Shrewd Dealers

On December 20th, 1805, William Clark wrote:

3 Indians came with Lickorish Sackacomie berries & mats to Sell, for which they asked Such high prices that we did not purchase any of them,-- Those people ask double & tribble the value of every thing they have to Sell, and never take less than the full value of any thing, they prise onmly Blue & white beeds, files fish hooks and Tobacco-- Tobacco and Blue beeds principally. (Clark, from Moulton V.6, 133-4)

On December 30th, 1805, William Clark wrote:

...four Indians came down from the War cia cum Village, they offered us roots which we did not think proper to accept of as in return they expect 3 or 4 times as much as the roots as we Could purchase the Roots for, and are never Satisfied with what they receive, those 4 Indians & these that Came yesterday Stayed all day. (Clark, from Moulton V.6, 145)

"Motley Crew"
Dick Basch

"We saw them arriving at the Lower Columbia being just a mess. They had very little food, their clothes were falling off of them, they had these canoes that were pretty pathetic for use in our waters. Our people found Lewis and Clark to be a kind of pathetic motley group. They didn't have much food, their clothes were just about rotting right off of them, they didn't have a lot to trade."

"We had been used to trading with ships that had been coming into the mouth of the Columbia River and were used to pretty expensive goods. Lewis and Clark really didn't have a lot to offer by the time they got to us." (Dick Basch interview, 2003)

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