Meriwhether Lewis (1774-1809)
Nine months prior to the first shots of the American Revolution, Meriwhether Lewis was born
to a prominent family in Ablemarle County, Virginia. His father, Lieutenant William Lewis,
died in a military accident in 1779, leaving Meriwhether to inherit the family plantation at
a young age. After extensive travel throughout the southern reaches of the new nation,
thirteen-year-old Lewis rejoined Virginia gentry society. With the burdens incumbent in
administrating a plantation at such a young age, Lewis's education was terminated before he
could enter William and Mary College with his wealthy peers. In 1793, the American Philosophical
Society approved a plan presented by Thomas Jefferson, Lewis's friend and neighbor, for an
overland exploration for the fabled Northwest Passage, an all-water route to the Pacific Ocean.
Lewis eagerly offered his services to the mission. He was summarily rejected due to his age
and the plan was eventually aborted. Turning his adventurous spirit elsewhere, Lewis
enlisted in the army under General Anthony Wayne and aided the government in the suppression
of the ill-fated Whiskey Rebellion. During his tenure in the army, Lewis briefly served under
William Clark in an elite rifleman outfit. After being elected President in 1800, Thomas
Jefferson called on Lewis to be his personal secretary and help Jefferson in his attempt
to thin the ranks of the Federalist dominated army. Prodded by scientific, commercial, and
diplomatic desires, President Jefferson commissioned Lewis to scour the wilderness west of
the Mississippi River, an area of particular importance after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.
Lewis drafted his former military comrade, William Clark, to accompany him and co-command
the three-year trip. Upon the successful completion of the expedition, Jefferson rewarded
Lewis for his service by naming him the territorial governor of Louisiana. Land speculation
ruined Lewis's financial position and he found solace in drugs and alcohol. Lewis entered
a deep depression. After two unsuccessful attempts, Lewis took his own life at an inn in
Central Tennessee in 1809.
William Clark (1770-1838)
William Clark was born in Caroline County, Virginia, but as a young boy moved with his family
to the frontier territory of Kentucky. Because Kentucky did not have many large settlements,
Clark spent most of his time learning practical skills from his wooded environment, rather than
spending it in formal schooling. In order to survive in the wilderness, Clark learned how to trap
animals and to make accurate maps.Clark was very tall, over six feet, and strong, too. These
characteristics served Clark well when he decided to join the army. All of Clark's brothers also
had served in the army, and one, George Rogers Clark, was a national military hero. By 1795,
Clark commanded his own company of men, one of whom was Meriwether Lewis. After his
service in the military, Clark went into business with his brothers. In 1803, he received an
invitation from Lewis, currently President Jefferson's personal secretary, to join him as a
co-captain on a westbound expedition. Although Clark was never commissioned as a Captain
(he received the rank of Lieutenant, lower than Lewis), he and Lewis became great friends
and led the Corps of Discovery as equals throughout the expedition.When Clark returned in
1806, he received the rank of Brigadier of the Missouri militia, and in 1813, was named
governor of the Missouri Territory and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. After Lewis's death
at the early age of 37, the task of publishing the journals from the expedition fell to Clark, who
finally succeeded in publishing them in 1814. The Academy of Natural Sciences was so
impressed with Clark's work that it gave him an award for his work in 1838, the same year
that he died.
Sacagawea (c.1787 - 1812?)
Sacagawea was born a Shoshone Indian near present-day Lemhi, Idaho around 1788. When
Sacagawea was only eleven or twelve years old, a Hidatsa raiding party captured her and
took her to their villages near today's Bismarck, North Dakota. The Hidatsa in turn sold
Sacagawea to Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian fur trapper, to be one of his wives.
When Lewis and Clark hired Charbonneau as an interpreter, he chose to bring along Sacagawea,
who carried their newborn son, Jean (zhän) Baptiste, on her back throughout the trip.
Sacagawea turned out to be very helpful on the long and often dangerous journey because she
knew so much about the western territory they were crossing. When the Corps of Discovery was
running low on food supplies, Sacagawea knew how to find roots and vegetables that the men could eat. In addition, Sacagawea often ended up being a better translator with the Indian tribes the Corps met than her husband, Charbonneau. One time, when the Corps encountered a group of Shoshone Indians near the headwaters of the Missouri in Montana, Sacagawea discovered her long-lost brother. Sacagawea was very calm under pressure and often had to serve as a guide once the Corps passed the Continental Divide. At the end of the expedition, she received nothing for her services. She moved to St. Louis and asked Captain Clark to act as a teacher to her children. There is disagreement over the date of Sacagawea's death. Some people believe that Sacagawea died at the very young age of 25 near the Missouri River. Others believe that she survived much longer, living until 1884, on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.
Toussaint Charbonneau (c. 1759 - ?)
The Corps of Discovery first encountered Toussaint Charbonneau at Fort Mandan during 1804.
He had been born in Montreal around 1759 and, like a good number of French Canadians, had
traveled south towards the Missouri River in search of commercial success as a fur trader.
Charbonneau had been living with the Hidatsa and Mandan Indians for nearly a decade when Lewis
and Clark enlisted him, along with his young wife Sacagawea, to serve as a translator to the
Indian tribes. The translation process was complicated. The Indians would speak to Sacagawea,
who would translate what she heard into Hidatsa, which Charbonneau understood. Charbonneau
then would translate it into French, for one of the two members of the Corps who spoke French.
Finally, these men would translate this message into English. For this task, Charbonneau
received $25 a month. On the trip, many members of the Corps saw Charbonneau as a comical
character, because he was a poor sailor and because he did things differently than American
settlers. After the journey was completed, Charbonneau received $500 for his services,
plus 320 acres of land. Although Clark described Charbonneau as "a man of no particular
merit," he later employed Charbonneau as a governmental translator to the Indians.
Charbonneau eventually returned to live with the Hidatsa and Mandan Indians along the
Missouri River, and the date of his death is unknown.
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