The Lewis and Clark Expedition BLAZING                                                               A NEW FRONTIER The Lewis and Clark Expedition

Lewis and Clark’s Great Adventure Thomas Jefferson’s Grand Idea Lewis and Clark’s Great Adventure “……..the object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, and such principal streams of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river, may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent for the purposes of commerce….”

By the time Jefferson was ready to request funds for the expedition, his relationship with the opposition in Congress was anything but friendly. Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin urged that the request be made in secret. The message focused on the state of Indian trade and mentioned the proposed western expedition near the end of the document.

Roster of the Men

Manifest of Supplies

Presents for the Indians 12 dozen pocket mirrors 4,600 sewing needles 144 small scissors 10 pounds of sewing thread silk ribbons ivory combs handkerchiefs yards of bright-colored cloth 130 rolls of tobacco tomahawks that doubled as pipes 288 knives 8 brass kettles vermilion face paint 33 pounds of tiny beads

Pipe Tomahawk Pipe tomahawks are artifacts unique to North America--created by Europeans as trade objects but often exchanged as diplomatic gifts. They are powerful symbols of the choice Europeans and Indians faced whenever they met: one end was the pipe of peace, the other an axe of war. Lewis's expedition packing list notes that fifty pipe tomahawks were to be taken on the expedition.

Jefferson Peace Medal Lewis was frustrated by the egalitarian nature of Indian society: "the authority of the Chief being nothing more than mere admonition . . . in fact every man is a chief." He set out to change that by "making chiefs." He passed out medals, certificates, and uniforms to give power to chosen men. In their speeches, Lewis and Clark called the Indians "children." To explorers, the term expressed the relationship of ruler and subject. In their speeches, the Indians called Lewis and Clark "father,“... To them, it expressed kinship and their assumption that an adoptive father undertook an obligation to show generosity and loyalty to his new family.

"We shall delineate with correctness the great arteries of this great country: those who come after us will . . . fill up the canvas we begin." --Thomas Jefferson, 1805

Trail Map

“We were now about to penetrate a country at least two thousand miles in width, on which the foot of civilized man had never trodden,” Lewis wrote… April 7, 1805

All the captains would describe in their journals 178 plants and 122 animals that previously had not been recorded for science.

Pistol and Compass used on the expedition

Sacajawea Lewis and Clark agreed to hire a French trapper as an interpreter when they discovered his wife spoke the Shoshone language, as they knew they would need the help of the Shoshone tribes at the headwaters of the Missouri. His wife, Sacajawea, gave birth to a baby while on the expedition. She was instrumental in communicating with the Native Americans and helping to find a new route through the Rocky Mountains.

Honoring Sacajawea There are many statues, a state park, a lake, a river, and even a coin honoring Sacajawea.

1798 Map used by Lewis and Clark

AUGUST 12, 1805 Lewis ascends the final ridge toward the Continental Divide and “the most distant fountain of waters of the Mighty Missouri in search of which we have spent so many toilsome days” -he expects to see a vast plain to the west with a large river flowing to the Pacific: the Northwest Passage that had been the goal of the explorers since the time of Columbus. Instead, all he sees are more mountains…

“This Mtn. is covered with Snow. and is of a Conical form but rugid “This Mtn. is covered with Snow...and is of a Conical form but rugid.”—Capt. William Clark     November 3, 1805 Mt. Hood in the distance… Proof they are at last approaching the ocean

“Ocean in view! O! the joy.” —Capt. William Clark November 7, 1805

NOVEMBER 7, 1805 Clark writes his most famous journal entry: “Ocean in view! O! the joy,” They are actually at the end of Gray’s Bay, still 20 miles from sea. Clark estimates they have traveled 4162 miles from the mouth of the Missouri to the Pacific. He estimate, based on dead reckoning, will turn out to be within 40 miles of the actual distance.

NOVEMBER 24, 1805 To make the crucial decision of where to spend the winter, the captains decide to put the matter to a vote. Significantly, in addition to the others, Clark’s slave, York, is allowed to vote – nearly 60 years before slaves in the U.S. would be emancipated… Sacajawea, the Indian woman, votes too – more than a century before either women or Indians are granted the full rights of citizenship.