Conflict with the Piegans

This excerpt from the journal of Meriwether Lewis describes a fatal conflict members of the Corps of Discovery had with a group of Piegan Indians on July 27, 1806. It is taken from Reuben Gold Thwaites’s 1905 edition of the Lewis and Clark journals.

On July 26, a four-man contingent led by Lewis made contact with a group of eight young Piegan warriors near Two Medicine River, at the eastern edge of the present-day Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Although their initial meeting was tense, Lewis took up the Piegans’ offer to share their camp that evening. At dawn the next morning, the explorers awoke to find that the Indians had stolen their rifles and had slipped away before Joseph Fields, who was on watch, noticed what was happening. Fields raised the alarm, waking his brother Reuben, who gave chase. Reuben grappled with a Piegan named Side Hill Calf, grabbed his rifle back, then sunk a large knife into the man's chest, killing him almost instantly.