Council Room

The Council Room.

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Amenities

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Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Tactile Exhibit

This room is where the company hosted Indian leaders. During these councils, the gathering was "flavored" by speech making and the graceful movements of sign language. An English traveler named George Ruxton at the fort in 1847 described how Chiefs "sit...in solemn conclave...and smoke the "calumet" (Peace Pipe)...." He observed that trades were settled amid "...clouds of tobacco and kinnik-kinnik." Often, the fort's interpreters John Smith and William Guerrier would rise before the assembly to translate the words of Cheyenne and Arapaho into English. Also in the council room sat kettles of coffee stacks of tobacco twists, each considered appropriate presents to give Chiefs.