When
Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark into the West, he patterned their
mission on the methods of Enlightenment science: to observe, collect,
document, and classify. Such strategies were already in place for the
epic voyages made by explorers like Cook and Vancouver. Like their contemporaries,
Lewis and Clark were more than representatives of European rationalism.
They also represented a rising American empire, one built on aggressive
territorial expansion and commercial gain.
But there was another view
of the West: that of the native inhabitants of the land. Their understandings
of landscapes, peoples, and resources formed both a contrast and counterpoint
to those of Jefferson's travelers. This part of the exhibition presents
five areas where Lewis and Clark's ideas and values are compared with
those of native people. Sometimes the similarities are striking; other
times the differences stand as a reminder of future conflicts and misunderstandings.
Discovering Diplomacy
One of Lewis and Clark's
missions was to open diplomatic relations between the United States
and the Indian nations of the West. As Jefferson told Lewis, "it will
now be proper you should inform those through whose country you will
pass . . . that henceforth we become their fathers and friends." When
Euro-Americans and Indians met, they used ancient diplomatic protocols
that included formal language, ceremonial gifts, and displays of military
power. But behind these symbols and rituals there were often very different
ways of understanding power and authority. Such differences sometimes
made communication across the cultural divide difficult and open to
confusion and misunderstanding.
An important organizing principle
in Euro-American society was hierarchy. Both soldiers and civilians
had complex gradations of rank to define who gave orders and who obeyed.
While kinship was important in the Euro-American world, it was even
more fundamental in tribal societies. Everyone's power and place depended
on a complex network of real and symbolic relationships. When the two
groups met--whether for trade or diplomacy--each tried to reshape the
other in their own image. Lewis and Clark sought to impose their own
notions of hierarchy on Indians by "making chiefs" with medals, printed
certificates, and gifts. Native people tried to impose the obligations
of kinship on the visitors by means of adoption ceremonies, shared names,
and ritual gifts.
Blunderbuss, ca. 1809-1810
Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution,
National Museum of American History,
Behring Center, Washington, D.C. |
Blunderbuss
The Lewis
and Clark expedition was in many ways an infantry company on the
move, fully equipped with rifles of various kinds, muskets, and
pistols. Among the firearms were two blunderbusses. Named after
the Dutch words for "thunder gun," the blunderbuss was unmistakable
for its heavy stock, short barrel, and wide-mouthed muzzle. Other
expedition guns might be graceful in design and craftsmanship
but the stout blunderbuss simply signified brute force and power.
Lewis and Clark fired their blunderbusses as signs of arrival
when entering Indian camps or villages. |
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.
|
Pipe tomahawk (Shoshone),
1800s
Courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. |
|
Jefferson's
Secret Message to Congress
While Jefferson
made no effort to hide the Lewis and Clark expedition from Spanish,
French, and British officials, he did try to shield it from his
political enemies. By the time he was ready to request funds for
the enterprise, Jefferson's relationship with the opposition in
Congress was anything but friendly. When the president suggested
including expedition funding in his regular address to Congress,
Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin (1761-1849) urged that
the request be made in secret. The message purported to focus
on the state of Indian trade and mentioned the proposed western
expedition near the end of the document. |
Jefferson's
Instructions for Meriwether Lewis
No document
proved more important for the exploration of the American West
than the letter of instructions Jefferson prepared for Lewis.
Jefferson's letter became the charter for federal exploration
for the remainder of the nineteenth century. The letter combined
national aspirations for territorial expansion with scientific
discovery. Here Jefferson sketched out a comprehensive and flexible
plan for western exploration. That plan created a military exploring
party with one key mission--finding the water passage across the
continent "for the purposes of commerce"--and many additional
objectives, ranging from botany to ethnography. Each section of
the document was really a question in search of a western answer.
Two generations of American explorers marched the West in search
of those answers. |
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Jefferson
Peace Medal
The American
republic began to issue peace medals during the first Washington
administration, continuing a tradition established by the European
nations. Lewis and Clark brought at least eighty-nine medals in
five sizes in order to designate five "ranks" of chief. In the
eyes of Americans, Indians who accepted such medals were also
acknowledging American sovereignty as "children" of a new "great
father." And in a moment of imperial bravado, Lewis hung a peace
medal around the neck of a Piegan Blackfeet warrior killed by
the expedition in late July 1806. As Lewis later explained, he
used a peace medal as a way to let the Blackfeet know "who we
were." |
Making
Chiefs
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. By weakening traditional authority, he sought
to make it easier for the United States to negotiate with the
tribes. Lewis told the Otos that they needed these certificates
"In order that the commandant at St. Louis . . . may know . .
. that you have opened your ears to your great father's voice."
The certificate on display was left over from the expedition.
|
Making
Speeches
In
their speeches, Lewis and Clark called the Indians "children."
To explorers, the term expressed the relationship of ruler and
subject. Clark modeled this speech to the Yellowstone Indians
on one that Lewis gave to Missouri River tribes. In their speeches,
the Indians called Lewis and Clark "father," as in this example
made by the Arikira Chiefs. To them, it expressed kinship and
their assumption that an adoptive father undertook an obligation
to show generosity and loyalty to his new family. William Clark
recorded this speech as it was made by the chiefs. |
Making
Kinship
In tribal
society, kinship was like a legal system--people depended on relatives
to protect them from crime, war, and misfortune. People with no
kin were outside of society and its rules. To adopt Lewis and
Clark into tribal society, the Plains Indians used a pipe ceremony.
The ritual of smoking and sharing the pipe was at the heart of
much Native American diplomacy. With the pipe the captains accepted
sacred obligations to share wealth, aid in war, and revenge injustice.
At the end of the ceremony, the pipe was presented to them so
they would never forget their obligations. This pipe may have
been given to Lewis and Clark. |
Pipe bowl [Plains/Great Lakes], ca. 1800-1850
Stone (catlinite) and lead
Courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Gift
of the heirs of David Kimball, 1899 |
Pipe stem [Plains/Great Lakes], ca. 1800-1850
Wood, ivory-billed woodpecker head and scalp, wood duck face patch,
dyed downy feathers, dyed horsehair, dyed artiodactyls hair, dyed
and undyed porcupine quills, sinew, bast fiber cords, glazed cotton
fabric, sinew, bast fiber cords, glazed cotton fabric, twill-woven
wool tapes, silk ribbons, and shell beads |
|
Jefferson's
Cipher
While Jefferson
knew that for much of the journey he and his travelers would be
out of touch, the president thought Indians and fur traders might
carry small messages back to him. A life-long fascination for
gadgets and secret codes led Jefferson to present Lewis with this
key-word cipher. Lewis was instructed to "communicate to us, at
seasonable intervals, a copy of your journal, notes & observations,
of every kind, putting into cipher whatever might do injury if
betrayed." The scheme was never used but the sample message reveals
much about Jefferson's expectations for the expedition. |
Gifts
with a Message
Gift-giving
was an essential part of diplomacy. To Indians, gifts proved the
giver's sincerity and honored the tribe. To Lewis and Clark, some
gifts advertised the technological superiority and others encouraged
the Indians to adopt an agrarian lifestyle. Like salesmen handing
out free samples, Lewis and Clark packed bales of manufactured
goods like these to open diplomatic relations with Indian tribes.
These beads came from Mitutanka, the village nearest to Fort Mandan.
Jefferson advised Lewis to give out corn mills to introduce the
Indians to mechanized agriculture as part of his plan to "civilize
and instruct" them. Clark believed the mills were "verry Thankfully
recived," but by the next year the Mandan had demolished theirs
to use the metal for weapons. |
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Kettle,
beads, and cornmill,
late 1700s
Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society (kettles),
St. Paul; Ralph Thompson Collection of the North Dakota Lewis &
Clark Bicentennial Foundation (beads),
Washburn; and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (cornmill) |
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Displays
of Power
In situations
when ceremonies, speeches, and gifts did not work, both the Corps
and the Indians gave performances that displayed their military
power. The American soldiers paraded, fired their weapons, and
demonstrated innovative weaponry. The Indians used war clubs,
like this Sioux club, in celebratory scalp dances. Three decades
later, Swiss artist Karl Bodmer accompanying naturalist Prince
Maximillian, retraced Lewis and Clark's trek on the Missouri River
and vibrantly recorded a similar scene in the print displayed
above. |
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Jefferson's
Speech to a Delegation of Indian Chiefs
Indian
delegations had long been part of European diplomacy with native
people, and they came to play an increasingly important role in
U.S. Indian policy as well. Even before leaving St. Louis, Lewis
and Clark began organizing delegations to visit the new "great
father" in Washington. Jefferson's speech to a group of chiefs
from the lower Missouri River is an arresting combination of friendship,
promises of peaceful relations in a shared country, and thinly
veiled threats if Indians rejected American sovereignty. Reminding
the chiefs of the changes in international diplomacy after the
Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson insisted that "We are now your fathers;
and you shall not lose by the change." But behind all the promises
of a shared future was an unmistakable threat. As the president
said, "My children, we are strong, we are numerous as the stars
in the heavens, & we are all gunmen." |
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Indian
Speech to Jefferson
A delegation
of chiefs from western tribes was sent by Lewis to Washington,
D.C. President Jefferson welcomed them with words of peace and
friendship. But if President Jefferson expected his native visitors
to quietly accept their status as "children" in the new American
order, he was mistaken. In their speech to Jefferson, the chiefs
raised two important concerns: the troubled economic relations
between native people and the federally operated trading posts
and the rising tide of violence Indians suffered at the hands
of white settlers on the Missouri River frontier. These chiefs
were determined to speak the truth "to the ears of our fathers."
In return, they expected that government officials would "open
their ears to truth to get in." |
Geography
In
the exploration instructions prepared for Lewis, Jefferson directed
that his explorers record "the face of the country." Geography, especially
as recorded on maps, was an important part of the information collected
by the Corps of Discovery. In planning the expedition, Lewis and Gallatin
collected the latest maps and printed accounts portraying and describing
the western country. This visual and printed data was incorporated into
a composite document--the Nicholas King 1803 map--which the expedition
carried with them at least as far as the Mandan villages. As Lewis and
Clark traversed the country, they drew sketch maps and carefully recorded
their astronomical and geographic observations. Equally important, they
gathered vital knowledge about "the face of the country" from native
people. During winters at Fort Mandan on the Missouri in 1804-1805 and
at Fort Clatsop on the Pacific Coast in 1805-1806 the explorers added
new details from their sketch maps and journals to base maps depicting
the course of the expedition. The first printed map of the journey did
not appear until 1814 when Nicholas Biddle's official account of the
expedition was published in Philadelphia and London.
Euro-American explorers were
not the only ones to draw maps of the western country. As every visitor
to Indian country soon learned, native people also made sophisticated
and complex maps. Such maps often covered thousands of miles of terrain.
At first glance Indian maps often appear quite different from those
made by Euro-Americans. And there were important differences that reflected
distinctive notions about time, space, and relationships between the
natural and the supernatural worlds. William Clark was not the only
expedition cartographer to struggle with those differences. But the
similarities between Indian maps and Euro-American ones are also worth
noting. Both kinds of maps told stories about important past events,
current situations, and future ambitions. Both sorts of maps used symbols
to represent key terrain features, major settlements, and sacred sites.
Perhaps most important, Euro-Americans and Native Americans understood
that mapping is a human activity shared by virtually every culture.
|
Nicholas
King's 1803 Pre-Expedition Map
In
March 1803, War Department cartographer Nicholas King compiled
a map of North America west of the Mississippi in order to summarize
all available topographic information about the region. Representing
the federal government's first attempt to define the vast empire
later purchased from Napoleon, King consulted numerous published
and manuscript maps. The composite map reflects Jefferson and
Gallatin's geographical concepts on the eve of the expedition.
It is believed that Lewis and Clark carried this map on their
journey at least as far as the Mandan-Hidatsa villages on the
Missouri River, where Lewis antated in brown ink additional information
obtained from fur traders. |
Source
Map for the Bend of the Missouri River
One
of the sources for Nicholas King's 1803 map was this sketch of
the Great Bend of the Missouri River (north of present-day Bismarck,
North Dakota). Copied by Lewis from a survey for the British North
West Company by David Thompson, this map provided the exact latitude
and longitude of that important segment of the Missouri. Thompson,
traveling overland in the dead of winter, spent three weeks at
the Mandan and Pawnee villages on the Missouri River, calculating
astronomical observations. He also recorded the number of houses,
tents, and warriors of the six Indian villages in the area. |
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Fort
Mandan Map
Throughout
the winter of 1804-1805 at Fort Mandan, William Clark drafted
a large map of the West --what he called "a Connection of the
country." That map, recopied several times by Nicholas King, provided
the first accurate depiction of the Missouri River to Fort Mandan
based on the expedition's astronomical and geographical observations.
Drawing on "information of Traders, Indians, & my own observation
and idea," Clark sketched out a conjectural West--one characterized
by a narrow chain of mountains and rivers with headwaters close
one to the other, still suggesting an easy water passage to the
Pacific Coast. |
Indian
Map of Columbia and Snake Rivers
Although
there are journal notes stating that Indians provided geographical
information for Lewis and Clark and drew maps on animal skins
or made rough sketches in the soil, no original examples survive.
However, there are several collaborative efforts in which members
of the Corps redrew Indian sketches often combining their own
observations with Indian information. This sketch map found in
one of William Clark's field notebooks is a good example of a
map derived from Indian information. It is a diagram of the relative
location of tributaries of the Columbia and Snake (Lewis) rivers
in present-day eastern Washington and Oregon. |
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Field
Maps of the Fort Clatsop Area
This
pair of maps is from a collection of manuscript field maps drafted
by Clark as the Corps descended the Columbia River and wintered
on the Pacific Coast at Fort Clatsop. On the left, Clark drew
a rough sketch of the mouth of the Columbia River, oriented with
south at the top of the sheet. The other is one of the cruder
examples of a map derived from Indian information, with Clark
noting "This was given by a Clott Sopp Indn." It shows a small
portion of the Pacific Coast and locates several tribes and villages. |
Sitting
Rabbit's Map of the Missouri River
Displayed
here is a portion of a 1906-1907 map depicting the Missouri River
through North Dakota to the mouth of the Yellowstone River. It
was prepared by Sitting Rabbit, a Mandan Indian, at the request
of an official of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.
Although it uses a Missouri River Commission map as its base,
the content provides a traditional Indian perspective of the river's
geography, especially noting former Mandan village sites with
earthen lodges. The portion of the river shown here corresponds
to the same stretch of river delineated on Clark's route map (below).
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This
image is not available online:
[Route Map about October 16-19, 1804],
copy of original map made in 1833
Copyprint of manuscript copy
Courtesy of the Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha
|
Missouri
Route Map near Fort Mandan
Throughout
the expedition, William Clark prepared a series of large-scale
route maps, with each sheet documenting several days' travel.
On these sheets he recorded the course of rivers navigated, mouths
of tributary streams, encampments, celestial observations, and
other notable features. Big River on Sitting Rabbit's map (above)
is identified as Cannon Ball River on Clark's map and Beaver Creek
is recorded as Warraconne River or "Plain where Elk shed their
horns," by Clark. |
Fort
Clatsop Map
This
post-expeditionary map prepared by Washington, D.C., cartographer
Nicholas King, probably in 1806 or 1807, most likely incorporates
information from a map prepared by Lewis and Clark in February
1806 at Fort Clatsop on the Oregon coast. Although the original
map no longer exists, such a map is mentioned in the expedition's
journals. Using King's 1805 base map, which records information
observed as far as Fort Mandan, this present copy adds geographical
observations from Fort Mandan to the west coast, as well as data
from the return trip. |
|
Clark's
Map of Midwestern Indian Settlements
Following
his appointment as governor of the Missouri Territory in 1813,
William Clark sketched this map of various Indian tribes and villages
throughout the Missouri and Illinois territories, showing the
locations of numerous forts and settlements. He prepared it in
response to British incursions on the frontier during the War
of 1812, when it was feared that the Indians, many of them allied
with the British, would attack white settlements. The map also
reflects Clark's continuing post-expedition interest in Indian
activities having been appointed superintendent of Indian affairs
at St. Louis in 1807. |
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Frazer's
Post-Expedition Map
Private
Robert Frazer was the first member of the Lewis and Clark party
to announce publication of an expedition journal. His account
never reached print, and the original journal was lost. This manuscript
map is the only remnant of that initial publishing attempt. Since
Frazer had little or no knowledge of surveying or natural sciences,
the map is a strange piece of cartography. He traces the expedition's
route, but continues to depict older views of the Rocky Mountains
and western rivers. Sometimes ignored, the Frazer map was one
of the first to reveal the course of the journey and some of its
geographic findings. |
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First
Published Map of Expedition's Track
This
was the first published map to display reasonably accurate geographic
information of the trans-Mississippi West. Based on a large map
kept by William Clark, the engraved copy accompanied Nicholas
Biddle's History of the Expedition (1814). As the landmark
cartographic contribution of the expedition, this "track map"
held on to old illusions while proclaiming new geographic discoveries.
Clark presented a West far more topographically diverse and complex
than Jefferson ever imagined. From experience, Clark had learned
that the Rockies were a tangle of mountain ranges and that western
rivers were not the navigable highways so central to Jefferson's
geography of hope. |
History
of the Expedition
After Lewis's
death in September 1809, Clark engaged Nicholas Biddle to edit
the expedition papers. Using the captains' original journals and
those of Sergeants Gass and Ordway, Biddle completed a narrative
by July 1811. After delays with the publisher, a two-volume edition
of the Corps of Discovery's travels across the continent was finally
available to the public in 1814. More than twenty editions appeared
during the nineteenth century, including German, Dutch, and several
British editions. |
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Calculating
Distance
In order
to make astronomical observations that would aid in calculating
distances, the Corps took a sextant on their journey. On July
22, 1804, while the expedition was above the mouth of the Platte
River in eastern Nebraska, Lewis gave a detailed description of
the operation of the sextant and other tools that reveals his
struggle to use the complicated instruments. A select number of
books were taken on the expedition including British astronomer
Nevil Maskeklyne's Tables Requisite to be Used with the Nautical
Ephemeris for Finding the Latitude and Longitude at Sea.
|
W. & S. Jones Holburn, London [patented 1788]
Sextant
Brass, wood, silver
Courtesy of the National Museum of
American History, Behring Center |
|
Animals
Jefferson
subscribed to the eighteenth-century Enlightenment notion that assembling
a complete catalog of the Earth's flora and fauna was possible. In his
instructions, he told Lewis to observe "the animals of the country generally,
& especially those not known in the U.S." The Corps of Discovery
was the first expedition to scientifically describe a long list of species.
Their journals, especially those kept by Lewis, are filled with direct
observations of the specimens they encountered on the journey. Through
objective measurements and anatomical descriptions, they defined various
species previously unknown to Euro-Americans.
Indians studied animal behaviors
to understand moral lessons. Animals were beings addressed respectfully
as "grandfather" or "brother." Because animals intersected the worlds
of the sacred and the profane, Indians regarded them as intermediaries
between the human and spiritual realms.
Specimen of a "Lewis woodpecker"
[Asyndesmus lewis, collected Camp Chopunnish, Idaho,
1806]
Preserved skin and feathers
Courtesy of Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology,
Boston |
Lewis's
woodpecker
The woodpecker
displayed above may be the only specimen collected during the
Lewis and Clark expedition to survive intact. Lewis first saw
the bird on July 20, 1805, but did not get a specimen until the
following spring at Camp Chopunnish on the Clearwater River in
Idaho. Lewis's description of the bird's belly is still accurate
when examining the specimen today: "a curious mixture of white
and blood red which has much the appearance of having been artificially
painted or stained of that colour." |
Observing
"the animals of the country generally"
Lewis covered
pages with descriptions of animals and plants during the winter
of 1805-1806. This particular journal kept during that period
contains abundant zoological notes in Lewis's hand. The journal
is open to a description of the Corps first encounter with a white-tailed
jack rabbi--an animal considered so impressive that both Lewis
and Clark wrote extensive descriptions of it. On selected occasions
both captains illustrated their notes. In the reproduction above
Clark sketched the now-endangered condor. Lewis had correctly
observed in his journal: "I bleive this to be the largest bird
of North America." |
|
William Clark (1770-1838)
Head of a Vulture
(California condor),
February 17, 1806
Copyprint of journal illustration
Courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society, St Louis |
Representing
Beings
The Indian
sense of "personhood" extends far beyond the western conception
of human beings. In Indian culture animal people, plant people,
sky peopleCall are beings in their own right. Indian art portrays
a being's inner essence, not its physical form. The Columbia River
artist who created this twined circular basket decorated it with
images of condors, sturgeons, people, and deer -- abstractions
that are given equal importance in the woven pattern. This nineteenth-century
Sioux clay and wood pipe portrays a buffalo, whose spirit, or
Tananka, cares for children, hunters, and growing things.
It may have be created as a presentation pipe. |
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Hunting
Bear
Patrick
Gass was one of the three sergeants in the Corps of Discovery.
His account, first printed in 1807, was the only one available
to curious readers until the official publication appeared in1814.
This Gass edition contains six woodcuts, two of which depict encounters
with bears. The image above may have been based on Corps member
Hugh McNeal's experience on July 15, 1806. Lewis records: ". .
.and with his clubbed musquet he struck the bear over the head
and cut him with the guard of the gun and broke off the breech,
the bear stunned with the stroke fell to his ground. . .this gave
McNeal time to climb a willow tree." |
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The
Power of the Bear
Artist
George Catlin painted the scene of a dance held in preparation
for a traditional Sioux bear hunt in 1832. These dances were performed
in order to communicate with "the Bear Spirit." According
to Catlin, the Sioux believe this spirit "holds somewhere an invisible
existence that must be consulted and conciliated." This clay Sioux
pipe bowl probably depicts the bear's role as teacher and transmitter
of power. |
George Catlin (1796B1872)
Bear Dance of the Sioux,
1832 [printed 1844]
Hand-colored lithograph
Courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis |
Bear effigy pipe bowl
(Sioux, Osage or Pawnee),
pre-1830s
Catlinite
Courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis |
Dressed in Courage
In both Euro-American and native cultures,
clothing communicated messages about the wearer's biography, rank, and
role in society. In both cultures, a warrior's clothing was his identity
and men entered battle dressed in regalia that displayed their deeds
and status. Symbolic insignia revealed a complex code about who a man
was and what he had accomplished. But differences did exist. For instance,
Plains Indian men wore clothing that incorporated symbols of their spirit
visions, tribal identity, and past deeds as manifestations of the spiritual
powers that helped them in battle. European soldiers wore similar symbols
but as a way to display and inspire uniform loyalty to their nation.
Wearing
Achievement
The U.S.
Army lavished effort on the details of uniforms, increasing the
psychological impact on the wearer and his opponent. Military
insignia were designed to prevent any ambiguity about chains of
command, so that a soldier could instantly tell whom to obey.
The U.S. Army was so small in 1804 that no complete uniforms survive.
This reproduction portrays a captain in the full-dress uniform
of the 1st U.S. Infantry Regiment, to which Lewis belonged.
The "Kentucky" rifle shown below--a .45 caliber flint lock--was
passed down through William Clark's family. |
Infantry captain's uniform,
bicorne hat [not shown]
Reproduction by Timothy Pickles, 2003
Textile
Courtesy of the Missouri Historical
Society, St. Louis |
Rifle, post 1809,
lock by Rogers & Brothers, Philadelphia
Steel barrel, iron fittings, German silver plates,
tiger maple stock
Courtesy of the Missouri Historical
Society, St. Louis |
War shirt, 1843
Antelope skin, quill work
Courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery |
The
Plains Warrior
A Plains
Indian warrior relied on personal power in battle, and his dress
incorporated symbols of his spirit visions, his tribal identity,
and his past deeds. The leader of a war party often wore a painted
shirt that detailed his war record. On such shirts made from animal
skins, the contours of the pelt were left intact in the belief
that the animal would lend its qualities to the wearer. The most
powerful shirts were fringed with locks of human hair provided
by relatives and supporters to represent the man's responsibilities
to his relations. This shirt, probably Blackfeet, has buffalo-track
symbols on the neck flap that evoke the power of the bison to
aid the warrior in battle. |
Images
of Heroism
Plains
Indian men wore painted skin robes that told of their achievements.
This image of Shoshone Chief Washakie's war robe shows a series
of diagrammatic battle scenes. Here, events happen not in a landscape
but in a symbolic realm of deeds. Depictions of his enemies are
not individualized, but are instead given costumes, hairstyles,
or equipment that represent tribal affiliation, society membership,
and past deeds. Warriors are sometimes represented by disembodied
guns or arrows. |
Washakie war robe (Shoshone),
pre-1897
Paint on deer hide
Copyprint of artifact
Courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington,
D.C. |
William Woollett, after a painting by Benjamin West
The Death of General Wolfe.
London: Woollett, Boydell & Ryland, 1776
Engraving
Prints and Photographs Division |
The
Ideal Military Hero
In 1759,
at the height of the French and Indian War, General Wolfe led
a British-American assault on the French outside Quebec. The print,
based on a painting by Benjamin West, shows the wounded general
dying just as a messenger brings news that the enemy is retreating.
In the moment of both victory and death, Wolfe achieves transcendent
glory. His uplifted eyes suggest both sacrifice for the nation
and triumph over death--not through faith but through fame. This
was an idealized image to which military men of Lewis and Clark's
generation aspired. |
Coyote
Headdress
Coyote,
the mythic trickster of the Plains Indians, was the protector
of the scouts who spied on the enemy for a war party. This nineteenth-century
Teton headdress from the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota
was meant to summon and symbolize Coyote's craftiness. |
Coyote headdress (Teton Sioux),
nineteenth century
Pelt, feathers, canvas, wool, hawk bell
Courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington,
D.C. |
Spontoon
and Gorget
The spontoon,
a long wooden shaft with a spear at one end, became popular with
the American army during the Revolutionary War. Although it was
required equipment that signified an officer's rank, these pikes
were commonly abandoned for more practical weapons in battle.
Lewis used his as a walking stick, a grizzly-bear spear, and a
gun rest, but never to rally troops in battle. The origins of
the gorget can be traced to the chivalric armor. American army
officers wore these ceremonial insignia high on the chest. Lewis
presented gorgets (which he called "moons") to Indian leaders
to symbolize rank. |
Spontoon (American/Fort Ticonderoga),
late eighteenth century
Iron, wood
Courtesy of the Collection of
Fort Ticonderoga Museum, New York |
Richard Rugg
Gorget, London, ca. 1783
Silver
Courtesy of William H. Guthman
Collection |
Bear
Claw Necklace
To wear
a bear claw necklace was a mark of distinction for a warrior or
a chief, and the right to wear it had to be earned. These powerful
symbols were a part of the culture of the Great Lakes, Plains,
and Plateau tribes. On August 21, 1805, Lewis wrote in this journal
that Shoshone "warriors or such as esteem themselves brave men
wear collars made of the claws of the brown bear. . . . These
claws are ornamented with beads about the thick end near which
they are pierced through their sides and strung on a throng of
dressed leather and tyed about the neck . . . . It is esteemed
by them an act of equal celebrity the killing one of these bear
or an enimy." |
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Plants
In
his instructions to Lewis, Jefferson directed the party to observe and
record "the soil & face of the country, it's growth & vegetable
productions, especially those not of the U.S. . . . the dates at which
particular plants put forth or lose their flower, or leaf . . . ." The
study and collection of plants was one of Jefferson's life-long pursuits.
When he instructed the Corps in their approach to cataloging the country's
flora, Jefferson again set the pattern for subsequent explorations.
Jefferson, however, was not purely motivated by science; plants thought
to have medicinal properties, like tobacco and sassafras, were important
to the U.S. economy. As the Napoleonic Wars swept Europe and affected
exports to the United States, there was a call to reduce America's dependence
on foreign medicine and find substitutes on native soil.
Indians and Europeans had
been exchanging knowledge about curing and health for three centuries,
yet they still held very different beliefs. Indian doctors focused on
the patient's relationship to the animate world around him. Euro-American
doctors saw the body as a mechanical system needing regulation. Meriwether
Lewis, instructed by America's foremost physician Dr. Benjamin Rush,
University of Pennsylvania botanist Benjamin Barton, and his own mother,
a skilled herbalist, was to serve as the Corps doctor, but William Clark
also became adept in treating various illnesses. Though Clark rejected
Indian explanations, he often turned to Indian techniques when members
of his own party became ill.
Tourniquet, early nineteenth
century
Brass, leather, iron
Lancet, early nineteenth
century
Tortoise shell, steel
Clyster syringe, late eighteenth
century
Pewter, wood
Courtesy
of the Mütter Museum, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia |
Curing
the Corps
Lewis and
Clark were not persuaded by Indian explanations of why illness
occurred but often used Indian cures in preference to their own.
The Corps began its journey stocked with traditional western medicinal
treatments and tools. Lewis used lancets to let out blood in such
dangerous conditions as heat exhaustion and pelvic inflammation,
and tourniquets to stop blood flow. Bleeding was thought to relieve
congestion in internal organs. Lewis originally thought he would
need three syringes for enemas but settled for one. There is no
further mention of its use. Laxatives, derived from plant sources,
were also used to purge the body of impurities. |
Rules
of Health
Thomas
Jefferson asked Benjamin Rush, a noted physician and professor
of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, to "prepare some
notes of such particulars as may occur in his journey & which
you think should draw his attention & enquiry." Dr. Rush restricted
his advice to practical hints for maintaining health in the field--some
of it unwelcome like using alcohol for cleaning feet instead of
for drinking. Many Americans did not trust professional medicine
and instead used folk cures like these written down by Clark after
the expedition. Many folk cures originally came from Indian sources. |
This
image is not available online:
William Clark
Cures for toothache and "whooping cough," early nineteenth century
Courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis |
Summoning
the Spirits
An Indian
doctor's job was to identify the being that had caused an illness,
then overcome or placate it. An Indian patient lived in an animate
world, surrounded by entities who could make him ill. Medicinal
herbs and roots were powdered and mixed in a mortar like this
one from the Northern Plains. Drums and herbs were used to summon
helpful spirits as aids in healing. Fragrant herbs pleased and
attracted good influences and drove away evil ones. This sweetgrass
braid was used as an incense to purify implements, weapons, dwellings,
and people. |
Mortar and pestle (Plateau),
prehistoric Stone
Courtesy of the Maryhill Museum of Art,
Goldendale, Washington |
Sweetgrass braid (Lakota),
1953
Sweetgrass, string
Courtesy of the Missouri Historical
Society, St. Louis |
|
A
Botanical Specimen
While
admitting that Lewis was "no regular botanist," Jefferson did
praise "his talent for observation." And on June 11, 1806, during
an extended stay with the Nez Perce people, Lewis showed that
talent. Camas, sometimes known as quamash, was an important food
plant for the Nez Perces. Lewis carefully described the plant's
natural environment, its physical structure, the ways women harvested
and prepared camas, and its role in the Indian diet. Some days
later Lewis gathered samples of camas for his growing collection
of western plants. |
Camassia
quamash (Pursh),
["Collected by Lewis at Weippe Prairie, in present-day Idaho,
June 23, 1806."] Herbarium sheet
Courtesy of Academy of Natural Sciences, Ewell Sale Stewart Library,
Philadelphia
|
Flora
Americae Septentrionalis
Frederick
Pursh, an emigrant from Saxony who worked with botanist Benjamin
Smith Barton in Philadelphia, published the first botanical record
of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Pursh received a collection
of dried plants from Lewis, which he classified and incorporated
into his Flora Americae Septentrionalis. The volume is
open to Clarkia pulchella, a member of the evening primrose
family, which Pursh named in honor of William Clark. Pursh took
some of the Lewis and Clark specimens to London to finish the
book, including the silky lupine specimen to the far left. |
|
Lupinus sericens,
Pursh, [silky lupine]
[collected by Lewis at Camp Chopunnish, on the Clearwater River,
Idaho, June 5, 1806]
Herbarium sheet
Courtesy of the Royal Botanic Gardens,
Kew, England |
Root
Digging Bag
Among the
Nez Perce, only women harvested plant foods. A man doing so risked
derision and contempt. A Nez Perce woman's year was structured
around plants. As each new food plant matured, its arrival was
welcomed in a first fruits feast. Root bags were used
in gathering, cooking, and for storage. An industrious woman could
dig eighty or ninety pounds of roots in a day. |
Root digging bag (Plateau),
pre-1898
Wild hemp and bear grass or rye grass, with dyes of alder, Oregon
grape root, wolf moss, algae, and larkspur
Courtesy of the Maryhill Museum of Art,
Goldendale, Washington |
Basket (Plateau), pre-1940
Cedar bark
Courtesy of the Maryhill Museum of Art,
Goldendale, Washington |
A
Gathering Basket
The cedar
bark basket was used across the Plateau for gathering berries,
nuts, and roots. Bark baskets could be made easily when a person
came across some forest food by stripping off a piece of cedar
bark and folding it. |
A
Sally Bag
Plateau
tribes gathered wild hemp and beargrass, then traded it to the
Wishram and Wasco Indians at The Dalles in Oregon, the dividing
line between North Coast and Plateau Indians. The traded raw materials
would then be made into finished products like this sally bag,
used for packaging food. |
Sally bag, pre-1898
Corn husk, dogbane [wild hemp]
Courtesy of the Maryhill Museum of Art, Goldendale, Washington |
Parfleche bag (Sahaptin),
early nineteenth century
Hide, pigment
Courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington,
D.C. |
Storing
Roots
Among the
Shoshone, Lewis noted that dried roots were stored by being "foalded
in as many parchment hides of buffaloe." Hide bags, like the one
on display, were made by cleaning and sizing rawhide so that it
had a smooth, paintable surface. This bag is decorated in a distinctive
Plateau style. |
Sources
for the Lewis & Clark Expedition Maps of 1803 and 1814
The two key maps that
bracket the Lewis and Clark expedition are the Nicholas King map
of 1803 and the Track Map of 1814.
Nicholas King drew
upon the most current information in creating his map.
This presentation shows how existing maps were used to form King's
map, which it is believed, Lewis and Clark took on their journey.
The 1814 Track Map
was the landmark product of the expedition. Based on a large map
kept by William Clark in his St. Louis office, this map shows
the geographic exploration made by Lewis and Clark. It was part
of the expedition's official publication. |
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