Soul Stance River - 5

The delegation arrives in a procession of handsome, barbaric lineage rugged in animal accoutrements and subdued in the presence of the future's skin, the women, fine in wild beauty are bejeweled in beads, white and blues that accent their pretty brown bodies like flowered earth they present Clark and I with small parfleches illustrated with rituals of season worship, each containing a fruit and flower particular to each, and watermelons have been brought, I am chagrined because their principal chief, Little Thief is not with them, he is at the homestead, and so we must rely on his deputy, Chief Big Horse to represent and convey our purpose, we commence with a demonstration of regimented military drill steps, our soldiers, attired in full woodland Commando battle dress marching along to the drum and bugle's lust for synchronized storm fury, Big Horse and the Braves seem enamoured by the order and ingenuity of it, upon finishing the presentation of power the keelboat's mounted brass canon is fired into the treeline of the opposite bank exploding the wood with invisible lightning from the God of dissolution himself, to say they are startled is an understatement, I cordially present the Otoe Deputy an American flag which he receives respectfully while Sharp Eyes, whom seems to be a senior warrior wraps the "Stars and Stripes" around his shoulders like a cloak of sorcery, also, several coats of various fabric and color are given with some knives, paints and beads, which are a form of currency amongst the widespread Indian nations, it is my responsibility, Meriwether Lewis, to orate on behalf of the United States of America which are presently seventeen States strong, I must inform these peoples whom have made this land their birthplace, their life and their crypt for millenia that there is a new Great Father for them, for us all in the East, that a revolution in law, trade, religion and warfare is upon them like a new sky which can bring an atmosphere of happiness, or marvelous wrath, cooperation with the United States and it's people is vital for survival, the Otoes shall not impede the pathway or injure any White Man traveling the Missouri or Plains, the Great Father Jefferson also desires that the Otoe maintain friendly relations with all of it's neighboring tribes, we must become branches of the same fruitful tree, we also ask that your Chief Little Thief visit Washington, our capitol next summer, when I finished speaking I gifted the leaders each a Jefferson Peace Medal, the speech was translated through Old Dorion and the French traders and everything indicates that the Otoes understand the situation like brain understands hunger, Big Horse loaded his calumet, carved in the image of a lady hawk, slender and virtuous, we smoked into the night, settled some quaint suspicions and then he asked, if we be so mighty then the U.S. can make peace between his Otoes and their enemies amongst the Pawnee, Omaha and Sioux to which I replied that the Corps of Discovery must move forward with it's primary objective as the sun must journey the horizon without pause and has not the opportunity to settle such things now but that these quarrels will be quelled very soon by the medicine of wisdom, together, our two troupes ate buffalo tongue and drank warm spirits, J.A.B.