Sheheke: Mandan Indian Diplomat: The Story of White Coyote, Thomas Jefferson, and Lewis and Clark

Potter eloquently tells the story of Sheheke, the Mandan Indian who traveled from North Dakota with Lewis and Clark to meet President Thomas Jefferson in Washington, D.C., in 1806. The story of Sheheke’s life has been too long untold. Sheheke was an ambassador for the Mandan Nation, a consistent friend of the United States, and an important part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In sharing his story, his legacy of kindness, friendship, and courage lives on.

Sheheke "White Coyote"

Sheheke and his people hosted the Corps of Discovery in the winter of 1804-05 and generously told them, “If we eat, you shall eat.” He delivered on that promise by bringing them corn and taking Meriwether Lewis on a buffalo hunt. He helped Clark map the course of the Yellowstone River in Montana and honored Lewis and Clark’s request that the Mandan make peace with their neighbors, the Arikara Indians. And despite the danger of being killed by the Sioux, Sheheke also volunteered to go with Lewis and Clark to Washington to meet the president in 1806.

After that, the stories about White Coyote go astray, possibly due to propaganda. One version states that when Sheheke finally made it home in 1809, he lost rather than gained stature – that his stories of what he had seen out east were so wild that he was branded a liar. To be sure, his stories would have been hard to believe. While the Mandans had horses, they had never seen a wheel, let alone a carriage like the one in which Sheheke rode from Richmond to Washington. White Coyote had also seen ships large enough to cross the Atlantic Ocean – far bigger than Lewis and Clark’s keelboat, which was the largest his people had ever seen.

Stories of Sheheke’s death are also misleading. Some have written that Arikara or Lakota Sioux Indians killed him in 1812 as he returned from the trip he didn’t take to St. Louis. Others say he was killed by the Lakota in an attack on his village in 1832. But he was no longer alive in 1832. Actually, word came to Fort Manuel Lisa on October 2, 1812 that White Coyote had died in the single largest battle ever recorded between the Mandan and Hidatsa. Among the fourteen fatalities were Sheheke and his colleague, Little Crow, the war chief of his village.

About the Author

Tracy Potter received his BA & MA in History from the University of North Dakota.  He was given the Tourism Industry Leader Award in 2005 and the GNDA Tourism Development Award in 1997.  He has presided over the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation and the Northern Plains Heritage Foundation.  He resides in Bismarck with his wife Laura Anhalt their two children.  He has been in the senate since 2007.

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