Fort Thompson, S.D. ? A project by a team of history buffs to retrace Lewis and Clark’s expedition has proved historically accurate in at least one respect: The adventurers have encountered hostile Indians.

A group of about 25 Indians told the expedition members to turn their boats around and go home last week as they made their way up the Missouri River near Chamberlain, where the rolling prairie opens to a grand vista on the banks of the river.

The Indians condemned the re-enactors for celebrating a journey that marked the beginning of the end for traditional Indian culture.

The confrontation was laced with threatening language, according to the man who portrays Capt. Meriwether Lewis.

“They crossed the line with threats of physical violence and damage to our boats,” Scott Mandrell, a teacher from Illinois, said this week as police watched over the re-enactors’ camp from a bay nearby.

The Indians were led by Alex White Plume of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, who said they wanted to make the point that the re-enactment is glorifying the expansion that resulted in broken treaties, genocide and loss of Indian lands.

“Lewis and Clark brought the death and destruction of our way of life,” White Plume said Thursday from his home in Manderson, where he raises buffalo, horses and hemp.

The modern-day explorers began their expedition on Aug. 23 in St. Charles, Mo., to mark the journey’s bicentennial.

Just as Meriwether Lewis and William Clark did 200 years ago, the 33-man, modern-day crew wears 1800s-era garb, cooks under an open fire, and has fished for some of their food.

The Indians said they would continue peaceful protests, and expedition members said they would not alter their course.

The journey will end for the season on Nov. 4 near Bismarck, N.D., then resume next year.

Forty tribal governments belong to an advisory group for the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, and they have endorsed the re-enactment as a means of spreading the Indian perspective on exploration, said Sammye Meadows, cultural awareness coordinator for the council.

White Plume said he was not convinced that the re-enactors were the best choice to relate Indian history.

“I believe they are honorable men, but what they represent is irritating,” he said. “How can we allow Lewis and Clark to tell our story when they’re the ones who brought death and genocide to our people?”