April 27, 1834
We looked at the stores of the company, where eighty thousand dollars worth of merchandise was housed. Several interesting Indian curiosities that I bought had the following prices: 1. one Dacota painted leather shirt, 6 dollars; 2. matching Dacota leggins, 3 dollars; 3. five pipes, 5 dollars; 4. raw pipestone, 1 dollar; 5. a large decorated calumet or medicine pipe, 10 dollars; 6. a pair of Indian pistol holsters, 1 dollar; 7. two long pipestems, 6 dollars; 8. a bow, arrows, and a pipe from Dorion, 5 dollars; 9. a Dacota woman’s skirt, 12 dollars; 10. a Dacota quiver, 1 dollar; and 11. a medicine drum (for a knife from the store, 1 dollar).
At noon twenty horses with [only] one load of meat arrived. They had been away about twenty days. The men of this [hunting] expedition looked like savages.
In the afternoon I took a walk on the prairie. My health permitted this because of [my recent] change of diet, although I was still weak. The early morning weather had been cold—at nine o’clock, 52°F [11.1°C], the wind southeast hora 8— but it soon became very pleasant and warm. The prairie was very pleasantly green. We did not see any birds other than the large lark (Sturnella), which sang. In the plain of the river valley, the bushy plum trees (Prunus) bloomed beautifully; [they looked] like [they were] covered with snow. Some of their leaves [emerge] at the same time [as the blossoms]; their flowers smell like those of the Prunus spinosa in Europe. A little reddish white flower covered the prairie everywhere. It is from the 15th class of Linné. The nice Ribes with yellow flowers also bloomed on the prairie. The Indian horses tethered here now had good, ample fresh fodder. They recover quickly from the hunger period of the severe winter [of] this harsh region. I visited the [tipis] of the Indians, at least fifty of whom had left this morning because of lack of food.
[We had] become so closely acquainted with the Mandans, Hidatsas, and other nations farther up on the Missouri [that] the difference in the Dacota physiognomy was very much evident to us. They have by far less pleasant features [including] usually stronger, protruding cheekbones. Also, their stature is seldom as tall and strong as that of the aforementioned nations. On the other hand, their facial expression is mostly kind and good-natured, more so than that of the Mandans and Hidatsas.