November 11, 1806

Leaving for Frankfort

When traveling between Louisville and Frankfort, William Clark and his extended family traditionally spent their first night at Col. Andersons—William Clark’s brother-in-law. His first wife was Elizabeth Clark—sister of William and his brother George Rogers Clark. Like the elder brother, Anderson earned a distinguished record during the Revolutionary War. In 1789, he established Soldier’s Retreat in the vicinity of the present Hurstbourne Country Club.

For the delegations traveling with Lewis on this day, see The Osage Delegations and Sheheke’s Delegation.

Approaching Comanche Country (Pike)

Marched at the usual hour. Passed two old, and one last summer, camps which had belonged to the savages, and we suppose Tetaus. Passed a Spanish camp where it appeared they remained some days as we conjectured to lay up meat, previously to entering the Tetau country, as the buffalo evidently began to grow much less numerous.
—Zebulon Pike^[1]Donald Jackson, The Journals of Zebulon Montgomery Pike (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966), 1:344.

Tetau is likely a corruption of Laytan—a common variant used by French traders when referring to the Comanches. In their Estimate of Eastern Indians, Lewis and Clark called them Alitan and Aliatans. Comanches speak a Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan family—and share a common ancestry with Sacagawea‘s People—the Shoshones.^[2]Douglas R. Parks, Handbook of North American Indians: Plains Vol. 13, ed. Raymond J. DeMallie (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 2001), 886, 902–3.

Another Year Needed

Finding the impossibility of performing the voyage in the time proposed, I determined to spare no pains to accomplish every object even should it oblige me to spend another winter, in the desert. Killed one buffalo, one brelaw [badger]. Distance 24 miles.
—Zebulon Pike^[3]Jackson, Journals, 1:344.