Encounters
During the early fur-trading days, many French traders married Dakota Indian women. The children born to them were called Metis. They were proud of both their Indian and French heritage.
The most famous explorers to encounter the Dakota Indiands were Lewis and Clark. They spent their first winter with the Mandan and the Hidatsa Indians at a fort they built called Fort Mandan. It was here they met Sacajawea; it is said without her help the expedition would have failed.