These Were Freely Given,
Eye-Water Being Most In Demand.
There was a general medical powwow.
The journal adds:
-
"Shortly after, the chiefs and warriors held a council among themselves,
to decide on an answer to our speech, and the result was, as we
were informed, that they had full confidence in what we had told them,
and were resolved to follow our advice. This determination having
been made, the principal chief, Tunnachemootoolt, took a quantity
of flour of the roots of cow-weed [cowas], and going round
to all the kettles and baskets in which his people were cooking,
thickened the soup into a kind of mush. He then began an harangue,
setting forth the result of the deliberations among the chiefs,
and after exhorting them to unanimity, concluded with an invitation
to all who acquiesced in the proceedings of the council to come and eat;
while those who were of a different mind were requested to show their
dissent by not partaking of the feast. During this animated harangue,
the women, who were probably uneasy at the prospect of forming
this proposed new connection with strangers, tore their hair,
and wrung their hands with the greatest appearance of distress.
But the concluding appeal of the orator effectually stopped
the mouths of every malecontent, and the proceedings were ratified,
and the mush devoured with the most zealous unanimity.
"The chiefs and warriors then came in a body to visit us as we were
seated near our tent; and at their instance, two young men, one of whom
was a son of Tunnachemootoolt, and the other the youth whose father
had been killed by the Pahkees, presented to us each a fine horse.
We invited the chiefs to be seated, and gave every one of them a flag,
a pound of powder, and fifty balls, and a present of the same
kind to the young men from whom we had received the horses.
They then invited us into the tent, and said that they now wished
to answer what we had told them yesterday, but that many of their people
were at that moment waiting in great pain for our medical assistance."
It was agreed, therefore, that Captain Clark, who seems to have
been their favorite physician, should attend to the sick and lame,
while Captain Lewis should conduct a council with the chiefs
and listen to what they had to say. The upshot of the powwow
was that the Chopunnish said they had sent three of their warriors
with a pipe to make peace with the Shoshonees, last summer,
as they had been advised to do by the white men. The Shoshonees,
unmindful of the sacredness of this embassy, had killed the young
warriors and had invited the battle which immediately took place,
in which the Chopunnish killed forty-two of the Shoshonees,
to get even for the wanton killing of their three young men.
The white men now wanted some of the Chopunnish to accompany them
to the plains of the Missouri, but the Indians were not willing
to go until they were assured that they would not be waylaid
and slain by their enemies of the other side of the mountains.
The Chopunnish would think over the proposal that some of
their young men should go over the range with the white men;
a decision on this point should be reached before the white
men left the country.
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