Some authors say that the expedition never met any Omaha people. It is true that they found their villages empty and were unable to hold a council with the people, but they did see Omaha prisoners among the Lakota Sioux (Tetons). They also met several traders bound for, or returning from, Omaha villages. More indirect exposures were with expedition members, François Labiche and Pierre Cruzatte who were both half Omaha.

The captains appeared eager to meet with the Omaha. They tried to find them at their two biggest villages and planted a flag at the gravesite of the chief who for many years had controlled trade in the region, the infamous Chief Blackbird. With Blackbird now dead, a smallpox epidemic in 1800–1801, and recent Teton Sioux attacks, the Omaha were severely weakened. In the “Estimate of the Eastern Indians,” Clark holds out hope:

They might easily be induced to become stationary: they are well disposed towards the whites, and are good hunters: their country abounds in beaver and otter, and their trade will increase and become valuable, provided they become stationary, and are at peace.[1]Moulton, Journals, 3:339.

On 13 August 1804, the Omaha Big Village, also known as Tonwantonga, was found abandoned, apparently destroyed and without a growing garden. Nearly two weeks later, on 26 August 1804, the boats passed Bow Creek, the site of another abandoned Omaha village called Petite Arch—or by Clark, Little Bow. That village had split from the Big Village in a dispute with Blackbird. After the expedition, both bands would come together and rebuild Big Village.

Despite wars with other native nations, European diseases, removal to reservations, boarding schools, and complex land ownership issues resulting from the allotment system, the Omaha people retained its tribal identity. They consider “The Original Omaha Powwow”—held after the first full moon in August—as the oldest celebration of native music and dance still in existence.[2]Margot P. Liberty, W. Raymond Wood, and Lee Irwin, Handbook of North American Indians: Plains Vol. 13, ed. Raymond J. DeMallie (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 2001), 412.

 

Selected Pages and Encounters

Notes

Notes
1 Moulton, Journals, 3:339.
2 Margot P. Liberty, W. Raymond Wood, and Lee Irwin, Handbook of North American Indians: Plains Vol. 13, ed. Raymond J. DeMallie (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 2001), 412.

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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.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.