Meriwether and William or Lewis and Clark

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1 Chapter 10 Meriwether and William or Lewis and Clark President Thomas Jefferson chose Meriwether Lewis (above, right) and William Clark (above, left) to lead an expedition into the unknown western lands that the United States bought from France. Their bold expedition went from the Mississippi River all the way to the Pacific Ocean and back. President Jefferson asked Meriwether Lewis to be his secretary. That didn t make much sense. Lewis was a terrible speller. Clearly, Jefferson had another reason for having Lewis around. He wanted to train him for an exploring mission. Thomas Jefferson was filled with curiosity about the West. He wanted to know about its land and its plants and animals; he wanted to know about the Indians who lived there. Are you ever curious about space and distant galaxies? The West was as unknown in 1803 as much of outer space is now. Meriwether Lewis was born in Virginia s wooded piedmont. He became a captain in the Virginia militia. As a soldier he learned the ways of the Indians and how to survive in the wilderness. Lewis was a dreamer and a thinker, and, like Thomas Jefferson, a careful observer who loved the land and its birds and animals. Just as we train astronauts today for voyages into the unexplored world, so, too, did President Jefferson see that Meriwether Lewis was trained in the scientific methods of the day. Lewis learned to gather seeds and identify bones. Benjamin Rush one of the most famous scientists in America taught him how to preserve bird and animal specimens. Lewis s mother had medical skills; from her he learned to take care of himself and others. William Clark was to be his partner in command. Together they prepared for a very difficult expedition. They chose men who were used to living in the wild. They trained them until they were tough and disciplined. When a man fell asleep on guard duty, he was whipped. You can be sure he wouldn t fall asleep again. Some people say it was the best-organized exploration of all time. I m not going to go that far, but it was pretty terrific. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark knew what they were about. They explored that big unknown land that the United States had just bought from France the territory of Louisiana and they even crossed the Oregon Country. They went all the way from the Mississippi River to the 32 Part 1 The New Nation

2 Pacific Ocean and back. It was dangerous country, with unexpectedly high mountains, difficult deserts, fierce animals, and wary Indians. They had prepared for danger, but they weren t quite prepared for the beauty: for the colors of wildflowers, the brilliance of sunsets on snowy mountain peaks, the sweet smell of prairie grass. If only we could have been with them. They saw a world that would soon be gone forever. They saw birds and animals no white or black men had seen before they saw woolly mountain goats and big-horn sheep and bright-plumed western woodpeckers. They dug up the bones of a 45-foot dinosaur. Wherever they went they took careful notes, made maps, wrote down vocabulary lists of Indian words, and collected samples of strange plants and animals. They added 200 species to the world s list of known plants. The Native Americans taught them to use some of those plants as medicines, some as foods. If ever you need a partner for an adventure, try to find someone with abilities different from your own. Someone not like you but whom you respect and enjoy. Lewis and Clark were not alike. That was what made them such a great team; their abilities complemented each other. The young Shoshone woman Sacajawea acted as a translator and guide for Lewis and Clark. Chapter 10 Meriwether and William or Lewis and Clark 33

3 The Louisiana Purchase, 1803 as River MASSACHUSETTS RHODE ISLAND ee k CONNECTICUT La PENNSYLVANIA NEW JERSEY OHIO DELAWARE MARYLAND ri VIRGINIA KENTUCKY TENNESSEE NORTH CAROLINA SOUTH CAROLINA MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY GEORGIA Natchitoches io Gran NEW YORK NEW HAMPSHIRE FLORIDA (SPAIN) O C E A N ka ns Lake Ontario MAINE (part of Mass.) A T L A N T I C Ar R INDIANA TERRITORY uron eh do La k St. Louis Gulf of Mexico 500 mi 500 km r Rive ri 250 LOUISIANA PURCHASE er Riv VERMONT de Miss ou S I N T A U N M O A N O C E Louisiana Purchase United States and territories Oregon Country Lewis and Clark Lewis and Clark Lewis 1806 Clark 1806 Pike Winter camp Lake Michigan Fort Mandan ra lo Co 0 up ke S erior La e r Rive r bia R i ve Y C K R O P A C I F I C lu m Ri Missis sip pi Co C olu m b i a ve Fort Clatsop C ANADA ( B R I TA I N ) r OREGON COUNTRY NEW SPAIN ( S PA N I S H M E X I CO) The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States. As long ago as the days of de Soto and Verrazzano and John Smith, explorers had been looking for a water route across North America a Northwest Passage. Lewis and Clark s expedition was the last official attempt to find that Northwest Passage until the 20th century, when submarines found it under the ice of the far north. 34 Part 1 Meriwether Lewis was a quiet, shy man. He liked being in the wilderness, away from civilization. He liked science and was a fine thinker, but sometimes he was moody. William Clark was a happy, good-natured, talkative person. He loved nature and the outdoors, but he also liked to be around people. Clark knew how to draw maps, and the actual maps he drew on that journey are now at Yale University. Like Lewis, he had been a soldier and was a Virginian. Clark was 34 that spring of 1804 when they headed out into the unknown West. Lewis was four years younger. President Jefferson wanted to know all about the Native Americans who inhabited the land; he wanted Lewis and Clark to establish The New Nation

4 friendships with the Indians and prepare for trade with them. Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin asked that they find out whether that country is susceptible of a large population, which is an old-fashioned way of asking: Can lots of people live in the West? Lewis and Clark went up the Missouri River on a 55-foot flatboat and two narrow canoes. The boat held 21 bales of gifts for the Indians: beads, ribbons, mirrors, cooking pots, and tools, as well as food and supplies for the expedition. They moved slowly, mapping, exploring, and hunting as they went. They wrote about their many adventures in the daily journals they kept for the president. (You can find copies of the journals of Lewis and Clark in most libraries.) They knew that the source of the Missouri River would be found in mountain streams. So they were prepared to climb mountains. On the other side of the mountains they thought they would find new rivers leading to the Pacific. Well, they were right sort of. They found mountains, but not the kind of mountains they expected. They were used to the time-worn Appalachians. They weren t prepared for the awesome, towering Rocky Mountains. They called them the stone mountains. And the The President s Instructions Here is part of the instructions Jefferson sent to Meriwether Lewis: The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River and communicate with the water of the Pacific Ocean. Beginning at the mouth of the Missouri, you will take observations of latitude and longitude at all remarkable points on the river. Your observations are to be taken with great pains and accuracy, to be entered distinctly and intelligibly for others as well as yourself to comprehend. Other objects worthy of notice will be: the soil and face of the country, its growth and vegetable productions the animals of the country generally, and especially those not known in the U.S.; the remains and accounts of any which may be deemed rare or extinct; the mineral productions of every kind volcanic appearances; climate as characterized by the thermometer, by the proportion of rainy, cloudy, and clear days, by lightning, hail, snow, ice, by the access and recess of frost, by the winds prevailing at different seasons, the dates at which particular plants put forth or lose their flowers, or leaf, times of appearance of particular birds, reptiles, or insects. Lewis and Clark used dugout canoes, each made from a single tree trunk, as they moved up the Missouri River. Rivers flow from their source to their mouth. The source of a river is its beginning portion usually a mountain stream. The mouth of a river is the place where it flows into another river or into the ocean. Chapter 10 Meriwether and William or Lewis and Clark 35

5 The men of the Lewis and Clark expedition had never seen towering mountains like the Rockies. (This view of Lander s Peak in Wyoming was painted by Albert Bierstadt about 60 years after Lewis and Clark s explorations.) Lewis and Clark captured to send back to President Jefferson blackbilled magpies, just one of over 300 species of plants and animals they identified for the scientific community. rivers going west weren t where they thought they would find them. They had to cross deserts to get to them. That wasn t all. They were surprised by rattlesnakes, bears, and mountain lions. But there were unexpected pleasures, too. They feasted on beaver tails, buffalo humps, and deer and elk steaks. They were stunned by the endless herds of buffalo. They captured four black-and-white magpies, put them in cages, and sent them back down the river with other bird, animal, and plant specimens for President Jefferson. Meriwether Lewis thought the caged birds were butifull. A man named York was an important member of the Lewis and Clark team. York was Clark s black slave. He was taller than six feet and an excellent swimmer, hunter, and trapper. The Indians were awed by York; most had never seen a black man before. Indian warriors often painted their bodies with charcoal. It was a mark of success in battle. So when they saw strong, charcoal-skinned York, they thought him the mightiest of men. York trekked, hunted, and risked his life for the expedition. (When they returned home, York asked for his freedom. Clark would not grant it.) 36 Part 1 The New Nation

6 Even with all their training, Lewis and Clark might not have been successful at least, they might not have gotten to the West Coast if it hadn t been for a woman, an Indian woman named Sacajawea (sakuh-juh-we-uh). They met her when they built a camp and settled down for the winter in present-day North Dakota. Sacajawea was 16 and married to a Frenchman. She was about to have a baby; everyone was excited about that. When the baby was born she named him Jean Baptiste, for his father, but called him Pompey. In the spring, when Lewis and Clark were ready to start out again, they hired Sacajawea s husband as a translator of Indian languages. Sacajawea came along with her baby strapped to her back. (Years later, Pompey became a well-known western guide.) But it was Sacajawea who turned out to be the helpful one; her no-good husband was lazy. After following the Missouri River to its source, Lewis and Clark finally realized that there was no way to cross the continent by water. There are more statues of Sacajawea than of any other woman in American history. This one stands on the grounds of North Dakota s state capitol in Bismarck. Lewis and Clark, with Sacajawea, York, and others on the Lower Columbia River where it approaches the Pacific Ocean Chapter 10 Meriwether and William or Lewis and Clark 37

7 An unexpected happy reunion took place when Lewis and Clark met with the Shoshone, the tribe from which Sacajawea had been kidnapped as a child. By now it was late summer. They had to get out of the mountains before winter; otherwise they might freeze or starve, and that would be the end of President Jefferson s exploration team. They needed horses in order to continue. Would Indians sell them horses? Things didn t look good. Then some Shoshones came to their camp. (Shoshone means valley dweller. ) As soon as Sacajawea saw the Shoshone leader, she burst into tears. It was her brother, Ca-meah-wait. When she was a child, Sacajawea had been kidnapped from this very tribe. The white men had brought her home. Ca-me-ah-wait was so happy that he hugged Meriwether Lewis. Lewis and Clark got their horses. Pikes Peak In 1806, a young army officer named Zebulon Montgomery Pike headed west from St. Louis on an exploring mission. It was the same year Lewis and Clark returned from their trip. They had gone northwest; Pike went southwest. Traveling along the Arkansas River into Colorado, he came upon a towering mountain that loomed straight up from the level plain. Pike tried to climb it but failed. Zebulon Pike wrote about his adventures. People were fascinated with his account, especially with his description of an enchanting and rich little Spanish town named Santa Fe. The mountain Pike never climbed was named Pikes Peak in his honor. American traders began itching to get to Santa Fe, that rich Spanish town. Soon, traders were loading their wagons and heading west on a route called the Santa Fe Trail. 38 Part 1 The New Nation

8 A Monumental Journey Almost three decades before Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark on their expedition, Spanish explorers were charting the West. On July 29, 1776, two Catholic friars and eight other men set out to find a way across New Spain from Santa Fe (in New Mexico) to Monterey (on the coast of California). They were without noise of arms, which means they didn t have guns. They were taking a chance, but Silvestre Veléz de Escalante, who was 25 and kept a diary of their journey, said guns usually terrify the tribes. This expedition, said Spanish-born Escalante, was in God s hands. Francisco Atanasio Dominguez, 36 and Mexicanborn, agreed. With leather bags stuffed with necessities, 10 pack mules carrying supplies to trade with the Indians, and 20 head of cattle to eat en route, the small band headed northwest, following the Rio Grande, the Chama, the Navajo, the Dolores, the Gunnison, and the Colorado rivers. They were traveling through Indian territory then unknown to Europeans and were expected to explore and map as they went. In early September, still in Colorado, they were met by about eighty Yutas all on good horses we concluded that they traveled together to find out whether any more Spanish people were following us. Because the party was so small, and without guns, they were no threat to the Indians, who rode on. The explorers headed into Utah, along the Green River, across semidesert, following trails blazed by buffalo. They now had an Indian guide. On September 17, Dominguez and Escalante were exploring the ruins of an old pueblo in Utah. As they went on, the Spanish explorers met and dealt peacefully with Comanches, Hopis, Utes, Lagunas, Yutas, Sabuaganas more than a dozen different Indian peoples most of whom had never seen men like them before. When they reached the valley of the Great Salt Lake (near what is now Provo, Utah), they were enchanted with the land they saw. This is the most pleasing, beautiful and fertile site in all New Spain, Escalante wrote to Spain s King Carlos III. It alone is capable of maintaining a settlement with as many people as Mexico City. (Mexico City in 1776 with 100,000 people was larger than Boston, New York, and Philadelphia combined.) With the weather turning freezing cold, they turned back. On January 2, 1777, we arrived at the Villa de Santa Fe. The next day Dominguez and Escalante gave their diary to the governor. It included amazingly accurate maps useful to others who came later. They didn t make it to Monterey, but they did explore more than 2,000 miles of land, more than Daniel Boone had explored in his whole lifetime. And they did it peacefully, without noise of arms. Today, in Utah, you will find a national monument, a town, and a river all named Escalante. And you ll know why. Sunset Arch at Escalante National Monument, Utah Chapter 10 Meriwether and William or Lewis and Clark 39