped a safe distance from the bank. The captains told the Indians the horse had been sent by the president, for their chief and that they “would not Speek to them untill the horse was returned . . . again.”
    The next day, they anchored to prepare for a formal meeting. The three Teton Sioux chiefs arrived from their nearby camp accompanied by some sixty warriors. The white men were on their guard as they paraded to welcome them. Now the captains felt Dorion’s absence; they knew so little Sioux that Lewis shortened his usual speech. The gift giving that followed was more successful, but when the chiefs were invited aboard the keelboat to be shown the air gun and “such Curiossities,” trouble began. “We gave them 1/4 a glass of whiskey which they appeared to be verry fond of, Sucked the bottle after it was out & Soon began to be troublesom,” Clark wrote. One of the chiefs assumed drunkenness “as a Cloake for his rascally intentions.”
    Clark and five men took the chiefs ashore in a pirogue, but as soon as they landed, three warriors seized the cable so the boat could not return. The second chief, Clark wrote, was insolent, demanding more gifts and blocking him from returning to the keelboat. His gestures “were of Such a personal nature, I felt My self Compeled to Draw my Sword (and Made a Signal to the boat to prepare for action).”
    It was a tense moment. Lewis had his men under arms while the keelboat’s swivel guns kept the Indians covered. Clark was already on shore, surrounded by warriors, but managed to send the pirogue back for help. Twelve men rowed ashore to join him. The Sioux had never met this kind of resistance before, and the chief, Black Buffalo, told his men to back off.
    Captain Clark did not want to make enemies. He offered to shake hands with Black Buffalo and the second chief, named The Partisan, but both refused. When Clark climbed on board the pirogue, however, Black Buffalo and the third chief followed, with two warriors, and the captain brought all four aboard the keelboat. The party anchored about a mile away, off an island they sourly named “bad humered Island.”
    The four Indians remained with them for the night. In the morning, the chiefs, who seemed friendlier, asked the captains to let their women and children see the boats. Eager to win their friendship, Lewis and Clark took the boats close to the shore, and the people of the village crowded to the river’s edge to see them. The captains also agreed to attend a dance that night.
    That evening, first Clark and then Lewis were met by ten men, placed on a richly painted buffalo robe, and carried to a round council house covered with hides. The Indians smoked the peace pipe with their guests and ceremonially offered them 400 pounds of buffalo meat. They ate pemmican, a root called the ground potato, and dog meat. Clark enjoyed the pemmican and ground potato, but he avoided the dog meat. This was one of the few topics he and Lewis disagreed upon. Lewis, along with his fellow expedition members, considered dog meat delicious.
    There is nothing that suggests the men ever considered eating Lewis’s dog, Seaman, who had become a valued member of the expedition. When an admiring Indian offered to trade three beaver skins for the dog, Lewis scoffed, writing in his journal: “Of course, there was no bargain.” Seaman brought the explorers food – stalking and catching small animals and helping the hunters track game. The dog also kept patrol over their camps.
    After dinner, the dancing began to the music of skin drums and rattles made of antelope hoofs tied to long sticks. Lewis and Clark returned to the boat after midnight, accompanied by four chiefs who stayed as self-invited guests.
    The next evening, Lewis and Clark attended another dance, and when they returned, The Partisan and a native went with them. The