Provides facts and information about the travels of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and their Corps of Discovery and its importance in relation to Native Americans and the westward expansion in the United States.
In 1803, when the United States purchased Louisiana from France, the great expanse of this new American territory was a blank—not only on the map but in our knowledge. President Thomas Jefferson keenly understood that the course of the nation's destiny lay westward and that a national "Voyage of Discovery" must be mounted to determine the nature and accessibility of the frontier. He commissioned his young secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead an intelligence-gathering expedition from the Missouri River to the northern Pacific coast and back. From 1804 to 1806, Lewis, accompanied by co-captain William Clark, the Shoshone guide Sacajawea, and thirty-two men, made the first trek across the Louisiana Purchase, mapping the rivers as he went, tracing the principal waterways to the sea, and establishing the American claim to the territories of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Together the captains kept a journal, a richly detailed record of the flora and fauna they sighted, the Indian tribes they encountered, and the awe-inspiring landscape they traversed, from their base camp near present-day St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia River. In keeping this record they made an incomparable contribution to the literature of exploration and the writing of natural history.
"The journey of the Corps of Discovery, under the command of Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, across the American West to the Pacific Ocean and back in the years 1804-1806 seems to me to have been our first really American adventure, one that also produced our only really American epic, The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, now at last available in a superbly edited, easily read edition in twelve volumes (of an eventual thirteen), almost two centuries after the Corps of Discovery set out. . . . This important text has not been fully appreciated for what it is because of two centuries of incomplete and inadequate editing. All three editions previous to this excellent one from the University of Nebraska . . . were flawed by significant omission. . . . Thus my gratitude to the present editor, Gary Moulton, and his assistant editor, Thomas Dunlay, for bringing what I believe to be a national epic into plain view at last. . . . For almost two hundred years their [Lewis' and Clark's] strong words waited, there but not there, printed but not read: our silent epic. But words can wait: now the captains' writings have at last spilled out, and fully, in this regal edition. When the Atlas of the Lewis and Clark Expedition appeared in 1983, critics hailed it as a publishing landmark. This eagerly awaited second volume of the new Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition begins the actual journals of those explorers whose epic expedition still enthralls Americans. Instructed by President Jefferson to keep meticulous records bearing on the geography, ethnology, and natural history of the trans-Mississippi West, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and four of their men filled hundreds of notebook pages with observations during their expedition of 1804–6. The result was in is a national treasure: a complete look at the Great Plains, the Rockies, and the Pacific Northwest, reported by men who were intelligent and well-prepared, at a time when almost nothing was known about those regions so newly acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. Volume 2 includes Lewis’s and Clark’s journals for the period from August 1803, when Lewis left Pittsburgh to join Clark farther down the Ohio River, to August 1804, when the Corps of Discovery camped near the Vermillion River in present South Dakota. The general introduction by Gary E. Moulton discusses the history of the expedition, the journal-keeping methods of Lewis and Clark, and the editing and publishing history of the journals from the time of Lewis and Clark’s return. Superseding the last edition published early in this century, the current edition brings together new materials discovered since then. It greatly expands and updates the annotation to take account of the most recent scholarship on the many subjects touched on by the journals.
On September 4, 1805, in the upper Bitterroot Valley of what is now western Montana, more than four hundred Salish people were encamped, pasturing horses, preparing for the fall bison hunt, and harvesting chokecherries as they had done for countless generations. As the Lewis and Clark Expedition ventured into the territory of a sovereign Native nation, the Salish met the strangers with hospitality and vital provisions while receiving comparatively little in return. ø For the first time, a Native American community offers an in-depth examination of the events and historical significance of its encounter with the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The Salish People and the Lewis and Clark Expedition is a startling departure from previous accounts of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Rather than looking at Indian people within the context of the expedition, it examines the expedition within the context of tribal history. The arrival of non-Indians is therefore framed not as the beginning of the history of Montana or the West but as only a recent chapter in a far longer Native history. The result is a new understanding of the expedition and its place in the wider context of the history of Indian-white relations. ø Based on three decades of research and oral histories, this book presents tribal elders recounting the Salish encounter with Lewis and Clark. Richly illustrated, The Salish People and the Lewis and Clark Expedition not only sheds new light on the meaning of the expedition but also illuminates the people who greeted Lewis and Clark and, despite much of what followed, thrive in their homeland today.
When Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and the "Corp of Discovery" left St. Louis, Missouri, on May 21, 1804, their mission was to explore the vast, unknown territory acquired a year earlier in the Louisiana Purchase. The travelers hoped to find a waterway that crossed the western half of the United States. They didn't. However, young readers will love this true-life adventure tale of the two-year journey that finally brought the explorers to the Pacific Ocean.
Exciting narrative follows a band of courageous men as they explore the American Northwest in the early 1800s, threading their way through Indian territory, crossing the Great Divide, and descending the Pacific slope.
The Lewis and Clark expedition was the greatest camping trip in history. It was one of those irresistible American adventures that many people dream of living. This book shares the delightful details of the journey that historians have gleaned from the group’s journals and maps, and also discusses what’s known of the Indian perspective of the expedition. Throughout the book, you find out about Jefferson’s western exploration from his earliest efforts to see the Corps assembled through the aftermath for the explorers, the tribes, and the United States. But the focus of Lewis & Clark For Dummies is on the period between Jefferson’s confidential letter to Congress requesting dollars to mount a western exploration (January 18,1803) and the expedition’s triumphant (and improbable) return to St. Louis (September 23, 1806): forty-two months that changed the world. Join Lewis and Clark as they recruit the Corps of Discovery, meet Sacagawea and various Indian tribes, and set off along the Missouri River on a thrilling, perilous journey. Lewis & Clark For Dummies also covers the following topics and more: The expedition’s people and places Jefferson’s fascination with the West Final preparations of Meriwether Lewis Weathering storms to launch the expedition The discomforts and dangers of the journey Making maps and writing reports A first look at the Pacific Ocean The story of Lewis and Clark doesn’t end with their return to St. Louis. This book will also lead you on an exploration of the fates and lessons of the Corps of Discovery. Find out what happened to Lewis, Clark, and many other key players after their famous journey. And examine the aftermath for the American Indians and the political and cultural ramifications for the United States. You’ll even find the resources you need to plan your own recreation of the expedition as you take the Trail yourself!
When the Atlas of the Lewis and Clark Expedition appeared in 1983 critics hailed it as a publishing landmark in western history. Fully living up to the promise of the first volume were the second volume, which began the actual journals and brought the expedition through its first year to August 1804, and the third volume, which brought the explorers through a winter at Fort Mandan, present North Dakota, and to April 1805. This eagerly awaited fourth volume begins on April 7, 1805, when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and their permanent party set out from Fort Mandan, traveling up-river along the banks of the Missouri. For the first time they entered country never explored by whites. With the help of the Shoshone Indian woman Sacagawea, they hoped to make friendly contact with her people, then cross the Rocky Mountains and eventually reach the Pacific. They were to spend the rest of the spring and the early summer toiling up the Missouri, or around its perilous falls. Along the way, they encountered grizzly bears, cataloged new species of plants and animals, and mapped rivers and streams. Sacagawea recognized landmarks; meeting her people became the next great concern of the expedition when they reached the three forks of the Missouri in late July. Superseding the last edition, published early in this century, the current edition contains new materials discovered since then. It expands and updates the annotation to take account of the most recent scholarship on the many subject touched on by the journals.
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark did not embark on their epic trek across the continent alone-dozens of men and eventually one woman accompanied them. The towering triumph of the Lewis and Clark expedition is due in no small part to the skill and fortitude of such men as Sgt. Charles Floyd, the only expedition member to die; Sgt. Patrick Gass, who lived until 1870, the last surviving member of the expedition; Sgt. Nathaniel Hale Pryor, husband to an Osage woman; and York, Clark's slave, who was freed after the expedition. The men who were instrumental to the success of the Lewis and Clark expedition come to life in this volume. Through the aid of a detailed biographical roster and a composite diary of the expedition that highlights the roles and actions of the expedition's members, Charles G. Clarke affords readers precious glimpses of those who have long stood in the shadows of Lewis and Clark. Disagreements and achievements, ailments and addictions, and colorful personalities and daily tasks are all vividly rendered in these pages. The result is an unforgettable portrait of the corps of diverse characters who undertook a remarkable journey across the western half of the continent almost two hundred years ago.
"In 1802, the United States made a deal to purchase a big area of land called the Lousiana Territory. Soon after, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were asked to lead an expedition into the American Northwest to explore the new land. After the journey, many stories were told about it--but not all of them are true. Discover what's real and what's fiction about the expedition through infographics, primary sources, and expertly leveled text"--