Toussaint Charbonneau

A French trader named Jean Baptiste Truteau warned them that “all voyageurs who undertake to gain access to the nations of the Upper Missouri ought to avoid meeting this tribe as much for safety of their goods as for their lives….” Nevertheless, Lewis and Clark were hopeful that they could persuade the Sioux to become …

Several tribes of Native Americans had told Lewis and Clark about grizzly bears. The tribes would only attack these great bears if there were 6-10 people in their hunting party, and even then the bears would sometimes kill one of them.

(TETON) The Teton Sioux were the most powerful tribe on the middle Missouri. They controlled traffic on that stretch of the river, and had stopped traders before.

The Osage tribe was the largest and most powerful group in Missouri at one time. Early in their history, the Osage divided into two groups: the “Upper-Forest Sitters” and the “Down-Below People.” French missionaries later called them the Great or Big Osage and the Little Osage, respectively.

There are currently no federally recognized tribes in the state of Missouri. Most of the indigenous people who once inhabited land in Missouri were forced to leave and resettle in Indian Territory (present day-Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Kansas) during the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

In August 1805 Lewis and Clark were looking for the Shoshone Indians. The Corps (Lewis and Clark’s expedition party) needed horses to cross the Rockies and the Shoshone had them. Sacagawea, a member of the Corps, was Shoshone, but she had been kidnapped by another tribe many years before.

Lewis and Clark planned to winter near long-established villages inhabited by large numbers of the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes, north of present-day Bismarck, North Dakota. On October 26, 1804, the Expedition arrived at the earth-lodge Indian villages, approximately 1,600 miles from Camp Dubois.

Most of the land Lewis and Clark surveyed was already occupied by Native Americans. In fact, the Corps encountered around 50 Native American tribes including the Shoshone, the Mandan, the Minitari, the Blackfeet, the Chinook and the Sioux. Lewis and Clark developed a first contact protocol for meeting new tribes.

The belief that a route lay to the far north persisted for several centuries and led to numerous expeditions into the Arctic. Many ended in disaster, including that by Sir John Franklin in 1845. While searching for him the McClure Arctic Expedition discovered the Northwest Passage in 1850.

However, the Northwest Passage was not finally conquered by sea until 1905, when the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen successfully navigated the treacherous middle section of the passage and emerged in the Beaufort Sea. Amundsen and his crew had set sail in 1903 in the converted 47-ton herring boat Gjöa.

One of Jefferson’s main goals was to find a direct route by water from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean — the so-called “Northwest Passage.” Jefferson hoped such a route would connect the new western lands to routes already used to buy and sell goods.

Jefferson sends a secret letter to Congress asking for $2,500 to finance an expedition to explore the Missouri River.

In the spring of 1804, Lewis, Clark, and dozens of other men left St. Louis, Missouri, by boat. They traveled westward through what is now Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota. In November they reached Knife River Village in present-day North Dakota.

Lewis and Clark Expedition, (1804–06), U.S. military expedition, led by Capt. Meriwether Lewis and Lieut. William Clark, to explore the Louisiana Purchase and the Pacific Northwest. The expedition was a major chapter in the history of American exploration.

Lewis’s Packing List

President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the expedition shortly after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 to explore and to map the newly acquired territory, to find a practical route across the western half of the continent, and to establish an American presence in this territory before European powers attempted to …

The accomplishments of the Lewis and Clark Expedition were extensive. It altered the imperial struggle for the control of North America, particularity in the Pacific Northwest. It strengthened the U.S. claim to the areas now known as the states of Oregon and Washington.

The expedition failed at their main goal of finding an all water route across the continent, they did however succeed in finding new information about the plants, animals, and Native Americans that were in the region so that American knowledge and culture could become greater.

Lewis and Clark never found this all water route across the continent, but they did fulfill their other goals. In Captain Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s famous expedition, they successfully made it across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, opening the entire western region to trade.

During the journey of Lewis and Clark, the Corps of Discovery encountered many difficulties. Some of which were life-threatening and dangerous. They included terrible injuries and illnesses, and they also experienced fatigue, weariness, and coldness. Lewis and clark were in about 7 feet of snow.

They traveled north to Lolo Pass where they crossed the Bitteroot Range on the Lolo Trail; this was the most difficult part of the journey. Nearly starved, Lewis and Clark reached the country of the Nez Perce on the Clearwater River in Idaho, and left their horses for dugout canoes.

The expedition opened up new territory for the fur and lumber trade and pointed out the best lands for future settlement and agriculture. It allowed a young country to blossom into greatness, because more land had equated to more resources and therefore, more power. The influence of the expedition is incalculable.