Kakawissassa, or “Crow at Rest,” was a principal chief of the Arikara who met with Lewis and Clark in October 1804 as the expedition passed through Arikara territory along the Missouri River in present-day South Dakota.
The Arikara were sedentary agricultural people who lived in earth-lodge villages along the Missouri. They had been devastated by smallpox epidemics in the late 18th century, which severely reduced their population and political power.
Kakawissassa was receptive to the expedition’s diplomatic overtures but the Arikara-American relationship would later deteriorate. In 1823, Arikara warriors attacked William Ashley’s trading party in one of the most significant armed conflicts between Americans and Plains Indians prior to the Indian Wars.
