Fiddles and Dances.

In the late fall of 1804, as Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reached the Mandans and Minitaris in what is now North Dakota, the expedition paused to build winter quarters. While passing the winter months, the men of the expedition traded with the Indians, hunted, gathered wood, and repaired their equipment. They also spent many evenings enjoying music. On Christmas Day 1804 Clark's journal records that one of the rooms of the winter fort was "prepared for dancing, which was kept up until 8 p.m." The explorers celebrated New Year's Day with dancing, joined by the Mandans and accompanied by fiddles and tambourines. Indeed, Pierre Cruzatte, a fiddler and trader on the Missouri River, joined the expedition for the sole purpose of providing entertainment. According to the journals, the men of the expedition, no matter how fatigued, always enjoyed square...