Indian Stone Knife - Archaic Period

 Agriculture

Three-fifths of the modern world's agriculture comes from plants first domesticated by Native Americans. America’s Indians were the first to cultivate: Irish potato, sweet potatoes, manioc, several varieties of beans, squash, pumpkins, peanuts, tomatoes, chocolate, rubber, long staple cotton, and tobacco. . .The Indians of Texas, W. W. Newcomb, University of Texas Press, pp. 17, 1990.   

Sakakawea - Sacajawea  - Sacagawea 

There is considerable confusion over the name and the time of Sacajawea's death. The Hidatsa named her Bird Woman, and the Hidatsa pronunciation is Sakakawea. Sacajawea is the Shoshone word for Boat-launcher, not Bird Woman. (I have been told that Sacagawea is considered a derogatory word by the Shoshone???)

On December 20, 1812, Manuel Lisa’s clerk at Fort Manuel, John E. Luttig records: this evening the wife of Charbonneau, a squaw died of putrid fever. She was the best woman at the fort, aged about 25 years. She left a fine infant child. The next spring, Luttig took Sakakawea’s baby girl, Lizette, to St. Louis. Records there show that Captain Clark adopted Sakakawea's daughter and eight year old son, Baptiste (Pomp). . .Journal of a Fur Trading Expedition 1812-1813. John C. Luttig. 

Sacajawea is portrayed as the guide and interpreter for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. There is little evidence in Lewis or Clark's writings to support this. For her to function as the Shoshone translator, the translation had to be taken through four languages by three illiterate people before it was conveyed to Captain Lewis. How much Captain Lewis depended on this is questionable? On August 14, 1805, Lewis wrote: “The means I had of communicating with these people was by way of Drewyer [Drouillard] who understood perfectly the common language of jesticulation or signs which seems to be universally understood by all the Nations we have yet seen. It is true that this language is imperfect and liable to error but is much less so than would be expected. The strong parts of the ideas are seldom mistaken.”

Captain Lewis referred to Touissant Charbonneau, Sacajawea's husband, as a man of no particular merit. Charbonneau admitted years later that he never understood Hidatsa, and how much Hidatsa could Sacajawea have learned as a slave in a Hidatsa Village. A good account of the value of Charbonneau to the Expedition is given in http://www.fact-index.com/t/to/toussaint_charbonneau.html.

As a guide, Sacajawea basically recognized three areas on the whole journey: the Beaverhead, the Three Forks, and Bozeman Pass. Whenever Captain Lewis was ahead of the party searching for Sacajawea's people, not once did he take her with him....Sacajawea contributed a great deal to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but not as an interpreter or as a guide (Press Release).

On August 16th, 1805 at the Lemhi-Shoshone village, Lewis wrote, "...we should be disappointed in obtaining horses, which would vastly retard and increase the labour of our voyage and I feared might so discourage the men as to defeat the expedition altogether." Sacajawea's people, the Lemhi-Shoshone, provided the Lewis and Clark Expedition with horses and an old Shoshone guide named Toby. Without these horses and the guide, the Expedition could not have gotten over Lost Trail and Lolo passes before winter, and would have had to turn back.

Lewis and Clark

Meriwether Lewis was President Jefferson's private Secretary. He and the President had discussed a Voyage of Discovery to the Pacific for several years before Congress, February 28th, 1803, appropriated twenty-five hundred dollars for the expedition. At the time, the President did not have permission from France to travel through the Louisiana Territory; this was not conveyed to Congress before passage of the bill. Jefferson considered it a scientific endeavor, and if necessary, would proceed without permission of the French or Spanish governments. Purchase of the Louisiana Territory, April 30th, 1803, removed any problems with a foreign government...Mountains of Stone contains an abridged account of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. 

President Jefferson charged the ‘Voyage of Discovery’ with: numbers and locations of Indian tribes; collecting plant, animal, and rock specimens; geology of the country; longitude and latitude of rivers and mountain passes; detailed maps and journals. The expedition was also to investigate Indian commerce, Louisiana Territory’s boundaries, augment a claim to the Oregon country, and decide the feasibility of an overland route for the China and West Indies trade.

All of the original party, except Captain Clark's slave York and George Drouillard, were in the army. Enlisted men were paid five dollars/month; Sergeants eight dollars/month; Drouillard hired as a hunter and a sign-talker twenty-five dollars/month; Clark thirty dollars/month; Lewis forty dollars/month...George Drouillard is a major character in my novel Mountains of Stone. 

Congress appropriated twenty-five hundred dollars to cover the cost of the Expedition, but President Jefferson signed and gave Lewis a one-page letter pledging “the faith of the United States” to reimburse anyone for any goods or services that Lewis needed. This gave the expedition a limitless line of credit. Even with the use of soldiers, army equipment, and supplies, the actual cost of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was thirty-eight thousand seven hundred and twenty-two dollars.

Clark was a Second Lieutenant. Lewis promised him equal command, but the War Department made him a Second Lieutenant. To Captain Lewis’s credit, he shared the command equally as he had promised. None of the men knew Clark was not a Captain. A few years ago, the United States Congress promoted Clark to the rank of Captain. 

                                 Lt. William Clark's Signature on Pompeys Pillar

Today, the only physical mark left of the Lewis and Clark Expedition is Clark's name carved on Pompeys Pillar near Hibble, Montana. Named Pompeys Tower by Clark, the name was later changed to Pompeys Pillar. Clark named the sandstone outcropping on the Yellowstone River for Sakakawea's eighteen-month old son, Baptiste. The expedition members called the little boy, Pomp.

The manifest of the Corps of Discovery listed as Indian presents: 12 dozen pocket mirrors; 4,600 sewing needles; 144 small scissors; 10 pounds of sewing thread; silk ribbons; ivory combs; handkerchiefs; yards of bright-colored cloth; 130 rolls of tobacco; tomahawks that doubled as pipes; 288 knives; 8 brass kettles; vermilion face paint; 33 pounds of tiny beads of assort colors...Irvin W. Anderson, Inside the Corps, PBS Online - Lewis and Clark. 

Private John Shields, a gun smith, carpenter and blacksmith, built a forge adjacent to Fort Mandan. He was helped at the forge by privates William Bratton and Alexander Hamilton Willard. Iron goods made by the blacksmiths were traded for food, primarily corn. Without the blacksmiths, the Expedition may not have made it through the winter, or would not have had enough of their original trade goods to continue.

When Lewis and Clark reached the Nez Perce, one of Shields' trade axes had beat them there.

Le Borgne (One Eye) had the highest praise for the Lewis and Clark blacksmiths: "Had I these white warriors in the upper plains, my young men on horseback would soon do for them, as they would do for so many 'wolves,' for there are only two sensible men among them, the worker of iron and the mender of guns."

The original expedition lost three members: Sergeant Charles Floyd died (near Sioux City, Iowa); Moses Reed deserted; John Newman was insubordinate to Lewis. After Reed was caught, a court of enlisted men sentenced Reed and Newman to run a gauntlet (Reed four times), and then be drummed out of the service....flogging was a common form of punishment for infractions committed by the enlisted men.

Corporal Warfington with five soldiers, the two discharged men, and several French traders returned the keelboat to St. Louis. The boat held: two live animals (a prairie dog and a magpie); thirty-nine pressed plants; a skin and skeleton of each species of animal that was trapped or shot coming up the Missouri. 

Nineteen of the plants, the prairie dog, mule deer, antelope, jack rabbit, elk, bighorn sheep, badger, coyote, and sharp-tail grouse were new to science, or not thought to have existed in America. In addition to the plant and animal specimens, there were detailed river maps, weather charts, and information on the location, numbers, strengths, and habits of fifty-three Indian tribes.

On his return, Captain Lewis petitioned Congress on behalf of the enlisted men. On the 3rd of March 1807, Congress authorized double pay and three hundred and twenty acres of land for each man, including Touissant Charbonneau, John Newman, and Richard Warfington...after his court martial, the conduct of John Newman had been exemplary. Lewis and Clark received double pay and sixteen hundred acres of land each. Despite their many contributions, York and Sakakawea received nothing...not even a thank you. Several years later, Clark did grant York his freedom.  

Press Release - Wednesday, January 17, 2001.
 President Clinton honored three members of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery in recognition of their courage and contributions to our nation's history: promoted William Clark to Captain in the regular army; Honorary Sergeant, Regular Army to Sacagawea; Honorary Sergeant, Regular Army to York.  

Governor Lewis left St. Louis in early September 1809, to meet with the President concerning accounting irregularities. On the boat, he attempted to kill himself, but boatmen stopped him. The Commanding Officer, Gilbert C. Russell, at Fort Pickering in Tennessee, placed Governor Lewis under the post surgeon’s care. Lewis appeared to recover, and when he continued his journey, the Chickasaw Agent and several others accompanied him. A few days later, Governor Lewis started mumbling to himself, so the party stopped at a farmhouse owned by a Mr. Grinder. During the night, Governor Lewis shot himself in the head and again in the chest. The wounds were not fatal, and when a servant brought his breakfast, Lewis sat on the bed cutting himself with a razor. Before he died, October 11, 1809, Governor Lewis told the servant that he wanted to deprive his enemies the pleasure and honor of destroying him. Despite recent claims that Lewis was murdered none of the people who knew him best--President Thomas Jefferson, Captain William Clark, George Drouillard--were surprised at his suicide. . . Those Tremendous Mountains by David Freeman Hawke.

Sergeant Patrick Gass published the first journal on the "Corps of Discovery" in 1807. Gass died in 1870 at the age of 99...the longest surviving member. Nicholas Biddle published a condensed paraphrase of the original records in 1814.  Rueben Gold Thwaites edited the first complete and comprehensive work on Lewis and Clark in 1904...one hundred years after the expedition left St. Louis.  

Detailed information on the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the fur trade with the upper Missouri and Plains Indians is covered in my first historical novel Mountains of Stone. The Council for Indian Education wrote this about Mountains of Stone,  "...a fascinating story...well researched...."

The Lewis and Clark information article was written by O. Ned Eddins of Afton, Wyoming. Permission is given for material from this site to be used for school research papers.

Citation: Eddins, Ned. (article name) Mountainsofstone.com. Afton, Wyoming. 2002.

Article Links and References are below the mountain man picture.

This site is maintained through the sale of my two historical novels.

There are no banner adds, no pop up adds, or other advertising, except my books -- To keep the site this way, your support is appreciated. 

There have been many requests for copies of pictures from the website. The best website pictures, and others from Jackson Hole, Yellowstone, and Star Valley, Wyoming, have been put on a CD. The pictures make beautiful screensavers, or can be used as a slide show in Windows XP. When ordering Mountains of Stone, or Winds of Change, request the CD and I will send it free with the book. The Winds of Change CD contains different pictures than those on the Mountains of Stone CD. To view a representative sample of pictures, click on...

To email a comment, a question, or a suggestion click on Mountain Man.

To return to the Article Link Bars click on Mountain Man logo.

Related Articles:  Astorians    Fur Trade     Oregon Trail    Oregon Country   David Thompson    

Reader Response:

James Richard Fromm

[The Shoshone Indian guide Toby or Tobe was]...Never referred to by any journal writer in the Corp of Discovery as "Old Toby" or "Tobey".  During the 105 days they spent in Idaho Captains Meriwether Lewis & William Clark, Sergeants John Ordway & Patrick Gass and Private Joseph Whitehouse made some form of a reference to their "Shoshonee guide" on approximately seventy-eight (78) occasions.  

I find it incredulous that numerous "authors" have propagated the misconception that any member of the Corp of Discovery ever referred to the "Shoshonee Indian Guide" as "Old Toby" or "Tobey".  This demonstrates how false information can spread like a virus by non-inquisitive "historians" and change even the course of history.  So, who is responsible in the written record for turning this virus loose?

Didn't leave a name.    

CATHLAMET
A tribe forming a dialect division of the Chinookian stock near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon and Washington, to a point up that river to near the present city of Rainier on the south bank. In 1806 Lewis and Clark estimated them at 300. The Killaniucks, Clatsops, Chinooks, Cathlahmahs, and Wac-ki-a-cums resembled each other in dress and manner. About 50 or 60 Cathlamet were reported in 1849. The remnants of the Cathlamet may have moved to the Yakima Reservation with the Wishram, or to the Quinault Reservation with the mixed Chinook-Chehalis, but as distinct groups they no longer exist. 

Roger Pariseau: To the reader who did not leave a name.   

Reference: "They no longer exist as distinct groups"
First, you need to do quite a bit more research regarding your statements.
2nd, try to convince my wife, who is able to trace her ancestry and those of the rest of her extended family to being of the Tchinouk Nation, that "they no longer exist".
P.S. Please, if you can't get your facts straight, learn to properly spell the names of the First Nations.