Meeting the Yankton Sioux

The expedition held a formal council with the Yankton Sioux (Nakota) at Calumet Bluff, near present-day Gavins Point, Nebraska. This was one of the more successful diplomatic encounters of the journey.

The Yankton leaders were generally receptive to the expedition’s message, though they requested more trade goods than the captains could provide. The council included elaborate ceremonies with the calumet (peace pipe).

“Their pipes of peace were presented to us, and smoked with great ceremony.”

York, Clark’s enslaved man, attracted great attention from the Yankton people, many of whom had never seen a Black man before.