Invaluable Horses

On April 20th, 1806, William Clark wrote:

This morning very Cold hills covered with Snow. I Showed the natives what I had to give for their horses and attempted to purchase them. they informed me that they would not Sell any horses to me, that their horses were a long ways off and they would not trade them. my offer was a blue robe, Callico Shirt, a handkerchief, 5 parcels of paint a Knife, a wampom moon 4 braces of ribin, a pice of Brass and about 6 braces of yellow beeds; and to that amount for what I had I also offered my large blue blanket for one, my Coat Sword & Plume none of which Seem to entice those people to give horses if they had any. (Clark, from Moulton V.7, 147)

In the next two entries, you will see that there seemed to exist a mutual feeling of fear and distrust between the Corps and the Indians. What contributed to this? What exacerbated it? What could have been done differently?

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