In Washington City, President Thomas Jefferson gives a speech addressed to “The Wolf and people of the Mandan Nation“. He welcomes them, explains why he sent Meriwether Lewis among them, and advises that they live in peace with each other.
Sheheke and Yellow Corn
Charles B. J. F. de Saint Mémin (1770–1852)
Derived from two paintings. Originals from The New York Historical, emuseum.nyhistory.org/objects/14104/yellow-corn-a-mandan.
The visiting Mandans were Sheheke, his wife Yellow Corn, and interpreter René Jusseaume‘s wife. The Wolf may be the Deleware man also visiting at the time.
Jefferson’s Speech to the Mandan Nation
Dec. 30. 1806.
My Children, the Wolf and people of the Mandan nation.
I take you by the hand of friendship & give you a hearty welcome to the seat of the government of the United States. The journey which you have taken to visit your fathers on this side of our Island is a long one & your having undertaken it is a proof that you desired to become acquainted with us. I thank the great Spirit that he has protected you through the journey & brought you safely to the residence of your friends & I hope he will have you constantly in his safe keeping & restore you in good health to your nations and families.
. . . . .
As soon as Spain had agreed to withdraw from all the waters of the Missouri & Missisipi I felt the desire of becoming acquainted with all my red children beyond the Missisipi & of uniting them with us, as we have done those on this side of that river in the bonds of peace & friendship. I wished to learn what we could do to benefit them by furnishing them the necessaries they want in exchange for their furs & peltries. I therefore sent our beloved man Captain Lewis, one of my own family, to go up the Missouri river to get acquainted with all the Indian Nations in its neighborhood to take them by the hand, deliver my talks to them & to inform us in what way we could be useful to them. Your Nation received him kindly, you have taken him by the hand & been friendly to him. My Children I thank you for the services you rendered him, & for your attention to his words he will now tell us where we should establish trading Houses to be convenient to you all, & what we must send to them.
My friends & Children, I have now an important advice to give you. I have already told you that you & all the red men are my Children, & I wish you to live in peace & friendship with one another as brethren of the same family ought to do. How much better is it for neighbors to help than to hurt one another.
TH: JEFFERSON
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Discover More
- The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
- The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
- The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.
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