VOCABULARY Meriwether Lewis William Clark Corps of Discovery

VOCABULARY Meriwether Lewis – William Clark – Corps of Discovery Expedition – Continental Divide – Sacajawea –

Fast Forward. . . • • George Washington has been elected the first President of the United States. John Adams has been elected the second President of the United States. The United States has been functioning rather well for about twenty-five years. Thomas Jefferson is now the third President of the United States and buys from Napoleon the Louisiana territory doubling the size of the United States.

• Livingston and Monroe arrived in France and carefully debated the large territory Napoleon was now willing to sell. • Monroe and Livingston had no authority to buy all of Louisiana. However, they knew that Jefferson wanted control of the Mississippi River. • They thought that Napoleon might withdraw the offer at any time, along with the port of New Orleans, so they signed the Louisiana Purchase Treaty on April 30, 1803.

Jefferson wanted to purchase New Orleans and West Florida for 10 million. Instead, Jefferson purchased 827, 000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million dollars.

• In 1803, shortly after the United States purchased Louisiana, Congress provided money to study the new lands. • The expedition consisted of a group of U. S. Army volunteers under the command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and his close friend Second Lieutenant William Clark.

1. Study the climate, wildlife, and mineral resources of the land 2. Find a route across the western half of the continent to the Pacific Ocean (a northwest passage) 3. Learn about the Indian nations who lived in the Louisiana territory.

• Some maps described the west as a landmass of erupting volcanoes and mountains of undissolved salt. • Other readings stated that Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains might be the continent’s highest. • It was reported that fanciful creatures such as: unicorns, gargantuan woolly mammoths, seven-foot-tall beavers, and friendly, skinny buffalo lived in the west.

• Before 1803, the geographic details in maps of the West were very inaccurate. • European geographers had depicted California as an island. • Other maps showed the Rocky Mountains to be narrow and easy to travel.

• The Lewis and Clark expedition was literally charting new territory. • The land that lay between the Mandan Indians west was blank, and even the best scholars around the world had no idea what lay beyond this region. • It would prove to be unknown until Lewis and Clark walked the land, charted, mapped, and measured the area. • Their description of the plants, rivers, mountains and people would prove to be invaluable.

If you were asked to join the Lewis and Clark expedition what THREE items would you bring on your two year journey? ü The items CAN be from this time period (but remember there is no place to charge your cell phone in 1803!). ü The items must be travel-friendly (something that will fit in a backpack). No, you can’t bring a Jeep! Would the expedition have changed with the items you brought along? How?

• Meriwether Lewis was born on August 18, 1774 near Charlottesville, Virginia. He grew up in the Shenandoah Valley where he developed a love of hunting and exploring the wilderness. • Lewis became a soldier and fought in the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. He battled against Native Americans in the Northwest region and even learned some of their languages.

• Meriwether Lewis was appointed Thomas Jefferson’s personal secretary when he was sent to explore the Louisiana territory. • When he returned, Meriwether Lewis was named the new governor of the Louisiana territory. • On October 11, 1809, Lewis was on his way to Washington D. C. when he mysteriously died at a hotel. • Many believe he committed suicide, but others believe he was murdered.

• William Clark was born on his family’s Virginia plantation on August 1, 1770. At nineteen years old he joined the U. S. militia to help fight the Native Americans in the Ohio Valley. • Clark was made an officer in the U. S. Army but retired from service shortly after and went back to Virginia to manage his family’s estate. • In 1803, Meriwether Lewis, a friend of Clark’s from the army, asked him to explore the Louisiana territory. Clark agreed and was made responsible for the expedition’s records and map making.

• When Clark returned two years later, he was appointed principal Indian agent and Brigadier General of the Louisiana Militia by Thomas Jefferson. • After Sacajawea died, Clark adopted her children and became governor of the Missouri Territory in 1813. • In 1822, he became Superintendent of Indian Affairs and held that position until his death on September 1, 1838.

• For decades, Native Americans living in the Louisiana territory had carried on a very busy trade with England, France and Spanish merchants. • Jefferson hoped that the Native Americans might trade with American merchants instead. • He urged Lewis and Clark to tell the Indians of “our wish to be neighborly, friendly, and useful to them. ”

• The Corps of Discovery Expedition, an established unit of the United States Army, formed the core of the Lewis and Clark Expedition - departed from Camp Dubois at 4 pm on May 14, 1804. • They met up with Meriwether Lewis in St. Charles, Missouri, a short time later to continue their trip that would take them to the Pacific Ocean.

• The expedition followed the Missouri River through what is now Kansas City, Missouri, and Omaha, Nebraska. • At first, the expedition’s boats made slow progress against the Missouri’s swift current.

• On August 20, 1804, Sergeant Charles Floyd, a member of the expedition, died of an apparent acute appendicitis. • He was the only member of the expedition to die along the two year journey. • His burial site (in what is now Sioux City, Iowa) was marked with a cedar post where his name was inscribed and the day of his death.

• During the final week of August, Lewis and Clark reached the edge of the Great Plains. • Both men kept journals of their travels where they wrote about the broad, grassy plains that stretched, “as far as the eye can reach. ” • Everywhere, they saw “immense herds of buffalo, deer, elk and antelopes. ”

• Lewis and Clark and the Lakota nation (called Sioux by the Americans) had a disagreement that could have ended badly. • Clark wrote that one of their horses had disappeared and they believed the Sioux were responsible. The Sioux told the Americans they had to give more “gifts” before being allowed to pass through their territory. • They came close to fighting but both sides backed down and the expedition continued. Clark wrote that the Sioux were “warlike” and were the “vilest miscreants of the savage race. ”

• Trade was very important among the Native American Indians and Lewis and Clark came prepared! • They brought many gifts, specifically medals stamped with the United States seal. • They also brought mirrors, beads, knives, blankets, and thousands of sewing needles and fishhooks to trade.

• As winter descended the expedition made camp in the Mandan nation’s territory in present day North Dakota. Many Mandan Indians came to visit the newly arriving Americans. • It was during this winter that the expedition also met a French. Canadian fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau and his young Shoshone wife named Sacajawea. • Charbonneau began to serve as the expedition’s translator providing communications with the Mandan chiefs and helping to establish peace.

• In the early Spring, the expedition set out again. They followed the Missouri River to it headwaters, and over the Continental Divide – A mountain range that separates river systems flowing toward opposite sides of a continent. • In canoes, they descended the mountains by the Clearwater River, the Snake River and the Columbia River in what is now Portland, Oregon.

• In the foothills of the Rockies, the landscape and the wildlife changed. The expedition saw bighorn sheep that ran along the rugged hills of the changing terrain. • Plant life was also different, prickly pear cactus covered the ground and grizzly bears were sighted. • Sacajawea was a great help to the expedition as she advised men where to fish and hunt. She also understood how to create healing remedies using plants and herbs.

• Sacajawea was born in 1788 to the daughter of a Shoshone chief in what is present day Lemhi County, Idaho. • When she was twelve years old she was captured by the Hidatsa Indians, an enemy to her tribe. • She was taken to present day Washburn, North Dakota where she was sold to the French-Canadian trapper Toussaint Charbonneau who made her one of his wives. • During the Lewis and Clark expedition (February 1805), Sacajawea gave birth to a son named Jean Baptiste Charbonneau.

• In 1809, three years after helping Lewis and Clark on their journey, it is believed that her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau traveled with their son to St. Louis to see William Clark. For reasons unknown, he left the child in Clark’s care. • Three years later, Sacajawea gave birth to her second child, a daughter named Lisette. Only a few months after her daughter's birth (1812), Sacajawea reportedly died at Fort Manuel in what is now Kenel, South Dakota. • After Sacajawea's death, Clark was also given custody of her daughter.

1. She was skilled at finding edible plants and herbs for medicine. 2. When an expedition boat capsized, she was able to save some of its cargo, including important documents, journal entries, and supplies. 3. Just her presence on the expedition helped to maintain peace among the many tribes they met. A group of white men traveling with a woman and a child were treated with less suspicion.

• The expedition sighted the Pacific Ocean for the first time on November 7, 1805. • Lewis wrote in his journal: “Great joy in camp. We are in view of the ocean, this great Pacific Ocean which we have been so long anxious to see. ”

• Now that Lewis and Clark had reached their destination they still had the long journey back. The expedition faced its second bitter winter camped on the north side of the Columbia River. • Their biggest challenge was the lack of food, as the elk had retreated and the party was too poor to purchase food from neighboring tribes.

• On November 24, 1805, the party voted to move their camp to the south side of the Colombia River. • Sacajawea and Clark’s slave named York were both allowed to participate in the vote. Interestingly, it may have been the first time a woman and a slave were given the opportunity to vote.

What did Lewis and Clark achieve? Ø They produced the first accurate maps of the Northwest. Ø They documented natural resources and plants that had been previously unknown to Euro-Americans. Ø They were the first Americans to cross the Continental Divide. Ø They discovered many Indian tribes that had been previously unknown. Ø They did NOT find a continuous water source to the Pacific Ocean.