The Lewis and Clark Companion: An Encyclopedic Guide to the Voyage of Discovery by Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs & Clay Jenkinson

Author:Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs & Clay Jenkinson [Tubbs, Stephenie Ambrose & Jenkinson, Clay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, 19th Century, Biography & Autobiography, Adventurers & Explorers
ISBN: 9781627796699
Google: IQdpCAAAQBAJ
Publisher: HenryHolt
Published: 2015-06-09T20:44:49+00:00

K

Kakawissassa (Lighting Raven, Crow Going Across): Arikara chief. One of three chiefs who counciled with Lewis and Clark in October 1804 near their villages on the Grand River. Clark states that although they detected “some jealousy exists as to the chiefs to be made … we made three one for each village.” The captains chose Kakawissassa as first or grand chief and gave him more gifts than the two lesser chiefs. They issued their usual diplomatic speeches and gestures aimed at securing a place in the trade system of the Mandan and other tribes on the upper Missouri while at the same time isolating the Teton Sioux economically. Afterward Clark commented that the Indians were amazed by the air gun and that “the Inds. much astonished at my black Servent, who made him Self more turrible in thier view than I wished him to Doe as I am told telling them that before I coght him he was wild and lived upon people, young children was verry good eating.” Although they were offered whiskey, the Arikara made a point of telling the captains they were surprised that “their father would present to them a liquor which would make them fools.” On October 11, 1804, Clark recorded these remarks by Kakawissassa, “My Fathers—! My heart is glader than it ever was before to See my fathers. If you want the road open no one Can provent it it will always be open for you. Can you think any one Dare put their hands on your rope of your boat. No! not one dar When you Get to the mandans we wish you to Speak good words with that Nation for us. we wish to be at peace with them. It gives us pain that we do not Know how to work the Beaver, we will make Buffalow roabs the best we Can. when you return if I am living you will See me again the same man The Indian in the prarie know me and listen to my words when you come they will meet to See you. We Shall look at the river with impatienc for your return.” In her book Women of the Earth Lodges, Virginia Bergman Peters notes that many early visitors to the Mandan and Arikara country, including Lewis and Clark, were not aware of the underlying complexities of these cultures and their interrelationships.

References: Coues, History of the Expedition, vol. 1; Peters; Moulton, vol. 3

Kane, Lucille: Curator of manuscripts at the Minnesota Historical Society who was presented, in 1953, with papers from the attic of St. Paul resident John Henry Hammond, general in the Civil War and inspector for the Indian Bureau. When she examined the papers, Miss Kane realized one packet contained the rough journal or field notes of William Clark from 1803 to 1805. After a protracted battle over legal ownership, the papers are now housed at Yale University and were edited and published by Ernest S. Osgood and the Yale University Press in 1964.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.