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CHAPTER SIX Homeward Bound
- University of North Texas Press
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55 Toussaint Charbonneau found a friend in William Clark. By the time the Corps of Discovery reached Fort Clatsop, Clark had nicknames for the interpreter’s wife and child. He called Sacagawea “Janey” and called Baptiste “Pomp” or “Pompey.” He often walked with the three of them on shore. He survived neardisaster with them in the storm above the Great Falls. He looked on the Pacific with them. It was a friendship that would endure until Clark’s death thirtytwo years later.1 Now Toussaint and Sacagawea would accompany Clark on the return home, as the two captains went separate ways. They had decided at Fort Clatsop that Clark would go back by way of the Yellowstone River, exploring what the Hidatsas had described as “a country not yet hunted, and abounding in animals of the fur kind.” Lewis would return by the way of the Missouri after exploring the “noble” Marias River. Before any of this could be undertaken, the explorers must cross Homeward Bound CHAPTER SIX Chapter Six 56 the Bitterroot Mountains again. They had started out too early, and they badly needed horses. It was the same story as on the way west. The Indians needed their horses for war and hunting. They would part with them only if they could get beads, and the explorers had traded away all their beads.2 On April 16, Clark took a party including Toussaint and Sacagawea across to Indian villages on the north shore of the Columbia to try again. Clark dispatched Toussaint to the Che-luckkit -ti-quar villages and Drouillard to the village of the Skillutes to invite the tribes to trade. Delegations came to his camp from both villages and “delayed the greater part of the day” but traded no horses. In the end, by trading off blankets and other items, Clark managed to get a few good pack animals. Toussaint, with a better sense of what the Indians needed, obtained a splendid mare for a weasel skin, elks’ teeth and a belt. But they were still short of horses. The rocky portage around The Dalles was more of a struggle than it needed to be.3 On April 22, they camped at the mouth of the Deschutes River. As they got under way at seven A.M. Toussaint’s mare threw off its pack, then bolted, apparently spooked by the saddle and robe that were still in place. The horse dashed from the top of a bluff to an Indian village, dumping the encumbrances on the way. Two men helped Toussaint recapture his horse, finding the saddle but not the robe. The Indians denied having seen it. Lewis, convinced that one of the villagers hid it in his lodge, responded with a rare burst of temper. He sent Sacagawea with a message to Clark to send him reinforcements. He had decided he would burn the Indians’ mat lodges if they did not deliver the robe. The disaster that this could have led to was averted when Labiche found the garment behind a pile of baggage at an Indian lodge. The party marched on to a village of Tenino Indians, a tribe with which they might fare better.4 Here, Toussaint bought another horse, giving a shirt, a tomahawk , and other items for it. That night, he was admonished to [54.226.25.246] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 03:39 GMT) Homeward Bound 57 keep both his horses securely tied. By morning, however, they were loose. The captains inquired and found that the animals had not been made secure. One horse was found nearby, but Toussaint and Labiche searched the plains in all directions without finding the other. The captains, impatient at the delay, ordered the remaining pack horses loaded and set off.Along the way, Toussaint made a deal with an Indian traveling with them. He gave his shirt and two leather outfits of Sacagawea’s, and acquired another horse to replace the lost one.5 On April 27, along the stretch of the Columbia where McNary Dam would later be built, Toussaint again let one of his horses go astray. It was recaptured, but the party’s departure was delayed until nine A.M., unusually late for the early-rising explorers.6 On April 28, Sacagawea at last found someone she could talk with in her native tongue. Near the confluence of the Walla Walla River with the Columbia, the explorers encountered a Shoshone woman who had been taken prisoner by Walla Walla...