Peter's up the Missouri River from St. Louis"(Brown), which most of Historians agree with. However, this steamboat was not owned by military infirmary, but a company that was trading fur. It carried smallpox inside and appeared "among the southern-most tribes along the river" (Brown) before it actually speared out to the "Mandans at Fort Clark and tribes north" (Brown). Pilcher, who was "the Indian Bureau's sub-agent to the Sioux" (Brown), sent a report to his superior, William Clark, and it said that "the disease was carried by a number of sick passengers on board" (Brown) and he segregated those Indians who may risk getting this disease after he realized the great magnitude of it, and also he suggested to distribute the Vaccination as experiment (Brown). Another sub-agent besides Pilcher,William Fulkerson, sent a letter to William Clark claimed that "both before and after the trip complain that the government had not allocated funds for this annual gifts to Fulkerson's tribes" (Brown). In Fulkerson's corroboration, Captain Pratte, who owned this boat and from another company, "refused to stop or turn back to interfered with his delivery of trade goods because of the disease"(Brown). I think if he was determined to go back to fix this problem, the smallpox may not killed so many Indians because the hospital can study the vaccination rather than let it go free in the numerous Indian area westward, but he just considered the benefit of his company and the people on the ship which is selfish and timid. Although Captain Pratte made a bad decision, the problem still could have been fixed if the government or military infirmary showed their actions and sent the doctors to the tribes. However, there is no evidence of it because they didn't think it was a big deal at the beginning. Later on Fulkseson told a story about "an Indian sneaking aboard the steamboat and stealing an infested blanket from a sick passenger" (Brown), and Chardon, who is a trader commanded Fort Clark, told the same story; nevertheless, on the other hand, Pilcher told a different story.