The Osage delegation that left St. Louis in late October with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark arrives in Washington City.
Lewis continues at his home near present Ivy, Virginia while Clark and likely York travel along the Wilderness Road on their way to Washington City.[1]Traveling with Meriwether Lewis to Washington City is a Mandan delegation from the Knife River Villages—Chief Sheheke, his wife Yellow Corn, and their son. Speaking Mandan and French was … Continue reading
Osage Delegation Arrives
Four Osage Warriors
by Charles B. J. F. de Saint Mémin (1770–1852)
Courtesy The New York Historical, emuseum.nyhistory.org/objects/14114/unidentified-osage-warrior-wearing-bird-headdress accessed 8 January 2026.
With the aid of a physiognotrace, St. Mémin executed portraits of at least five Osage men who visited Washington City summer 1804 and winter 1806–1807. Only the first one (above left) includes his name in its label: Cachasunghia.
New York Senator, physician, naturalist, and expedition supporter Samuel Latham Mitchell records the arrival of the Osage in a letter to his wife Catharine.
Washington. Decr. 21 . (Sunday) 1806
My Dear
Five of the Osages who came with Capt Lewis have arrived here. Last Evening I saw them. The are tall & whitish like the rest whom we have seen. The Capt. has gone to Virginia to visit his Relations after his Journey to the Pacific Ocean; and will probably be here in a few weeks.
Farewell, my dear creature, and continue your good Opinion of your loving and ardent friend
Sam L Mitchill[2]Samuel L. Mitchill to Catharine Mitchill, 1806 Correspondence, 1801-1829 [Box 2, Folder 9], quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mitchill/mitchill.0209.001/1.
Notes
| ↑1 | Traveling with Meriwether Lewis to Washington City is a Mandan delegation from the Knife River Villages—Chief Sheheke, his wife Yellow Corn, and their son. Speaking Mandan and French was interpreter René Jusseaume who brought one of his wives and two children. Expedition private François Labiche was included to translate between French and English. Finally, records indicate expedition sergeant John Ordway was serving as Lewis’s assistant. A large bill at Staunton, Virginia (see December 11, 1806) indicates that the delegation remained there while Lewis was at Locust Hill. |
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| ↑2 | Samuel L. Mitchill to Catharine Mitchill, 1806 Correspondence, 1801-1829 [Box 2, Folder 9], quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mitchill/mitchill.0209.001/1. |
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- The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
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