Some people have classified the lewis and Clark Expedition and ofpared it to the odyssey the greek tragedies. Ist like the civil war sometimes seen as the american of that great battle. This expedition will be quite significant and important. Ago, the Atlantic Monthly did a survey of the top 100 most influential figures of American History. Lewis and clark make the list at 70. What i find interesting is they are the only names on the entire list where they are listed together. It is almost like they are inseparable. Did one justan five years ago on the 100 most significant americans. Clark made that list. They were also hooked together. Sacagawea also made the list. This woman was considered one of the 100 most significant americans. There is an impression across the United States that the lewis and Clark Expedition was significant. There were people that were important for our countrys history. Will discuss the expedition and three main facets. Will look at classes and historical context, the event itself, and the significance of the expedition. I wanted to start out with this quote from Thomas Jefferson in a from the older brother of clark. This was written in 1780. A few years before a few years after the independence declaration of independence. A few years before the constitution is ratified. He says we shall form to the American Union a barrier against the dangers of the british province of canada. We will add to the empire of liberty and extensive and fertile country thereby converting dangerous enemies into valuable friends. Time of thethe articles of confederation, jefferson is sending letters to to formulate this empire of liberty he had in mind. Was a child of the enlightenment. Significance of enlightenment through exploration. That people on the ground have seen things, writing them down and recording those would be very valuable for science. To explore what became the United States are legendary. These are three of the attempts he made. The first was to George Rogers clark in that letter we just read. He was a military soldier through campaigns during the American Revolution. He said he wanted him to lead this expedition. Clark replied he was not in very good health. If you decided to do it in the future he should think about asking his little brother, william. The lewislly joins and Clark Expedition, that is pretty cool. The second was john ledyard. He had an interesting idea that you could explore the western part of the americas by coming from russia. He actually tried to cross alaska to go through come down the coast. He was stopped by catherine the great. Andre michaux was a french botanist. As a Founding Member of the American Philosophical Society in philadelphia, jefferson got enough support to try to get him to at least find the flora of the west and bring that the society. K to fortunately, all three of these unfortunately, all three of these expeditions did not reach their zenith or were successful in the terms that jefferson had hoped. Europeanlook at a depiction of north america in 1800, you see the spanish have been quite active. Some french and spanish communities throughout the south and southeast. Casehen the pink and the indicates areas settled by the british in the colonies area. Jeffersons vision of this empire of liberty was very powerful. He may not have ever traveled west of the blue Ridge Mountains but his mind certainly traveled to the pacific. 1800, he learned from his friends in france that there was a secret treaty in which of the all of theregained area that had formerly been known as the Louisiana Purchase that had been given to spain during the french and indian war. Pretty significant. France had been a growing empire. Now it is led by one of the great modern military figures, napoleon. Now there is not a crumbling, empireanish spanish but an aggressive, militaristic french opponent or potential opponent. Thing that has changed its way of thinking was the publication of a book. Jefferson loved books. He collected thousands of them. He went to great debt to use them. When the library of congress burned down during the war of 1812, jefferson actually gave much of his private library to form the new library of congress. You could visit it and see some of the collection that jefferson donated to the library. Very keen on this book by alexander mackenzie. Pacific ital to the was a northwestern fort for trade ors account to the Pacific Ocean. Was too far north into canada to be effective for mckenzie hadavel, postulated to the british that they could take control of the entire first trade of north of trade if they put monopolistic control into the Hudson Company or Northwestern Company to take this over. Jefferson did not want americans to miss out on the fur bounty of the american west. He wanted to have this utilitarian knowledge the enlightenment demanded and expected. Alexion, 0 election he had been catapulted to becoming the second president of the United States of america third president , excuse me. His geopolitical issue and intrigue with outside and inside forces compelled him to do something about it. Messages and diplomats to france to ask napoleon if you would be willing to sell what would be known as the Louisiana Purchase. Did. Ually it this stretch from new mexico to the canadian shield, it was 28,000 square miles of land. This was a huge territory. The native people claimed the right of occupancy. Righta was purchasing the of discovery from plans. Announced this to the American People on the fourth of july in 1803. He said i look to the duplication of this area as a great achievement and a massive happiness that is to ensue. That postulated better than the opposite bank of the mississippi should be settled by our own brethren and children then by strangers of another family. Having this vision now of american expanding even beyond the boundaries of the mississippi. 1783, Boundary Line in the conclusion of the American Revolution. This enlightenment through exploration was to take a number of turns. Most significant was the scientific questioning, Scientific Method and realtime reasoning that would occur on the ground. Idea for this empire of liberty was one in which america would spread perhaps from sea to it was sea, at this time quite a dangerous proposition. There was a french philosopher who said republics could not in large, continental ways. The further away you are from the periphery, the more prone or apt they would be to spinoff from the center. The question of how big a republic could get and still function was still undetermined. America became this great experiment for the expansion of freedom, democracy, and equality. There were a number of explorers that went west during jeffersons tenure in office. Redlinefocus on this with the lewis and Clark Expedition. The embarq from ohio, appear all the way down to st. Louis. Then the st. Louis portion to the columbia. You will also notice zeb and pike went onon expeditions. He went on a southwestern expedition to find the headwaters of the red river. He was arrested by the spanish and transported through spain and back around. The freeman expedition embarq the red river. There was another expedition there wasup another expedition to go up the flat river. It never happened. Tore were lots of designs try to explore these major river systems. One of the reason the lewis and Clark Expedition is more famous than all of these others is because some of the others were actually turned back by the spanish. Pike, he wasf taken under house arrest down in santa fe. Expedition was turned back by the spanish. Expeditionand dunbar went to the hot springs in arkansas. They had some r and r there with minerals and return home. Until 1819. Ur are you aware that lewis and there were four different attempts by the spanish to arrest lewis and clark. They sent out expeditions to apprehend them. They came within a few hundred miles on two occasions to nearly arrest them. The jeffersons instructions to lewis work right were quite clear. The mission is to explore the missouri river. You may offer the most direct and practical water communication across this continent. For the purposes of commerce. Tos was jeffersons letter lewis that became his marching orders. Knew this letter to lewis was epic, it was over six pages long. It has a list of things he wanted to do. He wrote it to his friend, william clark. Theerved on a campaign in 1790s, asking them to join him as cocommander. If theres anything under the circumstances, it would in itspate with me fatigues, dangers, its honors, believe me, there is no man on should feelhom i equal pleasure in sharing them as with yourself. The president and secretary of war had not given permission. Clark wrote back and said i cheerfully join you in an official character as mentioned in your letter to take all the dangers, difficulties, i anticipate the honors and rewards of the results should we be successful. This is a pretty exciting time for lewis and clark as they began preparing now that the official news had been released. You could see this journey. This was 8000 miles. 864 days. This is a major expedition. Because they a lot of logistical preparation. Of the first things they did was try to find out about the region. They gathered maps that have been published. I love this map by nicholas king. The map of the western part of north america. You could see the Mississippi River and great lakes. Even where the route of canadians is quite defined. As is the Pacific Coast where vancouver, captain cook, others had charted the Pacific Coast. Word in the middle. I have looked at hundreds of maps in my life. This is the only time i have found this word. I have blown it up. It says conjectural. That means we dont know what is there. This is amazing. Pretty muchark are they know where their destination is. They are not quite sure what they are going to encounter in the interim. There were all kinds of stories of what they might find. They might find exotic animals or welshmen welch men. Mountains of silver. Mountains of salt. A northwest passage. Large, furry beaver that were six feet long. Who knew what to expect in this area . They are kind of exploring naturalists. Theyre paying attention to the laura and anna flora and fauna to understand what is going on in that region. If they got into the great plains and there werent any trees that they may need to have another form of transportation. A boat called the experiment that he could put together and cover in the event that they needed a boat and they did not have trees. , after they crossed the great falls of the missouri, they needed additional craft. They put this boat together. Unfortunately they did not bring any duct tape to keep the seams from leaking. The boat ended up not being as useful for that purpose as they had hoped. He also made one of his important acquisitions when he bought a dog. We dont know whether he was a colors,g, red and white seamen will play an Important Role along the journey. He and clark meet near the falls near louisville, kentucky. They start discussing the kinds of things they will need to have a successful voyage. Clark has been in the military as a captain as a lieutenant, excuse me. Lewis was formally a captain. Thatkept up the charade they had both become captains. They referred to one another as captain even though clark is not promoted until later on. Upon farewell, his family lived at the falls of the ohio in kentucky. Across the province and county of virginia. The 1790s. State in they had this barge, more properly that was about 55 feet haul 10 tons of material. They did some recruiting as they went to the forest. Some of the officers tried to give them the people they wanted to get out of the fort. Clark were quite careful in who they chose. They wanted unmarried men. Well married men that went on the expedition. The others are single. When all is said and done, about 55 members and in st. Louis in may of 1804. Was one of the noncommissioned officers. Encampmenta winter on the illinois side of the river. The transfer of the louisiana territory had not taken place yet. They were waiting for that formal ceremony to occur. However, theyter were quite busy. Lewis went to st. Louis to procure supplies. Clark spent most of the time andning the men in shooting also other things they would need to be successful. There were at least five who kept records of the expedition. Lewis and clark were both some of the most important writers. There were several stretches in which lewis either did not write or lost those entries. Clark wrote all but 10 days. Even those 10 days when he was on a hunting trip, he summarized. He accounted for every day of the expedition, quite remarkable. When you look at the words of lewis and clark and their admit enlisted men, they wrote more work than contained in the holy bible. Is available free for the public at the university of nebraska press. It is a national treasure. For almost searched any kind of topic you could think about. A village onn was the move. Lewis was the trained scientist. Jefferson sent him to philadelphia to meet with his friends. How toceived training on take astronomical observations and the equipment he would need and things like that. Clark was the soldier. Hes the one who made the expedition happened. He got the boats up the river, he is making the maps. York was his body servant. They had been lifelong companions. Clark took him with him on the trip. Y will meet saccade wh sacagawea. We will talk more about her. They had french voyagers who took them upstream. They had regular army. They also had civilians who were hunters and interpreters. People like john coulter. Them a huge with amount of trade goods to give as gifts to the tribes they met. They also had tokens of sovereignty, like these piece metals with jefferson on the clasped of a hands native and soldier on the back. It has the words peace and friendship. These are called jefferson piece metals. They are quite famous. They remade replicas of them. I have some in my office that you could come see. Textiles similar to the ones we look at before. Specially trade beads , the onesclark beads the natives like the most seem to be the blue beads. They traded those at almost every stop that they went. They gathered 10 tons of material and put it inside this barge. Also made platforms that could be marched on by the men as they were pulling the boat upstream. Shieldssed as defensive if there boat ever came under attack. Quite an ingenious way to do that. After the 14th of may, 1804, they set out from st. Louis under a gentle breeze. Challenge to go upstream. At 412 miless per hour depending on what current you are in. This was a very laborious way to try to get upstream. Row. Imes they would other times they would pull when they could push against the hard bottom. , if the wind was blowing in the right direction. For a shorty last distance before you have to try a different method. The even attached long ropes to the front of the boat so they could pull them from the shore. You could imagine how fun that would be to pull this 10 ton boat upstream. In addition to the large boat or white they had two red or that is the french word for a fancy canoe. Bey had the boats that would used for hunting expeditions to travel faster or set up camp. These are the vessels hauling these 55 men. Clark is the principal cartographer and mapmaker. He was very good at dead reckoning. He also had the gift of seeing the landscape from a horizontal point of view. Think about it as you are looking across the landscape that you could see it vertically like you are looking down from an airplane. That is the kind of map you are drawing. He actually does a pretty good job with his distances. He was off Something Like 30 miles after this entire journey of using a compass and estimation on how far they would travel. Pretty amazing. Didnt run into some trouble. They get stuck on sandbars. There were moments of fun and remedy where they would play the fiddle and dance around the campfire. If you did not follow the rules, there were consequences. In this case, the army required lodging. You could see the whip here. It would be massive damage to your back. They would ladies on it would lay thesehey would ladie on. A person couldnt walk for several days after receiving these, as you could imagine. Wasr trip upstream adventure. Initially, the french knew a lot of the names that native people referred to french in certain places. That is what they were using as their name. Further along they start naming the rivers and streams for people that they know, friends back home. Kind of changes over the course of time. Lewis is primarily walking on the shore by himself. He is observing the flora and fauna. He is getting detailed notes. He is being the scientific explorer. Meanwhile, clark is running the barge and making sure all of the expeditions are moving forward. Had a narrow escape with death where he came to the edge of a cliff, nearly fell off. Knife tod his hunting hold himself from falling in the river. On there people down road wondering whether he will be dead or not. We will talk about how lewis actually died on friday. The mysterious death of Meriwether Lewis. At night they would write in their journals. Sometimes they would copy from one another. Is a private who keeps record every day. Is over, lewisey and clark will try to buy all of the journals that were kept by other individuals so they could put it into one record. They are also noting the flora and fauna. They discovered according to the scientific system 178 plants and 122 animals that were new to science. This is quite remarkable. You read the description of how they spent half a day pouring water into a prairie dog ole in south dakota. They send it back to Thomas Jefferson as a gift. Could you imagine how many stamps you would put it on a prairie dog put on a prairie dog to mail it to monticello . They had animals that they heard about but did not see. We will discuss the grizzly bear nation when we arrived to montana. On the fourth of july they stopped at a creek and they named it independence creek. They fired shots and drank the last of their whiskey as a celebration of independence day. Like i mentioned, the most expensive things they took with them besides the scientific equipment were indian presence. They spent almost 700, a huge amount of money at the time. You could see the kinds of things they took. The First Encounter with native peoples occurred near presentday council bluffs, iowa. And omaha nebraska. The name counsel block is because of this counsel that becausecouncil bluffs of a council that took place when they met members of the nations. They did their little get together when they have a military parade. Coolwould show some of the things they brought along, like a magnifying glass and things like that. Eventually, this ended up being quite nice. The natives invited them to a barbecue. Melons, bothbison, of them exchange different kinds of food and had a little get together in august of 1804. The only death of any member of the expedition occurred just north of there when sergeant died, likely from a burst of appendicitis. He was buried on a site called floyds bluff near sioux city, iowa. Upstream they encountered the mighty lakota nation. Are the western band of the sioux. They have seven main bands. That wasunter was one filled with difficulty. The lakotas head trading relationships with the british. The story lewis and clark were telling, that they one of the tribes to become peaceful. They wanted to build fortifications for the fur trade where they could Exchange Goods did not sit well with the lakotas. They already had the trade goods they needed and they did not want neighbors to acquire any of them. Prevent lewis and clark from proceeding forward. They took hold of the tow rope and held their boats. Clark grabbed his sword and said we are not a bunch of women, we will defend our boat with our lives. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed. Buffalo,leman, black down. Ell everyone to calm eventually , they give them more gifts and are able to move forward. This was seen as one of the potential obstacles. Orher get past the lakotas have a confrontation. Clark,tely for lewis and after the expedition, clark will spend a lot of attention and in formulating a positive relationship with the lakotas. Alliescome United States up until the 1850s. For almost 50 years, clark is able to negotiate a peaceful outcome between the United States and the lakotas. That is a pretty cool thing to study. Upstream they come to the earth lodges of villages. Grands near where the river flows into the missouri. It was a hospitable and prosperous people. They have an enjoyable stay with them. Lewis and clark make promises to tribes. On their return trip if there is anyone from villages who wants to return, they will take them. Unfortunately, one of the men who decides to do this is a chief who travels back east. He actually dies from disease. When the news of that comes back , they are greatly disappointed. Play,f them suspect foul even though there was not anything nefarious that went on. Thatds up being a problem will last until 1823. There is a wharf opera train a war fought between the traders ikaras. Ar when they arrived in north spread these villages along the river. They were quite important. Lewis and clark decided to winter there. It was getting very cold. They knew the riverwood ice over river would ice over. They built a fort and named it man down. This is the second for lewis and clarks men construct. Ofy built one for the winter 1803 and 1804 in illinois. This one is built in north dakota near presentday bismarck. They also built one on the Pacific Coast for the following winter. Those are the three. They have the Great Fortune of meeting sacagawea. This is a girl who had been captured or enslaved when she was eight years old or nine years old, she was now a young teenager. Northweste wife of a company traitor. She was pregnant with their first child. Meriwether lewis delivers during the winter in february. Baptiste. It john this little baby goes on the expedition with them along with sacagawea. This is an amazing story. They also take her husband along as an interpreter. They are both important liaisons when they read the villages. York, he had a tradition among planes people that when you were in the morning you would paint your body with ashes to become black. When they tried to rub his skin and the ash did not come off they thought this was very significant. Interactionss of between the natives and york that are recorded in the diaries. It was very cold in north dakota that winter. It got below 60 degrees below zero before their last thermometer broke. People were getting frostbitten in places you do not want to be frostbitten. Having a really hard time trying to keep away from the elements. They did spend time forging things they could exchange for corn. Corn was the whole food source for the winter. They would exchange these goods for the corn. They also joined the man dans in pursuing the lakotas, who raided the village in a short foray in february, 1805. One of the leaders they become close to is known as the big white coyote. Figure. Be an important on the return journey, he travels back with lewis and clark to meet with Thomas Jefferson. We have the documents and records of the interactions between he and the president. They are fascinating to study. It takes them two or three years to try to get him home. I told you about the troubles they had getting the news of the leaders death back home. To take the cheap back to north dakota became a herculean effort that required a huge company to transport him back. Bringing him,rom his wife, and his children back will be one of the factors that causes Meriwether Lewis to become financially indebted. They give a gift of a prairie dog to the president. They also gifted him a magpie, and elk antlers. They still hang at the entryway of monticello in charlottesville, virginia. You could still see them hanging there. They were traveling now upstream in canoes. The missouriat river had a great series of cataracts in which the boat could not proceed past. They had to construct the seven canoes to proceed forward. Through beautiful country in montana like the white cliffs of missouri that are still very favorable canoeing and rafting places. I often take lewis and clark groups on this threeday trip through the white cliffs. It is such a stunning place to be. Kind of magical. They arrived at a river that flowed into missouri. They cannot decide which one is the principal stream. They had a vote. At this time they sent about 25 people home from the villages. They had 33 members of the permanent party, which included sacagawea, her baby, and her husband. They arrived at this river and they had the vote on which is the stream. Was it the one to the right that was kind of muddy and look like the missouri has for a year and a half . Or was the clear stream to the west. . 31 people voted that it was the stream to the north, the muddy stream. Lewis and clark are the only ones that voted that it was the clear stream to the west. The didnt want to make wrong decision so they decided to send some groups to explore them for a couple of days. They had another vote. Guess what the vote was . Exactly the same. 312. They decided to follow the captains. It was their choice. It was their responsibility. As they proceeded up from the they encountered a different landscape on the planes. Louis forged ahead to make sure they were on the right stream. He was separated from the group. In a 24 hour period he was nearly killed by a buffalo bull, a badger or wolverine, a rattlesnake, and a grizzly bear. That night in his journal he says the entire Animal Kingdom has conspired against me. Then out of his mind. Fortunately, the bear did not eat him. He arrived at the great falls. Wasnt such a splendid view. So much disgusted with the imperfect idea that i determined to draw my pen across this and try again. He is giving this idea that you just cant write down how cool this place is. Eventually the rest of the party arrived. They know how difficult it would be to get both surround us. This means to take the boats out. Trees and start carting them for 1819 miles across the perry prairie. It was puncturing their moccasins. It created all kinds of problems. Heres a fellow taking it out of his toes. Eventually they are able to get these vessels. There they make camps. They run into huge numbers of grizzly bears. They were so numerous and missouri. They could fish each fall, each of the falls. They would have a hard time ascending the river there. They feasted on carrying animals that drowned in the missouri. These bears were not afraid of people. The lewishe only time and clark declares war. They also proceed forward and are excited to meet the shoshone people. They are the tribe of sacagawea. They are very happy to visit with her and meet. And meet the flatheads negotiate with horses trade with horses. These tribes were very friendly. They were open to american trade. They were excited to welcome the explorers. They had good relations with all of these groups. They first told them they were going to have a difficult mountain crossing. They traded for more horses and made the laborious track ek across the mountains. They see these Rocky Mountains were not a single chain of mountains like they had anticipated. They were a Mountain Range upon Mountain Range. Was demoralizing for them. They proceeded on. After crossing the Rocky Mountains date landed on a prairie. They met another group who were very friendly for them to them. Horsesreed to keep their and lewis and clark make more boats. The could proceed down river to the Columbia River and eventually to the pacific. As they shoot the rapids at peoples line up on the banks that think these crazy white men will crash and floats toake whatever the bank. They make it through. They arrive at the Pacific Ocean in november of 1805. We dont have much more time to. Iscuss the return trip will review that with you what we need again on friday. I want to thank you for your attention for today. Questions, iny would be happy to entertain them. I have a quick question. Prof. Buckley go ahead. I was wondering if lewis and clark, if they were aware the spanish were trying to arrest them . Prof. Buckley they were not. One of the fellas told the spanish lewis and clark were even going was the commanding general of the United States army. His name was James Wilkinson. We will talk about James Wilkinson as a potential figure in the eventual death of Meriwether Lewis. They were not aware that the spanish rafter them. Spanish were after them. They learned later the spanish turned back these expeditions. Great question. Anything else . Thanks for your attention. I hope you enjoyed this. We will talk to you on friday. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] you could watch lectures in history every weekend on American History tv. We take you inside College Classrooms to learn about topics ranging from the American Revolution to 9 11. Att is saturday on it 8 00 p. M. Eastern and midnight on cspan3. History tv on cspan3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. 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