Part 83 of a series

FROM TRAVELERS REST on the east side of the Bitterroot Mountains, the Corps took a shorter route to the Missouri River. The previous fall, following President Jefferson's orders to follow the Missouri River to its headwaters, the Corps of Discovery took more than a month to get from Great Falls to the Rocky Mountains. The Indians informed the Corps that from the east side of the Rocky Mountains to the Great Falls on the Missouri was only four days overland on horseback.

Their plan called for a reuniting of all the Corps members (temporarily separated into up to four groups) a month later at the mouth of the Yellowstone, where it flows into the Missouri River.

Communication with the Indians west of the Rockies was by sign language: None of the interpreters knew any Indian language west of the Bitterroots, even Sacagawea. Therefore, all trading and travel direction communication was by sign language between the Corps and the Indians. All Corps members had developed some proficiency with sign lingo after two years on the trail, communicating with more than 50 Indian tribes.

From the Journals, week of July 3, 1806:

JULY 3: "Proceeded down Clark's river seven miles party of nine men and five Indians collecting dry timber for construction of rafts hurried down with the current informed [that the] road lead us up the East branch of Clark's river and a river they called Cokahlarishkit or the river of the road to buffaloe " --Capt. Lewis