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BUSHNELL] VILLAGES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 15 
And on the following day: “ The ceremony of yesterday seem to con- 
tinue still, for we were not visited by a single Indian. The swan are 
still passing to the south.” (Lewis and Clark, (1), I, p. 127.) 
As will be recalled, the expedition under command of Lewis and 
Clark wintered near the Mandan towns, and on April 7, 1805, pro- 
ceeded on their journey up the Missouri. On the 18th of April they 
arrived at a small creek which entered the Missouri about 20 miles 
above the mouth of the Little Missouri They ascended the creek 
and at a distance of about 14 miles reached a pond “ which seemed to 
have been once the bed of the Missouri: near this lake were the re- 
mains of forty-three temporary lodges which seem to belong to the 
Assiniboins, who are now on the river of the same name.” The fol- 
lowing day, April 14, 1805, after advancing about 15 miles beyond 
the creek entered on the 15th, “ we passed timbered low grounds and 
a small creek: in these low grounds are several uninhabited lodges 
built with the boughs of the elm, and the remains of two recent 
encampments, which from the hoops of small kegs found in them we 
judged could belong to Assiniboins only, as they are the only Mis- 
souri Indians who use spirituous liquors: of these they are so pas- 
sionately fond that it forms their chief inducement to visit the British 
on the Assiniboin.” (Lewis and Clark, (1), I, pp. 185-186.) 
During the days following many Assiniboin camps were dis- 
covered. 
From these brief statements recorded in 1804 and 1805 it will be 
understood that when a large party of the Assiniboin moved, or 
when on a visit to another tribe, they carried with them their skin 
lodges, but when on a hunting trip they raised temporary shelters of 
brush and boughs, and the same custom was undoubtedly followed by 
war parties. 
Evidently the establishment in after years of posts of the Ameri- 
ean Fur Company at certain points along the course of the upper Mis- 
souri served to attract bands of the Assiniboin as well as representa- 
tives of other tribes. Several interesting accounts of the arrival of 
such parties at Fort Union, near the mouth of the Yellowstone, are 
preserved. Thus Maximilian wrote when at the fort, June 29, 1833: 
“The expected arrival of more Assiniboins was delayed; they do not 
willingly travel with their leather tents in wet weather, because their 
baggage then becomes very heavy. . . On the 30th of June, at noon, 
a band of Indians had arrived, and twenty-five tents were set up near 
the fort. The women, who were short, and mostly stout, with faces 
painted red, soon finished this work, and dug up with their instru- 
ments the clods of turf, which they lay round the lower part of the 
hut. One of these tents, the dwelling of a chief, was distinguished 
from the rest. It was painted of the colour of yellow ochre, had a 
