Although the preceding notes may not be very accurate, nevertheless they are of interest on account of the period they cover, just before the transfer of Louisiana to the United States, and two years before the most important expedition ascended the Missouri.
To trace the sites of early Arikara villages as mentioned by Lewis and Clark, and as seen by them when the expedition under their command passed up the Missouri during the early autumn of 1804, is most interesting. On September 29 of that year they reached the mouth of a small creek which entered the Missouri from the south, "which we called Notimber creek from its bare appearance. Above the mouth of this stream, a Ricara band of Pawnees had a village five years ago: but there are no remains of it except the mound which encircled the town." This would have been in the present Stanley County, South Dakota. Two days later, on October 1, they "passed a large island in the middle of the river, opposite the lower end of which the Ricaras once had a village on the south side of the river: there are, however, no remnants of it now, except a circular wall three or four feet in height, which encompassed the town." Two miles beyond was the mouth of the Cheyenne River.
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[Illustration: _a._ Arikara carrying basket. (U.S.N.M. 8430)]
[Illustration: _b._ Wooden mortar. "Witchata Inds. Dr. E. Palmer." Height of body 13-1/2 inches. (U.S.N.M. 6899)]
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On the third day after passing the mouth of the Cheyenne they reached "Teal creek," and "A little above this is an island on the north side of the current, about one and a half mile in length and three quarters of a mile in breadth. In the centre of this island is an old village of the Ricaras, called Lahoocat; it was surrounded by a circular wall, containing seventeen lodges. The Ricaras are known to have lived there in 1797, and the village seems to have been deserted about five years since: it does not contain much timber."
On October 6, two days' travel beyond Teal Creek, and at a distance of about 32 miles above it, "We halted for dinner at a village which we suppose to have belonged to the Ricaras: it is situated in a low plain on the river, and consists of about eighty lodges, of an octagonal form, neatly covered with earth, and placed as close to each other as possible, and picketed round. The skin canoes, mats, buckets, and articles of furniture found in the lodges, induce us to suppose that it had been left in the spring. We found three different sorts of squashes growing in the village; we also killed an elk near it, and saw two wolves." On the following day, after advancing about 4 or 5 miles, they encountered "another village or wintering camp of the Ricaras, composed of about sixty lodges, built in the same form as those passed yesterday, with willow and straw mats, baskets, buffalo-skin canoes, remaining entire in the camp."