Lewis and Clark Explore The West: What Did They See? Recording Their Journey President Thomas Jefferson convinced Congress to invest $2,500 in western expedition. An expedition is a long and carefully organized journey. Jefferson chose who men, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, to lead the expedition and prepare a report of the lands geography, plants, animals, natural resources, people, and waterways. The purpose of the Mini-Q is to experience the Lewis and Clark expedition through journal entries, pictures, maps, etc. and answer the question: Lewis and Clark Explore The West: What Did They See? Document A: Maps Document B: Connections with Economics Mandan Traders Document C: Journal Entries
Background Essay Imagine that one morning you woke up and discovered your house had grown twice as big. How would you feel and what would you do? Well, in 1803, Americans faced a very similar situation on a much larger scale. President Thomas Jefferson had purchased 820,000 square miles from France (known as the Louisiana Purchase) and suddenly doubled the size of the United States. Americans were very excited about this new territory but it was also a mystery. What did the land look like? How could you cross it? What kinds of animals and plants lived there? Would the Native Americans who lived there be welcoming? Very few white people had traveled to this western part of the country and the few maps that existed were patchy and unreliable. So President Jefferson decided to hire a group of men to explore this new America. Jefferson's first choice to lead the expedition was his trusted secretary, Meriwether Lewis, who then asked his friend William Clark to share the command. Both men had been officers in the U.S. army and had some experience traveling through wild country, but no one had ever attempted a journey like this one. First, Jefferson asked Lewis and Clark to explore and map the unexplored territory, especially the Missouri River and its tributaries, streams that flow into a larger river. Jefferson had dreamed for a long time that there might be a river that ran from the Missouri all the way to the Pacific Ocean, which would make travel there much easier. Secondly, Jefferson asked Lewis and Clark to observe, record, and collect specimens of the local plant and animal life. The President wanted to know what natural resources existed for future American pioneers to live on. Finally, Jefferson asked Lewis and Clark to seek out the Native American tribes, study their languages and customs, and make friends with them if possible. Jefferson wanted the Native Americans to think of him as their new "father." Ironically, Lewis and Clark would be more like children, dependant on the help and kindness of the Native Americans. Ultimately, this expedition would require Lewis and Clark to act as explorers, mapmakers, scientists, and diplomats. It was a lot of responsibility but they were excited to try. Today you can fly across the entire United States in about six hours, but in 1803, Lewis and Clark had to make their journey without planes, cars, motorized boats, or even roads. They spent about six months recruiting men, buying supplies and equipment, and learning as much about the region as possible. It was hard to prepare because Lewis and Clark had no idea what they would find or how long they would be gone. They had to have faith in themselves that they would figure things out and solve problems as they happened. Source: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/lewis_clark/prepare.htm
Document A Source: National Geographic (via Google Images) Source: Free World Maps (via Google Images)
Document B Source: Connections With Economics: Mandan Traders. Pearson Education, Inc.
Document C The Journey Begins May 21-July 31, 1804 Source: National Geographic summaries of Lewis and Clark s Journals Having started upstream on the Missouri River from their St. Louis-area camp where they had been preparing for the expedition since fall 1803 on May 14, William Clark and nearly four dozen other men met up with Meriwether Lewis on May 20. The Lewis and Clark expedition "the Corps of Discovery" began making its way up the Missouri aboard a 55-foot-long (17-meter-long) keelboat and two smaller pirogues. As they traveled, Clark spent most of his time on the keelboat, charting the course and making maps, while Lewis was often ashore, studying the rock formations, soil, animals, and plants along the way. Always the members of the expedition were on the lookout for Indians, hoping they would be peaceable, armed in case they weren't. For security, Lewis and Clark made camp on river islands whenever possible and posted guards at night. By the end of July they had traveled more than 600 miles (1,110 kilometers) up the river. Still they had not met a single Indian. Standoff With the Teton Sioux September 01-30, 1804 As the Yankton Sioux had warned, the Teton Sioux greeted the expedition and its gifts a medal, a military coat, and a cocked hat with ill-disguised hostility. One of the Teton chiefs demanded a boat as the price of passage. When the Indians became threatening, the expedition prepared to meet force with force: Clark drew his sword, and Lewis turned the keelboat's swivel gun on the Sioux. At the last moment both sides pulled back, and the crisis was over. Nevertheless, the expedition had failed to deliver on Jefferson's hopes for friendly relations with the Sioux. The Americans headed up the river with a potential enemy behind them and a fast-approaching winter ahead. Into Grizzly Country April 07-May 03, 1805 For the first time in their journey, Lewis and Clark were headed in their preferred direction due west. They were now in grizzly country. The Indians had warned them about these powerful creatures, but Lewis remained unimpressed. He thought that while grizzlies posed a real danger to Indians armed only with bows and arrows, they would prove no match for a man with a rifle. On April 29 Lewis changed his mind. That day he and several of his men spotted a pair of grizzlies. They wounded one of the bears, which managed to escape. But the other ran at Lewis, chasing him some 80 yards (73 meters) before he and one of his colleagues were able to reload and kill the bear.