Helm Arrives with Gifts
Before Helm’s journey to Vincennes, Clark had been informed that a great Piankashaw Indian Chief sometimes called Tobacco's Son resided in a village near Vincennes. Clark writes that he “discovered that to win him was an object of great importance.” Therefore, he sent Helm with gifts and a letter of introduction for him to deliver once he arrived. On October 15th, François Busseron’s records that Helm bought and gave a gift “To Tobacco, chief of the Indians...2 silk handkerchiefs...25 livres.” After meeting with the Helm and a larger Indian Council, Tobacco's Son agreed to support the Americans and have his people stop attacking American settlers.
The tobacco pipe fragment (in the upper right-hand corner of the picture) was discovered at Fort Sackville by archaeologists in the 1970s. Pipes like these would have been used in ceremonies to establish alliances between American Indians and Europeans. During these events, both parties confirmed their loyalty to each other by smoking the same pipe. Perhaps a pipe similar to this was shared between Captain Helm and Tobacco's Son (a great Piankashaw Chief in the area) shortly after Helm’s arrival, securing for Clark “a zealous friend to the day of his death.”