Chapter 14 Encounter with the Sioux September 1804 Summary and Analysis

The Sioux tribes are widely regarded as well organized, militant, and aggressive. Jefferson's instructions to Lewis specifically indicate that the Sioux should be courted especially vigorously as their cooperation would be extremely useful to future American expansion in the area. In early September, the party continues upriver and fortuitously encounters the lost private—he had assumed the boats were upriver from him and thus has been proceeding ahead of the party for a few weeks. Lewis finds the area of present-day South Dakota almost unbelievably opulent in animal life and he discovers several species—once, two in a single day—that are entirely new to science. Lewis and Clark commend with wonder at the hundreds and even thousands of bison that make up vast herds and on the...