Lewis and Clark: trailblazers who opened the continent - Meriwether Lewis and William Clark

Every society has a need for heroes who serve as role models. The U.S. is no exception and has produced its share of them -- Pres. Abraham Lincoln, aviator Charles Lindbergh, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and the astronauts, to name a few. Heroes belong to the ages, and we can refresh our pride and patriotism by recalling their deeds.

In the early 19th century, two relatively unsung heroes, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, braved the perils of a vast unknown territory to enlarge knowledge, increase commerce, and establish a relationship with unknown Indians. Their journals produced eight detailed volumes of data ranging from maps, climate, geography, and ethnic observations to the discovery of new species of plants and animals.

In the late 18th century, America's western border was constituted first by the Allegheny Mountains and later the Mississippi River. Little was known of the geography immediately beyond the Father of Waters, and less yet of what lay west of the Missouri River. This was to change, however, for Pres. Thomas Jefferson had an unquenchable yearning for such knowledge and did something about it.

As early as 1784, he conferred with George Rogers Clark about exploring this uncharted area. In 1786, he hired John Ledyard, a former marine associate of British explorer James Cook, to walk from west to east, beginning in Stockholm, Sweden. The intent was to traverse Russia, Alaska, the western Canadian coast, and thence across the Louisiana Territory. Ledyard walked from Stockholm to St. Petersburg, Russia, in two weeks. The Russians stopped him at Irkutsk, Siberia, and Jefferson was disappointed again. Undaunted, Jefferson made plans for Andre Michael to explore the area, but this, too, failed.

After being inaugurated in 1801, Jefferson had the power to make his pet project a reality. He appointed as his private secretary Meriwether Lewis, a wellborn young army captain. In January, 1803, in a secret message to Congress, the President asked for funding to realize his exploratory project of what lay between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean. The sum of $2,500 was appropriated. (The project eventually was to cost $38,000, an early case of a governmental cost overrun.)

Jefferson asked Lewis to head the project. Lewis had served under William Clark (younger brother of George Rogers Clark) in earlier times and offered him co-leadership of the expedition, designated The Corps of Discovery. Clark accepted Lewis' offer to "participate with him in its fatiegues, its dangers and its honors." Clark, no longer on active army status, was told he would receive a regular army captaincy, but Congress refused to grant it. Nevertheless, Lewis designated Clark as captain and co-commander; expedition's men so regarded him and the journals so record it.

Lewis and Clark were scientist-explorers and singularly complementary. Although both were leaders of men and strict disciptinarians, Lewis was somewhat aloof, with a family background of bouts of despondency; Clark was more the extrovert and father figure. Lewis had great scientific interests in flora, fauna, and minerals, and Clark's surveying and engineering skills fit well with the demands of the expedition. While Lewis tended to view Indians fundamentally as savages, Clark, like Jefferson, saw the Indian as a full member of the human race and child of nature. At all times, the two soldiers were a team, each leading the expedition every other day. No known quarrel between them ever was recorded, although on a few occasions they thought it expedient to separate, probably to cool off and get out of each other's hair.

To prepare for their journey into the unknown, Lewis stayed in the East to study astronomy, plant taxonomy, practical medicine, etc., and to gather equipment from the armory at Harper's Ferry, Va. The supplies would include trading goods such as awls, fishhooks, paints, tobacco twists, Jefferson medals, whiskey, and a generous amount of laudanum (a morphine-like drug). Lewis supervised the building of a 22-foot keelboat needed to take them up the Missouri to a winter quartering place. Additionally, he had his eye out for recruits for the expedition.

Clark went to St. Louis to recruit "robust, helthy, hardy" young, experienced, and versatile backwoodsmen. All were single. The captains needed interpreters, rivet experts, and hunters able to live under the most demanding conditions. Also sought were men with multiple skills who could do carpentry and blacksmith work and follow orders. With the exception of a hunter-interpreter, George Drouillard, if they were not already in the army, they enrolled in it. Privates received five dollars a month; sergeants, eight dollars. Both leaders and the sergeants kept journals.

On May 14, 1804, the regular group of 29 men, plus a temporary complement of 16 others, set off from the St. Louis area for Mandan, in what is now North Dakota, the site of their winter quarters. With them came Lewis' Newfoundland dog, Scannon, and Clark's body-servant, a black man named York. Clark's journal entry reads, "I set out at 4 o'clock P.M. in the presence of many of the neighboring inhabitents, and proceeded under a jentle brease up the Missourie." Little did they know it would be some 7,200 miles and nearly two and a half years before their return.

The trip upriver was backbreaking, as spring floods pushed the water downstrearn in torrents. Hunters walked the shores, while the keelboat men alternately rowed, poled, sailed, and rope-pulled the boat against the current. Wind, rain, and hail seemed to meet them at every turn in the serpentine Missouri. Snags and sandbars were everywhere. Bloated, gangrenous buffalo carcasses floated downstrearn, witnesses to the treachery of thin ice ahead. Often, for security reasons, the expedition party docked at night on small islands, some of which floated away as they embarked in the morning.

Ambassadors of goodwill, they stopped at major Indian villages, counseling peace instead of internecine warfare as well as distributing gifts. At the same time, they questioned the Indians about what lay ahead. Generally, such information was reliable. Tragedy struck at Council Bluffs (now Iowa), where Sgt. Charles Floyd died, probably of a ruptured appendix. He was the only member of the Corps to lose his life. After a proper eulogy, the captains wrote in their journals, as they were to do many times, "We proceeded on." Today, an obelisk marks the general location.

The myth of Sacajawea

On Nov. 2, 1804, they reached a river confluence about 30 miles north of present-day Bismarck, N.D., and settled in with the Mandan Indians, who welcomed them as security against Sioux attacks. They met Toussaint Charbonneau, a 40-year-old trapper wintering there, who, although ignorant of English, spoke a number of Indian languages. Equally important, he had a teenage wife, Sacajawea, a Shoshone who had been captured and traded by the Hidatsa (Minitari). Her tribe were horse-people and lived near the headwaters of the Missouri, two facts that enticed Lewis and Clark to hire Charbonneau and, as part of the deal, arrange for her to accompany them to the area. It would prove burdensome, though, for she delivered a baby boy, Baptiste, who would go with them. Clark took a liking to him and nicknamed him Pompey, even naming and autographing a river cliff prominence (Pompey's Pillar) after him. Later, Clark was to adopt the boy.

A myth of political correctness tells of Sacajawea being the guide for the expedition. Nothing could be further from the truth, as she was six years removed from her people and, when kidnapped, had been taken on a completely different route than that followed by the explorers. She did know Indian herbs, food, and medicine, though, and her presence and that of her child assured others that this was no war party.

Various factors of luck augured the party's success, such as Clark's flaming red hair and York's black skin and "buffalo hair." These would be items of curiosity to up-river Indians. The Corps also had an acrobat who walked on his hands, a one-eyed fiddler, and an air gun that made no explosion when fired. Some Indians previously thought that sound, not the rifle ball, killed, and could not understand this magic. Lewis' dog always was viewed with larcenous eyes, as Indians used dogs for hauling, camp guards, and eating.

On April 7, 1805, the now seasoned expeditionary force left the village and went northwest for parts unknown. Their vehicles were six small canoes and two large perogues. The extras who accompanied them to the fort returned home with the keelboat. Aboard it were samples of flora and minerals, as well as "barking squirrels" (prairie dogs) and other hides and stuffed animals unknown to the East, such as "beardless goats" (pronghorn antelope). Lewis noted, "I could but esteem this moment of departure as among the most happy of my life."

They entered country that was increasingly wild and where white men had not penetrated. Grizzly bears proved to be a considerable threat, but food was plentiful as buffalo abounded. Frequent entries record that "Musquetoes were troublesum." For a time, they were plagued by the ague, dysentery, and boils. Clark drained a half-pint of fluid from one carbuncle on his ankle. The change of diet from meat to camas bulbs to fish didn't help. They laboriously portaged about 16 miles around Great Falls (now Montana), and reached the three forks of the Missouri River, which they named the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin. They were but a short distance northwest of what is now Yellowstone National Park.

Lewis followed the Jefferson fork, as Clark and Sacajawea lingered behind. Seeing some Indians, Lewis tried to entice them with presents to meet him, rolling up his sleeves and pointing to his white skin, calling out, "Tabba-bone." Supposedly, this was Shoshone for "white man," but a mispronunciation could render it as the equivalent of "enemy."

The Shoshone feared this was a trick of their hereditary enemies, the Blackfeet, as they never had seen white men. They scarcely were reassured when Clark, Sacajawea, and the rest of the party caught up with Lewis. However, Sacajawea began to suck furiously on her fingers, indicating she was suckled by these people. She also recognized another woman who had been kidnapped with her, but had escaped. When a council was called, she recognized her brother, Cameawhait, a Shoshone chief. This helped the Corps in trading for needed horses to cross the Continental Divide.

The explorers were disappointed, for they had hoped that, by now, they would be close to the Pacific. This could not be so, though, as these Indians knew no white men, and the salmon (a saltwater fish) they had were from trade, not the Indians' own fishing. Staying with the Shoshone for about a week, during which his 31st birthday occurred, Lewis wrote introspectively that he regretted his "many hours ... of indolence [and now] would live for mankind, as I have hitherto lived for myself."

They hired a Shoshone guide known as "Old Toby" and his sons to cross the treacherous Bitterroot Mountains, the Continental Divide. After doing yeoman's service, the Indians deserted the party without collecting pay near the Clearwater and Snake rivers. The reason was the intention of the explorers to run ferocious rapids that seemed to swallow up everything in their fury. The Corps were able to run them without serious consequence, though. They proceeded on and came upon the Flathead Indians. One Flathead boy knew Shoshone, and a roundabout process of translation was established. Clark spoke English, and an army man translated it to French for Charbonneau. He, in turn, changed it to Minitari, and Sacajawea converted it to Shoshone, which the Flathead boy rendered in his language.

The group pursued the Clearwater River, which met the Snake River. This flowed into the Columbia, which emptied into the Pacific Ocean. Numerous Indian tribes inhabited the Columbia -- Clatsop, Chinook, Salish, to name a few. Most were poverty-stricken and a far cry from the healthy Plains Indians. Many were blinded by age 30, as the sun reflecting off the water while they were fishing took its toll. Clark administered ointments and laudanum. Most didn't improve healthwise, but the Indians felt better for the drug and any placebo effects.

Lewis and Clark were overjoyed to find some Columbia River Indians using white men's curse words and wearing metal trinkets. Both only could be from ships' crews that plied the Pacific shores. The Corps were nearing the western end of their journey and, on Nov. 7, 1805, Lewis declared, "Great joy in camp we are in view of the Ocian." They constructed a rude Fort Clatsop (now rebuilt) by the Columbia River estuary near Astoria, in what today is Oregon, and sent parties in all directions to gather information. There was great excitement when reports of a beached whale reached the fort. Sacajawea, who continued with the expedition, insisted on seeing this leviathan, and she was accommodated. The men busied themselves hunting, making salt, and preparing for the journey home. (The salt cairn is reconstructed and preserved not many miles from the fort.)

The journey home

The Corps entertained the hope that they might make contact with a coastal ship to return them home, and one ship, the Lydia, did arrive, but, through a communication failure or lying by the Indians, the captain believed the Corps already had left over land.

On March 23, 1806, after a rainy and miserable winter, the expedition left Fort Clatsop and, along the way, split into three groups hoping to explore more territory. They felt duty-bound to learn as much as they could and agreed to meet at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers. They traded beads and boats for horses and faced the worst kind of pilfering, even Scannon being nearly dog-napped.

Lewis, whose route took him through the territory of the fierce Blackfeet, invited a small party into his camp. One of them tried to steal soldier Reuben Field's gun and was slabbed for his efforts; another stole a horse and, losing all patience, Lewis "at a distance of thirty steps shot him in the belly." Fearing a large war party might be nearby, they traveled the next 60 miles nearly non-stop.

On the way to meet Clark, Lewis and a one-eyed hunter, Peter Cruzatte -- both dressed in elkskin -- went into the brush to hunt. Lewis was shot in the buttocks by Cruzatte, who apparently mistook him for an elk. The wound was painful, but no vital parts were damaged, although Lewis privately wondered if the shooting was deliberate.

Downriver, Lewis' party met two Illinois trappers searching for beaver. When they learned about the Blackfeet incident, they backtracked and accompanied Lewis to the rendezvous. There, with the captains' permission, they persuaded John Colter, who later discovered Yellowstone, to leave the party and to show them the beaver areas.

Having rendezvoused with the others, all stopped at the Mandan village in which they had spent the previous winter. Here, Toussaint Charbouneau, Sacajawea, and Baptiste (Pompey) parted company. The trapper was paid about $400-500 for his services.

Upon their return home, all the men received double pay and land grants from a grateful Congress. Several of the men went back to trap the area from which they had come, commencing the era of the mountain men. One became a judge and U.S. Senator, and another a district attorney. Others returned to farming. Clark had some sort of fallout with York, and the latter was reduced to a hired-out slave, a considerable fall from the prestigious body-servant status. Eventually, though, he was freed by Clark.

Lewis was appointed governor of the Louisiana Territory, but ran into personal and political problems. He suffered severe bouts of depression, began to drink heavily, and had to dose himself with drugs more frequently. To clear his name, he set off for Washington, but grew increasingly suicidal. He attempted to kill himself several times and finally succeeded on the Natchez Trace, at Grinder's Stand in Tennessee in 1809. Nevertheless, Meriwether Lewis should be remembered not for the circumstances of his death, but for his life of duty, leadership, and love of country.

Clark was appointed governor and Indian agent of the Missouri Territory. He also was given the rank of brigadier general in the militia -- not bad for a bogus captain! He married Julia Hancock, a childhood friend, and named one of their children after Lewis, his comrade-in-arms. After Julia's death, Clark married her cousin, Harriet Kennerly.

Sacajawea died a young woman around 1812 at Ft. Union near the Missouri-Yellowstone confluence. Although she was rumored to die an old lady at Ft. Washakie in Wyoming-indeed, a large gravestone with her name is engraved there on the Shoshone-Arapaho Reservation -- the evidence for the Ft. Union death is more compelling. Clark adopted young Pompey, who later became a famous linguist and toured Europe in the company of royalty. Eventually, he became a mountain man.

William Clark died in 1838, a good friend of the Indians and, like Meriwether Lewis, a genuine American hero.

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