hey tried to stop him from going back
to the big boat. Then, for the first time, the Redhead Chief drew his
sword--they always went into uniform when they had a council on--and
Lewis and the men on the boat trained the swivel gun on the band of
Sioux who were detaining Clark.

"You see, they had the council awning stretched on a sand bar in the
mouth of the river, and the bateau was seventy yards off, anchored. They
had sent out for the Sioux to come in, had smoked with them, given them
provisions, made speeches to them, given them whisky and tobacco. The
Sioux were arrogant, wanted more whisky and tobacco, and when Clark came
ashore with only five men they tried to hold him up, grabbing the boat
painter and pulling their bows. The second chief, says Clark, was bad,
'his justures were of such a personal nature I felt Myself Compeled to
Draw my Sword.... I felt Myself Warm and Spoke in verry positive terms.'
Which is all he says of a very dangerous scrape."

"Whyn't they bust into 'em with the swivel gun?" demanded Jesse. "At
seventy yards they'd 'a' got plenty of 'em."

"Sure they would. And then maybe the Sioux would never have let them
through at all and would have shot into every boat of white men that
later came up the river. No, those young men showed courage and good
judgment both. They did not know fear, but they did not forget duty, and
they were there to make peace among all the tribes along the Missouri.

"President Jefferson knew that country would soon be visited by many of
our fur traders, and he didn't want the boats stopped. Lewis and Clark
both knew this."

"But the Sioux didn't bluff them," said Rob, "because Lewis went ashore
with only five men, in his turn, and then they all pulled off a dance,
and a big talk in a big council tent--it must have been big, for there
were seventy Sioux in it, and just those two young American officers.
The big pipe was on forked sticks in front of the chief, and under it
they had sprinkled swan's-down, and they all were dressed up to their
limit. And though they could have been killed any minute, these two
white men had that lot of Indians feeding from the hand, as the slang
goes, Uncle Dick!"

Uncle Dick nodded, and Rob went on, referring to his _Journal_. "And
then the big chief said what they had done was O.K., and asked the
white men to 'take pity on them'--which I think is an old Indian term
of asking for some more gifts. Anyhow, the upshot was they smoked the