Lewis and Clark Expedition
By Maddie Pickens
Meriwether Lewis
Shortly after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 President Thomas Jefferson requested that Meriwether Lewis go on an expedition to the lands West of Mississippi with a select group of U.S. army volunteers. While on the journey Lewis kept a detailed journal filled with vivid descriptions and samples of plants and animals he encountered on the way. In October of 1809 Lewis killed himself. Most historians believed he had bouts of deep depression all of his life.
William Clark
Whenever Thomas Jefferson requested Meriwether Lewis to lead the expedition Lewis invited William Clark to be his co-captian. Clark was a good person to choose as a leader because he posed many mental and physical qualities. He was over 6 feet tall and had a strong and muscular physical frame. William Clark also brought a journal along with him but it was filled with grammatical corrections and long and confusing languages. Clark was a very intelligent co-captain.
Sacagawea
Sacagawea was a very important woman dealing with the Lewis and Clark expedition. She was a brave (american) indian woman who helped Lewis and Clark by showing them different foods they can eat and helping them by translating and convincing different tribes to help them. Sacagawea was taken from her tribe as a child but met her brother along the expedition. Her brother offered them horses and this helped them a lot. Sacagawea made a big impact on this expedition.
Seaman the Dog
Seaman the dog was adopted by Lewis for $20 while he was in Pittsburgh waiting for the boats that he would be taking on the journey to be finished. No one really knows why Lewis got Seaman but it was good because Seaman helped them a lot. He even saved them from a buffalo that unexpectedly charged though their camp! Another member of the party, Sergeant Ordway wrote in his journal, "between 4 fires & within a few inches of Several men; it was Supposed if he had trod on a man it would have killed him dead. The dog flew at him which turned him from running against the lodge [in] which the officers layed, [and] he passed without doing more damage than [breaking the stalk] of a rifle & injuring one of the blunderbusses [muzzle-loading firearm] in the pirogue [type of boat used for the expedition] as he passed through."
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States and also author of the Declaration of Independence, the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and the founder of the University of Virginia. He sent Lewis and Clark and the rest of the corps off to the expedition known as the Corps of Discovery expedition. Jefferson died on July 4th 1826, just hours before John Adams died. This day was on the 50th anniversary of signing the Declaration of Independence. Even today it is a strange coincidence.
Mandan Tribe
During the winter of 1804 Lewis and Clark and the rest of their corps were taken in by the Mandan Tribe. They gave them a place to stay during their first winter. While they were staying at Fort Mandan the expedition members kept busy by repairing equipment, trading with the Indians and hunting for buffalo. At Fort Mandan they also hired Toussaint Charbonneau as an interpreter, along with Charbonneau his wife, Sacagawea and their baby son would travel with them when they left Fort Mandan.
Trade Items
One of Thomas Jerfrerisons goals for this expedition was to get onto good terms with the Native Americans which Lewis and Clark did successfully by trading with the American Indians. When Jefferson was giving instructions to Lewis he said, "In all your intercourse with the natives, treat them in the most friendly and conciliatory manner which their own conduct will permit." I believe that Jefferson was smart to have his Corps of Discovery get on good terms with the Native Americans. They did so by trading with them. They traded many things with each other including trade cloth, yellow beads, corn mills, and brass wire. (Other trade items will be pictured above.) When they traded with the Natives got things back including colored beads, knitting needles, scissors, knives and many other things (that will also be pictured above) The fact that Lewis and Clark and the rest of the corps traded with Native Americans could have been the only reason we are on good terms with them today. There are still over half a million Native Americans today!
Missouri River
In 1804 whenever Lewis and Clark started their expedition Jefferson gave Lewis specific instructions one of them was, "Beginning at the mouth of the Missouri, you will take careful observations of latitude & longitude, at all remarkable points on the river, & especially at the mouths of rivers, at rapids, at islands, & other places & objects distinguished by such natural marks & characters of a durable kind." They traveled around 20 miles daily with Clark often staying in the boat and Lewis walking on the shore. They both kept journals. Lewis filled his journal with vivid descriptions and samples of plants and animals he encountered on the way and Clark filled his journal with grammatical corrections and long and confusing languages. During the exploration from the Missouri River and to the waterway to the Pacific, they have encountered at least 55 different native cultural groups, and the "Corps of Discovery" moved from Camp River DuBois to be put along the banks of the Missouri River. The Missouri river was a big part of this expedition.
Sergeant Charles Floyd
Sergeant Charles Floyd is best known as the only person that died on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. On the night of August as the explorers reached the area just south of Sioux City, Floyd became seriously ill with "bilous cholic". Bilous Cholic is a steady-irregular pain in the upper abdomen that is usually on the right side of the ribcage. Although Clark diagnosed Sergeant Floyd with "Bilous Cholic" the real cause of Floyd's death was apparently his appendix's bursting/rupturing. Before his death on August 20th of 1804 he told William Clark, "I'm going away and I want you to write me a letter." Clark ended up reading the funeral service for Floyd and then wrote in his journal, "We buried him on the top of the bluff <<>> Mile below a Small river to which we Gave his name, he was buried with the Honors of War, much lamented."
Plants and Animals
Lewis and Clark encountered many new plants and animals during their expedition. Approximately 108 botanical specimens and 68 mineral specimens were sent to President Jefferson during the Corps of Discovery Expedition. Some animals that Lewis and Clark discovered were the Black-tailed prairie dog, Bushy-tailed wood rat, grizzly bear, mule deer, pronghorn, swift fox, white-tailed, jackrabbit and many others. Some were even brought back to Thomas Jefferson.