Mandan Pots

http://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/50-3/Mitchell.pdf

These pots are unusual for their unique two-rim openings and the beautiful details. Click on the picture for more information. It's a .pdf file and may take awhile to load but it's worth it if you're curious about this exquisite art form.

Sending home the artifacts

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/12.11/05-lewisclark.html

When Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery left Fort Mandan, they didn't take everything with them. In fact, they loaded the keelboat with artifacts to be sent back to St. Louis and shipped to Thomas Jefferson. Included in the artifacts was a painted buffalo robe (above) depicting a battle between the Sioux and Arikaras against the Mandans. This robe currently resides at Harvard University. 

Here is a list of things that went aboard the keelboat with Corporal Warfington and his crew back down the Mississippi:

• Lewis's dried plant specimens 
• Lewis's "Summary View of Rivers and Creeks"
• Lewis's "Summary Statement of Rivers, Creeks and Most Remarkable Places"
• Maps
• William Clark's journal
• Seargean Charles Floyd's journal
• Mineral specimens
• Astronomical and weather data
• Muster rolls
• Accounting records 
• Skins, bones, antlers, stuffed animals
• Four live magpies
• One live sharp-tailed grouse
• One live prairie dog
• Clark's description of tribes east of the Rocky Mountains they had met
• Four boxes and three turnks of Indian artifacts that included a painted buffalo robe, bows and arrows, and a cooking pot.

At Monticello, Thomas Jefferson displayed some of the artifacts in a wing of his home he called "Indian Hall."

http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/indian-hall