President Thomas Jefferson was deeply curious about the peoples who lived in the West of the unexplored American continent. Rumor was all he had to go on, since only a few white fur traders had ever ventured into the unknown.
According to historian Stephen Ambrose in his book Undaunted Courage, Jefferson speculated that the native American peoples were "wandering Welshmen" or even the lost tribes of Israel. Explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, whom Jefferson commissioned to cross newly acquired western territory after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, met with people who were much more interesting than that.
In the fall of 1804, Lewis and Clark met a Sioux clan in the upper Missouri. The 900-person nomadic group lived in 100 tipi tents and relied on a horse and buffalo economy.
Lewis and Clark were invited to a Sioux council. With much ceremony, they were carried on a decorated buffalo robe to a huge council tipi. Inside the lodge, Ambrose reports that 70 elders and warriors sat in a circle to smoke, and attempted to discuss trade despite language barriers.
Later, the two watched a war dance and commented on the "delightful" music and drums. They feasted on buffalo.
This was the extraordinary beginning of the explorers' encounter with the many and varied peoples of the West. They met the Omaha, the Mandan, Poncas, Oto, Missouri, and more — peoples whose names and ways are still part of the vast canvas of North America.