On The Opposite Bank, Years Later,
The United States Built A Military Post Known As Fort Clark,
Which May Be
Found on some of the present-day maps.
The huts were built of logs, and were arranged in two rows,
Four rooms in each hut, the whole number being placed in the form
of an angle, with a stockade, or picket, across the two outer
ends of the angle, in which was a gate, kept locked at night.
The roofs of the huts slanted upward from the inner side of
the rows, making the outer side of each hut eighteen feet high;
and the lofts of these were made warm and comfortable with dry
grass mixed with clay, Here they were continually visited
during the winter by Indians from all the region around.
Here, too, they secured the services of an interpreter,
one Chaboneau, who continued with them to the end.
This man's wife, Sacajawea, whose Indian name was translated
"Bird Woman," had been captured from the Snake Indians and sold
to Chaboneau, who married her. She was "a good creature,
of a mild and gentle disposition, greatly attached to the whites."
In the expedition she proved herself more valuable to the explorers
than her husband, and Lewis and Clark always speak of her in terms
of respect and admiration.
It should not be understood that all the interpreters
employed by white men on such expeditions wholly knew
the spoken language of the tribes among whom they travelled.
To some extent they relied upon the universal language of signs
to make themselves understood, and this method of talking
is known to all sorts and kinds of Indians.
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