Transcript

5.29.26 · History Hour

0:01
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome. This is a radioized history show and
0:05
I'm your reader and host for today, Joseph Bolt, so
0:09
glad to be with you for this time. And before
0:12
we begin, we always need to remind you that Radio
0:15
I is listener driven, so that means you and so
0:19
we love your comments or suggestions, and if you have
0:23
any of those, please call us and the number to
0:25
do that with it would be eight five nine four
0:29
two two six three nine zero and let us know
0:33
what you are thinking. As you know, RADIOI is a
0:37
reading service intended for people who are blind or have
0:40
other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
0:46
I'll cite the sources as we go along today, and
0:50
so today I thought we would tackle the subject of
0:54
Lewis and Clark. So let's get the reading. The Lewis
1:01
and Clark Expedition, which was from eighteen o four to
1:05
eighteen o six, was the first United States overland expedition
1:12
to the Pacific Coast and back. The Louisiana purchase in
1:18
eighteen o three sparked interest and expansion to the West Coast.
1:25
A few weeks after the purchase, United States President Thomas Jefferson,
1:30
an advocate of western expansion had the U. S. Congress
1:35
appropriate twenty five hundred dollars to send a small U. S.
1:41
Army unit to explore the west to the Pacific Ocean.
1:47
Along their way, they were instructed to study and make
1:51
detailed reports on the Indian tribes, geographic feachers, climate plants,
2:03
and animals, and evaluate the potential interference of British and
2:10
French Canadian hunters and trappers already well established in the area.
2:17
In addition, one of Jefferson's main objectives was for the
2:22
unit to find a waterway that would connect the east
2:27
to the west. Meriwether Lewis was born in Virginia in
2:32
the seventeen seventy four, but spent his early childhood in Georgia.
2:39
He returned to Virginia as a teenager to receive his
2:43
education and graduated from college in seventeen ninety three. He
2:50
then joined the Virginia State Militia, where he helped to
2:54
put down the Whiskey Rebellion and later became a captain
2:59
in the U. S. Army. The story goes that in
3:03
eighteen oh one, Lewis left the army and accepted an
3:07
invitation to serve as Thomas Jefferson's presidential secretary. Lewis had
3:13
known Jefferson since he was a boy. He'd grown up
3:18
on a Virginia plantation only a few miles from Monticello,
3:24
and the pair went on to forge a mentor protege
3:28
relationship while working together in the White House. When Jefferson
3:33
conceived of his grand expedition to the West in eighteen
3:38
o two, he immediately named the rugged, intellectually gifted twenty
3:44
eight year old Lewis as its commander. To help the
3:50
young secretary prepare for the expedition, which eventually became known
3:55
as the Corps of Discovery, Jefferson gave him a crash
4:00
course in the natural sciences and sent him to Philadelphia
4:04
to study medicine, botany, and celestial navigation, digressing a bit
4:13
while serving as a frontier army officer. A few years earlier,
4:17
in seventeen ninety five, a young Meriwether Lewis was court
4:22
martial for allegedly challenging a lieutenant to a duel during
4:27
a drunken dispute. The twenty one year old was found
4:32
not guilty of the charges, but his superiors decided to
4:37
transfer him to a different rifle company. To avoid any
4:42
future incidents. His new commander turned out to be William Clark,
4:50
the man who would later join him on his journey
4:53
to the West, just as Meriwether Lewis. William Clark was
4:59
also born in Virginia in seventeen seventy, but moved with
5:04
his family to Kentucky at age fifteen. At age nineteen,
5:10
he joined the state militia and then the regular Army,
5:15
where he served with Lewis and was eventually commissioned by
5:20
President George Washington as a lieutenant of infantry. Clark was
5:28
thirty two years of age at the time Lewis selected
5:31
him as a co leader of the expedition. Due to
5:36
the bureaucratic delays in the U. S. Army, Clark officially
5:41
only had the rank of second lieutenant at the time.
5:46
Lewis concealed Clark's rank from the men and eventually shared
5:50
the expedition's leadership, always referring to Clark as Captain. Lewis
5:58
and Clark reached their staging point at the confluence of
6:03
the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers near Saint Louis, Missouri, in
6:08
December of eighteen o three. There they camped for the
6:13
winter at the mouth of Wood River on the Illinois
6:18
side of the Mississippi River. Over the winter, the two
6:23
captains recruited young woodsmen, boatmen, and enlisted soldiers who volunteered
6:31
from nearby army outpost. By spring, the group was made
6:37
up of approximately forty men, of which there were twenty
6:41
seven unmarried soldiers, a French Indian interpreter, a contracted boat crew,
6:52
and an enslaved person owned by Clark by the name
6:56
of York. They began their historic journey on May fourteenth,
7:02
eighteen o four. They diligently worked their way westward on
7:07
the Missouri River through the long hot summer, soon passing Larouchette,
7:15
the last white settlement on the Missouri River. They continued
7:22
through what is now Kansas City, Missouri, then along the
7:26
present day borders of Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. Along the way,
7:33
the group experienced problems within its ranks, including disciplinary floggings,
7:42
two desertions, and a man dishonorably discharged for mutiny. On
7:50
August twenty, eighteen oh four, the Core of Discovery suffered
7:57
its first and only death when Sergeant Charles Floyd died
8:03
near modern day Sioux City, Iowa. From what was thought
8:07
to be an attack of acute appendicitis. Lewis himself was
8:14
diagnosed as having a bilious colic, but historians now believe
8:22
he suffered from a burst appendix. Over the next two years,
8:27
the expedition endured everything from dysentery and snake bites to
8:32
dislocated shoulders and even venereal disease, but amazingly no one
8:40
else perished before the explorer returned to Saint Louis in
8:44
September of eighteen o six. One of the worst injuries
8:49
came during the trip home, when an enlisted man accidentally
8:54
shot Lewis in the buttocks after mistaking him for an elk.
9:03
Though not seriously wounded, the explorer was forced to spend
9:07
a few miserable weeks lying on his belly in a
9:12
canoe while the expedition floated down the Missouri River. While
9:18
in South Dakota, a band of Teton Sioux tried to
9:24
detain their boats, but when the explorers showed their superior weapons,
9:30
they were allowed to sail on. They spent their first
9:34
winter near present day Washburne, North Dakota, among the Menden
9:41
Indians on the north bank of the Missouri River. They
9:45
constructed a log fort called Fort Mendon in honor of
9:50
the local Indians. By this time, the expedition had traveled
9:55
approximately fifteen hundred miles. Explorers spent the winter hunting, gathering
10:03
information about the route ahead, and making tools they would
10:08
later trade for supplies. While there, they met a French
10:13
Canadian trader by the name of Tucson Charbonow and his young, pregnant,
10:24
teen aged Shoshone wife by the name of Sacajawea. Saka
10:33
Jowea's tribal homeland lay in the rocky mountain country far
10:38
to the west, and she spoke both the Shoshone and
10:43
Minatari dialects. Sakajawea had been kidnapped from her tribe as
10:50
an adolescent. Lewis and Clark hired Charboneaux and Sakajawea to
10:59
a accompany them as guides and interpreters. Sakajawea's son was
11:06
born at Fort Manden in February, and when the expedition
11:11
set out again in April, the young family joined the expedition.
11:19
Along the way, Sakajawea proved even more helpful than they
11:24
had initially thought, as she acted as a peacemaker and
11:29
negotiated for horses and supplies. Once steering a run in
11:35
with a band of Shoshone in the summer of eighteen
11:38
o five, she famously discovered the tribe's chief was none
11:43
other than her long lost brother, whom she had not
11:47
seen since her abduction five years earlier. The tearful reunion
11:53
helped facilitate peaceful relations between the explorers and the Shoshone.
12:00
Jint Lewis to procure many needed horses for his trek
12:04
over the Rockies. The expedition continued up the Missouri River
12:10
and into Montana Territory, but as they neared the Rocky Mountains,
12:15
the rivers flow began to lessen. As the expedition approached
12:21
the river's head waters deep in the mountains, they were
12:26
forced to travel by land. Although they believed the Missouri
12:30
River would connect to another great river leading to the Pacific,
12:35
the expedition found that such an easy connection did not exist.
12:42
The expedition continued by land, traveling across much of present
12:47
day northern Idaho until reaching the clear Water and Snake Rivers,
12:53
where they could journey by boat again. The expedition moved
12:58
more quickly by water, reaching the Columbia River in mid October. Continuing,
13:04
they passed Sililo Falls and through what is now Portland, Oregon.
13:12
In November of eighteen o five, some eighteen months after
13:15
leaving Saint Louis Meriwether, Lewis spotted Mount Hood, a mountain
13:21
known to be very close to the ocean. However, winter
13:26
was upon them, so they soon set up a permanent
13:29
winter dwelling south of the Columbia River near present day Estoria, Oregon,
13:37
which they called Fort Clatsup. The expedition spent the self
13:43
described long wet winter preparing for the trip home by
13:48
boiling salt from the ocean and hunting elk and other
13:52
wild life. Was not an easy winter at Fort Clatsup.
13:57
Everyone struggled to keep themselves and their supplies dry and
14:02
fought an ongoing battle with tormenting fleas and other insects.
14:09
Almost everyone was weak and sick, with stomach problems likely
14:15
caused by bacterial infections, hunger, or influenza like symptoms. The
14:24
explorers started their journey home on March twenty third, eighteen
14:27
o six, and Lewis and Clark split up on their return.
14:34
Clark led one group up the Yellowstone River, while Lewis
14:37
led another group into north central Montana in the province
14:42
of Alberta. On July twenty fifth, eighteen o six, Clark
14:50
carved his name and date on a large rock formation
14:56
near the Yellowstone River that he named Pompey's Pillar after
15:04
Sacagawea's son, whose name was Pompey. The site is now
15:10
a National Monument managed by the U. S Department of
15:13
the Interior. Two days later, at Maria's River near present
15:21
day Cutbank, Montana, Lewis and his group encountered eight Blackfeet
15:30
warriors and were forced to kill two of them when
15:34
they tried to steal weapons and horses. The location of
15:39
the clash became known as Two Medicine Fight Sight. Lewis
15:45
and Clark met up with each other again on the
15:49
Missouri River on August twelfth, eighteen o six, and arrived
15:57
back in Saint Louis on September two, twenty three, eighteen
16:01
o six. Lewis and Clark constantly collected samples of plants, animals,
16:11
and birds throughout the journey, while documenting encounters with the
16:17
many Indians they met along the way. Their detailed observations
16:23
on their eight thousand mile round trip journey of climate, landscape,
16:30
plant communities, and human and animal populations were valuable to
16:36
an expanding nation. Before Lewis and Clark completed their expedition,
16:43
Americans could only speculate on what lurked in the unchartered
16:48
territories beyond the Rocky Mountains. Even Thomas Jefferson, who amassed
16:53
a small library of books on the frontier, was convinced
16:57
the explorers might have run in with mountains of salt,
17:02
a race of Welsh speaking Indians, and even herds of
17:07
wooly mammoths and giant ground sloths. The expedition failed to
17:14
cite any of the long extinct creatures, but Lewis did
17:18
describe one hundred and seventy eight previously unknown species of
17:22
plants and one hundred and twenty two new animals, including coyotes,
17:27
mountain beavers, and grizzly bears. Although the expedition failed to
17:33
find the Northwest passage, it significantly increased knowledge of the
17:38
nation's newly acquired territory and opened the doors to westward settlement.
17:45
After the expedition concluded, Lewis was made governor of the
17:50
Louisiana Territory in eighteen oh seven. His career started out well,
17:56
but two years later a controversy involving government finances arose,
18:02
and Lewis made plans to travel to Washington, d C.
18:06
To resolve the dispute. Governor Meriwether Lewis, while traveling through
18:12
Tennessee on October eleventh, eighteen o nine, died mysteriously from
18:18
gunshot wounds inflicted while at Grinders Stand, a public road house.
18:26
It is not known whether he was murdered or committed suicide.
18:32
His grave lies where he died within today's Natchez Trace
18:38
National Parkway near Hollingwald, Tennessee. Meanwhile, Clark was made a
18:45
brigadier General of the Territory in March of eighteen o seven.
18:50
In eighteen thirteen, he was appointed Governor of the Missouri Territory,
18:54
which he held until Missouri's statehood. In eighteen twenty twenty two,
19:01
President James Monroe appointed him Superintendent of Indian Affairs. He
19:08
was reappointed to this post by each succeeding president and
19:13
served in this capacity for the remainder of his life.
19:18
General William Clark died of natural causes in Saint Louis
19:23
on September one, eighteen thirty eight, and is buried in
19:27
the Clark family plot at Bellefontaine Cemetery in Saint Louis, Missouri. Today,
19:36
the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail can still be
19:40
followed along the Missouri and Columbia rivers. Though much is
19:44
changed over the past centuries, many trail portions remain intact.
19:49
At three thousand, seven hundred miles, the Lewis and Clark
19:52
National Historic Trail is the second longest of the twenty
19:57
three National Scenic and National Historic Trails. It begins at Hartford, Illinois,
20:04
and passes through Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Oregon,
20:12
and Washington. Many people follow the trail by auto, but
20:18
the more adventurous can still find many sections encouraging boating, biking,
20:25
or hiking. That story was brought to you by Legends
20:29
of America dot com, Corps of Discovery, The Lewis and
20:32
Clark Expedition, written by Kathy Alexander in September of twenty five,
20:37
and smithsoniamag dot com Lewis and Clark The Journey Ends
20:41
written in December of five, no authors cited, and finally
20:46
History dot com Lewis and Clark Expedition History dot Com
20:51
editors or the writers in April of twenty twenty six Now,
20:58
let's read from from ten Little Known Facts about the
21:03
Lewis and Clark Expedition on the website history dot Com,
21:07
written by Evan Andrews, updated in April of twenty sixth.
21:12
President Jefferson often described Lewis and Clark's expedition as a
21:16
scientific mission to study the lands acquired in the eighteen
21:19
o three Louisiana Purchase, but the explorer's central goal was
21:24
to find a water route to the Pacific, which would
21:27
increase trade opportunities and help solidify an American claim on
21:32
the far Northwest. That was distressing news for the Spanish,
21:37
who feared the expedition might lead to the seizure of
21:40
their gold rich territories in the Southwest. On the suggestions
21:46
of the U. S. Army General James Wilkinson, who was
21:50
a Spanish spy, the Governor of New Mexico dispatched four
21:56
different groups of Spanish soldiers and committing Indians to intercept
22:03
the explorers and bring them back in chains. Luckily for
22:08
Lewis and Clark, the hostile search parties failed to locate
22:12
them in the vastness of the Front Tier. The Corps
22:16
of Discovery carried one of the largest arsenals ever taken
22:21
west of the Mississippi. It included an assortment of pikes, tomahawks,
22:26
and knives, as well as several rifles and muskets, two
22:29
hundred pounds of gunpowder and over four hundred pounds of
22:32
lead for bullets. Lewis also had a state of the
22:36
art pneumatic rifle he used to impress Indian tribes on
22:40
the Front Tier. After pumping compressed air into the guns stock,
22:44
he could fire some twenty shots, each of them almost
22:48
completely silent. Despite being armed to the teeth, most of
22:52
the explorers never had to use their weapons in combat.
22:56
The lone exception came during their return journey, when Lewis
22:59
and Claw Dark and three of the soldiers engaged in
23:01
a gun battle with Blackfeet Indians that left two natives dead.
23:07
During her time with the Corps of Discovery, Saka Jowella
23:11
was accompanied by her newborn son, Jean Baptiste, whom the
23:16
explorers nicknamed pomp. William Clark took a shine to the boy,
23:22
and when Saka Jowella left the expedition in August of
23:26
eighteen o six, he offered to adopt him and raise
23:29
him as my own child. Saka Jowella initially turned down
23:34
the offer, but she later allowed Clark to provide her
23:37
son's education in Saint Louis. Following Saka Jowella's death in
23:42
eighteen twelve, Clark became the legal guardian of both Jean
23:46
Baptiste and her other child, a daughter named Lizette. Little
23:52
is known about what became of Lizette, but Jean Baptiste
23:57
later traveled to Europe before returning to the American frontier
24:01
to work as a trapper and wilderness guide. Along with
24:06
more than two dozen enlisted men and officers, the Corps
24:09
of Discovery also included Clark's personal enslaved man York, a
24:15
tall man servant, was a hit with frontier tribes, many
24:18
of whom had never seen a person with dark skin.
24:23
The Arikara people of North Dakota even referred to York
24:27
as Big Medicine and speculated that he had spiritual powers.
24:31
Though not an official member of the Corps of Discovery,
24:34
York made the entire journey from Saint Louis to the
24:37
Pacific and back and became a valued member of the
24:40
expedition for his skills as a hunter. When the explorers
24:45
later voted on whether to place their winter camp and
24:50
where to place their winter camp in eighteen o five,
24:53
he and the Shoshone interpreter Sakajawea were both allowed to participate.
25:00
As historian Stephen E. Ambrose later noted, this simple show
25:05
of hands may have marked the first time in American
25:08
history a black man and a woman were given a vote.
25:13
In eighteen thirty two, writer Washington Irvin interviewed William Clark
25:17
and asked of York's fate. Clark replied that he had
25:21
finally freed Yorke and said astonishingly that his former slave
25:26
wasn't happy with his freedom and tried to return to Clark,
25:29
eventually dying of cholera along the way, but diddy. In
25:36
eighteen thirty two, fur trapper Zennis Lennard, visiting a Crow
25:41
village in north central Wyoming, found a Negro man who
25:47
informed us that he first came to this country with
25:50
Lewis and Clark, and whom he also returned to the
25:54
state of Missouri, and in a few years returned again
25:57
with mister Mackinney Trader on the Missouri River and has
26:02
remained there ever since, which was about ten or twelve
26:05
years ago. On January seventeen, two thousand and one, President
26:11
Clinton promoted Yorke posthumously to the rank of honorary Sergeant
26:17
Regular Army. Well that about does it for today's history show.
26:24
I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have
26:27
researching and reading it for you. I thank you for
26:30
your time today, and I'll be back for another chapter
26:35
of RADIOI history. Until then, happy trails to you.