As we’ve been traveling with Lewis and Clark, we’d often hear that this interpretive center is the best one along the expedition. So far we agree. We looked at what the center had to say about the portage around the 5 falls, now we’ll look at what the center has to say about what we’ve seen so far. As we keep on traveling, we’ll come back to this center and share what it has to say about future places the Corps discovers.
before the expedition starts
When the expedition was first being planned in 1803, the U.S. was only 27 years old. The new democracy had fewer than 6 million people sprinkled across 17 states, European powers—France, Britain, Russia, and Spain—threatened the very existence of the fledgling Unite States. The young nation needed to solidify its new-found independence.
Thus, the Corps of Discovery, as Lewis and Clark Expedition was called, was already en-route down the Ohio on November 3, 1803, when Congress ratified the Louisiana Purchase. With the land purchase, the Lewis and Clark Expedition took on new meaning and importance.
Captain Lewis provided additional equipment of spoons, pint tin pails, moccasins, bison robes, and silk gauge “mosquito biers.” Blanket coats were issued at Fort Mandan during the winter of 1804-1805.
By July 1805, most men were clothed in buckskins that rotted within a month in the wet river conditions. Preparing hides and making new skin clothing became an unending task. Though most of their issued items wore out over the two years, they still had at least portions of their cloth uniforms as they started home in 1806.
Lewis writes on May 20, 1806, “the men have taken advantage of their [Indians’] prepossession in favour of buttons and have devested themselves of all they had in possession which they have given in exchange for roots and bread.”
Many blankets and bug nets survived the trip in a well worn condition!
boats for going up the Missouri River
At 55 feet, the keelboat was longer than 3-1/2 minivans, and considerably wider. This unwieldy craft could carry 12-14 tons of men and equipment.
The two pirogues on the trip were more likely shallow, flat-bottomed, plank boats rather than large dugout canoes.
Pulling boats upriver against the current was backbreaking, but it was a better means of travel than horses [or walking]. Boats could carry more weight and required no feed.
The Corps of Discovery sometimes made 20 miles in a day from sunrise to late afternoon.
Three moving vans full! Today’s moving vans carry about 10 tons, or 20,000 pounds.
The men packed 21 large bags with a variety of gifts for Indian tribes on the lower and middle Missouri. They also made up 5 bales of gifts for more distant tribes.
Lewis chose gifts he considered essential for successful talks with Indian tribes. These gifts also cleverly demonstrated the range of goods available from the new American trading partners.
tribes Lewis and Clark first met
European visitors were nothing new to the Plains Indians, but the Corps of Discovery was the first large, well-equipped party to reach beyond the lower Missouri. Following time-honored diplomatic protocol, most tribes approached new visitors cautiously. When they were confident the visitors’ intentions were friendly, the tribes extended hospitality and sought to negotiate for trade goods.
The Indians listened patiently as Lewis explained that the Spanish and French would come no more, and if the Indians lived in peace, American traders would establish trading posts. Enticed by talk of trade, most tribes made promises impossible to keep. Diplomacy was a fleeting proposition.
Indians dressed in their finest regalia, the captains in full uniform The Corps of Discovery marched, and leaders from both sides gave formal speeches.
Lewis stole the show whenever he demonstrated the air gun. His diplomatic guests were amazed by a gun that popped instead of making a loud bang. They exclaimed over the accuracy of the shot.
The expedition’s first Indian councils, with the Otoe and Missouria tribes, took place in August 1804.
A little farther north by South Dakota, Lewis and Clark met with the Yankton Sioux. They needed a dependable trading partner and a guarantee of protection from their enemies. Believing an alliance with the United States could help them, they welcomed the captains.
Chief Shake Hand readily agreed to the negotiations and promised to head a delegation to Washington upon the expedition’s return.
Farther along the Missouri River as it curved north, Lewis and Clark met with the Teton Sioux. They were middlemen in the Missouri River trade system and monopolized the flow of European goods upstream. They exchanged pelts for manufactured items from St. Louis and re-traded them to the other tribes.
Negotiations lasted several days and were mixed with ceremony and tension. Violence was narrowly averted and safe passage eventually granted. However, despite the captains’ best efforts, the Lakota were no closer to joining the American trade system.
When they got to their winter home with the Mandan and Hidatsa, their hunters told many stories around the lodge fires that winter. At Clark’s prompting, Indians who had raided or hunted in the west sketched maps on the dirt floors of lodges and traced rivers in charcoal on tanned hides.
items the Mandan and Hidatsa used
Throughout the winter of 1804-1805, Lewis and Clark observed and recorded the activities of the Mandan and Hidatsa people.
Lewis and Clark’s journals tell us much about these people, but the captains’ interpretation was sometimes prejudiced by their own culture. They often described only external features and events, neglecting the spiritual or cultural significance of what they saw.
Antler Rake and Scapula Hoe. Women made handy tools by tying antlers and bones to sturdy sticks. As they worked in the fields of vegetables and corn, they sang and prayed for a successful harvest.
Pottery. Round-bottomed water jars sat on willow bark rings near the center lodge posts. Other pots were used for cooking. The sides of this traditional pot were textured with a small wooden paddle. Decorative lines were made by pressing a string into the wet clay.
Sacred Bundles. Religion was part of daily life in an earth lodge. Sacred objects, wrapped in bundles, were prayer tools that gave individuals and clans strength, courage, and protection. Each bundle had its own set of songs, ceremonies, and prayers to evoke its power.
These next 2 items are our favorite—snow goggles and a winter game.
Snow Goggles. Clam shells, tied with rawhide thongs, were worn to protect the eyes from snow blindness on bright, snowy days, much like sunglasses today.
daily camp life
The military style of their daily camp life, along with experience and hardship, had melded the Corps into a cohesive unit. The men depended on each other in the face of danger and trusted the captains’ fairness as military leaders.
The 3 sergeants each commanded a squad of 8 men. The squads camped and cooked separately, Sergeants made daily assignments, and doled out supplies. In military fashion, the captains had separate quarters from the men.
In more than 2 years, the men made camp hundreds of times. They followed a routine established by the officers. Military regulations governed the placement of kitchens, and latrines, but each campsite was probably adapted to terrain and length of stay.
They also ran foot races (Drouillard and Reubin Field usually won), held shooting contests, and played games of tag. The captains enjoyed an occasional game of backgammon.
Assignments in camp rotated, but some skills made for more permanent jobs:
- George Drouillard: interpreter and the best hunter
- Patrick Gass: carpenter
- John Shields: blacksmith, gunsmith and general handyman
- Pierre Cruzatte: boatman and fiddler
- Silas Goodrich: fisherman
- William Werner, John Collins and Peter Weiser: cooks
- Joseph Whitehouse: tailor
Sacagawea
Sacagawea’s life has been the subject of mystery and intrigue. Historians have reconstructed her life from expedition journals and fur trade documents.
How old was she? Sacagawea was kidnapped in 1800 near the three forks of the Missouri by Hidatsa Indians. She had not reached puberty at that time, yet she was old enough to have a baby in February 1805. We’re not sure if she had a say in who she married, but she probably wanted to join the expedition since they’d be going toward her home.
What did she look like? Clark said Sacagawea’s complexion was “lighter than the other” referring to Charbonneau’s second Shoshone wife. Lewis described the Shoshone people as “deminutive in stature.”
What kind of person was she? The journals and fur trade diaries describe an almost flawless character. Sacagawea emerges from these records as a capable, patient, faithful, and cool-headed woman.
Was she a guide or an interpreter? Sacagawea did not guide the expedition. On the occasions when the captains needed first-hand help in mountain travel, they hired local Indian guides. Sacagawea was, however, an interpreter to her people, the Shoshone.
Did she contribute in other ways? Her knowledge of native plants proved valuable, for both substance and medicinal purposes. The captains praised her “fortitude and resolution” when she save valuable items that had washed overboard during a mishap with the white pirogue.
What is the correct way to say her name? Although Shoshone by birth, her name was Hidatsa, given to her by her captors. When recording her name in the journals, the captains spelled it out as they heard it pronounced. In every instance, they used a ‘g’ in the third syllable.
Lewis honored her by naming a stream in Montana “Sah-ca-gah-wea or bird woman’s river.” This means that the captains believed her name came from 2 Hidatsa words: sacaga meaning bird, and wea meaning woman. The correct pronunciation is Sah-KAH-gah-we-a, with a hard ‘g.’
Sacagawea went most of the way with her son, nicknamed Pomp, on her back. He was about 4 months old when the expedition portaged the falls.
On June 29, 1805, Lewis wrote, “. . . the bier in which the woman carrys her child and all it’s cloaths wer swept away . . . she having time only to grasp her child; . . . .”
keelboat heads back to St. Louis
When the ice on the Missouri finally broke up in April, the keelboat took off for St. Louis as planned on the same day that the expedition got back on the Missouri River, carrying 9 boxes of plant and animal specimens for President Jefferson..
During the Mandan winter, the men built 6 cottonwood dugouts. these boats were unwieldy but could navigate smaller rivers than the keelboat.
The animal specimens included the skin and bones of a pronghorn. The captains were the first white men to record this graceful animal, but they couldn’t decide what to call it. Lewis considered “goat,” but eventually settled on “antelope.”
The pronghorn is uniquely adapted to open prairie. it can run 60 miles an hour for short distances and can maintain 40 miles an hour for several minutes. It is the only mammal with a hollow, branched horn that is shed annually.
taking off after getting around the great falls
One of the questions asked in the center was why the Indians and the expedition didn’t meet while in the Great Plains and around the falls. The answer was that the Plains are big, very big, and the falls are just one little spot on a huge expanse of landscape. It is not surprising Indians and the expedition did not cross paths.
On July 24, 1805, Lewis wrote, “Our trio of pests still invade and obstruct us on all occasions, these are the Musquetoes, eye knats, and prickley pears, equal to any three curses that ever poor Egypt laiboured under.”
Clark claims the men could not have slept without the “musquetoe biers,” or netting, Lewis had brought from Philadelphia. Caught one night away from camp without this protection, Lewis got no sleep at all and swore he would never forget it again.
Now we’re off to Helena, Montana, where the Corps navigated up the Missouri River through the Gates of the Mountains.
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