Indians

The Corps of Discovery communicated with the Indians in many ways. They communicated by sign language, through translators, and by drawing pictures on the ground. They had to communicate with the Indians in order to survive. If they didn't communicate they wouldn’t have been able to trade or make peace with them. They needed the materials that the Indians had such as food, wood, horses, and guides. When the expedition encountered a new Indian tribe they presented a ritual. The members of the corps would shoot their guns to signal that they were coming. Then they presented their gifts to the tribes’ chiefs. Some of the gifts they gave were Peace Medals and American Flags. After all this was done they told the chiefs that they had a new father, Thomas Jefferson.

Their main way of communicating was to translate the English message into the Indians language. Lewis and Clark told Labiche, a private of Lewis and Clark’s, the message in English. He was helpful in communicating with the Indians because he spoke both English and French. Then Labiche told Toussaint Charbonneau the message in French. Then he told his wife Sacagawea the message in Hidatsa which she understood and translated to the Indians in her native tongue Shoshone.

One of the members, George Drouillard, a trapper and hunter, was very helpful when it came to communicating with the Indians using sign language. Another person who helped the expedition communicate was Pierre Dorion, a French-Canadian fur trader, who helped the expedition communicate with the Yankton Sioux.