Thomas Jefferson Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-43-02-0561

From Thomas Jefferson to Henry Dearborn, 29 June 1804

To Henry Dearborn

June 29. 04.

Th:J. to Genl. Dearborne

The inclosed papers came in the letter from Capt Lewis which I sent you: but not having been able to read this till last night they are now sent, and are interesting.—I cannot make out whether the party of Osages who were killed were some of those deputed to us. if they were not, it would carry us farther into Indian concerns, than we would wish to go, to take serious notice of it. if the Kickapoos meditated to attack the Osage deputation while under the care & accompanied by an officer of ours, it may be proper to let them know we should have noticed it very seriously. affectionate salutations.

RC (PHi); endorsed by Dearborn with the date 30 June. PrC (DLC). Notation in SJL: “Osages. Kickapoos.” Enclosures: see below.

A letter of 19 May from Meriwether Lewis, recorded in SJL as received 28 June, has not been found. It may have enclosed the list of articles compiled by Lewis and William Clark that is printed above at 18 May. The articles accompanied the delegation of osages then en route to Washington. Lewis may have also enclosed information related to an attack on a group of Osages who were traveling to St. Louis. In a letter of 3 June to Dearborn, Amos Stoddard reported that warriors of the Sac and Fox tribes fired on a boat carrying some Osages, killing several and taking others captive. According to Stoddard, the attackers had intended to intercept the Osage chiefs who were to accompany Pierre Chouteau to Washington but “accidentally fell in with the boat already mentioned” (Jackson, Lewis and Clark description begins Donald Jackson, ed., The Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, with Related Documents, 1783-1854, 2d ed., Urbana, Ill., 1978 description ends , 1:196-8).

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