After completing the lessons in this unit, students
will be able to: - Describe some of the hazards faced by the Lewis and
Clark expedition.
- Trace the journey on a U.S. map.
- List some of
the discoveries made on the journey.
Preparing to Teach this Lesson
- This lesson is intended for use by classes studying
the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Before beginning, students should have some understanding
of the geographic extent of the U.S. prior to the Louisiana Purchase, and the
benefits of acquiring more territory. Gather basic background information on President
Jefferson, the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition through these
EDSITEment resources:
Additional research materials for teachers seeking
historical background on Lewis and Clark are the books Undaunted
Courage by Stephen Ambrose and Lewis and Clark
and the Image of the American Northwest by Dr. John Allen.
Another
useful instructional tool is the Ken Burns documentary "Lewis & Clark: The Journey
of the Corps of Discovery," around which the EDSITEment-reviewed website Lewis
& Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery was created.
- For the "Specialists" activity (Lesson
4), select an appropriate number of diary entries for each group from the
list provided—zoologists, botanists, meteorologists, Native American experts
and geologist/geographers. If a greater number of groups is desirable, consider
creating two groups for each type of specialist (i.e., early zoological entries
and later zoological entries), since there are many entries available.
This activity works best using two large maps:
- A standard classroom
display map of the U.S. (commercial) on which students can write with erasable
marker or to which items can be taped without harm. On this map, important dates
will be affixed to guide in the creation of a map-based summary of the expedition.
- A large, simple outline map of the U.S. (homemade, on the bulletin or chalk
board) on which students will eventually draw or attach symbols to represent information
from the expedition.
NOTE: It might also be helpful to provide groups
with individual outline maps to use as working drafts.
- The
Digital Classroom, available through EDSITEment, offers a series of worksheets
for analyzing primary source documents, including written documents and photographs,
that you may wish to use or adapt to help students in reviewing the materials
presented in this unit.
Suggested Activities
Lesson 1: What They
Didn't Know
Lesson
2: If It's November 24th, This Must Be Astoria
Lesson
3: What Did Jefferson Say, Anyway?
Lesson
4: Scientists Study the Corps' Diaries
Lesson
5: Mapping the Discoveries of the Corps
Extending
the Lesson
Lesson 1 What They Didn't Know
To help students understand the degree to which the American West was
unknown before the Lewis and Clark Expedition, give them the following quiz. Before
you begin, ask the students if they think they know a lot about the West. Do they
think they know more than Thomas Jefferson did?
Have students number
their papers from 1 to 10. For each item you name, they should write "T" if they
believe the statement to be true, or "F" if they believe it to be false.
Give students a moment to write their response to each of the following statements,
all beginning with:
At the time Thomas Jefferson was living… - there
were woolly mammoths roaming the West.
- there was a tribe of blue-eyed
Indians living in the West who spoke Welsh, the language of people from Wales,
a region on the west coast of the island of Great Britain.
- there was a
river or series of connected rivers, starting at the Mississippi, that crossed
the western mountains and reached the Pacific Ocean.
- the Blue Ridge Mountains
were taller than the Rocky Mountains.
- the West had many erupting volcanoes.
- unicorns
could be found in the West.
- there were mountains in the West made of undissolved
salt.
- some beavers in the West were seven feet tall.
- buffaloes
were friendly and had slim waists.
- Peruvian llamas roamed the West.
When
the quiz is over, tell the students that though all of these statements are false,
it is likely that Thomas Jefferson believed many of them to be true because such
"facts" were included in books in his library. (Note: The students can put the
quiz away. No one will ever have to share answers.)
According to Lewis
& Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, maps of the West proved as
fictitious as the books in Jefferson's library. European geographers, for example,
drew maps depicting California as an island. Other maps showed the Rocky Mountains
to be narrow and undaunting.
Share with the class a copy of The
Aaron Arrowsmith Map of 1802, available on the EDSITEment-reviewed website
Exploring
the West from Monticello, which depicts the West prior to the Lewis and Clark
Expedition. (Note: The map is the lower half of "A Map Exhibiting all the New
Discoveries" from an edition labeled "1795, with additions to 1811." The lower
half of the map is identical to the 1802 edition.)
What do the students
notice? The map is largely blank!
According to Lewis
& Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery: "The lack of
detail in maps circa 1803 hinted at the enormous task to be faced by the Lewis
and Clark expedition. Before the journey, Meriwether Lewis had map collector Albert
Gallatin make a special map that showed North America from the Pacific coast to
the Mississippi."
The map depicted only three points of certainty:
the latitude and longitude of the mouth of the Columbia and of St. Louis, and
details of what was known of the Missouri River up to the Mandan villages in the
Great Bend of the river (today's Bismarck, North Dakota). The map also estimated
how the Rockies might look and the course of the Columbia River, which no one
had charted beyond its mouth.
But the area that lay west of the Mandan
villages was blank, and the best minds in the world could not fill in that blank
until someone had walked the land, taken measurements and described the flora,
fauna, rivers, mountains and people. Observations of the commercial and agricultural
possibilities of the regions were equally crucial.
After reviewing the
map, students will vicariously experience the discoveries made by the men on the
journey by reading excerpts from their diaries. But first, students will become
oriented to the journey by tracking some key dates on a contemporary map.
Lesson 2 If It's November 24, This
Must Be Astoria
The students begin by looking at a map
of the U.S. showing the Louisiana Purchase, accessible through the EDSITEment
resource Internet Public Library.
In the days when travel was limited to the capabilities of boat, horse and foot
travel, what route would students have chosen to take through the territory to
reach the Pacific Ocean?
Have students look at an 1802 map of the West
that includes more detail: Soulard
Map of the Missouri and Upper Mississippi, 1802 by William Clark, available
in the map section of the EDSITEment resource Lewis
& Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery. Compare it to a contemporary
map of this region. In what ways is Clark's map close to being correct? In what
ways is it incorrect?
If desired, students can research the average mileage
covered by car, foot, horseback, raft or boat. Lewis and Clark traveled a total
of 8,000 miles. How long would it take to travel that distance using these modes
of transportation?
The purpose of the next activity is to develop students'
sense of the progress of the outbound journey of Lewis and Clark. They will affix
dates relevant to the expedition onto the large contemporary political map as
guides for eventually placing their "specialist" information (see Lesson
4) on the large outline map. (Note: The locations are those specified in the
Timeline
of the Trip, from the EDSITEment resource Lewis
& Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery.)
Hand out an appropriate
number of small cards with any, or all, of the following dates and locations:
| March 14, 1804 | | St.
Louis, Missouri |
August 3, 1804 | Omaha, Nebraska |
August 20, 1804 | Sioux City, Iowa |
September
25, 1804 | Pierre, South Dakota |
Oct. 24, 1804 - April
7, 1805 | Bismarck, North Dakota |
April 29, 1805 | where
the Yellowstone River flows into the Missouri |
June 2, 1805 | fork
in the Missouri |
June 13, 1805 | Great Falls, Montana |
July 5, 1805 | Three Forks, Montana; Gallatin, Jefferson, Madison
Rivers |
August 8, 1805 | Dillon, Montana |
August 12, 1805 | border between Idaho and Montana |
September
9, 1805 | Missoula, Montana |
September 22, 1805 | Weippe,
Idaho |
October 7, 1805 | Orofino, Idaho |
October 16, 1805 | conjunction of the Snake and Columbia Rivers |
November 24, 1805 | Astoria, Oregon |
Each
card represents a date when the expedition reached or departed from a specific
location. Using the names of towns and rivers shown on contemporary maps, students
should work alone or in pairs to determine the location of the expedition on the
date(s) on their card(s). Once the students have confirmed each location, they
should put the dates on the map chronologically showing the progress of the expedition.
Note: An excellent array of maps is available on the EDSITEment-reviewed
National
Geographic Xpeditions. Students can obtain state maps with most of the locations
using the site's Atlas feature. Many locations can be found by searching within
the Map
Machine.
When all of the dates and locations have been plotted on
the map, students should work alone or in their groups to determine how many miles
were traveled (approximately) in each segment of the journey and how many days
it took to travel that far. Within each segment, about how many miles were covered
each day, on average?
Discuss issues that arise from tracking the expedition
over time. For example, why did the expedition stop from October 1804 to April
1805? Where did the expedition make swift progress? Slow progress? At this point,
interested classes might enjoy seeing The
Route of the Corps of Discovery to the Pacific, copied from William Clark's
original, available on the EDSITEment resource Lewis
& Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery. On this map, the outbound
route is shown in red, and the return route is in blue.
Lesson 3 What Did Jefferson Say,
Anyway?
As a class, review President Jefferson's charge to Meriwether
Lewis as to the goals of the expedition. Jefferson's orders may be accessed on
the EDSITEment-reviewed website American
Memory by searching for the exact phrase "Thomas Jefferson to Congress, January
18, 1803" (the text is found on page 841 of the transcription, starting with the
words "The commerce which may be carried on…" and ending with "…insects.")
In what kinds of discoveries was Jefferson interested? After the students
have read from the diaries, they should be able to determine if the expedition
members did a good job of "acquainting" themselves with the items Jefferson listed.
Lesson 4 Scientists Study the Corps'
Diaries
Historians rely on primary source material to learn about
the past. In this activity, students will act as scientists gleaning information
from primary sources—the journals of members of the expedition. Journal
entries are available through the EDSITEment resource Lewis
& Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery. What did the expedition members
discover? Students will gain an appreciation of not only the knowledge acquired
during the famous journey but also the difficulties endured.
Assign small
groups specific aspects of the expedition and related diary entries to explore.
Groups could include "specialists" in zoology (animals), botany (plants), meteorology
(weather), Native American cultures, and geology/geography. Each group is given
or searches online for the diary entries related to the assigned "specialty."
Pertinent information from the entries will be noted on the large outline map, or on the chart provided in PDF format for each group's specialty.
(Note: The original spelling of the diarists has been maintained, and the
diaries were written before spelling had been standardized. However, most of the
selected entries are very short, and should not cause too many comprehension problems.
You may wish to form student groups with a range of reading levels within each
group, so that students can help each other understand the diary entries.)
Click here to download
a list of the diary entries by category (In PDF format. Download
Adobe Acrobat Reader®).
If possible, keep wildflower, insect,
trees, animal and other identification handbooks on hand for students to use as
they discover what the expedition members saw along the route.
Lesson 5 Mapping the Discoveries
of the Corps
As a culminating activity, have the student groups
work together to complete the large outline map. Each group should place on the
map, in approximate respective locations, markers representing discoveries made
by the expedition or any events the students deem important. Postings should include
the date. Proceed chronologically. The dates previously attached to the classroom
map will serve as guideposts for determining the location of the Corps on a particular
date.
Once all the discoveries are posted, discuss the journey as a whole.
Judging from the diary entries the class studied, did the expedition members take
seriously President Jefferson's charge? How difficult was the journey?
If desired, for assessment purposes, ask students to trace on a blank outline
map of the continental U.S. the approximate journey of the Corps. On the back,
they should list some of the hazards faced by the Lewis and Clark Expedition and
some of the discoveries made on the journey.
Extending the Lesson
- Students with a special interest in maps will
enjoy comparing a variety of maps relating to the Corps of Discovery, including
those made by expedition members. Such maps are available through the following
EDSITEment-reviewed sources:
- American
Memory
- Search Map Collections by title:
"A map of
Lewis and Clark's track, across the western portion of North America from the
Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean : by order of the executive of the United States
in 1804, 5 & 6"
"Lewis and Clark map, with annotations in brown ink by
Meriwether Lewis, tracing showing the Mississippi, the Missouri for a short distance
above Kansas, Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Winnipeg, and the country onwards
to the Pacific."
-
Exploring the West from Monticello
- A facsimile of William
Clark's 1810
Map of part of the Continent of North America (information only, no image)
History
of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the Sources
of the Missouri, Thence across the Rocky Mountains and down the River Columbia
to the Pacific Ocean. Performed during the years 1804-5-6, by Paul Allen,
1814
Other Maps Created Before 1803
-
Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
- A variety
of maps is available in the Map
Archive
- Lesson
9 from the EDSITEment resource Lewis
& Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery on equipping the expedition
was designed for grades 5-8, but could be adapted for lower grades. In this exercise,
students estimate the number and types of supplies that would be needed for a
trans-continental expedition and then compare them to the actual supply list for
the Lewis and Clark Expedition. To simplify the lesson for younger audiences,
students could create a hypothetical list of supplies without regard to quantity,
eliminating some of the math.
Students who participate should also be
interested in seeing some archival documents from the EDSITEment resource The
Digital Classroom National Archives and Records Administration related to
supplying the expedition:
-
List of Indian presents purchased by Meriwether Lewis in preparation for the expedition
to the West
List of purchases made by Meriwether Lewis in preparation for the expedition to
the West
Receipt for tobacco purchased by Meriwether Lewis for the expedition to the West
Receipt for wine and kegs purchased by Meriwether Lewis for the expedition to
the West
- Students can have the opportunity to "lead"
the Lewis and Clark Expedition by participating in the simulation "Into the Unknown,"
another lesson in the Classroom Resources section of the EDSITEment resource Lewis
& Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery.
- Students
can join a virtual version of the Lewis and Clark Expedition at Go
West Across America with Lewis and Clark, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed
website Internet Public Library.
- The role of Sacajawea on the expedition and her subsequent impact on modern
society is a fruitful subject for investigation. Students can start by looking
at the new Sacajawea coin. Some sources of information on Sacajawea accessible
through EDSITEment resources include:
- Sacajawea
from RootsWeb, a link from The
Internet Public Library
Sacagawea
from Lewis
& Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
Sacajawea
from New Perspectives
on the West
In addition, a number of books for younger readers
about Sacajawea are listed in Other Resources below.
- The EDSITEment-reviewed
Native Web is a great
starting point for students who want to learn about the Native American cultures
of the Mandans, Shoshoni and other tribes along the route of Lewis and Clark.
Search by tribal name. The EDSITEment resource Internet
Public Library's collection "Native American Authors" provides links to information
about many tribes, accessible through an alphabetical directory listed by tribe
name.
- Students can read more of the expedition entries. The complete
Journals
of Lewis and Clark are available online at American
Studies at the University of Virginia, a link from the EDSITEment resource
History Matters.
- Students might be interested in discovering what happened after the expedition
ended. Where are the original documents? When were the results of the expedition
published? What became of Lewis and Clark after the expedition? Students might
be surprised to learn of Lewis's tragic end and the debate over his demise.
Selected EDSITEment Websites
-
American Memory Project Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/
-
The American President
http://www.americanpresident.org
-
Center for the Liberal Arts
http://www.virginia.edu/cla/
-
Exploring the West from Monticello
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/lewis_clark/home.html
- History
Matters
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/
-
The Internet Public Library
http://www.ipl.org
-
Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/index.html
-
National Geographic Society Xpeditions
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/
-
Map Machine
http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/
- Native Web
http://www.nativeweb.org/
-
New Perspectives on the West
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest
Other Resources
Websites Recommended readings from
American Memory
- Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase
Blumberg, Rhoda. What's the Deal? Jefferson, Napolean,
and the Louisiana Purchase. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society,
1998.
- Westward Expansion
Silverman, Jerry. Singing Our Way West: Songs and
Stories from America's Westward Expansion. Brookfield, Conn.: Millbrook
Press, 1998.
- Maps
Bacon,
Josephine. The Doubleday Atlas of the United States
of America. N.Y.: Doubleday, 1990.
Chambers, Catherine. All
About Maps. New York: Franklin Watts, 1998.
Clouse, Nancy L. Puzzle
Maps USA. N.Y.: Henry Hold and Co., 1990.
Glickman, Jane. Cool
Geography. N.Y.: Price Stern Sloan, 1998.
Knowlton, Jack. Maps
& Globes. N.Y.: HarperCollins, 1985.
Recommended readings from
Native Web - Bruchac,
Joseph. Sacajawea: The Story of Bird Woman and the
Lewis and Clark Expedition. Hardcover, 128 pages (February 28, 2000) Silver
Whistle; ISBN: 0152022341. Reading level: Young Adult
- Roop, Coonie
and Roop, Peter Geiger. Girl of the Shining Mountains:
Sacagawea's Story. Hardcover, 144 pages (October 1999) Hyperion Press;
ISBN: 0786804920. Reading level: Ages 9-12
Recommended readings from
Women of the West Museum
- Rowland, Della. The Story of Sacajawea.
New York: Dell Publishing, 1989. Illus. by Richard Leonard. Reading level: Grades
3-5
Additional readings (originally written for adults) available as
e-texts - From The Internet
Public Library's Online
Texts Collection, search by title:
- "Along the Trail with Lewis
and Clark," Lewis, Meriwether
"First Across the Continent: The Story of
The Exploring Expedition of Lewis and Clark in 1804-5-6," Brooks, Noah
"Sac-A-Ja-Wea, America's Greatest Heroine: From the Lewis and Clark Diaries,"
McCreight, Major Israel
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