October 13, 1804
One member of the expedition, John Newman, was confined for making ‘mutinous expression’. A court martial was formed and Newman was sentenced to 75 lashes and discharged. Lewis and Clark came across several traders on route. Many were Frenchmen however they also came across an Englishman. One of the Frenchmen, Jean Baptiste Lepage, became a permanent member of the expedition as a replacement for Newman.

November 2, 1804
Lewis and Clark found the place that they decided would be their winter camp. As it was near to the Mandan Indians, they named it Fort Mandan. They began felling trees and laying out the camp.

November 4, 1804
A French Canadian named, Toussaint Charbonnau, approached the camp with his two ‘Snake Indian’ (Shoshone) wives. Lewis and Clark hired him with one of his wives, Sacagawea, to interpret the Shoshone language. Sacagawea had been kidnapped by the Hidatsa Indians as a child and sold to the Mandans as a Slave. The rest of November and December was spent building the camp, repairing equipment, hunting and trading with the Indians. The blacksmiths were particularly busy making and mending battle axes for the Indians in return for corn, beans and dried meat.

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