Lewis & Clark and Leavenworth Monument

Two of the three panels turn on one man's journey home. Sheheke, White Coyote in Mandan and Big White to the Americans, was the main civil chief of Mitutanka when Lewis and Clark wintered nearby. In 1806 he agreed to go east on condition that his wife, his son and the interpreter Rene Jusseaume's family came too. Getting him back took two attempts: Pryor's, turned back in 1807, and a Missouri Fur Company party of 350 men in 1809 under a $10,000 contract. He was killed in the fall of 1812 in a battle with the Hidatsa.

What the plaque says

Here on Sept. 9, 1807 Ensign Nathaniel Pryor attempting to return Big White, Mandan chief, to his people was stopped and had 19 casualties in the first battle with Indians in South Dakota. Here on October 9-12, 1804 Lewis & Clark counciled and sojourned with the Aricara Indians and were again here on their return from the Pacific on August 21-22, 1806 Here on Sept. 12, 1809 Pierre Choteau managed to pass the Aricara with Big White. Here in June - July 1811 Manuel Lisa & Astorians joined forced, pacified and traded with the Aricara. Erected 1951 by kin of Colonel Leavenworth, Mobridge Rotary and Corson County citizens

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sitting Bull and Sakakawea Monuments — 2.8 mi
  A granite head carved by the Crazy Horse sculptor over a grave dug up at Fort Yates by night in 1953, on a bluff above the Missouri on the Standing Rock Reservation.

More markers nearby

• Dedicated to the Indian People in Honor of the "Fool Soldier Band" — steps away
• Jedediah Smith — 2.4 mi
• Sakakawea — 3.0 mi
• The Mickelson Governors — 20 mi