From Clark's journal, September 1804 "Three Souex boys Came to us Swam the river and informd. that the Band of Seauex called the Tetongues of 80 Lodges were Camped at the next Creek above, & 60 Lodges more a Short distance above, we gave those boys two Carrots of Tobacco to Carry to their Chiefs, with directions to tell them that we would Speek to them tomorrow."
At Fort Mandan during the winter of 1804–05, the local Indians graciously offered the Corps some of their own fragrant "tobacco." Sergeant Gass 
was to remark in his journal that the Indian tobacco was good enough for smoking, but not good for chewing.
On Christmas morning, 1805, the captains made the dreary day a little more festive by distributing a few carrots of tobacco among the users (the seven non-users received new handkerchiefs). One way of stretching it was to mix it with the leaves and bark of the bearberry plant, or the bark of the wild crabapple or red willow, but they contained no nicotine whatsoever.
Upon departure from Fort Clatsop, the need for rationing was all the more urgent inasmuch as their stores of tobacco were extremely valuable for trade and diplomatic negotiations with the Indians. Lewis had to cut off the men's rations entirely, which condemned them to "suffer much for the want of it." When Clark and his contingent arrived back at Camp Fortunate on the Beaverhead River in July of that year, the addicts didn't even take time to unsaddle their horses before clawing at the cache where they had stored some on the way out.