Civilization in the Wilderness
A Tale of Adventure on the American Frontier
Read Chapters One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, and Twelve.
Chapter Thirteen
Three men approached the travelers, their hands open to indicate they weren’t holding weapons. They were armed, but their bows remained slung on their backs. The four travelers likewise showed their hands to indicate they didn’t have weapons.
The three men stopped several feet away and one of them spoke in halting English. “You come from the east,” he said. “What do you want?”
“To pass through your lands peacefully,” replied the captain. He said a few words in Mandan, which he had learned from men he had known in his youth. The other man responded in the same language, and confirmed his suspicion that they were on Mandan lands and that the three men hailed from the Mandan tribe. The captain couldn’t say much in the language, and he could understand only a little more, but between the other man’s English and his Mandan, they could hold a conversation.
The other five men looked at each other and tried to communicate via gestures. This only took them so far before they gave up and waited for their leaders to finish speaking. Eventually, the Mandan man, who had identified himself as Tanatsuka turned back to his tribemates and Captain Edwards turned back to his men.
“He tells us that their camp is three miles north of here. They have a fort where they hole up for the winter. The Corps of Discovery spent the winter there a few years ago and that is how he knows English.”
“Are they going to let us pass through peacefully?” asked Daniel.