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	:''The phrases '''Lewis and Clark''' and '''Lewis & Clark''' redirect here. For other uses, see ].
	]

	The '''Lewis and Clark Expedition''' (1804–1806) was the first ] overland expedition to the ] coast and back, led by Captain ] and Second Lieutenant ] of the ]. It is also known as the '''Corps of Discovery'''.

	==Background==
	] had long thought about such an expedition. While Minister to
	] from 1785-1789, he had heard of numerous plans to better explore the ]. In 1785, Jefferson learned that King ] of France planned to send a mission there, reportedly as a mere scientific expedition. Jefferson found that doubtful, and evidence provided by ] confirmed these doubts. In either event, the mission was destroyed by bad weather after leaving Botany Bay in 1788. In 1786 ], who had sailed with Captain ] to the Pacific Northwest, told Jefferson that he planned to walk across ], ride a ]n fur-trade vessel to cross the ocean, and then walk all the way to the American capitol. Since Ledyard was an American, Jefferson hoped him success. Ledyard had made it as far as Siberia when Czarina ] had him arrested and deported back to ]. <ref>Ambrose, Stephen. ''Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the opening of the American west''. (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1996). p. 69.</ref>

	In a message to ], Jefferson wrote<ref name="secretletter">{{cite web
	\| title = Jefferson's Secret Message to Congress
	\| url = http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lewisandclark/lewis-landc.html#56
	\| accessdate = 2006-06-30}}</ref>
	<blockquote>The river Missouri, and Indians inhabiting it, are not as well known as rendered desirable by their connection with the Mississippi, and consequently with us. ... An intelligent officer, with ten or twelve chosen men ... might explore the whole line, even to the Western Ocean ...</blockquote>

	In a letter dated ], ], Jefferson wrote to Lewis<ref name="meriwetherinstr">{{cite web
	\| title = Jefferson's Instructions for Meriwether Lewis
	\| url = http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lewisandclark/lewis-landc.html#57
	\| accessdate = 2006-06-30}}</ref>
	<blockquote>The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, and such principal stream of it as by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent for the purposes of commerce.</blockquote>

	===Louisiana Purchase and a western expedition===
	] and ] rivers, and the Rocky Mountains.]]

	In 1803, the ] sparked interest in expansion to the ]. A few weeks after the purchase, ] Jefferson, an advocate of western expansion, had the Congress appropriate $2,500, "to send intelligent officers with ten or twelve men, to explore even to the Western ocean". They were to study the ], ], ], Western ] and ] in the ], as well as evaluate the potential interference of ] and ] hunters and trappers who were already well established in the area. The expedition was not the first to cross ] but was roughly a decade after the expedition of ], the first ]an to cross north of Mexico (almost) to the ], in 1793.

	Jefferson selected Captain Meriwether Lewis to lead the expedition, afterwards known as the '''Corps of Discovery'''; Lewis selected William Clark as his partner. Because of bureaucratic delays in the ], Clark officially only held the rank of ] at the time, but Lewis concealed this from the men and shared the leadership of the expedition, always referring to Clark as "Captain" Many people back in Lewis and Clark's day did not know what the West held. .

	==Journey==
	{{seealso\|Timeline of the Lewis and Clark Expedition}}
	] and ] meeting at the falls of the ]; statue at the ] in ] (across from ])]]
	Clark made most of the preparations, by way of letters to Jefferson. He brought two large buckets and five smaller buckets of salt, a ton of dried pork, and medicines.

	The group, initially consisting of 33 members, departed from ], near present day ], and began their historic journey on ], ]. They soon met-up with Lewis in ], and the approximately forty men followed the ] westward. Soon they passed La Charrette, the last white settlement on the Missouri River. The expedition followed the Missouri through what is now ], and ]. On ], ], the Corps of Discovery suffered its only death when Sergeant ] died, apparently from acute ]. He was buried at ], near what is now ], ]. During the final week of August, Lewis and Clark had reached the edge of the ], a place abounding with elk, deer, buffalo, and beavers. They were also entering ] territory.

	The first tribe of Sioux they met, the Yankton Sioux, were more peaceful than their neighbors further west along the Missouri River, the Teton Sioux, also known as the ]. The Yankton Sioux were disappointed by the gifts they received from Lewis and Clark— five medals—and gave the explorers a warning about the upriver Teton Sioux. The Teton Sioux received their gifts with ill-disguised hostility. One chief demanded a boat from Lewis and Clark as the price to be paid for passage through their territory. As the Indians became more dangerous, Lewis and Clark prepared to fight back. At the last moment before fighting began, the two sides fell back. The Americans quickly continued westward (upriver) until winter stopped them at the ] tribe's territory.

	In the winter of 1804–05, the party built ], near present-day ]. There, the group found themselves trapped in their shelter without food when a violent rainstorm hit. The ]/] ] woman ] and her husband, ] ], joined the group, and saved the corp group's lives by bringing the starving men fish. Unfortunately, the men were not used to the fish, and became ill. However, the group recovered. Sacagawea enabled the group to talk to her Shoshone tribe from further west (she was the chief's sister), and to trade food for gold and jewelry. (As was common during those times, she was taken as a slave by the ] at a young age, and reunited with her brother on the journey.) She was able to aid them in translation, and she had some familiarity with the native tribes as they moved further west. The inclusion of a woman with a young baby (Sacagawea's son Jean Baptiste Charbonneau was born in the winter of 1804-05) helped to soften tribal relations since no war-party would include a woman and baby.

	In April 1805, some members of the expedition were sent back home from Mandan in the 'return party'. Along with them went a report about what Lewis and Clark had discovered, 108 botanical specimens (including some living animals), 68 mineral specimens, and Clark's map of the United States. Other specimens were sent back to Jefferson periodically, including a ] which Jefferson received alive in a box.

	]
	The expedition continued to follow the Missouri to its headwaters and over the ] at ] via horses. In canoes, they descended the mountains by the ], the ], and the ], past ] and past what is now ]. At this point, Lewis spotted ], a mountain known to be very close to the ocean. On a big ], Clark carved
	:''"William Clark December 3rd 1805. By land from the U.States in 1804 & 1805"''<ref name="deVoto">Bernard deVoto (1962), ''The Course of Empire'' (Boston:Houghton Mifflin); p. 552</ref>

	Clark had written in his journal, "Ocian in view! O! The Joy!". One journal entry is captioned "] at the Enterance of the Columbia River into the Great ''South Sea'' or Pacific Ocean".<ref name="deVoto"/> By that time the expedition faced its second bitter winter during the trip, so the group decided to vote on whether to camp on the north or south side of the Columbia River. The party agreed to camp on the south side of the river (modern ]), building ] as their winter quarters. While wintering at the fort, the men prepared for the trip home by boiling salt from the ocean, hunting elk and other wildlife, and interacting with the native tribes. The 1805-06 winter was very rainy, and the men had a hard time finding suitable meat. Surprisingly, they never consumed much Pacific salmon.

	The explorers started their journey home on ], ]. On the way home, Lewis and Clark used four dugout canoes they bought from the Native Americans, plus one that they stole in "retaliation" for a previous theft. Less than a month after leaving Fort Clatsop, they abandoned their canoes because portaging around all the falls proved too difficult.

	On ], after crossing the Continental Divide, the Corps split into two teams so Lewis could explore the ]. Lewis' group of four met some ] Indians. Their meeting was cordial, but during the night, the Blackfeet tried to steal their weapons. In the struggle, two Indians were killed, the only native deaths attributable to the expedition. The group of four—Lewis, Drouillard, and the Field brothers—fled over 100 miles (160 km) in a day before they camped again. Clark, meanwhile, had entered Crow territory. The ] were known as horse thieves. At night, half of Clark's horses were gone, but not a single Crow was seen. Lewis and Clark stayed separated until they reached the confluence of the ] and Missouri Rivers on ]. Clark's team had floated down the rivers in ]. While reuniting, one of Clark's hunters, Pierre Cruzatte, blind in one eye and nearsighted in the other, mistook Lewis for an elk and fired, injuring Lewis in the thigh. From there, the groups were reunited and able to quickly return home by the Missouri River. They reached St. Louis on ], ].

	The Corps of Discovery returned with important information about the new United States territory and the people who lived in it, as well as its rivers and mountains, plants and animals. The expedition made a major contribution to mapping the North American continent.

	==Spanish reaction==
	On ], ], Lewis met with the ] lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana, Colonel ]. Since France had never formally taken control of the territory, it was still governed by Spaniards. Delassus refused to let Lewis go up the Missouri until France formally took control of the territory, at which time France would formally give the territory to the United States. Lewis had intended to spend the winter in ] since he needed to gain provisions for the trip and it was too late in the year to sensibly continue on the Missouri. Despite Lewis’ claims that the Expedition was solely a scientific one that would only travel the Missouri territory, Delassus wrote to his superiors that Lewis would undoubtedly go as far as the Pacific coast, citing that Lewis was far too competent for a lesser mission.<ref>Ambrose, Stephen. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the opening of the American west. (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1996). p122-123</ref>

	While in ], Lewis had written to Jefferson about going to ]. This was done for political concerns; Lewis wanted "to give his party a winning issue" in the 1804 expedition. Jefferson was willing for Lewis to wait the winter in St. Louis rather than continue up the Missouri; Lewis could gain valuable information in St. Louis and draw from ] supplies rather than the Expedition’s. Jefferson knew how sensitive the Spanish were about their gold and silver mines and issued a direct order to Lewis not to go to Santa Fe. This also led Jefferson to question Lewis’ judgment. Jefferson’s concern was for naught; Lewis had already decided he had enough to do during the winter to get the Expedition ready for spring than to spend time traveling to Santa Fe.<ref>Ambrose 115, 116, 123</ref>

	The fact that the Expedition would travel as much as it could on the Missouri River was done for political reasons. For one, it was imperative to stay out of Spanish territory. Jefferson had told Lewis not to go into Spanish territory. By staying in higher latitudes, the Expedition would avoid crossing into Spanish territory. <!--(How was anyone at that time to know which were the best mountain passes?) However, this meant that the Expedition could not use the best mountain passes; just the ones more politically expedient. ], which the Expedition used, would never see a wagon use it and even today it is a rough way to cross the Rockies.--><ref> http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/Discoverers.html</ref>

	Spain had ceded Louisiana to France under the condition that France would not give it to a third party. Spain gave France the territory because ] had put his ]{{fact}} in charge of Spain, and Napoleon’s brother gave Napoleon Louisiana in exchanged for the kingdom of ] in Northern ]. Slaves rebellions in ] led by ], ], and ] in 1802-1803 also led to Haitian independence in 1804, and ] was so valuable to France that without it, France's whole colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere Napoleon I had been trying to re-establish would not be sufficiently profitable to justify the cost to France.

	Spain wanted to keep the territory as an empty buffer between the U.S. and the many mineral mines in northern Mexico. After the start of the expedition, Spain sent at least four different missions to stop Lewis and Clark. During the Expedition’s stay in the ]’s camps, the expedition was told they were ten days away from Spanish settlements. This warning helped Lewis and Clark stay away from the Spanish, but they never knew the Spanish had sent missions to stop them until after they returned from the journey.<ref>Brandt, Anthony. Reliving Lewis and Clark: Louisiana Purchase Ceremony. (National Geographic News, March 23, 2004.)</ref>

	The Spanish sent these expeditions because of the intelligence they gained from an American traitor turned Spanish spy. General ] was the commanding general of the United States Army. He was also in the employ of the Spanish government. In March 1804, he sent a message to ] telling the Spanish government that the purpose of the Expedition was to journey as far as the Pacific.<ref>Ambrose 334, 335</ref>.

	==Achievements==
	]

	*The U.S. gained an extensive knowledge of the ] of the ] in the form of maps of major rivers and mountain ranges
	*Observed and described 178 plants and 122 species and subspecies of animals (see ])

	*Encouraged Euro-American fur trade in the West
	*Opened Euro-American diplomatic relations with the Indians
	*Established a precedent for Army exploration of the West
	*Strengthened the U.S. claim to ]
	*Focused U.S. and media attention on the West
	*Produced a large body of literature about the West (the Lewis and Clark diaries)

	==Expedition members==
	], near the expedition's end]]
	*Captain ]—private secretary to President Thomas Jefferson and leader of the Expedition.
	*Captain ]—shared command of the Expedition, although technically second in command. <!--HUH? His carved date is the only physical remains of the expedition that can be seen today.-->
	*]—Clark's black ]; he shared the dangers of the journey, but not the rewards.
	*Sergeant ]—the Expedition's quartermaster; died early in the trip. He was the only person who died during the Expedition.
	*Sergeant ]—chief carpenter, promoted to Sergeant after Floyd's death.
	*Sergeant ]—responsible for issuing provisions, appointing guard duties, and keeping records for the Expedition.
	*Sergeant ]—leader of the 1st Squad; he presided over the ] of privates John Collins and Hugh Hall.
	*Corporal Richard Warfington—conducted the return party to St. Louis in 1805.
	*Private John Boley—disciplined at ] and was assigned to the return party.
	*Private William E. Bratton—served as hunter and blacksmith.
	*Private John Collins—had frequent disciplinary problems; he was court-martialed for stealing whiskey which he had been assigned to guard.
	*Private ]—charged with mutiny early in the trip, he later proved useful as a hunter; he earned his fame after the journey.
	*Private ]—a one-eyed French fiddle-player and a skilled boatman.
	*Private ]
	*Private ]—a woodsman and skilled hunter, brother of Reubin.
	*Private ]—a woodsman and skilled hunter, brother of Joseph.
	*Private ]—kept a journal that was never published.
	*Private ]—a fiddle-player and a good hunter; he served as an interpreter (probably via ]).
	*Private Silas Goodrich—the main fisherman of the expedition.
	*Private ]—court-martialed with John Collins for stealing whiskey.
	*Private Thomas Proctor Howard—court-martialed for setting a "pernicious example" to the Indians by showing them that the wall at Fort Mandan was easily scaled.
	*Private François Labiche—French fur trader who served as an interpreter and boatman.
	*Private Hugh McNeal—the first white explorer to stand astride the headwaters of the Missouri River on the Continental Divide.
	*Private ]—court-martialed and confined for "having uttered repeated expressions of a highly criminal and mutinous nature."
	*Private John Potts—German immigrant and a miller.
	*Private Moses B. Reed—attempted to desert in August 1804; convicted of desertion and expelled from the party.
	*Private John Robertson—member of the Corps for a very short time.
	*Private ]—was lost twice during the expedition, once for sixteen days.
	*Private ]—blacksmith, gunsmith, and a skilled carpenter; with John Colter, he was court-martialed for ].
	*Private John B. Thompson—may have had some experience as a surveyor.
	*Private Howard Tunn—hunter and navigator.
	*Private Ebenezer Tuttle—may have been the man sent back on ], ]; otherwise, he was with the return party from Fort Mandan in 1805.
	*Private ]—had some minor disciplinary problems at River Dubois; he was made a permanent member of the party.
	*Private William Werner—convicted of being absent without leave at ], at the start of the expedition.
	*Private Isaac White—may have been the man sent back on ], ]; otherwise, he was with the return party from Fort Mandan in 1805.
	*Private Joseph Whitehouse—often acted as a tailor for the other men; he kept a journal which extended the Expedition narrative by almost five months.
	*Private ]—blacksmith; assisted John Shields. He was convicted on ], ], of sleeping while on sentry duty and given one hundred lashes.
	*Private ]—often assigned duty as a hunter.
	*Interpreter ]—Sacagawea's husband; served as a translator and often as a cook.
	*Interpreter ]—Charbonneau's wife; translated Shoshone to Hidatsa for Charbonneau and was a valued member of the expedition.
	**]—Charbonneau and Sacagawea's son, born ], ]; his presence helped dispel any notion that the expedition was a war party, smoothing the way in Indian lands.
	*Interpreter ]—skilled with Indian sign language; the best hunter on the expedition.
	*"]", Lewis' black ] dog.

	==See also==
	* ]
	* ]
	* ] and ]
	*]

	==References==
	<references/>

	==Further reading==
	===History===
	*''Lewis and Clark Among the Indians'', ], 1984 - ISBN 0-8032-3870-3
	*''Undaunted Courage'', ], 1997 - ISBN 0-684-82697-6
	*''National Geographic Guide to the Lewis & Clark Trail'', ], 2002 - ISBN 0-7922-6471-1
	*''The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery'' (abridged), edited by ], 2003 - ISBN 0-8032-2950-X
	*''The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition'', 13-Volume Set, edited by ], 2002 - ISBN 0-8032-2948-8
	* , University of Nebraska-Lincoln (in progress)
	*''In Search of York: The Slave Who Went to the Pacific With Lewis and Clark'', ], 2002 - ISBN 0-87081-714-0
	* at ]
	*''Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery'', ], 1997 - ISBN 0-679-45450-0

	===Notable fiction===
	These popular fictionalized historical novels have varying degrees of historical accuracy, which is unfortunate as they shaped much of the popular American understanding of the expedition.

	*''The Conquest'', ], 1902 - ]
	*''Sacagawea'', ], 1933 - ]
	*''Sacagawea'', ], 1984 - ISBN 0-380-84293-9
	*''I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company'', ], 2003 - ISBN 0-670-03189-5
	*''From Sea to Shining Sea'', ], 1986 - ISBN 0-345-33451-5
	*''New Found Land'', ], 2004
	*''To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis and Clark'', ], 2006 - ISBN 0-9777636-2-5

	==External links==
	{{commons}}

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	* - a variety of resources, including an Interactive Journey Log
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	* - A book with a perspective of L&C from the air
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	* in Great Falls, Montana
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Revision as of 14:58, 13 December 2006