Keywords

William Clark, Missouri, War of 1812

Abstract

William Clark stood silently, reflecting upon his first meeting with Brulé Chief Black Bull Buffalo (Untongarabar) over a decade previous, on September 24, 1804, at the Lakota village near the mouth of the Bad River in present-day South Dakota. For three days Black Buffalo, the Partisan, and Buffalo Medicine parlayed with Lewis and Clark. On September 28, as the expedition prepared to leave, a few Lakota warriors became so heated that Clark had actually drawn his sword. Fortunately, Black Buffalo’s presence prevented bloodshed. He even accompanied Lewis and Clark upstream, perhaps as a hostage, in order to discourage the Lakotas from trying to prevent the Corps of Discovery from proceeding on.

Original Publication Citation

Buckley, Jay H. “William Clark’s Impossible Task: The War of 1812 in the West.” We Proceeded On 43, no. 4 (November 2017): 8-22.