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President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Territory , to seek a route to the Pacific Ocean , and to make peaceable contact with the native peoples. Lewis and Clark left May 14, 1804, from St. Louis and arrived at the Pacific in November, 1805. They returned to St. Louis on September 23, 1806, having traveled more than 8000 miles in two years, four months, and nine days. It was just about where this picture was taken that Private George Shannon, who had been lost for more than two weeks, rejoined the expedition as it was on its way up the river. Believing he was behind the party young Shannon had hurried to catch up with the keelboat when actually he was ahead of it. Eventually, Shannon used all of his ammunition and was subsisting on grapes. Weak and tired, he was waiting by the shore for a trading boat to find him when the party arrived. William Clark's journal for September 11, 1804, states:

here the Man who left us with the horses 22 [actually 16] days ago and has been a head ever since joined us nearly Starved to Death, he had been 12 days without any thing to eate but Grapes & one Rabit, which he Killed by shooting a piece of hard Stick in place of a ball. ....Thus a man had like to have Starved to death in a land of Plenty for the want of Bullitts or Something to kill his meat.

Sitting Bull

Photo: the monument on top of Chief Sitting Bull's grave on a hillside overlooking the Missouri River, across the river from Mobridge, South Dakota and on the reservation of the Standing Rock Nation.

The wording on a monument at the base of the mound:

1834-1890. Indian name: Tatanka Iyotake. Sitting Bull was born on the Grand River a few miles west of here. His tragic end came at the very place he was born. He was shot when being arrested because of his alleged involvement with the Ghost Dance craze. Sitting Bull was originally buried at Fort Yates, North Dakota. On April 8, 1953, surviving relatives with the aid of the Dakota Memorial Association moved his remains to the present location and dedicated the memorial burial site April 11, 1953. In 1876 he was victorious at the Battle of Little Big Horn. In 1877 he sought asylum in Canada. In 1881 he returned to the United States, and in 1885 he toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show .