Ten Fascinating Facts About the Lewis and Clark Expedition

just one year after Napoleon sold the Louisiana territory to the United States a military Expedition led by Captain Merryweather lwis and Lieutenant William Clark set out to explore the land previously Uncharted by Europeans the trip lasted 2 years 4 months and 10 days and many in the newly forming United States had thought the men died on the journey keep watching to learn more fascinating facts about the Lewis and Clark expedition number one Jefferson thought they might encounter willly mammoths Thomas Jefferson was pretty obsessed with mammoths he may have been interested in discovering that it was

actually the American Mastadon the mammoth's Northern cousin that he enjoyed waxing lyrical about but at the time they were internationally recognized as mammoths he collected fossils and asked his friends to mail him any Mammoth teeth they came across and he was absolutely convinced that these huge furry elephants still roam North America his Fascination had started when a 7-ft mammoth Tusk along with a huge Jawbone was found Jefferson saw these massive beasts as a symbol of the strength of his newly emerging Nation Jefferson's main motive for finding a living Mammoth was the work of a French

naturalist George Louie L cler comp de Buon although he had never been to America Buffon wrote a scathing piece about American wildlife and how they could not compare to animals from the rest of the world Buffon also commented that American Bears Stags and wolves were largely less impressive than than their European counterparts Jefferson hoped Lewis and Clark's Voyage of Discovery would encounter herds of woly mamm and perhaps giant ground sloths that would blow any other animal out of the water although the Expedition discovered 122 new animals Jefferson did not get the prehistoric ammunition he desired

number two the Spanish were hunting them unbeknown to the expedition's members Spain had issued a warrant for their arrest as Spain disputed the Louisiana Purchase having only just seeded the territory to France also as the Louisiana Territory was undefined and Uncharted by Europeans the Spanish felt Lewis and Clark were illegally trespassing on their territory the Spanish were told about the Expedition by their mole within Jefferson's administration General James Wilkinson while the expedition's mission was to find the legendary Northwest Passage a water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific the Spanish were convinced that the Americans

were making a move on their gold Rich ter territories in the southwest luckily for the Expedition the vast and wild Louisiana Territory meant they could unwittingly elude their pursuers number three Clark personally owned an enslaved man whom he brought on the trip although the exact number is unknown there were around 45 people in the Expedition party including one black enslaved laborer named York York had been born and raised in slavery he had been the property of Clark's father a prominent Southern farmer he grew up alongside Clark and it was probably York's imposing 6 200lb stature

they caused Clark to include him on the team while on the trip York was treated as a free man handled Firearms hunted alongside other members and helped to navigate the trails although at first at least York was not popular with the white Southern men in the group he was a big hit with the Native Americans the group encountered for the overwhelming majority of the locals York was the first black person they had ever seen and they were fasc ated by the color of his skin and imposing stature on numerous occasions relations between the explorers and

the local tribes were facilitated by the presence of York who was dubbed Raven Son by the nees Pierce tribe and Big Medicine by the arakara people who wondered if he had spiritual Powers York had been a vital and trustworthy member of the Expedition and when the party returned York expected he would be granted his freedom and paid like all the other men in the company however Clark refused that York did not want to return to his life of servitude willingly in a letter to his brother Clark states he has got such a notion about freedom

and his em and service that I do not expect he will be of much service to me again clerk also stated that if he hired or sold York it would have to be to a severe Master number four the expedition was heavily armed although Lewis and Clark set out with the aim of a peaceful exploration in the name of diplomacy and science most men in the core of discovery Expedition Were Soldiers and the mission was viewed as a military one with this in mind the group carried with them a huge arsenal of weapons they had

rifles muskets 200 lb of gunpowder 400 lb of lead for bullets and hand weapons in the form of Pikes tomahawks and knives Lewis also had the latest in firearm technology a Pneumatic rifle that used compressed air to fire around 20 shots in succession silently despite the armaments the weapons were primarily used to impress the locals and Hunt during the trip they only engaged in one gun battle with the Blackfoot Confederacy on the return leg of their Journey number five Saka jaia had been kidnapped from her tribe 5 years previously saaka J was born into the

lhai shishoni tribe but was taken from her home when she was around 12 years old she was captured by a Hada raing party who probably gave her the name we all know today and taken to the Hadas Knife River Villages where she was enslaved she was purchased by a French Canadian fur Trader named tousant sharbono who lived in the Hada Village of maharta sharbono was 20 years older than sakaa and had taken several other young Native American women as brides Lewis and Clark arrived at their Village in the winter of 1804 as sharbono could speak

English French and some Western native languages they hired him as an interpreter as Sharbino could not communicate in shishoni it was agreed that the then pregnant sakaja would accompany them as well as it turned out this was a good move saaka Jaa proved invaluable to the expedition in addition to interpretation she helped identify edible plants made moccasins and clothing for the men and helped navigate in addition the presence of a native woman carrying a child helped the group to indicate their peaceful intentions and allayed the suspicions of any local groups they approached in mid August

the party encountered a ban of shishoni it turned out that the group was led by K jaa's brother whom she had been separated from for 5 years the emotional reunion undoubtedly helped the expedition's relations with the shishoni Who provided the party with horses and guides to help them cross the Rocky Mountains number six only one member of the team died during the 2-year Expedition although the Expedition party suffered snake bites dissenter various injuries and venial disease only one member of the group actually died on the trip at around age 21 Sergeant Charles Floyd was probably

the youngest member of the Corp his family was well acquainted with Clark's family and he had been named the first Constable of Clarksville Township in 1801 as he was only roughly 19 at the time his appointment to the position suggests he was both capable and well thought of in the community 3 months into their Journey Floyd became ill near modern-day Sue City Iowa Lewis proclaimed he had bilus kic and despite efforts to save him he died on August 20th 1804 his historians believed that Floyd suffered from a burst appendix meaning that he would have died

even if he had stayed in Clarksville Township by joining the core of Discovery he gained postumus Fame as the only member of the group to perish on the Expedition number seven Lewis was shot by one of the expedition's members although only one man died the expedition was not short of injuries on August 11th 1806 Merryweather Lewis was shot in the hip by one of his comrades although the injury did not kill Lewis he was forced to spend several weeks lying on his belly in a canoe luckily the shooting was not an assassination attempt but a

hunting mishab while no one actually saw who pulled the trigger all fingers pointed to Pierre crat a half-blind member of the company who was skilled at navigating boats through treacherous Waters and playing the fiddle one thing he was evidently not good at was hunting while on an elk hunt Lewis who was dressed in Elk skins was shot in the rear he wrote in his journal I called out to him damn you you have shot me and looked towards the place from when the ball had come seeing nothing I called cisat several times as loud as

I could but received no answer number eight Clark adopted saaka jaa's children during the trip Saka Jaa gave birth to a boy named John Baptist sharbono the unmarried Clark took a shine to the boy nicknaming him little pomp or pompy Clark formed a solid friendship with tousant charbono and greatly admired the tenacity of sakaa whom he called Janie after the Expedition ended Clark made several attempts to adopt John Baptist and in one letter to sharbono States as to your little son my boy P you well know my fondness for him and my anxiety to take

and raise him as my own child although his offer was declined upon Clark's invitation sharbono moved his family to St Louis in 1809 so Jean Baptist could be educated there although sharbono bought land from Clark and briefly tried his hand at farming by 1811 he had sold the land back to Clark and started working for another Explorer called Henry M breakenridge this time he took his other shishoni wife with him on the Expedition while sakaja and John Baptist remained in St Louis with Clark as their Ward nothing was recorded about sakaj jaa's feelings toward this

Arrangement and toward the end of 1812 shortly after the birth of sakaj jaa's daughter Lissette a woman who was recorded as shino's wife died many postulate that it was not sakaa who died saying that she started another family among the kamanche for returning to the shishoni however this seems unlikely Clark became the legal guardian of John Baptist and leet in 183 enlisted Saka jaia as dead in the 1820s as she had carried her son for around 2,000 Mi during the Expedition it is doubtful that she would have willingly given him up number nine they did

not accomplish their mission although Lewis and Clark are much celebrated today the significance of their trip was largely ignored at the time of their return as most people thought they had died having not heard from the explorers in over 2 years when they returned they were given a grand reception in St Louis as well as land for their efforts however they had not accomplished their mission's objective and they didn't discover a suitable land route across the continent or water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific in fact interest in their expedition's findings was so minimal

that they didn't publish an official account of the journey until 8 years after they returned and even then they didn't include any of their scientific findings number 10 they added to the speculation that a tribe in the dtas was descended from the Welsh since the 18th century there were rumors that there was a tribe of Native Americans that had descended from medieval Welsh explorers this theory was based on a 15th century Welsh poem which describes Prince mad ABA gwined sailing to America in 1170 the claim was welln and early explorers claimed to have been in

contact with a local tribe living on the Tennessee Missouri rivers that seemed different from the others they were described as white and had forts towns and permanent settlements laid out like Welsh villages with streets and squares the 18th century Pioneers also claimed that their language was very similar to Welsh rather than can the tribe used Welsh style coracles and unlike other natives in the area their hair turned white with age Jefferson was eager to discover whether these Tales were true and encourage Lewis and Clark to find verification of the stories Lewis and Clark encountered a

tribe called the mandin in what is now North Dakota they formed a close friendship with the group and Lewis and Clark reported similarities including their language between them and the Welsh fueling the belief that they were the descendants of prince madok in reality researchers have found no evidence of Welsh ancestry among the mandin and their language is suin which has no connection to Welsh how would you like to get a deeper understanding of History impress your friends and predict the future more accurately based on past events if this sounds like something you might be into

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