Remarks
By The Honorable Gale Norton
Secretary of the Interior
January 18, 2003
Lewis and Clark Bicentennial
Good Afternoon. I bring you a
special message from President Bush
(Read
one-minute message.)
I want to
add my thanks to that of the President for the hard work of our hosts today.
It is
fitting that our commemoration of the Lewis and Clark Journey begins here at
Monticello. It was here, during the hot
days of August 1802, when Thomas jefferson and Meriwether Lewis read an account
of the British North West Company’s efforts to discover the route to the
Pacific Ocean.
With
competitive fires burning and fearing Britain would be the first to discover
the Northwest Passage, Lewis told Jefferson, “Anything the British could do, I
could do better.”
So began
America’s Westward discovery and expansion.
Two hundred
years ago today Jefferson sent his message to Congress, requesting an
appropriation of $2,500 for, “an intelligent officer with ten or twelve chosen
men [to] explore the hole line, even to the Western Ocean.”
In the end,
the journey cost almost $40,000. Even
then there were cost overruns.
President
Jefferson was ahead of his time. He had
the foresight to imagine uncharted territory becoming a nation from the
Atlantic to the Pacific.
He gave
Lewis and Clark specific instructions on exploring the Native cultures and
natural history of the West. Jefferson
wanted evidence.
Lewis
discovered the evidence. He brought back
animal skins, horns, and beaded clothing.
Jefferson put them on display here at Monticello in his Indian
Hall. The information and documentation
that Lewis and Clark brought back to Jefferson fired the imagination of many
Americans, luring them to expand westward into a bold, new America.
It is hard
to imagine the vastness of the unknown into which Lewis and Clark
ventured. When we understand that Thomas
Jefferson thought there might still be wandering wooly mammoths in the West, we
begin to understand their complete lack of information. Imagine the courage it took to venture into
that unknown.
A small
band of soldiers brought back a world
that few had experienced and changed history for the nation.
Lewis and
Clark formed partnerships in preparation for their journey and all along the
expedition route–from the Philadelphia scientists who tutored them about the
natural world--- to the young Indian
woman who served as their guide to the tribes.
What was unexplored country to the expedition was a land divided into
borders and well traveled by Native Americans.
In fact, a
good deal of the enduring fascination
Americans have for the Lewis and Clark saga is due to the assistance extended
by tribes and individual Indians.
Foremost
among those is Sakakawea --meaning “bird woman” in the Hidatsa language--who
joined the expedition when it reached
the Hidatsa and Mandan nations in North Dakota.
This young
Indian woman made every step of the remaining trek with Lewis and
Clark–carrying a baby on her back.
But she was
not the only Indian to ease the burden for the expedition. Several tribes and tribal leaders saved them
from failure and death along the way. If
it had not been for the tribes, the expedition would have starved or died of exposure.
Much of the
legacy of the Lewis and Clark expedition has come to the Department of the
Interior. We deal with tribal relations,
conservation of much of our nation’s most treasured lands and wildlife, and the
survey and mapping of those lands.
A member of
Lewis and Clark’s team, Private John Colter, left the Corps early and went
off to discover the areas of Yellowstone
and Grand Teton National Parks.
Much of the
Corps of Discovery’s route passes through lands now administered by the
National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife
Service and Bureau of Reclamation –all part of Interior–as well as the
Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.
These
agencies will work with states, local governments and tribes to commemorate the
journey along the way.
Another way Interior is honoring the expedition is by
sponsoring the Corps of Discovery II traveling exhibition now at the Monticello
Visitors Center.
Charlottesville
is the first stop of an odyssey that will take the exhibit to four hundred
cities in the next four years-- from Virginia to the Oregon coast. It is your chance to experience a part of the
world as Lewis and Clark saw it.
In addition
to the dynamic and educational graphics of this museum on wheels, its most valuable contribution will be making “living
history” in the “Tent of Many Voices.”
Along the route of the trail, local
communities and tribes can talk about the expedition from many different
cultural perspectives.
The exhibit
is purposefully titled “Corps of Discovery II: 200 Years to the Future” because
it is only by seeing the past from many perspectives and hearing many voices in
the present that America can understand our history and build our future.
The Lewis
and Clark Bicentennial is a chance for America to think like Thomas Jefferson,
to envision what we want our country to become centuries into the future. It’s a journey of many voices that we can take together.