Treaty: Fort Clark, 1808
With the lands of the Louisiana Purchas bought (1803) and explored (1804-1806), it was time to decide how to deal with the various tribes who inhabited them. Due to their experience with many of the tribes in the region, both William Clark and Meriwether Lewis were among the first Indian Agents appointed west of the Mississippi. It was Meriwether Lewis who, working through French trader Pierre Chouteau, conducted the first treaty parleys with the Osage. Pierre Chouteau had taken a delegation of Osage leaders to meet with President Jefferson in Washington in 1804, while Lewis and Clark were still gearing up for their expedition. Jefferson recognized that Individual tribes would be subject to exploitation by the burgeoning fur trade business and moved to take control of the situation. He wanted to establish a trading post to conduct trade with the Osage. In 1808, Meriwether Lewis led a party of soldiers to what became Fort Osage and later Fort Clark n...