Estimate of Eastern Indians Page 3 of 4 t Fort Clatsop during
the winter of 1804-05, in compliance with the President's
orders, the captains developed a "List of the Names of the
different Nations & Tribes of Indians Inhabiting the Countrey on
the Missourie and its Waters." It was a prodigious task,
involving the reiteration of 19 questions to Indian informants
and Euro-American traders concerning some 72 tribes known or
believed to reside within the boundaries of the Louisiana
Purchase, including 19 southern tribes, that were characterized
by from 4 to 7 points. While they discussed many of the tribes
and bands in fuller detail elsewhere in the journals, a few were
mentioned only in this chart, which is commonly referred to as
the "Estimate of the Eastern Indians" meaning east of the Rocky
Mountains. The captains carried out their research through a
two-way chain of interpreters English-to-French-to-Indian
language, or perhaps English-to-Drouillard's-signing-to-Indian
language. Sometimes the linguistic chain