NOVEMBER 2017 VOL 43 NO 4

LEWIS AND CLARK TRAIL HERITAGE FOUNDATION

The 1812 Issue: • Jay Buckley on Clark's Impossible Task • William Foley on the New Madrid Earthquakes • Interview with Elliott West—Part Two

In this Issue: Message from the President...... 3 Lewis and Clark Roundup...... 6

Clark’s Impossible Task: The Sentimental Imperialist and the War of 1812...... 8 By Jay Buckley

Clark and Teton Sioux by James Ayers, p. 8

Turbulence and Terror: The New Madrid Earthquakes, 1811-1812...... 23 By William Foley

Earthquakes by William Foley, p. 23

The WPO Interview: Dr. Elliott West, Part 2...... 26

Dr. Elliott West, p. 26 Letters...... 32

Future Issues: WPO intends to publish themed Review: issues on the forts of the Lewis and Clark Trail; filmic treatments of Lewis & Clark, including Havens, Scenes of Visionary Enchantment...... 33 documentaries; the fate of other explorers; Sacagawea; the Nine Young Men from Kentucky. If you are interested in contributing on these subjects, please let editor Clay Jenkinson know.

Covers - Front: Painting of William Clark by John Wesley Jarvis (ca. 1810). Courtesy Missouri Historical Society. Back: Painting of Andrew Jackson returning to Tennessee after the Battle of New Orleans by Michael Haynes.

We Proceeded On welcomes submissions of articles, proposals, inquiries, and letters.­ Writer’s guidelines are available by request and can be found on our website, lewisandclark.org. Submissions should be sent to Clay S. Jenkinson, 1324 Golden Eagle Lane, Bismarck, North Dakota 58503, or by email to [email protected]. 701-202-6751 The Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc.

P.O. Box 3434, Great Falls, MT 59403 406-454-1234 / 1-888-701-3434 November 2017 Membership Information Fax: 406-727-3158 Volume 43, Number 4 Membership in the Lewis and Clark Trail www.lewisandclark.org We Proceeded On is the official publication Heritage Foundation, Inc. is open to the public. Information and applications are available by Our mission: of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage As Keepers of the Story~Stewards of writing Membership Coordinator, Lewis and Foundation, Inc. Its name derives from the Trail, the Lewis and Clark Trail a phrase that appears repeatedly in the Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, P. O. Box Heritage Foundation, Inc. provides collective journals of the expedition. © 2017 3434, Great Falls, MT 59403 or on our website, national leadership in maintaining the lewisandclark.org. integrity of the Trail and its story through E. G. Chuinard, M.D., stewardship, scholarship, education, Founder, We Proceeded On We Proceeded On, the quarterly journal of the partnership and cultural inclusiveness. ISSN 02275-6706 Foundation, is mailed to current mem­bers in February, May, August, and November. Articles Editor Officers appearing in this journal are abstracted and Clay S. Jenkinson President indexed in Historical Abstracts and ­America: Bismarck, North Dakota Philippa Newfield, San Francisco, CA History and Life. Assistant Editor Vice-President Louis Ritten, LaGrange, IL Catherine Jenkinson Annual Membership Categories: New York City, New York Secretary Volunteer Proofreaders Student: $30 Jane Knox, Storrs Mansfield, CT H. Carl Camp, Jerry Garrett, and Basic: $49 Treasurer C. O. Patterson Basic 3-Year: $133 John Toenyes, Great Falls, MT Publisher Family: $65 Immediate Past-President Washington State University Press Steve Lee, Clarkston, WA Pullman, Washington Heritage: $100 Explorer: $150 Directors at large Editorial Advisory Board Jefferson: $250 Bud Clark, Brighton, MT Wendy Raney, Chair Barbara Kubik Discovery: $500 Chuck Crase, Prospect, KY Pullman, WA Vancouver, WA Karen Goering, St. Louis, MO Lifetime: Ella Mae Howard, Miles City, MT Jay H. Buckley Glen Lindeman Steward: $995 Provo, UT Pullman, WA Barb Kubik, Vancouver, WA Captain: $2,500 Jim Sayce, Seaview, WA H. Carl Camp J.I. Merritt President: $5,000 Clay Smith, Port Townsend, WA Omaha, NE Pennington, NJ Jerry Wilson, Versailles, IN The Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Robert C. Carriker Robert Moore, Jr. Foundation, Inc. is a tax-exempt nonprofit Spokane, WA St. Louis, MO Staff corporation. A portion of your dues may be tax Lindy Hatcher, Executive Director Carolyn Gilman Gary E. Moulton deductible. Donations are fully deductible. Kris Maillet, Admin. Assistant Washington, DC Lincoln, NE Shelly Kath, Library Technician James Holmberg Philippa Newfield Lora Helman, Accountant Louisville, KY San Francisco, CA Alice Kestler, Archives Technician Erin Stypulkoski, Ad Sales Manager

The views and opinions expressed in articles and features published in We Proceeded On Back Issues (1974–current) are those of the authors and contributors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Lewis All back issues of our quarterly historical and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, its officers and board, or staff. journal are available. Some of the older We Proceeded On is published four times a issues are copier reproductions. Orders for year in February, May, August, and November a collection of all back issues receive a 30 by Washington State University Press in ­Pullman, Washington, for the Lewis and percent discount. Order your missing issues Clark Trail ­Heritage Foundation, P.O. Box to complete your set. Call 1-888-701-3434, 3434, Great Falls, Montana 59403. Current issue: November 2017, volume 43, No. 4, mail your request to P.O. Box 3434, ISSN 02275-6706 Great Falls, MT 59403, or order at [email protected]. Incorporated in 1969 under Missouri General Not-For-Profit $10 originals or cds Corporation act. IRS Exemption Certificate No. 501(c)3, $4 shipping & handling Identification No. 510187715.

2 We Proceeded On E Volume 43, Number 4 A Message from the President where he was an adjunct assistant pro- ers could use in developing interdisci- fessor of history, director of the Insti- plinary learning activities for their own tute for Local and Oral History, and classrooms. special assistant to the vice chancellor The program included field trips for academic affairs, Kramer realized to the Filson Historical Society, Falls about ten years ago that, if the teach- of the Ohio State Park, and Locust ers and school children of southern Grove, the last home of George Rog- Indiana’s Falls of the Ohio region and ers Clark. There were lectures by Phillip Gordon and President Philippa Newfield Louisville, Kentucky, were to know IUS faculty members and community the role their area played in the saga of experts on geography, geology, flora It will be the teachers and their stu- Lewis and Clark, then he had to make and fauna, medicine, and surveying. dents who will carry the story of Lewis it happen by designing course work The program also attracted visiting and Clark forward and ensure the pres- and curricula for them. Lewis and Clark scholars Jay Buckley, ervation of their trail. The fate of our With the pedagogical support of Dr. Gary Moulton, Dark Rain Thom, and collective memory of one of the most Claudia Crump, professor emeritus of Lorna Hainesworth. In its entirety, the consequential events in American his- elementary education and co-founder program was well received by partici- tory and its contemporary evidence of the Center for Cultural Resources pants and instructors alike. upon our landscape is in their hands. (on whose board Kramer served), the In keeping with this realization, the institutional support of the deans of Student Field Investigation National Park Service (NPS) included the Schools of Education and Social Program Sciences, and financial assistance from education as part of its mission from On the student side of the equa- the Indiana Lewis and Clark Expedi- the outset. The National Park Cen- tion, Jay Russell of the Lewis and tion Commission, Kramer organized tennial Act of 2016 codified the edu- Clark Foundation in Great Falls, MT, the IUS Lewis and Clark Summer cational aspect of the NPS’s existing developed a science-based Field Inves- Institute. The institute was conducted mission into the US Code of Federal tigation program geared to seventh in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2012. Regulations. graders, entitled “Trail Stewardship: Students Explore in the Footsteps of IUS Lewis and Clark Summer Teacher Training Lewis and Clark.” Jay’s idea was to Institute Fortunately, there have been for- get the students out on the Lewis and ward-thinking educators, in keeping Although the curriculum addressed Clark National Historic Trail to per- with the NPS’s emphasis on education, the entire expedition, it focused on form measurements and make obser- who have recognized the need for an topics related to the Falls of the Ohio vations about the state of the trail and organized approach to training teach- region, including slavery on the fron- the health of the waters of the Mis- ers about the Lewis and Clark Expe- tier, the significance of the Clark fam- souri River. In so doing, the students dition. They have organized programs ily, and the recruitment, organization, acquired an appreciation of scientific for elementary and high school teach- and training of the initial members methodology, learned more of the ers and developed curricula for imple- of the Corps of Discovery in Clarks- Lewis and Clark story, and actively mentation in their classrooms. ville, Indiana. Students submitted reg- worked to preserve the Lewis and Carl E. Kramer, PhD, is one such ular essays based on reading assign- Clark Trail. prescient professor. Now retired from ments, but daily schedules tilted The program is designed to work Indiana University Southeast (IUS) heavily toward activities that teach- best at a site near a body of water. Mid-

November 2017 D We Proceeded On 3 A Message from the President

dle school students are bussed to the importance of stewarding the water- Daniels. The site selection committee location to conduct several on-site ways through which the Lewis and chose sites that are prepared to initiate experiments and observations. Before Clark Expedition traveled. By nurtur- the Field Investigation program. The the field day, teachers have a curric- ing people’s relationship with the trail, first two sites under consideration are ulum for preparing students for the the program hopes to build a com- St Joseph, Missouri, and Pasco, Wash- field trip. The curriculum is exten- munity that will preserve the trail and ington. The committees worked as part sive, including worksheets and a jour- keep it accessible to everyone. of a planning grant awarded through nal. The field trip experience enables The Lewis and Clark Foundation the National Park Service, Lewis and students to conduct experiments such has been sponsoring the Field Inves- Clark National Historic Trail. as checking water quality, identify- tigation program for the past six years. The program is now fully developed ing macro-invertebrates, and iden- Now the Lewis and Clark Foundation and ready for phase two which involves tifying plant life. There are five field is partnering with the Lewis and Clark seeking funding for implementation learning stations: observations, botany, Trail Heritage Foundation (LCTHF) through government and private agen- ornithology, macro-invertebrates, and and National Park Service to expand cies in the amount of $20,000. Work hydrology. The curriculum also con- this program to additional sites along completed in phase one will form the tains follow-up lessons after the field the Lewis and Clark Trail, thus intro- basis for and provide the resource day. ducing the concept of trail stewardship material for grant applications in phase The Field Investigation program to middle students throughout the two. The foci for fundraising will be endeavors to create a connection to country. The LCTHF has an exten- children, education, history, environ- nature and science that will have a sive network of chapters located in ment, STEM, science, and botany. lasting impact on students’ attitudes close proximity to visitor center sites Once funding is in place, the program toward the natural world and their and is uniquely positioned to take the will be implemented. appreciation of their role in conserv- program “on the road.” I would like to thank Dr. Carl E. ing natural resources and preserving The Field Investigation program Kramer and Lindy Hatcher for their the Lewis and Clark National Historic meshes with the LCTHF’s goals of considerable assistance in the prepara- Trail. The children out on the trail trail stewardship, involvement of tion of this column. ❚ today will become the stewards of the young people in the story of Lewis trail tomorrow. and Clark, bringing young people Philippa Newfield out on the trail, and expanding Lewis President Program Goals and Clark scholarship to include a sci- Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation ence-based learning component to Other goals of the Field Investi- complement the history and geogra- gation program are to spark the stu- phy curricula already being taught in dents’ interest in the Lewis and Clark our schools. story, highlight the scientific aspects of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Involvement of Scholars and involve middle school students in hands-on field investigative science. Both a curriculum committee and a Such hands-on study will also foster site-selection committee were involved dialogue among the student groups in the planning process. Members of along the trail who participate in the the curriculum committee included Jay program as they compare the different Buckley, PhD, Sean Chandler, PhD, landscapes through which the Corps of Pat Otto, Beth Thomas, Jay Russell, Discovery traveled. and Jill Hamilton-Anderson. Mem- The program will also engage com- bers of the Site Selection Committee munities along the Lewis and Clark included Lindy Hatcher, Jay Russell, Trail and educate them as to the Jill Hamilton-Anderson, and Rachel

4 We Proceeded On E Volume 43, Number 4 Join author Larry Campbell as he follows the footsteps of Lewis and Clark, discovering people and places along the Missouri River During the summer of 2016, retired professor and photography buff Larry Campbell fulfilled his dream of exploring the Missouri River via automobile, beginning at the River’s official source at Three Forks, Montana, through seven states, and finishing at its confluence with the Mississippi near St. Louis. Join Campbell as he recounts his trip by means of breathtaking color photos and narrative text. Visit the historical sites along the River—many marking the exploration of Lewis and Clark more than two centuries ago. Experience the spectacular scenery that adorns the 2,341-mile path of the River. Meet the colorful personalities the author encountered and befriended during what he called “the trip of a lifetime on what is arguably the most PRODUCT DETAILS unique river in the world!” • 8 1/2 x 11”, hardcover coffee-table Order your copy today—A great gift idea! book with dust jacket • 160 full-color pages By phone (877)427-2665 or online • Special section – “In the Footsteps www.acclaimpress.com Your Next Great Book of Lewis and Clark”

The Journal of the Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation

ADVERTISING RATES Color or B&W DISCOUNTS FULL PAGE (7.25” x 9.25”): $500 2 ads earn a 2% discount 2/3 page vertical (4.25” x 9.25”): $400 3 ads earn a 3% discount 1/2 horizontal (7.25” x 4.625”): $300 4 ads earn a 4% discount 1/3 vertical (2.25” x 9.5”): $250 5 ads earn a 5% discount 1/3 square (4.75” x 4.625”): $250 Advertiser must place a minimum of at least 2 ads within 12 1/6 vertical (2.25” x 4.625”): $100 months in the same calendar year or at least 2 consecutive Inside back cover (7.5” x 9.5”): $500 ads if the ads fall in different calendar years. Payment must Inside front cover (7.5” x 9.5”): $500 be received 30 days in advance of the ad deadline for the Outside back cover (7.5” x 9.5”) $450 first scheduled ad. Multiple ads must be paid for 30 days in Double spread, inside (14.5”x 9.25”): $800 advance of the deadline for the first advertisement. Payment must be in cash, check, or money order. Ads are required to be submitted either as a minimum 300-dpi jpeg or as a high-resolution pdf with embedded images and fonts. FOUNDATION MEMBER DISCOUNT: 15% RESERVATION DEADLINES For example, a Foundation member who runs ads in the May, Reservation Artwork August, and November issues of WPO would receive an 18% Issue Due Date Due Date discount on the total bill if paid by cash, check, money order, or February (Spring) November 15 January 1 credit card through our website—www.lewisandclark.org—by May (Summer) February 20 April 1 selecting “Join” or “Donate.” August (Fall) May 15 July 1 Direct all advertising correspondence, including ad reservations, November (Winter) August 25 October 1 to [email protected] or call 406-741-5860.

November 2017 D We Proceeded On 5 Lewis and Clark Roundup Joe Mussulman November 20, 1928-September 10, 2017 by Clay S. Jenkinson

I join so many others in sadness that ing research, and he now knew more go wherever you fancy, I’d say. And Joe Mussulman has died. I loved Joe. about the subject than anyone alive. when I arrived at his apartment, and He was one of the finest, funniest, He hummed the tunes, a dozen or finally managed to talk him out of his gentlest, and wittiest individuals I have more of them, blew deafeningly into work chair and into my car, he’d say, ever met, not to mention exceedingly a “sounden horn” like one of the four “Let’s go to Perkins. Good menu, nice well-educated, well-read, and capable the expedition carried, and told all the servers.” “Perkins?” I’d reply. “Joe, I’m of researches that would have choked jokes he had found in early nineteenth happy to take you to absolutely any Thomas Jefferson or Reuben Gold century magazines and books of jests. restaurant you desire in this fine uni- Thwaites or Bernard DeVoto. versity town: sushi, Vietnamese, Thai, Joe was a musician, musicologist, French, a steakhouse, seafood, Nige- actor, scholar, biographer, antiquar- rian, you name it. I’m on an expense ian, and man of the wilderness. After account (I lied).” a distinguished career as a professor of Joe: “Yeah, I said Perkins.” music at the University of Montana, After my fifth visit, I just picked him Joe embarked on a retirement career up and drove on autopilot to Perkins, as a Lewis and Clark scholar-editor. where, as always, he studied the giant In 1998 he created the finest and most laminated menu as if it were the Kab- often consulted Lewis and Clark web- balah and then ordered a cheeseburger site—Discovering Lewis and Clark. He and fries. On one occasion I was there had an exquisite sense of humor. He with my friend David Borlaug, an was, as often as not, self-amused, cer- established gourmand, and even he tainly self-effacing. He was a master of was reduced to a Philly cheese steak. puns. He wore giant glasses, goggles Joe always reminded me of one of almost, which made him look a bit like those tremendous seventeenth century the Chicago Cubs’ announcer Harry (By the way, I know how many horns antiquarians—John Aubrey, William Caray. they purchased because I just looked it Camden, or Robert Cotton. He was For an NPR documentary series up at Discovering Lewis and Clark). The never content to accept the received called The Unfinished Journey, I ven- jokes were so lame, so authentically wisdom on any subject, even from tured to Missoula to interview Joe. unfunny by contemporary standards, those he revered, like Gary Moulton, This was 2004 or so, the first time I that you laughed in spite of yourself, James Ronda, or John Logan Allen. actually met him. It was for the episode in large part because Joe delivered He knew the larger trajectories of the about the “Social Dynamics of the them as if he were the funniest standup Lewis and Clark story so thoroughly Expedition,” and his subject was the comedian alive. From time to time that he didn’t care to bother with that music they likely danced to out under he’d look up from his notes and say, anymore. But ask him what Lewis the stars in the course of the journey, “I’ll be here all week,” or “Be sure to meant by “imps of Saturn” or “sublu- and the kinds of jokes, boasts, jests, tip your waiter.” nary world” or how Traveler’s Rest got and exchanges of wit that we might Whenever I found myself near Mis- its name or Lemhi Pass or Lolo Trail, have heard had we been helicoptered soula I emailed Joe to invite him to and he was off and running. He spent into their camps. As usual, Joe had go to dinner with me. You name the nine months differentiating a cer- done extremely careful and painstak- place, I’m buying, sky’s the limit, let’s tain kind of flea from a certain kind of

6 We Proceeded On E Volume 43, Number 4 tick, assuring me that to get this wrong a.m., assuming that we would be back inspect what appeared to me to be a would be the source of almost endless in town by noon or shortly thereafter, standard garden variety prickly pear. confusion to anyone who really cares and that the elusive cactus in question Eventually we found the elusive speci- about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. was within a few dozen miles of town. men he sought, took a hundred photos, Even in the last months of his life, Whereto, I asked. He said, “Well, which involved a good deal of damage when he was sure he was approaching just start by driving to Dillon, and I’ll to our hands and feet, and called it a death, Joe would give me a list of five direct you from there.” Oh, my. day. Well, half a day, because of course new articles he was researching, and Dillon. Dillon was 171 miles from now we had to drive all the way back 49 that he needed to revise, “Because I Missoula, and that was nothing more to Missoula. wrote them,” he’d say, “before I knew than our portal into the landscape he We finally got back to town about a darn thing about this story.” wished to explore. We drove to Dillon. ten-thirty p.m. Joe was lost in total sat- Once, a few years ago, when I was Then Lima. Then up Red Rock River isfaction, and made it clear that I must spending a few days in western Mon- towards the Montana-Idaho border. lack “the right stuff” if I found that tana, I asked Joe if he needed anything. We finally reached a feeble wooden wee journey exhausting (and possibly He said yes there was a certain cactus bridge just below Upper Red Rock pointless). (the brittle prickly pear) that he wanted Lake, some six hours from Missoula, I last saw him two months ago as to get photographs of for the website, and still no brittle cactus in sight. I I came off a week on the Lolo Trail. not to be confused with the more com- began to worry about running out of He was certain his end was near, but mon prickly pear, and would I be will- gas. Joe barked out orders, rebuked cheerful and resolute as ever, and full ing to drive him to the site. Of course me for steering with my knee, repeat- of ideas for new entries in his master- I would. Shouldn’t take too long, Joe edly demanded that I stop on a dime, work, Discovering Lewis and Clark. He said. So I picked him up at about nine and four or five times leaped out to ordered a cheeseburger and fries. ❚ Donor Roll In Honor of Bob Gatten, Jr In Memory of Agnes Brooks of Greensboro, NC: Don & Cherie Peterson of Great Falls, MT William H. Weiland of Houston, TX Larry and Callie Esptein of Essex, MT

In Memory of Col. Edwin R. Scholl, Jr: Arlene & Arthur Siron of North Wales, PA In Memory of Adam Goldsmith Howard Goldsmith of Sudbury, MA In Memory of Dr. Joeseph Mussulman of Missoula, MT Larry Epstein of Essex, MT In Memory of Tom Black of Ovando, MT Barbara and Rennie Kubik of Vancouver, WA Zach Zachowski and Barbara Gabel Steve Lee of Clarkston, WA of Napa, CA Philippa Newfield & Phillip Gordon Steve and Sara Gabel of Golden Valley, MN of San Francisco, CA

Photograph of Trapper Peak, Bitterroot Mountains, Montana, courtesy of Steve Lee.

November 2017 D We Proceeded On 7 William Clark’s Impossible Task The Sentimental Imperialist and the War of 1812 By Jay Buckley

William Clark stood silently, reflecting upon his first meeting with Brulé Chief Black Bull playing, an American flag flying, and a gun salute and firing Buffalo (Untongarabar) over a decade previous, on Septem- of the cannon. Omaha chief Big Elk (Ongpatonga) offered ber 24, 1804, at the Lakota village near the mouth of the Bad part of Black Buffalo’s eulogy. “Do not grieve. Misfortunes River in present-day South Dakota. For three days Black will happen to the wisest and best men. Death will come, and Buffalo, the Partisan, and Buffalo Medicine parlayed with always comes out of season. It is the command of the Great Lewis and Clark. On September 28, as the expedition pre- Spirit, and all nations and people must obey.” He contin- pared to leave, a few Lakota warriors became so heated that ued, “Be not discouraged or displeased then, that in visiting Clark had actually drawn his sword. Fortunately, Black Buf- your father here [the American commissioner Clark], you falo’s presence prevented bloodshed. He even accompanied have lost your chief.”2 A few days later on July 19, the Teton Lewis and Clark upstream, perhaps as a hostage, in order to Lakotas, the Sioux of the Lakes, the Sioux of St. Peters, and discourage the Lakotas from trying to prevent the Corps of the Yankton Sioux all signed treaties of peace and amity with Discovery from proceeding on.1 the United States of America. William Clark conducted and Now, on July 14, 1815, Clark, along with Ninian Edwards, signed all of those peace treaties that brought an end to the Auguste Chouteau, and a large gathering of Lakotas (Teton War of 1812 on the American frontier. Sioux), Nakotas (Yanktons), and Dakotas (Santees) gazed Largely a forgotten conflict in American memory, Amer- intently as Lakota warriors lowered Black Buffalo’s body icans barely noticed the War of 1812’s two-hundred-year into a grave at Portage des Sioux, a peninsula of land situated commemoration. Unlike the American Revolution, which between the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi riv- was fought over concepts like freedom, independence, and ers. Black Bull Buffalo received a full military funeral com- representative government, or the Civil War, which was plete with a grand procession, military band and drum corps fought over issues of federalism (states’ rights) and free-

8 We Proceeded On E Volume 43, Number 4 Impossible Task

Encounter with the Teton Sioux, September 25, 1804 by James Ayers, oil on canvas, 24in x 40in

dom (slavery), the causes behind the War of 1812 are nei- ther ideologically based, nor are they easily discernible. The causes—British naval impressment of American citizens, American neutrality during the Napoleonic Wars, native nations’ relations with England and the US on the Ameri- can frontier, and the possible US acquisition of new territory (Canada and Florida)—do not have the same cachet as free- dom and independence. Nevertheless, the war was an event of immense importance in that it represented a second war for independence for the United States, shaped future gen- erations of relations with Native Americans, and redefined a continent.3 After the US Senate voted 19–13 in favor on June 17, 1812, President James Madison commenced the war with a stroke of his pen, signing the congressional declaration of war into law on June 18. Many Americans must have felt like they were tempting fate. The original thirteen colo- nies had been blessed by what they regarded as divine provi- dence and by extreme luck during the American Revolution. Now the seventeen states comprising the United States of Photo by the author. Black Buffalo’s Grave, Portage des Sioux.

November 2017 D We Proceeded On 9 William Clark’s Impossible Task

America once again declared war on Great Britain, the most Mountains for the purpose of finding a commercial route powerful nation on earth. By whatever measure—finance, to the Pacific. Lewis and Clark notified native nations industry, international trade, military might, naval power— of America’s suzerainty, acknowledging native nations’ Great Britain represented the economic, political, and mil- internal autonomy in exchange for recognition of Ameri- itary titan of the world. For two-and-a-half years the war ca’s over-arching sovereignty and trading opportunities.6 raged. By war’s end, some 25,000 American, British, Cana- They distributed peace medals—tokens of sovereignty that dian, and Native American casualties resulted from the inde- displayed a portrait of President Thomas Jefferson on one cisive stalemate.4 side and the words “Peace and Friendship” on the other—to Today’s Americans may remember hearing something influential chiefs.7 about Captain Oliver Hazard Perry’s naval victory on Lake The federal government’s official Indian policy of fos- Erie, the victorious Battle of Plattsburgh on Lake Cham- tering “peace and friendship” through commerce was im- plain, the courageous defense of Fort McHenry (and the plemented via the US factory system. Theoretically, these Star-Spangled Banner), or Andrew Jackson’s victory at New frontier posts sold or traded manufactured goods for furs Orleans. All of these events occurred on the northern, east- and skins hunted and trapped by native customers. In reality, ern, and southern borders of the United States. Not many the extension of credit soon indebted native peoples. One would be able to discuss the implications of the war on the method to erase debt was to cede land. Jefferson articulated trans-Appalachian frontier, however, nor would they recall this concept in a letter to Governor William Harrison on the subsequent peace treaties with Indian nations signed at February 27, 1803: Portage des Sioux in 1815 and at Clark’s Indian office in St. When they withdraw themselves to the culture of a small Louis over the next few years, many months after the Treaty piece of land, they will perceive how useless to them are of Ghent had formally ended the war. An understanding of their extensive forests, and will be willing to pare them the war on the western flank is necessary to comprehend the off from time to time in exchange for necessaries for their implications for native nations and the expansion of America. farms and families. To promote this disposition to ex- change lands, which they have to spare and we want, for Historical Context necessaries, which we have to spare and they want, we shall push our trading houses, and be glad to see the good and Indian nations living west of the Appalachian Moun- influential individuals among them run in debt, because we tains experienced increased settler colonialism pressure and observe that when these debts get beyond what the indi- conflict during and after the French and Indian War (1754- viduals can pay, they become willing to lop them off by a 1763). Odawa war chief Pontiac (Ottawa) formed a pan-In- cession of lands…. In this way our settlements will gradu- dian resistance effort in the Great Lakes region against Brit- ally circumscribe and approach the Indians, and they will ish expansion, but the effort ultimately failed. Then, during, in time either incorporate with us as citizens of the US, or and after the American Revolution, tribes facing east from remove beyond the Mississippi.8 Indian Country joined the British side in an unsuccessful Governor Harrison followed Jefferson’s advice and de- attempt to temper American expansion. In the 1790s, Little manded a huge land cession from representatives of the Sauk Turtle (Miami) and Blue Jacket (Shawnee) formed anoth- (Sac) and Mesquakies (Foxes) nations in a controversial 1804 er Indian confederacy in the Ohio Country to try to keep treaty conducted in Saint Louis that the tribes repeatedly Americans south of the Ohio River. In 1803, the United refused to acknowledge or accept as valid.9 From Harrison’s States purchased the “Doctrine of Discovery” title to the perspective, the United States had acquired southern Wis- Louisiana territory from France. The United States now felt consin, western Illinois, and part of northeastern Missou- justified to extend her sovereignty over the region, but ran ri through this fifteen-million-acre cession. In 1805 Gen- up against native peoples who sought to defend their full eral James Wilkinson constructed the Fort Belle Fontaine sovereignty to the land and not just the “right of occupancy” (Bellefontaine) factory on the south bank of the Missouri, assumed under the European discovery doctrine.5 four miles from its confluence with the Mississippi (some fif- The US government authorized Meriwether Lewis and teen miles from St. Louis) and across from the narrow pen- William Clark to explore the Missouri River from its con- insula known as Portage des Sioux. This was the first Amer- fluence with the Mississippi to its headwaters in the Rocky ican fort west of the Mississippi. It served as a government

10 We Proceeded On E Volume 43, Number 4 trading house and military outpost. Its erection advanced the Fire Prairie, Clark drafted his first federal treaty. Over- the US government’s aims to regulate private traders, count- anxious to demonstrate his abilities as an Indian agent, Clark er foreign (British) designs in upper Louisiana, and provide pressed chiefs White Hair (Paw-Hiu-Skah or Pawhuska) credit, gifts, and goodwill to Indian delegations venturing to and Walking Rain (Nichenmanee) and the Osage nation to Washington.10 agree to his terms. The Osage leaders welcomed American Following the return of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, promises of protection against their enemies, especially the the secretary of war appointed William Clark brigadier gen- Sac and Fox, and looked forward to a trading post on the eral of the militia and federal Indian agent for all western Missouri. They may have also thought they were exchang- tribes, excluding the Osages, who had already been assigned ing only their rights to hunt on the land east of Fort Osage, to agent Pierre Chouteau. Having explored the Louisiana which had settlements of Quapaws, Cherokees, and French Purchase (and beyond), Clark was now given by President settlers anyway. Clark took advantage of the situation to Jefferson the unenviable role of simultaneously protecting wrest from the Osages all of their land claims east of a line Indian rights and interests through trade while overseeing extending south from Fort Osage to the Arkansas River (half and advancing the dispossession of native peoples’ “right of of present-day Missouri and Arkansas) and south of a line occupancy” to the Louisiana Territory through land cession between Fort Osage and Fort Madison. Clark’s thinly veiled treaties.11 threats to punish them for past depredations were offset by Initially, Clark used Fort Belle Fontaine as his supply his declarations that the United States wished peaceful trade headquarters for the Indian trade, and the gifts he presented and friendship with the Osages, and his promise “to protect to Indian delegations came from its storehouses. The fort was all orderly friendly & well-disposed Indians . . . who will poorly located for the Indian trade, however, and upon hear- Strictly attend to and preserve the counsels of the President ing Clark’s recommendations, the War Department agreed to of the U. States through his Agents.” Clark helped to dispos- close the Belle Fontaine factory and construct two new trad- sess the Osages of fifty thousand square miles of land for ten ing houses, Fort Osage and Fort Madison, to better serve the cents per square mile--land that the government could turn Indians along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. President around and sell for $1.25 to $2.50 an acre.15 Jefferson expected the factories on the Missouri and Missis- When some of the tall, proud Osage warriors not present sippi would “have more effect than as many armies.” Open- at the initial treaty protested its terms, Governor Meriweth- ing commerce with the Indians would supposedly enable the er Lewis asked Pierre Chouteau to present a slightly altered tribes to become allies and help “prohibit the British from treaty to the tribe for approval, with an annual annuity pay- appearing westward of the Mississippi.”12 ment of $1,200 and $1,500 in merchandise. Chouteau con- In the summer of 1808, Clark sent Colonel Thomas vinced the tribes to sign. Clark defended his actions to Sec- Hunt to oversee the construction of Fort Madison, located retary of War Henry Dearborn: “No unfair means had been above the Mississippi’s rapids near its confluence with the taken on my part to induce the Osage to seed to the United Des Moines River, to promote goodwill among the Win- States such an extencive Country for what is conceived here nebagos, Sacs, and Foxes.13 Meanwhile, also in 1808, Clark to be so small a Compensation, when in reality their Com- oversaw the design, location, and construction of Fort Clark pensation when taken into proper view is fully adequate.”16 (Fort Osage) on the Missouri River near the mouth of the Indian agent Clark had fulfilled the objectives and desires Osage River. Located three hundred miles above the mouth of his superiors by clearing Indian title to lands cheaply, even of the Missouri and twenty-five miles east of present-day when it meant offering an unfair settlement to the tribes in- Kansas City, Fort Osage represented the westernmost of the volved. At the time, Clark boasted to his brother Jonathan twenty-eight factories and served as a government trading that he had extinguished the Osages’ right of occupancy to house and a military outpost. George Sibley served as factor, three hundred miles of Missouri “fer a verry Small Sum.”17 while the fort itself offered a commanding position one hun- Later, after years of experience as an Indian diplomat, a wis- dred feet above the river. All passing watercraft fell within er and more reflective Clark apologetically told Ethan Allen gun range.14 Hitchcock, who was serving as a temporary aide in Clark’s After summoning the Great and Little Osages—the Ni- St. Louis office, that the Osage treaty “was the hardest treaty U-Ko’n-Ska, or Children of the Middle Waters—to meet on on the Indians he ever made and that if he was to be damned

November 2017 D We Proceeded On 11 William Clark’s Impossible Task

hereafter it would be for making that treaty.”18 Perhaps Clark Madison called upon Clark to serve his nation by governing “had reason to fear a tenure in hell, because he admitted to and defending the western frontier and the Missouri Territo- complicity in political manipulations that contributed to the ry from British intrigues and native resistance.21 As the terri- exaggerated accusations of Osage ‘depredations’ to advance torial governor and ex-officio superintendent of Indian affairs, American interests.”19 Clark retained all of his former duties as Indian agent and was Indians willing to sign treaties faced opposition within additionally responsible for the Indian tribes in the Missouri their nations. Osage bands on the Arkansas, such as the one Territory (present-day Missouri, Arkansas, and parts of Okla- led by Clermont, scoffed at White Hair’s agreement, think- homa and Kansas), and all the tribes west of the Mississippi ing him an American pawn, and undermined his credibility River in the Louisiana Purchase north of the state of Louisi- among the dissidents. It was clear to them that land-hungry ana since they fell under no other territorial jurisdiction. Americans possessed an insatiable desire to divest Indians Clark’s first act was to assess the resources at his disposal. of their land and paid little attention to the legal and moral He wrote to William Morrison, the military contractor for the implications of the seizures. This opposition to land dispos- district, to determine the stock of supplies such as pork, beef, session found a powerful voice in the Shawnee leader Te- soap, candles, flour, and bacon at Portage des Sioux and at St. cumseh, who in an 1810 speech articulated a firm stance for Louis. He contacted his agents and asked for an accounting of all Indians to take against future land cessions. When there “every species of public property in your possession,” and re- were “no white man on this continent,” he began, the land quested them to compile a “report of the disposition situation “all belonged to the red men . . . placed on it by the Great & number of Indians within the bounds of your agency, stat- Spirit.” The Indians were a “happy race,” but had since been ing such as are friendly towards the United States, such as may “made miserable by the white people, who are never con- be reasonably suspected of intruding to join in the war against tented, but always encroaching.” The only way “to stop this us, and such as are actually at war with us.” Clark wanted an evil, is, for all the red men to unite in claiming a common accounting of depredations, numbers of people killed, num- and equal right in the land.” Furthermore, no tribe “has a bers of prisoners, and time and place of property taken. Final- right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers” and ly, he asked for an accounting of Indian grievances and claims, the “white people have no right to take the land from the In- both tribal and individual, against citizens of the United States dians, because they had it first; it is theirs.” Moreover, “Any so that he could take appropriate action.22 sale not made by all is not valid. . . . It requires all to make a Clark’s agents informed him that the Potawatomis, Kick- bargain for all.”20 apoos, and other tribes along the Illinois River and near the On the eve of the War of 1812, Indian resistance to An- Great Lakes had allied themselves with the British. One of glo-American expansion coalesced under the leadership of his ablest agents, Thomas Forsyth, informed him the Brit- Tecumseh and his prophet-brother Tenskwatawa. Seeking ish had given their allies a “large quantity of supplies,” and native solutions to European land encroachment, these the Indians’ periodic victories against the United States Shawnee leaders preached independence from American had made them confident that “with the assistance of the sovereignty. With covert British support, they hoped to cre- British they will be able to drive the Americans across the ate an independent Indian state bordered by the Great Lakes Ohio River.” Other tribes, including the Ottawas, Chippe- on the north and the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to the west was, Menominees, and Piankashaws, were “now at war with and south. Their pan-Indian movement gained momentum us.” 23 Forsyth delivered a sobering account of the numerous among some tribal communities, such as the Delawares, Io- murders and depredations committed by both sides during ways, Kickapoos, Miamis, Otos, Piankashaws, Potawatomis, the war. Another agent, Nicholas Boilvin, provided Clark Sacs and Foxes, Shawnees, Wabash, Weas, Winnebagos, and with an accounting of supplies on hand as well as informa- Wyandots. Fully half of these tribes fell under Clark’s super- tion about which Indians were friendly, hostile, or neutral. vision. British agents recruited Indian allies to fight against The summer of 1813 brought additional responsibilities Americans. The British, unlike the Americans, employed to Clark. President James Madison offered Clark the gover- Indian auxiliaries to great advantage. After Harrison’s norship of the Missouri Territory, with an annual salary of early defeat of Sac and Fox forces at the Battle of Tippe- $2,000. Due to hostilities emanating from the War of 1812, canoe in November 1811, Indian forces successfully raided

12 We Proceeded On E Volume 43, Number 4 frontier settlements in Illinois, Indi- ana, Iowa, and Missouri. Black Hawk, still upset over the controversial Har- rison treaty of 1804, led a group of warriors against American settlements and forts in order to advance tribal in- dependence. The animosity created a division within the nation, since a portion of the Sacs and Foxes favored peace and remained neutral, hoping to maintain access to American trade and protection.24 American settlers’ unquenchable thirst for Indian land meant that most tribes who had ced- ed lands in Ohio, Indian, Illinois, and Missouri needed little provocation to take up arms against the Americans in their war for Indian independence. British and Indian forces captured Megan Rytting and Brent Beck, BYU Cartography. forts Mackinac/Michilimackinac, William Clark’s America, 1770-1838. Dearborn, and Detroit in rapid suc- cession, and they besieged or captured forts Wayne, Har- with and approved Clark’s recommendations for the ranger rison, Kaskaskia, Meigs, and Miami. Widespread fear of patrols and chain of blockhouses, such as Fort Cooper. Fort hostilities—real and imagined—descended upon the Mis- Cooper was one of nearly two dozen defenses built across sissippi Valley settlers. Their anxiety increased when a Sac the Missouri frontier. Settlers erected some of these fron- force compelled troops to evacuate and burn Fort Madison tier defenses themselves, while troops and rangers built the in the fall of 1813. The fall of Fort Madison on the Mis- others. The structures differed in strength, with some being sissippi revealed the clear and present danger St. Louisans nothing more than fortified houses while others contained faced. The Missouri settlements lay exposed and vulnerable stockades and blockhouses. Most were log houses with a to an Indian attack, especially from Sac and Fox forces led projecting upper story with loopholes for rifle ports.26 by Black Hawk.25 Nathan Boone’s St. Charles militia patrols were replaced Clark’s civic duties as governor took a backseat to his re- by a company of the US Mounted Rangers led by Captain sponsibility to protect both Missourians and Indians. The Daniel Morgan Boone. Both were sons of the famous fron- rumors of war resulted in great uncertainty and anxiety. tiersman Daniel Boone, who was then residing on Femme Clark called upon outlying communities to prepare to de- Osage Creek, twenty miles southwest of St. Charles. Reg- fend themselves from attack. As commander-in-chief and ular patrols by a company of rangers traveling back and with a breveted rank of brigadier general of militia, Clark’s forth between Fort Osage and Fort Madison occupied them next priority involved building blockhouses for defense and episodically, and Missourians occasionally fled to the forts enlisting rangers to run patrols between them. Squatters for protection when threats escalated. Although the posts who ignored government proclamations, settled wherever and the patrols probably did not impress the Indians much, they pleased, and then demanded protection from the In- they at least gave local residents a sense of security and some dians whose land they had invaded, exacerbated Clark’s dif- peace of mind. These local units provided an important ser- ficulties in preventing conflict. Moreover, he was expected vice, since the government had only 241 regular troops sta- to carry out his duties with little direction from the federal tioned west of the Mississippi.27 government, which had its hands full in the East. Clark did To make matters worse, the government felt that Clark’s what he could. Fortunately, Secretary of War Eustis agreed militia and rangers would be sufficient to protect the frontier,

November 2017 D We Proceeded On 13 William Clark’s Impossible Task

so orders were given for General Benjamin Howard and the on American soil south of Canada so long as they promised First Infantry stationed in the West to evacuate to support to obey American laws. With enforcement minimal to nonex- the northern and eastern fronts.28 Clark sent his pregnant istent, the British fanned Indians’ fears that Americans’ land wife, Julia, and their two sons Meriwether Lewis and Wil- hunger could never be satiated and would result in the dis- liam Preston Clark to Fincastle, Virginia, for safety and the possession of Indian nations from their ancestral lands. Some eventual birth of their daughter Mary Margaret. About two Britons, including Robert Dickson, encouraged all Indians months after Mary’s birth, Julia expressed concern about her between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River to join to- husband, commenting in a letter, “I am afraid we shall have gether in resisting the American advance on the frontier. The some trouble in the spring with the Indians as the rangers’ British advantage in these areas allowed them to gain many (who now protect the frontier) time will expire in May and Indian proponents.33 instead of more troops being sent on to protect us it is hour- Uncertainty, rumors, and false reports caused more anx- ly expected that the first regiment will be ordered from this iety than actual skirmishes. Clark focused his attention and place to Canada. God only knows what our fate is to be.”29 meager resources closer to home, where the chances for suc- In addition to the blockhouses and patrols, Clark anticipated cess loomed brighter. With the American military presence that he might punish Indians who had been plundering trad- severely diminished in the West and with British sympathiz- ers on the Mississippi and squelch any attack planned on the ers and fur traders dominating Green Bay and Prairie du Mississippi by capturing and occupying the strategic loca- Chien, Clark sought to remedy the increased vulnerability tion of Prairie du Chien, located adjacent to the confluence of Missouri Territory, brought about by the abandonment of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers.30 Robert Dickson’s of Fort Madison, by taking matters into his own hands. At Indian alliance of warriors from the Sioux, Winnebagos, stake were alliances with the Sioux, Sacs, Foxes, Kickapoos, Menominees, Chippewas, Sacs, and Foxes had gathered at and Winnebagos, control of the fur trade centers at Green Prairie du Chien. They had plundered or burned all the Bay and Prairie du Chien, and navigation of the upper Mis- American property they could find there and at other trad- sissippi. Americans were not content to let control of the up- ing locations along the Mississippi. Nathaniel Pryor of the per Mississippi go unchallenged. Governor Ninian Edwards Lewis and Clark Expedition had built a trading post near the of Illinois and General Benjamin Howard sent rangers into Winnebago nation near present-day Galena, Illinois. Clark the upper Illinois country to punish the Indians responsible assigned Alexander Willard (also from the expedition) to for an attack on Portage des Sioux. Tragically, differentiating carry military dispatches from St. Louis to Prairie du Chien, between the guilty and the innocent, especially during times as well as to warn Pryor of the outbreak of the war. A party of war, proved impossible. The rangers rampaged through of Winnebago warriors fired upon Willard’s party and an Indian villages, destroying them, and erected a fortification “American Family of women & children was killed on the on the right bank of the Illinois River at Peoria. This fort, bank of the Mississippii, a fiew minits before the Express called Fort Clark after William Clark’s older brother George passed the house.”31 Native forces also closed down nearly Rogers Clark, helped protect the Illinois frontier and bring all of the lead mines along the upper Mississippi, resulting in some peace of mind to St. Louis during the winter of 1813.34 shortages of and inflated prices on crude lead.32 After the winter of 1813, Clark tried once again to estab- Nobody, in fact, really knew whether Indians or whites lish peace with the Sacs and Foxes. During the summer, he held the upper hand. During the war, neither side controlled sent Nicholas Boilvin and John Johnson to invite the Indians the frontier. Isolated attacks and retaliatory raids simultane- to a council at St. Louis. Howard intercepted several of the ously enraged and struck terror in tribal villages and frontier bands headed downstream and told them to wait for Clark settlements alike. Clark generally blamed the British for as- at Portage des Sioux. Clark succeeded in persuading the sisting and strengthening anti-American Indian forces. These friendly portion of the tribes to relocate to northern Mis- Anglo-Indian alliances were based, in large measure, on the souri, where Johnson opened up a factory nearby for their industrial and commercial superiority of the British, who sup- use on Moniteau Creek in Howard County. Although many plied more and better goods at British-occupied trading de- chose to return to the Rock Island country adjacent to the pots than their American counterparts could offer elsewhere. Mississippi in central Illinois, a few remained. The summer Since Jay’s Treaty in 1795, British traders had operated freely of 1814, however, proved that Clark’s efforts to achieve peace

14 We Proceeded On E Volume 43, Number 4 with the Sacs had not been successful. Hostilities that year claimed as many vic- tims in Missouri Territory as in the previous two years combined. Sac warriors attacked Johnson’s facto- ry on Moniteau Creek. Half a dozen settlers were murdered in or near their cabins, and the bodies of white men who had been stabbed, tomahawked, and scalped floated down the Missouri. Cries for revenge escalated to new heights. The Missouri Gazette

emphatically stated, “The Courtesy Michael Haynes BLOOD of our citizens Andrew Jackson returning to Tennessee after the Battle of New Orleans by Michael Haynes. cry aloud for VEN- GEANCE. The general cry is let the north as well as the into hostile territory.37 south be JACKSONIZED.”35 Governor Clark knew that he could reestablish an Amer- With General Howard and the First Infantry in the East, ican presence on the upper Mississippi by retaking Prairie citizens implored Clark to do something. The War Depart- du Chien. Although he believed that a garrison near Green ment had deprived territorial executives of their military Bay, at the mouth of the Fox River, would do more than authority in 1814, and Missouri fell under the jurisdiction of a garrison at Prairie du Chien to prevent Canadians from the Eighth Military District. Governor Clark was officially trading along the Mississippi, he also realized that the encouraged to let the army handle the territory’s military af- capture of Prairie du Chien would “produce ‘valuable ef- fairs. Tired of waiting for some action to be taken and wishing fects’ on the minds of the Indians.” He had been pressing for to convince Missourians that he had their protection foremost permission for such an expedition for the past two years. He in his mind, however, Clark prepared to invade the British also regarded the seizure of Prairie du Chien as “indispens- stronghold on the upper Mississippi. Acting on his own able to hold the British Traders in check.”38 With the rang- instincts and experience, Clark saw the necessity of establish- ers’ enlistments expiring that spring, the governor recruited ing a strong fort at the strategic location of Prairie du Chien, 150 volunteers for two months of service. On May 1, 1814, located at the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississip- Clark and Major Zachary Taylor led a force of 50 regulars pi rivers. This private venture, like the exploits of George and 140 militiamen up the Mississippi, meeting only minor Rogers Clark a few decades earlier, could have ruined Clark resistance from the Sacs at the Rock Island rapids (between and personally cost him thousands of dollars if the govern- modern Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illinois). Clark ment had chosen not to honor his drafts. Unable to wait for proceeded on to Prairie du Chien, turned his guns on the direction or approval from the secretary of war, Clark mobi- British post and captured it without firing a shot when Brit- lized two gunboats to proceed up the Mississippi.36 One of ish captain Francis Dease surrendered. On June 2, Gover- them, the Governor Clark, sported fourteen swivel cannon, nor Clark left Lieutenant Joseph Perkins and sixty-five men was propelled by thirty-two oars, and had planking thick to build Fort Shelby, named after Kentucky governor Isaac enough to stop musket balls. The construction of the gun- Shelby. Clark designed it to have two blockhouses armed boats demonstrated Clark’s military acumen when it came to with cannons. He also left the Governor Clark with its eighty- solving the problem of safely transporting men and supplies man crew. Clark returned to St. Louis hopeful that the tide

November 2017 D We Proceeded On 15 William Clark’s Impossible Task

of the war had turned. The city held a ball in his honor at The Treaties Ending the War of 1812 the Missouri Hotel, and eloquent patriotic toasts calling Fortunately, good news reached St. Louis in the spring of him “the shield of the territory” were offered. TheMissouri 1815. British and American diplomats had reached a “Treaty Gazette concluded that the campaign was well-conducted of Peace and Amity between His Britannic Majesty and the and was “more important to these territories than any hith- United States of America” at Ghent, Belgium, on Christ- erto undertaken.”39 mas Eve of 1814. The US Congress ratified the treaty on The whole Prairie du Chien enterprise cost $30,000. If February 17, 1815, formally ending the war.42 Article 9 of the government had not honored Clark’s drafts, it would the Treaty of Ghent stated: “The United States of America have ruined him, much as it had his brother George Rogers engage to put an end immediately after the Ratification of Clark in a similar scenario during the American Revolution. the present Treaty to hostilities with all the Tribes or Na- Nonetheless, Clark’s successful retaking of Prairie du Chien tions of Indians with whom they may be at war at the time was short-lived. The decision to establish a garrison six hun- of such Ratification, and forthwith to restore to such Tribes dred miles deep into hostile territory had been wishful think- or Nations respectively all the possessions, rights, and priv- ing in the first place. Promised reinforcements were never ileges which they may have enjoyed or been entitled to in sent by the war department. General Howard thought Clark one thousand eight hundred and eleven previous to such a poor military commander, but William Henry Harrison hostilities. Provided always that such Tribes or Nations shall insisted, “I do not hesitate to say that in the kind of warfare agree to desist from all hostilities against the United States in which we are engaged I had rather have him [Clark] with of America, their Citizens, and Subjects upon the Ratifica- 40 me than any other man in the United States.” Meanwhile, tion of the present Treaty being notified to such Tribes or Colonel Robert McDouall, the British official at Fort Mack- Nations, and shall so desist accordingly.”43 In some ways, inac, sent Captain William McKay and a large British and the frontier situation appeared more helpless than before. Indian force of 650 men some 400 miles to recapture Prairie Article 9 of the Treaty of Ghent called for the termination du Chien. The counterattack caught Perkins and his men of hostilities and the restoration of the rights, privileges, by surprise in the unfinished and indefensible Fort Shelby. and possessions that the Indians had held in 1811.44 In other The British fired upon theGovernor Clark, cutting its tow- words, the western interests of the United States were not line and sending it floating haphazardly downstream. Per- well served by the Treaty of Ghent. kins held out for a while but eventually surrendered the fort The treaty signed in Belgium did not end hostilities on (renamed Fort McKay by the British) and weaponry on July the Missouri frontier, however, particularly since the hostile 20, 1814, in exchange for safe passage by boat to St. Louis. bands of Sacs, Foxes, and Kickapoos led by the Indian patri- Downstream, Major John Campbell learned that Fort Shel- ot Black Hawk still roamed the countryside around the Rock by was under attack and headed upstream, only to have his River. Many white Missourians felt that the Indians should 120 regular troops and rangers pinned down by Black Hawk be militarily conquered and compelled to negotiate peace, and 400 Sac, Fox, and Kickapoo warriors at the Rock Island but the treaty prevented the Missouri Militia and rangers rapids on July 21. The timely arrival of the Governor Clark from striking back. St. Louis merchant Christian Wilt con- from Prairie du Chien ended the skirmish, and Campbell and cluded, “I am really apprehensive of a long & bloody war, his men retired to St. Louis to regroup. A relief expedition of which can only be averted by a rise en masse of the Americans 350 men and eight gunboats under the command of Major & driving the British out of North America & slaying every Zachary Taylor was surprised by a force of well-armed Ca- Indian from here to the Rocky Mountains.”45 nadians and four hundred warriors at the Rock River rapids. During the six months between the Treaty of Ghent and Their attack prevented other American attempts to proceed the negotiations at Portage des Sioux, some of the bloodiest upriver in the fall, and effectively returned the area to Indian attacks of the entire war occurred. Indians achieved victories and British control for the duration of the war.41 More bad along the river at towns such as Côte san Dessein, Loutre news arrived when General Howard died in mid-September Island, Cap au Gris, and Femme Osage, as well as in the and several strategic forts were evacuated. As winter set in, Boone’s Lick region.46 With no federal troops to protect the Missourians braced for the possibility of renewed hostilities region and upward of 10,000 Indians on the Missouri and in the spring. Mississippi rivers capable of war, Clark felt that he had to do

16 We Proceeded On E Volume 43, Number 4 something, so he reorganized the militia with a stricter en- Chouteau as peace commissioners to various Indian nations forcement of drafts. Clark felt troubled because funds to pay along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.51 The commission- the rangers and militia had not yet been allocated, making ers notified the people of Missouri and Illinois about their the drafts more resented than ever. With all of these prob- appointments and encouraged citizens to refrain from hos- lems, peace negotiations took on added importance.47 tile acts toward Indians that might hurt the commissioners’ Clark employed three major initiatives in 1815 to ad- success at negotiating peace. Citizens complained that Indian vance peace and progress. First, on March 9, 1815, he de- depredations had to be punished, and they expected Clark to clared the lands ceded by the Great and Little Osages in the do something about it.52 Clark and his fellow commissioners 1808 Treaty at Fort Clark (Osage) “annexed to, and made followed the counsel of Secretary of War James Monroe that a part of the country of St. Charles for all purposes of civil they were not to seek trade or land concessions; they were government whatsoever; the proprietary as well as sovereign to “confine this treaty to the sole object of peace.” Monroe rights to same having been regularly acquired by the United dispatched $20,000 worth of excellent-quality goods to make States, by the treaty above mentioned.”48 negotiations more palatable to the tribes. Later, both parties Then, Governor Clark tried to strengthen ties with In- could arrange other mutually beneficial treaties.53 dian allies and fulfill his duties as governor to keep white Treaty-making involved attention to numerous details. settlers from intruding on Indian lands. He issued a proc- The treaties were confined solely to reestablishing peace lamation that unauthorized settlement of white persons on and reaffirming previous treaties. A majority of each tribe Indian lands was “in violation of laws and disregard of the had to give their consent to the proposed actions of the trea- executive authority of the territory” and it “can no longer ty. Finally, Congress had to ratify the treaty in order for it be permitted.” Thus, while many Missouri constituents to be regarded as legal and binding. Preparations for trea- clamored for support against Indian depredations, real and ty-making necessitated deciding on a time and place, no- imagined, Clark tried his best to uphold the law, opposing tifying the tribes involved, and, when possible, conducting squatters who illegally occupied Indian lands. But who could the negotiations in Indian country. Once these preparations Clark employ to enforce the law? The territorial militia over were under way, laborers were sent to build a council house, which he presided included many persons who stood to gain arbor, kitchen, bakery, and sleeping quarters for the partic- the most from illegally squatting on Indian land. Although ipants. Adequate provisions and wages for the commission- the militia generally mustered out quickly to defend the ers, secretary, agents, subagents, interpreters, workers, and frontier against Indian attack, they were reluctant to con- principal chiefs and warriors had to be acquired, and con- vene in order to reprimand their own ranks. Clark’s efforts tracts had to be signed to transport the goods to the council to balance the demands of Indians, settlers, and the federal location. Numerous presents, such as tobacco, pipes, paint, government proved an impossible task.49 Moreover, by 1815 medals, and even ammunition, had to be delivered to the the Missouri population has swelled to 25,000 people, an site, along with provisions of beef, salt pork, flour, corn, and increase of nearly five thousand in the five years since the salt, which would be distributed regularly to the tribes to 1810 census. These settlers elected representatives to the supply their wants and secure the influence and cooperation territorial assembly who supported squatters’ claims and un- of the principal chiefs. Once the talks had taken place—with dermined Clark’s attempts to protect Indian rights of occu- interpreters to relay each provision with precision—the pancy. For the next five years, political opponents charged commissioners sought as many Indian signatures as possi- Clark with being too friendly with the Indians. It took con- ble. It was especially important to court the young men so siderable courage for Clark to take such an unpopular stand, that they became active participants in the process and had a sacrificing personal popularity, power, and monetary gain to stake in the outcome.54 support Indian land rights.50 Notifying all of the tribes was particularly challenging. The third and most important measure involved Clark’s Clark used Indian agents such as Thomas Forsyth and Man- appointment as a federal diplomat to bring frontier hostilities uel Lisa, army personnel such as Terry Berry and George H. to a close. On April 15, 1815, President Madison appointed Kennerly, and traders such as Frenchmen Pierre Turcotte Governor Clark of the Missouri Territory, Governor Ninian and Edward LaGuthrie to dispatch invitations and talks Edwards of the Illinois Territory, and Indian agent Auguste to 37 Indian nations to inform them that peace had been

November 2017 D We Proceeded On 17 William Clark’s Impossible Task

established between England and the United States and to Squaws.” The general believed that the British evacuation of invite them to the peace talks. These men, in turn, spread Prairie du Chien had strengthened the American cause and the message farther by sending it on with Indian emissar- cautiously attested that it was “not unlikely all [Indians] may ies they contacted. Predictably, most tribes did not respond Subscribe to such a treaty as we wish, yet I do not believe we quickly or express much enthusiasm about attending the shall have peace long with them, or that those Indians will peace council at Portage des Sioux, although Manuel Lisa ever respect us as a Nation, untill they are well chastised.”59 succeeded in improving the dispositions of the Sioux, Oma- The following months at Portage des Sioux were busy has, and Pawnees and gathered delegations from among ones. The counseling and treaty-making with at least 19 dif- those tribes for the treaty.55 ferent tribes took the entire summer and fall to complete. While these tribes and others treated the invitation with Some Indians began arriving after July 1. Abandoned by the reserve, others, including the Kickapoos and Sacs and Fox- British, these tribal representatives bravely faced the gun- es, expressed open hostility. A recalcitrant Sac and Fox band boats and endured the presence of US army troops. Cut living near the Rock River murdered one of Berry’s peace en- off from British suppliers, with game diminishing rapidly voys. The commissioners also had to convince frontiersmen and the trickle of white settlers turning into a small stream, to maintain the peace. Many of them wanted to exact revenge many Indians saw the necessity of signing peace treaties to for their losses of life, property, and livestock during the war, put an end to the conflict and to resume their lives. Gover- but they had been denied retaliation by the provisions of the nor Clark sent runners to bring in those not yet present and Treaty of Ghent and the pleas of the commissioners.56 opened the council on July 10.60 In order to ensure tranquility at the negotiations, the More than 2,000 Indians were encamped along the river commissioners simultaneously prepared for the best and the when the council began. Clark, presiding in his dark suit and worst, making sure the Indians’ friendship could be secured white ruffled shirt, opened with a forceful speech. He told either by gifts or by force. Government factors George C. the tribes that it was time to bury the tomahawk and put Sibley and John Johnson returned from Ohio with the pres- past transgressions aside in order to forge a lasting peace. ents. The commissioners’ secretary also requested troops He informed them of the government’s plan to build forts from Fort Bellefontaine, so General Daniel Bissell sent 275 along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. After his fellow regulars, under the command of Colonel John Miller, and commissioners delivered their messages, Clark undertook two gunboats, the Governor Clark and the Commodore Perry, the task of meeting with each tribe individually to recon- to anchor in the Missouri, near enough that their guns could cile any existing complaints and difficulties. The continuous be trained on the Indian encampments if difficulties arose.57 drum-rolling and the never-ending deputations of one trib- Portage des Sioux had been selected as the council site al delegation after another created an ostentatious display. because of its favorable location. The small French commu- Between July 18 and September 16, 1815, the commission- nity founded in 1799 along the right bank of the Mississippi ers signed 13 separate treaties asserting “perpetual peace River lay about six miles above the mouth of the Missouri and friendship” and a mutual forgiveness of all atrocities. and near the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi riv- They asked the Indians to “deliver up all the prisoners now ers. It was a relatively convenient place for tribes from the in their hands to the officer commanding at St. Louis” and upper reaches of all three rivers to assemble easily. Portage to acknowledge themselves and their tribe or nation “to be des Sioux was also near enough to Fort Bellefontaine and under the protection of the United States and no other na- St. Louis to facilitate transportation of supplies and military tion, power or sovereign whatsoever.” Nations signing in- support.58 Clark and Bissell visited Portage des Sioux on July cluded the Piankashaws, Potawatomis, Omahas, Kickapoos, 1, 1815, to find suitable places for the troops to encamp, to Osages, Sacs of Missouri, Foxes, Ioways, and Sioux groups, visit the Indian delegations that were already present, and to including the Tetons, Sioux of the Lakes, Sioux of St. Peter’s select a site for the council house. General Bissell recounted River, and Yanktons. The commissioners distributed solid the evening visit: “from what little I have noticed of the de- silver medals to the chiefs and $20,000 worth of trade goods, portment of the Indians since I arrived, I think they appear including blankets, flags, knives, rifles, fire steels, flint, pow- to attach much consequence to themselves, and hold the der, tobacco, pipes, and needles, to seal the negotiations.61 Americans in great contempt as warriors, little better than The formal language of the Portage des Sioux treaties

18 We Proceeded On E Volume 43, Number 4 does not do justice to the tense negotiations that took place 1815. These important treaties maintained Indian alliances between government officials and tribal representatives. or neutrality, helped end frontier hostilities after the con- When chiefs from the Sac, Fox, and Kickapoo tribes did not flict, and established tribal trading arrangements at nearby bother to come, Clark was vexed. He called them “miserable” government factories. When Clark had first arrived in St. because they had followed British advice in warring on Amer- Louis in 1803 to explore the Louisiana Purchase, St. Louis icans, and he said that now there was no English trader among was a sleepy little French fur trading depot hugging the Mis- them, nor would there be in the future, because the United sissippi River, and most of the European population lived States was going to build forts all along the Mississippi. Clark along the river. By the end of his terms as territorial gover- demanded that the main Sac and Fox chiefs—Lemoite and nor less than two decades later, the immigrant population Black Hawk—come in to negotiate within the next 30 days, had swelled to nearly 66,000, with American settlements or they would be considered hostile to the United States. He from Fort Osage to Boone’s Lick and across the state. From took several Sacs as hostages to ensure that the other tribal when he first took the oath of office in 1813, the number of leaders came in to counsel with him. Clark dispatched agent counties had tripled from ten to fifteen. Missourians clam- Nicholas Boilvin and an interpreter to the upper Mississippi ored for statehood, and on March 6, 1820, a law provided for for a series of councils with the bands. Boilvin was successful a constitutional convention with the election to be held in in persuading several groups of Sacs to go to the council talks, August. Clark became a candidate for governor.66 but not all of them arrived at Portage des Sioux before the In an open letter to Missouri newspapers announcing his commissioners had adjourned.62 candidacy on July 2, 1820, Clark told the people of Missouri, In the spring of 1816, a Sac deputation led by Chief Lem- “During the last seven years I have been Governor of the oite arrived. The Sacs did not approve of Clark’s treatment Territory, and the period has been one of uncommon danger of Lemoite’s tribal members. The chief was not happy that to the inhabitants, and of peculiar difficulty to the execu- his warriors had been held under arrest with the threat of tive department. Our country was engaged in war with the death if he did not appear. The Sacs were not the only ones British and their Indian allies, and this remote and isolated who were late to arrive. Between May and June of 1816, territory was exposed to a more than equal share of the com- ten tribes who had not appeared at the council the previous mon danger, and with a less than equal share of the common year signed peace treaties in St. Louis, including the Win- means for defense. It presented a frontier of many hundred nebagos, the Ottawas, and eight more bands of Sioux. Still, miles in circumference, thinly sprinkled with inhabitants Clark’s heavy-handed method of taking Indian hostages had and surrounded with Indian nations stimulated to war by created resentment among the Sacs and Foxes allied with their own love of blood and plunder and the wicked arts of the British that continued to strain relations between the British emissaries.” Clark concluded, “I flatter myself that United States and the British band of the tribe.63 this country has enjoyed comparative safety and suffered less Clark’s blunt treatment of the hostile Sacs and Foxes can than any new country has ever yet suffered during the prog- be juxtaposed with his much friendlier discussion with the ress of an Indian war.” Clark’s nephew, John O’Fallon, cam- majority of those at Portage des Sioux. The tribute shown paigning on behalf of his uncle, told the people of Missouri, by the full military burial of Lakota chief Black Buffalo and “The personal character of Governor Clark contributed to the eloquent funeral oration of Omaha chief Big Elk helped this comparative security. He is better known to the north to assuage the sorrow affiliated with his passing and fur- and Western Indians than any man in America; and known thered efforts to conclude treaties.64 Moreover, after making to them under a character which commands their fear and an example of the Sacs and Foxes, Clark conveyed to other respect, as a man courageous and skilful in war; mild and nations a clear notion of the position of tribes who refused just in peace.”67 Unfortunately for Clark, the majority of the to make peace with the Americans. He is reported to have voting population arrived after the peace treaties of Portage said, “It requires time and a little smoking with Indians, if des Sioux, and their principle interests had been acquiring you wish to have peace with them.”65 land from the land office, where they had favorable dealings Clark served as commissioner for 25 treaties during his with the other candidate, Alexander McNair. Ultimately, tenure as territorial governor, approximately half of which Clark’s friendship with Indians and his high-profile attempts were signed at the Portage des Sioux Treaty Council in to protect their lands from white encroachment eventually

November 2017 D We Proceeded On 19 William Clark’s Impossible Task cost him the state’s first gubernatorial election in 1820.68 3. I am grateful to Jerry Garrett and Mark Kelly for helping me locate and visit many of these War of 1812 sites in Missouri and Illinois. Clark generally liked Indians, and they generally liked 4. The historiography for the War of 1812 has grown significantly over the him. Over the course of his life he met hundreds of them past decade. Lorna Hainsworth, “The Corps and the War of 1812,” pro- and knew many of them very well. Although he was not al- vides information on the Corps of Discovery’s members and their involve- ment in the war (copy in author’s possession). Additional scholarly publica- ways able to help them according to their own interests, his tions include: Jeremy Black, The War of 1812 in the Age of Napoleon (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009); Donald Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, actions symbolize those of a sentimental imperialist. Clark eds., Encyclopedia of the War of 1812 (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1997; built an Indian museum behind his St. Louis home on the 2nd ed., 2004); Donald R. Hickey, The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989); Jon Latimer, 1812: War with southeast corner of Pine and Main to house his collection America (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007); of Indian curiosities, including Indian headdresses, toma- Robert Malcomson, Historical Dictionary of the War of 1812 (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006); J. C. A. Stagg, The War of 1812: Conflict for a Continent hawks, breast plates, bows and arrows, peace pipes, and so (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012); Alan Taylor, The Civil War on. His home was a crossroads of information, with govern- of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, and Indian Allies (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010). ment officials, traders, Indian delegations, and townspeople 5. Colin G. Calloway, Pen and Ink Witchcraft: Treaties and Treaty-making in constantly visiting. His five-decade public career spanned a American Indian History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013); Daniel K. Richter, Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America lifetime of public service from his enlistment as a private (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001); Colin G. Calloway, The in the Kentucky militia in 1789, a lieutenant on the Lewis American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995); Wiley Sword, and Clark expedition, to a breveted brigadier general of the President Washington’s Indian War: The Struggle for the Old Northwest, 1790– Missouri Militia during the War of 1812. In the decades fol- 1795 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985); Robert J. Miller, Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and Man- lowing the Portage des Sioux treaties, Clark conducted oth- ifest Destiny (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006); Robert J. Miller, “The Doctrine er treaties that ultimately dispossessed and removed nearly of Discovery: Manifest Destiny, and American Indians,” in Why You Can’t Teach United States History without American Indians, ed. Susan Sleeper-Smith all the Indians from the Missouri and Arkansas territories. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015): 87–100. From 1807 until his death in 1838, Clark fostered friendly 6. Gary E. Moulton, ed., The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001); Donald Jackson, Indian-white relations as Indian agent, Missouri territorial ed., Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, with Related Documents, 1783– governor, and superintendent of Indian affairs. Over those 1854, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978); James P. Ronda, Lewis and Clark among the Indians (Lincoln: University of Nebraska decades, William Clark occupied the central position in a Press, 1984). territorial government aimed at implementing federal policy. 7. Meanwhile, other expeditions explored or attempted to explore the He was the fulcrum within a triangle consisting of Indians, other major rivers of the new territory including the upper Mississippi, Platte, Arkansas, and Red rivers. Jay H. Buckley, “Jeffersonian Explorers in settlers, and the federal government, each pulling in a differ- the Trans-Mississippi West: Zebulon Pike in Perspective,” in Zebulon Pike, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, eds. Matthew L. Harris ent direction. Public lands, military affairs, and Indian affairs and Jay H. Buckley (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2012), 101–38. all fell under his jurisdiction, and although he was vested 8. Examples of Jefferson’s public and private view on this policy are Jefferson, with a great deal of discretionary power, the conflicting poli- “Address to the Wolf and People of the Mandan Nation, December 30, 1806” and Thomas Jefferson to William H. Harrison, February 27, 1803. cies relating to those three areas proved difficult to balance.❚ 9. Charles J. Kappler, ed., “Treaty with the Sauk and Foxes, 1804,” in Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, 3 vols. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1904–13), 2:74–77; Robert M. Owens, “Jeffersonian Benevolence on Jay Buckley is an associate professor of history at Brigham the Ground: The Indian Land Cession Treaties of William Henry Harrison,” Young University in Provo, Utah. Formerly the editor of WPO, Journal of the Early Republic 22 (Fall 2002): 405–35; Robert M. Owens, Mr. Jefferson’s Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian he is the author of William Clark: Indian Diplomat, and the Policy (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007); David Curtis Skaggs, co-editor of By His Own Hand?: The Mysterious Death of William Henry Harrison and the Conquest of the Ohio Country: Frontier Fighting in the War of 1812 (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014. Meriwether Lewis. He is a frequent contributor to WPO. See also Clarence E. Carter, ed., Territorial Papers of the United States, vol. 13, The Territory of Louisiana-Missouri, 1803–1806 (Washington, DC: Govern- ment Printing Office, 1948). NOTES 1. William Clark, September 25, 1804, Gary E. Moulton, ed., The Journals 10. Russell M. Magnaghi, “The Belle Fontaine Indian Factory, 1805–1808,” of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Missouri Historical Review 75 (July 1981): 396–416. For a thorough description Press, 1983-2001), 3:113. The Lakota encounter between September 24-29 of the factory, see Clark, Description of the Factory Buildings, Belle Fontaine, covers pages 107-28; James P. Ronda, Lewis and Clark among the Indians, (Lin- March 6, 1809, M-6, RG 107, National Archives. coln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984), 27-41; James P. Ronda, “Tough 11. Jay H. Buckley, William Clark: Indian Diplomat (Norman: University Times at the Bad,” We Proceeded On 28, no. 2 (May 2002): 12-21; Craig Howe, of Oklahoma press, 2008). See also Harlow Lindley, “William Clark: The “Lewis and Clark among the Tetons: Smoking Out What Really Happened,” Indian Agent,” Bulletin of the Missouri Historical Society 2 (1908–1909): 63–74, Wicazo Sa Review 19, no. 1 (2004): 47-72. and Proceedings of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, 1908–1909 (Cedar 2. Samuel G. Drake, Biography and History of the Indians of North America, 11th Rapids, IA: 1910), 2:63–75; John L. Loos, “William Clark: Indian Agent,” ed. (Boston: Benjamin B. Mussey & Co, 1851), 633. Kansas Quarterly 3 (Fall 1971): 33–37; Jerome O. Steffen,William Clark: Jef- fersonian Man on the Frontier (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977).

20 We Proceeded On E Volume 43, Number 4 12. Thomas Jefferson to Henry Dearborn, August 20, 1808, quoted in James jump over them, and no Blockhouses for Defence.” Clark to Secretary of War, Anderson, “Fort Osage: An Incident of Territorial Missouri,” Bulletin of the April 5 and 29, 1809, in Carter, ed., Territorial Papers, 14:260–66. Although it Missouri Historical Society 4 (April 1948): 174–76. had withstood countless assaults by Winnebago, Sac, and Fox war parties, it was deemed indefensible because a nearby height of land allowed besiegers to 13. An Act for the Establishing Trading Houses with the Indian Tribes, T-58, look into and fire upon the fort. The troops from the fort withdrew, setting RG 75, NA. it on fire before they floated down the Mississippi. With the loss of this fort, 14. Kate L. Gregg, ed., Westward with Dragoons: The Journal of William Clark Missouri’s northern flank was fully exposed. Donald Jackson, “Old Fort Mad- on His Expedition to Establish Fort Osage, August 25 to September 22, 1808 (Ful- ison-1808-1813,” Palimpsest 47 (1966): 1–63. John Hansman, “An Archeolog- ton, MO: Ovid Bell Press, 1937; Ann Rogers, “Clark’s Fort Osage Journal,” ical Problem at Old Fort Madison,” Plains Anthropologist 32, no. 117 (August We Proceeded On 25 (August 1999): 24–28; Andrew C. Isenberg, “The Market 1987): 217–31; “Fort Madison,” Annals of Iowa 12, no. 3 (July 1874): 236–39. Revolution in the Borderlands: George Champlin Sibley in Missouri and New 26. Clark to Eustis, February 13, 1812; Howard to Eustis, March 19, 1812, Mexico, 1808–1826,” Journal of the Early Republic 21, no. 3 (Autumn 2001): quoted in Julius W. Pratt, “Fur Trade Strategy and the American Left Flank 445–65. in the War of 1812,” Missouri Historical Review 40 (January 1935): 251. The 15. Clark to Dearborn, September 23, 1808, in Clarence E. Carter, ed., Te r- regular troops were located as follows before their removal: 134 at Fort Belle- ritorial Papers of the United States, vol. 14, The Territory of Louisiana-Missouri, fontaine, 63 at Fort Osage, and 44 at Fort Madison; Robert W. Frazer, Forts of 1806–1814 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1949), 14:224– the West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965), 70–74; R. Douglas 28; Anthony F. C. Wallace, Jefferson and the Indians: The Tragic Fate of the Hurt, Nathan Boone and the American Frontier (Columbia: University of Mis- First Americans (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, souri Press, 1998), 78–108. 1999), 271–72; J. Frederick Fausz, “Becoming ‘a Nation of Quakers’: The 27. During the War of 1812, the Missouri Territory supplied 1,556 cavalry Removal of the Osage Indians from Missouri,” Gateway Heritage Magazine men, the majority of whom were paid with bounty land in Arkansas, Illinois, 21 (Summer 2000), 35; Gregg, Westward with Dragoons, 40–41, 59–60, 64–68. and Missouri. 16. Clark to Dearborn, September 23, 1808, in Carter, ed., Territorial Papers, 28. On April 17, 1810, President Madison had appointed Benjamin Howard 14:227. to serve as governor of the upper Louisiana Territory (later renamed the Mis- 17. Clark to Jonathan Clark, October 5, 1808, in James J. Holmberg, ed., Dear souri Territory). In 1812, Howard resigned his post to serve as brigadier gen- Brother: Letters of William Clark to Jonathan Clark (New Haven, CT: Yale Uni- eral over the Eighth Military Department of American forces. Howard fell ill versity Pres, 2002), 154. and died on September 18, 1814, and was eventually interred in Bellefontaine 18. Grant Foreman, ed., A Traveler in Indian Territory: The Journal of Ethan Cemetery. He is the namesake of Howard County, Missouri. Allen Hitchcock, Late Major-General in the United States Army (Cedar Rapids, 29. Julia Clark to George Hancock, February 27, 1814, Eleanor Glasgow IA: Torch Press, 1930), 56. Voorhis Collection, MHS. 19. Fausz, “Becoming ‘a Nation of Quakers,’” 37. 30. Wilbur M. Shankland, “General William Clark: Last Territorial Gover- 20. “Tecumseh Speaks Out Against Land Cessions, 1810,” quoted in Samuel nor of Missouri,” talk given March 14, 1964, manuscript in the War of 1812 G. Drake, Biography and History of the Indians of North America (Boston: Anti- Papers, Missouri Historical Society. quarian Institute, 1837), 5:21–22. Tecumseh conveyed similar sentiments on 31. Larry E. Morris, “The Corps of Discovery: 200 Years After the Expedi- his nationwide tour. John Sugden, “Early Pan-Indianism: Tecumseh’s Tour tion,” American History (April 2003): 44–56, 58, 60; quote from page 58. Larry of the Indian Country, 1811–1812,” American Indian Quarterly 10, no. 4 (Fall E. Morris, The Fate of the Corps: What Became of the Lewis and Clark Explorers 1986): 273–304. after the Expedition (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004), 120–21. 21. James Madison and James Monroe, Appointment of Clark as Governor 32. Sister Marietta Jennings, A Pioneer Merchant of St. Louis 1810–1820: The of Missouri Territory, June 16 and July 1, 1813, Clark Papers, MHS; Carter, Business Careers of Christian Wilt (New York: Columbia University Press, Territorial Papers, 14:679; John Armstrong to Clark, April 8, 1813, in Carter, 1939), 107–10. Territorial Papers, 14:655–56. 33. Clark to Secretary of War Armstrong, January 16, February 2, and June 5 22. Clark to Morrison, July 10, 1813; Morrison to Clark, July 15, 1813; Clark and 28,1814, in Carter, Territorial Papers, 14:727–28, 738–40, 768–69, 775–76. to Chouteau, July 16, 1813, Superintendency Records, KSHS. 34. Clark to John Comegys, November 20, 1813, Clark Papers, MHS; Mis- 23. Forsyth to Clark, July 20, 1813; Boilvin to Clark, July 25, 1813, Superin- souri Gazette, September 4, October 2, and November 6, 1813. tendency Records, KSHS. 35. Missouri Gazette, May 28, 1814; Clark to Secretary of War, April 17, 1815, 24. Carl Benn, Native Memoirs from the War of 1812: Black Hawk and William Clark Papers, MHS. Apess (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014), 46; Patrick J. 36. Clark to Secretary of War Armstrong, February 24 and December 18, Jung, “Toward the Black Hawk War: The Sauk and Fox Indians and the War 1813, in Carter, Territorial Papers, 14:632–33, 723–24. of 1812,” Michigan Historical Review 38, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 27–52. See also Colin G. Calloway, Crown and Calumet: British-Indian Relations, 1783–1815 37. Kate L. Gregg, “The War of 1812 on the Missouri Frontier,” Missouri (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987); Robert S. Allen, “His Majes- Historical Review 38 (October 1938): 3-22; 38 (January 1939): 184-202; 38 ty’s Indian Allies: Native Peoples, The British Crown and the War of 1812,” (April 1939): 326-48, pt. 3, 328–29. Michigan Historical Review 14, no. 2 (March 1988): 1–24; John P. Bowes, 38. Clark to William Eustis, February 13 and March 22, 1812; Benjamin “Transformation and Transition: American Indians and the War of 1812 in Howard to Eustis, March 19, 1812, quoted in Pratt, “Fur Trade Strategy,” the Lower Great Lakes,” Journal of Military History 76, no. 4 (October 2012): 250; Carter, Territorial Papers, 14:745–48, 762–63; Gary C. Anderson, Kinsmen 1129–46. Clark to John Mason, December 13, 1813, T-58, RG 75, NA. Most of Another Kind: Dakota-White Relations in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1650- depredations, including those of the Winnebagos who killed two Americans 1862 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984), 86–95. and robbed a trading facility near Prairie du Chien, simply show the unpre- dictability of where attacks would occur and prompted Clark to seek more 39. Missouri Gazette, June 18 and July 23 and 30, 1814. Clark’s brother George effectual measures for the protection of the frontier. See, for examples, Carter, Rogers congratulated him on the results of the Prairie du Chien campaign. Territorial Papers, 14:518–20, 691–98. George Rogers Clark to Clark, July 30, 1814, Clark Papers, MHS; Missouri Gazette, May 21 and June 4 and 18, 1814. 25. The last occupied American fort west of Lake Michigan, Fort Madison, had been under constant threat of attack since its establishment in 1808. As 40. Quoted in Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, Dictionary of American Biog- early as 1809, Clark reported that his spies had learned that Sacs and Win- raphy (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1937), 4:143. nebagos were intending to attack the fort and destroy the factory. Since Clark 41. After the Treaty of Ghent, the British abandoned the fort in the summer in had helped establish Fort Osage, he had not been involved in the Fort Mad- 1815, burning it to the ground. Clark to Secretary of War Armstrong, July 31 ison site selection. Upon visiting the post, he declared that it was in “a bad and September 18, 1814, in Carter, Territorial Papers, 14:781, 786–87. state of defence, the pickets being so low that the Indians could with great ease

November 2017 D We Proceeded On 21 William Clark’s Impossible Task

42. The Treaty of Ghent was signed December 24, 1814, but news of it did 64. Landon Y. Jones, “The Council That Changed the West: William Clark not reach America until after the Battle of New Orleans, which was fought at Portage des Sioux,” Gateway Heritage 24, no. 2-3 (2003-04): 88-95, esp. January 8, 1815. President Madison signed the treaty on February 16, 1815, 92–94. and the Senate ratified it the following day. 65. Quoted in John L. Loos, “The Career of William Clark.” MA thesis, Uni- 43. “Treaty of Ghent, 1814,” Treaties and Other International Acts of the United versity of Nebraska (Lincoln), 1940, 71. States of America, vol. 2, Hunter Miller, ed. (Washington, DC: Government 66. Walter R. Smith, “General William Clark, Territorial Governor of Mis- Printing Office, 1931). The War of 1812 officially ended on February 16, souri,” Bulletin Washington University Association 4 (1906): 45–69; Jerome O. 1815, when President Madison ratified the Treaty of Ghent. Steffen, “William Clark: A New Perspective of Missouri Territorial Politics, 44. War of 1812 Folio, General Orders, MHS; Secretary of War to Clark, 1813–1820,” Missouri Historical Review 47 (January 1973): 171–97. March 11, 1815, in Carter, Territorial Papers, 15: 14. 67. John J. O’Fallon, “Brief Notices of the Principal Events in the Public Life 45. Christian Wilt to Uncle, August 6, 1814, Letter Books of Christian Wilt, of Governor Clark,” St. Louis Enquirer, August 9, 1820, 12. No. 125, MHS. 68. William Clark, “To the People of Missouri,” St. Louis Enquirer, August 9, 46. Carter, Territorial Papers, 15:23. 1820. William E. Foley, “After the Applause: William Clark’s Failed Guber- natorial Campaign,” Gateway Heritage 24 (Fall 2003–2004): 104–11. Clark 47. Monroe to Clark, Edwards, and Chouteau, March 11, 1815, Carter, was defeated by Alexander McNair. Territorial Papers, 15: 14–15. 48. John J. O’Fallon, “Brief Notices of the Principal Events in the Public Life of Governor Clark,” St. Louis Enquirer, August 9, 1820, 14. 49. Governor William Clark, “A Proclamation,” December 4, 1815, in Carter, ed., Territorial Papers, Louisiana-Missouri Territory, 1815–1821 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1951), 15: 192. LCTHF Announces 50. Resolutions of the Territorial Assembly, January 22, 1816, “To the Hon- ourable Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America Inaugural Moulton Lecture in Congress,” in Carter, Territorial Papers, 15:106–07; Resolutions Concern- ing the Indian Title in the Counties of St. Genevieve and Cape Girardeau, Carter, Territorial Papers, 15: 235. 51. The Chouteau family, led by Auguste and his brother Pierre, who had served as the agent to the Osages, proved invaluable in keeping certain tribes The Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage peaceful or at least neutral during the conflict. Chouteau, February 21, 1816, in Grant Foreman, ed., “Notes of Auguste Chouteau on Boundaries of Vari- Foundation (LCTHF) has established the ous Indian Nations,” Glimpses of the Past 7 (October-December 1940): 119-40, esp. 122–40. Dr. Gary E Moulton Lecture in honor 52. Monroe to Clark, March 11, 1815, Clark Papers, MHS. of Gary Moulton, longtime member and 53. Other exceptions included the Indian-removal treaties of the 1820s and editor of the Journals of the Lewis and Clark 1830s. Vine J. Deloria, Jr., and David E. Wilkins, Tribes, Treaties, and Consti- tutional Tribulations (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000), 59–60; Monroe Expedition. Dr. Jay Buckley will give the to Clark, Edwards, and Chouteau, March 11, 1815, and Monroe to Clark, March 25, 1815, American State Papers: Indian Affairs, 2:6. inaugural lecture on Saturday May 12, 54. Monroe to Clark, Edwards, and Chouteau, March 11, 1815, and Monroe to Clark, March 25, 1815, American State Papers: Indian Affairs, 2:6. 2018. At the invitation of Mark Weekley, 55. Clark to William Crawford, December 11, 1815, Clark Papers, MHS. superintendent of the Lewis and Clark 56. Missouri Gazette, April 29 and May 24, 1815. National Historic Trail, the lecture will be 57. Gregg, “War of 1812,” pt. 3, 345–46. 58. Spanish Lieutenant Governor Zenon Trudeau and François Saucier estab- delivered at the Trail headquarters at 601 lished Portage des Sioux in 1799 in reaction to American plans to build Fort Belle Fountain. The French name derives from the overland route between Riverfront Drive in Omaha, Nebraska. the Missouri River and Mississippi River used by a band of Sioux who por- taged their canoes two or three miles over the narrow neck rather than pad- dling 25 miles downriver to the confluence and then upstream. The LCTHF has also established the 59. Daniel Bissell to Andrew Jackson, July 2, 1815, Bissell Papers, MHS. Moulton Lecture Fund. Contributions 60. Robert L. Fisher, “The Treaties of Portage des Sioux.” Mississippi Val- ley Historical Review 19 (March 1933): 495-508; Francis P. Prucha, American may be directed to the Moulton Lecture Indian Treaties: A History of A Political Anomaly, Berkeley: University of Cali- fornia Press, 1997), 133. Fund through the LCTHF website at 61. Three other commissioners, William Harrison, Duncan McArthur, and John Graham, treated with Indians of the Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan ter- lewisandclark.org or mailed to the LCTHF, ritories. In September at Spring Wells, near Detroit, they made treaties with the Delawares, Chippewas, Ottawas, Potawatomis, Miamis, Senecas, Wyan- PO Box 3434, Great Falls, Montana 59403. dots, and Shawnees. Fisher, “The Treaties of Portage des Sioux,” 501–2; American State Papers: Indian Affairs, 2:6–12; Missouri Gazette, July 8 and 15, Please call 888-701-3434 or 406-454-1234 1815; Kappler, Indian Affairs, 2:117–18. for more information. 62. Fisher, “The Treaties of Portage des Sioux,” 502–3. 63. Indian Commissioners to William Crawford, June 17, 1816, in Carter, Territorial Papers, 17:352–56.

22 We Proceeded On E Volume 43, Number 4 Turbulence and Terror The New Madrid Earthquakes, 1811-1812 By William Foley

of December 16, During1811, a series of violentthe shakeswee roused hours inhabitants of the mid-Mississippi valley from their nighttime slumbers. Those initial tremors and the sporadic ones that followed for nearly two months reshaped the landscape, altered regional settle- ment patterns, and prompted unnerved residents to contem- plate the mysterious forces of nature capable of wreaking so much havoc. The New Madrid earthquakes were big news even though they struck at a time when war with Great Britain loomed on the horizon and Native Americans were struggling to defend themselves against the demands of a land-hungry United States government. River travelers on the Mississippi experienced the full force of the cataclysmic 1811-1812 earthquakes. William Leigh Pierce was en route to New Orleans on a flatboat when a violent and convulsive agitation awakened him in the dead of night. He rushed on deck where he and his anxious fellow passengers sought to determine the source of their peril. Ini- tially, they suspected that hostile Indians had caused the mis- chief by unleashing their tethered vessel from its moorings, Map courtesy of Columbia University Press. but a succession of shocks soon alerted the youthful Pierce to awful noises of the first shocks replete with the distant re- the true source of the mayhem.1 At dawn’s first light he beheld verberations of hoarse and vibrating thunder, the cracking the full extent of devastation wrought by the nighttime shocks: sounds of falling trees, and the river’s thunderous roar, all “the earth, river &c torn with furious convulsions, opened in punctuated by the smell of sulphur. Another local citizen huge trenches whose deep jaws were instantaneously closed: echoed her sentiments: “we were awakened by a most tre- there through a thousand vents sulphureous streams gushed mendous noise, while the house danced about and seemed from its very bowels leaving vast and almost unfathomable as if it would fall on our heads.” As the earthquakes per- caverns. Every where Nature itself seemed tottering on the sisted the river town’s terrified inhabitants fled their rolling verge of dissolution.”2 and jostling homes and established encampments on higher John Bradbury, the English naturalist, explorer of North ground to avoid the dangers of flooding. At nearby Little America’s interior, and recipient of Thomas Jefferson’s ac- Prairie the devastation was so severe that the town’s entire colade as “a botanist of the first order,” had no such hes- population abandoned their settlement and headed north- itation about the cause of his boat’s sudden and powerful ward, where the damage was rumored to have been less se- convulsions on that fateful night. Amid the deafening din rious. When the nearly 100 refugees reached New Madrid of crashing trees, collapsing riverbanks, and screaming wild on Christmas Eve, they were dismayed to find its inhabitants birds he sought to reassure the frightened crewmen eager to camping in tents in open fields.4 St. Louis, farther removed abandon the boat for the perceived safety of the shore. Brad- from the epicenter, escaped with toppled chimneys and a bury wisely opposed that course and after dispensing glasses few cracked stone and brick walls. Joseph Charless, editor of spirits persuaded the uneasy crew to remain on board and of the Missouri Gazette, momentarily thought that a volca- continue down river in deep water.3 nic eruption further west might have been responsible for On land the impact of the earthquakes was no less hor- the clamor of windows, doors and furniture in motion that rific. New Madrid resident Eliza Bryan vividly recalled the interrupted his sleep.5

November 2017 D We Proceeded On 23 Turbulence and Terror

The December 1811 earthquakes were merely a prelude chose to respond in widely divergent ways. Some pursued to what lay ahead. A second series of tremors started on Jan- the combative intertribal militancy favored by Tecumseh uary 23, 1812, and the final and most severe set of shocks and Tenskwatawa the Shawnee Prophet during and after followed on February 7. The temblors currently estimated the War of 1812, while others opted for more accommoda- to have been somewhere between 7 and 8 on the Richter tionist strategies true to their own unique cultural frames of scale were felt far beyond New Madrid and its environs. reference.10 Residents throughout the Ohio valley and people in plac- American evangelicals employed earthquakes as signs of es as distant as Columbia, South Carolina, experienced the God’s wrath for sinful behavior and a catalyst for Christian tremors to varying degrees. conversion and repentance. “Earthquake Christians” who When the earthquakes finally ended the areas most ad- flocked to frontier revivals and swelled church membership versely affected were in shambles: buildings had collapsed, rolls sometimes exhibited a curious amalgam of belief sys- great fissures appeared in the earth’s surface, some land sank tems. When John Bradbury entered a house near the Chicka- and other land uplifted, rivers and streams altered their saw Bluffs where he observed an open Bible on the table, one courses, the Mississippi River itself briefly reversed its flow, of the occupants attributed the cause of the recurring shocks large new lakes were formed, and entire forests had been to the comet that had appeared a few months earlier. Accord- toppled.6 Subsequent accounts that placed the death toll at a ing to his reckoning the earth had become lodged between mere handful attributed the scant loss of life to a sparse pop- the comet’s two horns and was now attempting to dislodge ulation, but historian Conevery Bolton Valencius maintains itself. This backwoods claimant of spiritual knowledge feared that those numbers grossly underestimated the full death that these ominous occurrences might portend the approach toll by failing to take into account countless unreported ca- of the end times. Bradbury, who viewed these events from sualties and deaths on the river and in the region’s populous a scientific perspective, chose not to challenge the settler’s Indian communities.7 firmly held beliefs.11 Attempts to link the bright and long-ap- By late spring the aftershocks had gradually diminished, pearing comet of 1811 to the onset of the North American but in the forlorn New Madrid district from which the in- earthquakes were commonplace among Euro-American and habitants had scattered in every direction, only the hardiest Native American observers alike.12 souls remained. The exodus alarmed territorial secretary The US government did not provide victims of the de- Frederick Bates (Meriwether Lewis’s nemesis), who worried structive earthquakes with relief until the War of 1812 had that with all of the adverse publicity about earthquakes, In- ended. In 1815, Congress belatedly authorized persons own- dians and epidemics, Missouri would soon “be nothing but ing lands damaged by the New Madrid earthquakes to relocate a place of exile for Robbers & Outlaws.”8 Bates exhibited at no charge on the same quantity of land on any US public no such concern for Native Americans previously displaced lands available for sale. The law limited such claimants to 640 from their eastern homelands and now forced to move for acres of new land, and it prohibited them from relocating on a second time to escape their suddenly uninhabitable lands mineral lands. In the spring of 1815, speculators poured into along the St. Francis River. The relocated refugee Cherokee the New Madrid area seeking to purchase titles to damaged bands once again abandoned their farms, cattle, and property lands from unsuspecting residents before they learned about and headed farther west where they encountered resistance the new federal compensation law. Although the relief mea- from the nearby Osage Indians. As Valencius aptly observed, sure had been designed to alleviate suffering in the devastat- “The earthquakes helped accomplish environmentally what ed region, most Missourians believed that the law’s principal American officials failed to accomplish politically: moving beneficiaries had been the speculators.13 Cherokees farther west.”9 William Clark and expedition members John Ordway In American settlements and on Native ground alike, and John Bratton witnessed the New Madrid earthquakes people debated the earthquakes’ causes and struggled to dis- first hand. Clark, then serving as US Indian agent, was in St. cover the cataclysm’s larger meanings and purposes. Native Louis in 1811 when the initial earthquakes began. Busy with people generally viewed the tremors as signs of the Great family matters and business in the Indian Office, Clark failed Spirit’s displeasure with their impure ways of living and the to take public notice of the earthquakes. The tremors had continuing American encroachment on their lands, but they ended by the time he escorted his family back to the safety

24 We Proceeded On E Volume 43, Number 4 of Virginia on the eve of the War of 1812. Three years later, loved. He never recovered his fortune and died in virtual while serving as Governor of the Missouri Territory, Clark poverty sometime around 1817.16 Ordway’s misfortunes sought to take personal advantage of the recently enacted were an all too familiar legacy of a natural disaster that re- New Madrid relief law. In other words, he became one of made an entire region and captured a nation’s attention. ❚ the land speculators who took advantage of the federal re- lief effort designed to assist people whose lands and homes William E. Foley is professor emeritus of history at the had been destroyed by the earthquakes. Ever mindful of his University of Central Missouri. He is author of Wilderness own economic interests, Clark contracted with Theodore Journey: The Life of William Clark, as well as numerous other Hunt and Charles Lucas to purchase titles to damaged land books and scholarly articles. His Genesis of Missouri: From for him at depreciated prices, which he then expected to ex- Wilderness Outpost to Statehood is essential reading for change for more valuable tracts of public lands elsewhere. students of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. When such abuses of the relief measure roused public ire, Missouri’s territorial delegate Rufus Easton tried to tarnish Clark’s reputation by circulating documents tying him to the controversial speculations. Those allegations further en- flamed the political partisanship that contributed to Clark’s eventual defeat in Missouri’s 1820 gubernatorial election.14 William Bratton, who while on the expedition stoical- ly faced and overcame a painful and life-threatening back problem, capitalized on his experience on western rivers and entered the keelboat business in 1811. Bratton was traveling on the Mississippi somewhere in the vicinity of New Madrid Notes at the time of the December earthquakes. He maneuvered 1. On William Leigh Pierce and his account of the earthquakes, see Conev- ery Bolton Valencius, The Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes (Chicago through the treacherous waters and made it to New Orleans and London: University of Chicago Press, 2013), 17-50. safely, but the subsequent outbreak of the War of 1812 ter- 2. William Leigh Pierce quoted in Valencius, Lost History, 27. minated his transport business. He later moved to Indiana 3. Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis, August 16, 1809, in Donald Jack- son, ed., Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783- where he married, raised a large family, gained prominence 1854, 2d. ed. 2 volumes (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 2: 458; John Bradbury, Travels in the Interior of America in the Years 1809, 1810 and in his community, and perhaps regaled friends and family 1811 in Early Western Travels, Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed. (Cleveland: The with stories of the Pacific expedition and his perilous en- Arthur Clark Company, 1904) 5:204-211. counter with the great earthquake.15 4. James Lal Penick, Jr., The New Madrid Earthquakes, rev. ed. (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1981), 31-34, 38. John Ordway, keeper of one of the expedition’s journals, 5. Missouri Gazette, December 21, 1811. was not so fortunate. Following his return from the shores 6. William E. Foley, The Genesis of Missouri: From Wilderness Outpost to of the Pacific he had been a member of the party that ac- Statehood (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1989), 218-19. 7. Valencius, Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes, 36-37. companied the Mandan leader Sheheke (Big White) to the 8. Frederick Bates to William C. Carr, July 31, 1812, in Thomas M. Marshall, national capital. Upon his return to the Louisiana Territo- ed. The Life and Papers of Frederick Bates (St. Louis: Missouri Historical ry in 1807 he took up residence in New Madrid. Ordway Society, 1926) 2:232. 9. Valencius, Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes, 59-62, 97. utilized his land grants (part of the compensation package 10. Jonathan Todd Hancock, “A World Convulsed: Earthquakes, Authority a grateful Congress passed after the expedition’s return) to and the Making of Nations in the War of 1812 Era,” PhD dissertation, purchase land in the Mississippi River settlement and soon University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2013, 129. 11. Bradbury, Early Western Travels, 5:209. acquired 1,000 acres. He advised a brother that he was 12. Valencius, Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes, 45, 119. breeding horses and cattle and had “two plantations under 13. Foley, Genesis of Missouri, 250-51. good cultivation peach and apple orchards, good buildings 14. William E. Foley, Wilderness Journey: The Life of William Clark (Columbia: &c. &c.” His success and favorable reports of the quality University of Missouri Press, 2004), 209-10. of the land persuaded other members of his family to join 15. Larry E. Morris, The Fate of the Corps: What Became of the Lewis and Clark Explorers After the Expedition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), him. He continued to prosper until his world literally came 98-101. crashing down when the tremors leveled the place he so 16. Morris, Fate of the Corps., 101-05.

November 2017 D We Proceeded On 25 Dr. Elliott West This, with peace with Britain, led to the avalanche of Second of Two Parts new settlement—one state per year admitted between 1815 and 1820—that took the nation beyond the Mississippi and by Clay S. Jenkinson set up eastern Indian removal. Thirty-three years after the Editor’s Note: This is the second installment of Treaty of Ghent, that momentum would carry the United the WPO interview with Dr. Elliott West. Because this States to the Pacific. issue focuses heavily on the War of 1812, I begin part two by asking Dr. West a few questions about what historian WPO: Did the United States win the war? Donald Hickey has called “a forgotten conflict.” EW: When your opponent burns your capital, it’s hard to argue that you’ve won. But in a wider sense than battlefield losses, the War of 1812, just as it set loose westward expan- sion, contributed greatly to the longer-term rise to national greatness. The conflict is sometimes called the “Second War of Independence,” quite rightfully, I think. Remember, ours was the first successful colonial rebellion of modern times, and many, certainly many English, never expected the nation to survive. After 1783 they did what they could to hasten our collapse, and generally they treated us with something very close to contempt. Our “victory” consisted in our holding on until a stalemate in 1814-15. That won for us a measure of respect and acceptance—and with Jackson’s vic- tory at New Orleans it fed a burst of national pride. Parse, for a moment, the words of the “Star Spangled Banner,” written about the English failure to capture Fort Dr. Elliott West McHenry during the war. Can anyone name for me another people whose national anthem has as its theme, “Huzzah! We didn’t lose!” WPO: What was the effect of the War of 1812 on the The War of 1812 confirmed us as a nation in another way. exploration and development of the American West? The Revolutionary War was what its most famous document EW: If you mean the far West, not much in the short said it was—a declaration of independence. It declared what run. The peace terms (status quo ante bellum) did confirm our claims to the Pacific Northwest established by Gray and we were not—that we were not part of the British empire. the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and it cleared the way for Which raised the question: “Well, then, what are we? Who renewed attempts in the western fur trade. are we?” Besides westward expansion, the war set loose what But the long term consequences were enormous. The we might call our “Declaration of Identity” between 1815 war ended for good British efforts to keep the nation con- and the 1850s. fined largely east of the Appalachians. Most of all the war Those years saw the first distinctive American fiction was absolutely catastrophic for eastern Indian peoples who (Cooper, Irving, Hawthorne, Melville), art (Cole, Bingham, had posed the real barriers to expansion. The extraordinary Moran), poetry (Longfellow, Whitman), philosophy (Emer- effort at a unified Indian front led by the Shawnee Tecum- son), our first historical societies, and what H. L. Mencken seh and his brother Tensketawah (The Prophet) collapsed showed was our greatest flowering of a distinct American and Tecumseh was killed. To the south, Andrew Jackson language. Webster’s monumental American Dictionary of the crushed the most powerful native military force, the Creeks English Language was published in 1828, just two years after (Muskogees). the death of Jefferson.

26 We Proceeded On E Volume 43, Number 4 Our Second War of Independence opened the way for There is one intriguing tradition relating the quakes to us to pronounce who we were as Americans. Interestingly, the war. In his campaign for Indian unity, Tecumseh was much of that pronouncement told us to look westward into said to give each native group a bundle of sticks. They were the new country for our answers. to break one at each new moon. When they broke the last stick, they were together to proclaim their unified Indian WPO: Theodore Roosevelt famously blamed Jefferson coalition. God would endorse it by making the earth shake and his lackey Madison for disarming the country and mak- and the trees wave. The effort was aborted by the Battle ing the War of 1812 first inevitable and then difficult to win. of Tippecanoe, but, the tradition has it, the New Madrid What do you think of that critique? quakes came when the final stick would have been broken. EW: What, I’ve always wondered, what would he have Sounds pretty pat to me, but who knows? Pure rationality had them do? The new republic was stumbling along econom- only takes us so far when we explore the traditions of Native ically. It was politically de-centered and bitterly divided espe- American culture. cially over policy toward England. And England was a true superpower with the most powerful navy in history. Building WPO: Let’s return to the Lewis and Clark story. Jeffer- up an army and navy was politically unlikely, and if they pulled son had a notion that there might be a magical height of it off, I can’t see that it would have made much difference. It’s land from which all the rivers sprang. He believed in the like criticizing Guatemala today for not beefing up against the non-extinction of species, the possibility that the Mandan US And all in all, I think we performed pretty well. were Europeanized in some sense or another, that they were perhaps Madoc’s Welshmen. It was a myth landscape that he WPO: How soon after the War of 1812 did the “special sent Lewis into. relationship” begin between the United States and Britain? EW: He did not think of it as myth-based, but we now Isn’t it the case that relations were tense well beyond the know it was. And it was one in which he was imposing not Civil War? just mythic ideas, literally mythic ideas like Madoc, but also EW: Our relationship with Britain was on and off until this fascinating and bizarre view of life that was the Enlight- after the Civil War. To use an admittedly simplistic anal- enment mindset. The role of symmetry. A continent like ogy, we were like a bunch of twenty-somethings who, having North America was like a Rorschach Test, where you spill finally stepped away from the folks, were feeling our way to ink on it and then you fold it in half and one half is exactly full independence, sometimes bristling at Mom and Pop and like the other half. Balance. Rationality. As if the geogra- resenting memories of the home place. There were some phy itself is somehow rational. All of these notions are incor- genuine reasons of course, like Britain’s flirtation with the rect, but they are deeply held beliefs that are then projected Republic of Texas. Then, after the Civil War, yet another westward with Lewis and Clark. And there is that famous American “revolution,” we grew into a confidence and assur- moment when they get to the top of Lemhi Pass, and they ance and Britain had more reason to keep us close. At that point our friendship became the unquestioned foundation of look over–I call it the “oh, drat” moment–and see that the our foreign policy. West is not what they were told.

WPO: What was the effect, if any, of the New Madrid WPO: If you’re Lewis or Clark and you’re carrying some Earthquake on frontier history? of this myth-stuff with you because Jefferson told you it’s EW: By most accounts the New Madrid Earthquake, there, at some point out in Montana you have to start realiz- a few hundred miles from my house, was the most power- ing that it’s not like that at all. There’s no mountain of pure ful ever recorded in North America. They were actually salt and there’s no mammoth. How much of a reality check a series of quakes from the fall of 1811 to spring of 1812, did the expedition turn out to be? just preceding the declaration of war. The Mississippi River EW: In certain ways it was. In the most immediate sense, famously (or rather, supposedly) flowed briefly backward. the expedition fails in its goal number one. There is no easy Whole forests were leveled and parts of northeast Arkansas passage, there is no water route, so certainly it’s a reality check were depressed and flooded to become the “sunk lands” that in that way. To what extent was it a reality check in Indian remained undrained swamps for decades. There were geysers relations? That’s another fascinating question. To what extent of sand that spurted out fossilized bones of ancient animals. did Lewis and Clark get it? Did they understand the kind of

November 2017 D We Proceeded On 27 The WPO Interview dynamics that we can look back on it, starting with Jim Ron- WPO: If we made a list of the 30 greatest passages in the da’s work [Lewis and Clark Among the Indians], and see that journals, 26 belong to Lewis. It’s night and day with him something very different was going on than they expected. and Clark in the capacity to write classic American adventure Did they see that? Or did they come back with the news prose, exploration prose. that, “Yes, things are great? They want us to trade with them, EW: There’s no doubt about that. And when he stops, they want to have friendly relations. We had the occasional something about the journals deadens a little bit. To the problem, we had this thing with the Lakota, but basically extent that they are great American literature, it’s Lewis that they like us, and they want us to come out there.” is the main author. There was some of that, but it was a far more complicated story. I don’t think they really got it. I don’t think they really WPO: What are the books that have really shaped your understood the Native American situation or the Native thinking about Lewis and Clark? American reaction to their visit. So to that extent, it was not EW: Donald Jackson’s work, and Jim Ronda’s work, a reality check. It was a perpetuation of misunderstanding. It which was published quite a while back now [1984]. Dugat- was a confirmation of what they expected. kin’s book, Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose, that’s fascinat-

ing to me. River of Promise by David Nicandri is a wonderful WPO: Do you think the captains shared that view? Did book. John Logan Allen, of course. Those are the ones that they think alike or was it Lewis the Jeffersonian and Clark stand out. the realist?

EW: I think it’s the difference in Lewis and Clark. Clark, WPO: If someone said to you, “We’ll pay you whatever if you look at his career as a Superintendent of Indian Affairs, it takes to drop everything right now and write a book on learned a lot out there about the complexities of relation- Lewis and Clark,” what is the book you would want to write? ships that he would use later in his career. But was that some- EW: First, not going to happen. I think I would go back thing he could make explicit when he got back? Or did he and looking at the Indian story. It’s one that has all kinds of feel the pressure to give the news that people wanted, the potential for our understanding, not just of what’s going on news that Jefferson and others wanted? with Indian peoples but what’s going on in the West gen- WPO: We understand that Lewis is a problematic char- erally, with other imperial powers, with the Spanish, the acter and a little screwy in some ways. But what did Lewis English. I think there’s a lot to be wrung out of that. bring to this thing that is so important to you as a historian? EW: He had a passion for certain things, certain aspects WPO: You’re doing these seminars for teachers now in of science, and he pursued that. He had an element of curi- Missoula. osity that was not necessarily there with Clark. The very fact EW: The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American His- that he was this loner and that he simply couldn’t stand to tory in New York, a wonderful institution, sponsors the be around people for lengths of time adds to the story. I also seminars. Richard Gilder, who named it for himself and his think it was useful at certain times, his going ahead, trying dear friend, Mr. Lehrman, funded it. These seminars started to puzzle things out. There are ways in which his problem- years ago, and there are now about 35 of them every sum- atical psychology worked to his advantage. Some see him as mer. There are seminars on various topics of American his- a manic depressive or obsessive on certain points. But that tory, and they try to cite them, if possible, at a place that fits could be useful, and I think it was at certain times. the topic. I’ve done these now for 15 years. I did one for many years WPO: What about Lewis the writer? How valuable do you on the Great Plains. Then I did one in Santa Fe at the Insti- regard his journal entries when he’s writing? tute of American Indian Art on the Indians of the Southwest. EW: They’re invaluable. They’re critically important, This is the fourth year now that I’ve done one on Lewis and but they also raise questions. When were these entries writ- Clark at Missoula. This one is co-sponsored, with Gilder ten? When he stopped writing, why did he stop writing? Like Lehrman on the one hand and the Lewis and Clark Trust everything to do with Lewis, you ask the question, you peel on the other. it back a little bit, and you find yourself up against some mys- I made it clear at the outset that I’m not a specialist on tery, some fascinating but probably unanswerable question. the expedition. My interests really lie elsewhere. But it’s a

28 We Proceeded On E Volume 43, Number 4 topic and a subject that I’ve studied for decades, one that still The instructions he was given are strikingly similar to interests me deeply, and I knew from the other seminars that those that Jefferson gave to Lewis. These paired expeditions these are fun. are a reminder that this was happening all over the world. We meet with different folks in that region. The last two And they both kept journals. You can choose a day and go to years now we’ve worked with representatives of the Tribal the Lewis and Clark journals, and you can see that this par- Legacies Project, which is this fabulous project with the ticular thing was happening out in the Northwest, and then National Park Service. It’s great fun, and it’s in one of the you can go to that same day and see what was happening in most beautiful places on earth, which doesn’t hurt as well. West Africa. And what’s really insightful is that the expedi- tions had two dramatically different endings. No one sur-

vived the Mungo Park expedition. Everyone died. There’s WPO: What happens to these teachers? They come in the famous book about medical aspects of Lewis and Clark from all over the place, they have a week with you and oth- by Chuinard, Only One Man Died. If there had been a com- ers, and then what occurs? What’s the transformation? parable book on the Park expedition it would have been, EW: We keep track of them, we keep track of a lot of Nobody Made It. them over the years. Most of them have never been to the Lewis and Clark were part of this global effort. Lewis and American West. If nothing else it opens their eyes to this Clark and the United States had certain advantages that oth- extraordinary part of our nation. Beyond that, what they ers did not. They were entering into an area that was of no seem to take away most of all is how fluid and dynamic our threat to them in terms of disease. The great killers of the understandings of these particular topics are. They experi- Park expedition were the fevers. Mungo Park and his men ence how our understanding continues to evolve, and how were entering into the belly of the beast in terms of what was they can use this to get across to their students how much dangerous for people of his northern European background. these stories have to teach us about what it means to be an

American. The best and the worst parts of it. How these are WPO: James Ronda has said it’s time for us to get out of the really insights into who we are as a people. river. We Lewis and Clark types spend too much time won- dering what kind of buttons they wore on their coats, how WPO: Please talk about the expedition as an expression of many grains of powder in the pan, and so on. This is all fas- the Enlightenment. cinating, but in Ronda’s view it’s time to get out of the river EW: We talked before about the importance of science and explore Alexander Mackenzie and Hunter and Dunbar, on the expedition, how it was a window into Enlightenment to study the reports of these Chinese and Russian explorers. ideas about the nature of life itself, about geography, about Dr. Ronda said you can never really master this story unless the rationality of life. you place it in a context much wider than the narrow ribbon It’s no mystery given who hatched the expedition in the of the Missouri River. first place. It’s important also to see this even more broadly, EW: I could not possibly agree more. My job is then to as an expression of global exploration. Lewis and Clark was step back and say, “Okay, what’s going on here in a larger going on at a time when the world was well into this explo- sense? What can we learn about Enlightenment thinking by sive effort at exploration, an effort that would continue looking at Jefferson’s instructions, by looking at these maps throughout the 19th century. Lewis and Clark were in a very that are being used? What can we learn about Jefferson’s active but also a very early stage of that. We have to keep that thinking about different peoples, or even more importantly, in that perspective. what can we learn about the basic similarities among all peo- I’ve written an essay about an extraordinary coincidence. ples and how all peoples are on this road to progress? What The Lewis and Clark Expedition overlapped exactly in time can we learn about global exploration, about the role of dis- with another expedition on another continent, the expedi- ease in all of this?” tion of a Brit named Mungo Park on the Niger. His goal, his order, was to trace the course of another river, a river in West WPO: You’re encouraging your students into a wider and Africa, which coincidentally is within 100 miles of the length wider and wider context in which to understand this? of the Missouri. His group of men was almost the same in EW: That’s the way I see my role. I was clear from the number as the Corps of Discovery. outset that this was what I would like to do. I can’t really

November 2017 D We Proceeded On 29 The WPO Interview do the other. I can help by contextualizing all of that in the WPO: But in the upper Missouri we’re not going to see broadest terms possible. One of the things I do is to look at settlement until the 1850s and 1860s, much later really. the West before Lewis and Clark. It’s easy to get the impres- EW: Much later as well, yes. I think it’s a matter again sion that Lewis and Clark were entering this world before where we’re getting back to the mythic. I think you begin history, that Western history started when they poled their to get a sense of the West as playing out, at least in Jeffer- way out of St. Charles and headed up the Missouri. son’s mind, as a place of American possibilities. He didn’t follow up on them, but he very definitely sees this in the WPO: That they entered a kind of Eden frozen in time, most immediate sense as a place where we can compete with where nothing has ever happened? the English and Spanish, and he’s acting on that assumption. EW: There’s the famous journal entry of Lewis, when He’s also thinking in terms of ultimate settlement. He sees they leave the Mandan villages, where he writes, “We were the Louisiana Purchase first of all as a place for dumping now about to penetrate a country at least two thousand miles Indians, but also sees it as this place of ultimate possibili- in width, on which the foot of civilized man had never trod- ties for the yeoman republic, for the quintessential virtuous den.” Well, not exactly. In fact, they were entering the West Americans. at a time of extraordinary turbulence. Relations among Indian people were in dynamic change, and the ambitions WPO: Why can’t Lewis re-enter? Clark comes back and of other powers, such as the Spanish to the south, had been everything works out pretty well. Lewis comes back and it’s bubbling up for decades. a downward spiral. EW: There seem to be so many reasons. Disastrous per- WPO: We all agree that this is a valuable thing. We know sonal relationships. He can’t seem to find a woman that he what we gain in terms of our understanding of the larger cares for, or rather he can’t find a woman who cares for him, dynamics of the Europeanization of the globe and so on. But one that will put up with him. There’s also the importance what do we gain in our understanding of Lewis and Clark by of honor. At one point there are allegations that he might traveling outside the river? have been part of the whole Burr conspiracy. He was a pride- EW: I think we gain a far better understanding of the ful man at a time when personal honor and personal repu- state of America in the Jefferson-Jackson era, of the world of tation meant something far more powerful than it does for global expansion at the time. Looking at Jefferson in partic- us today. ular we get an understanding of how the leaders of this par- Also I think you have to face up to the fact that he had a ticular period were envisioning America’s future, and what very troubled psychological makeup. Ultimately he snapped. part the West and its people would have in it. In my course At the outset of the expedition Jefferson seems to have had in Western History at the University of Arkansas I call this this great faith in him. This is ironic, having great faith in the period “The Declaration of Identity.” The generation before troubled Lewis and then exhibiting less enthusiasm for hiring was best described by the title of its most famous document, the man [Clark] far more capable of leading the expedition. the Declaration of Independence. The war against England It’s clear that by the time Lewis starts up the Natchez Trace, was fought to say what we were not, that we weren’t English. Jefferson’s patience with him is pretty much over. Besides, With the second war for independence, the War of 1812, Jefferson, his mentor, his patron, is now out of office, and our full sovereignty was established. Now we’re on our own, Madison is president. I think Lewis ultimately realized that we’re independent. What in the world does that mean? Who all the possible roads seemed to be closing to him. are we then? This is where we begin to define ourselves in terms of WPO: Do you have any significant doubt that he commit- our political institutions, in terms of our literature, in ted suicide? terms of our art. All of our distinctive cultural forms are EW: No. It’s one of those ongoing questions. John Guice shaped during that time. Part of it is episodes like Lewis is the man most committed to the murder theory today, and and Clark, trying to decide where we will be as a peo- there were earlier folks like Vardis Fisher. John is my old- ple in a few generations. What will that mean, and funda- est friend in the profession, and he and I love to argue about mental to this story, what place will the West have in that? this. He has good points, but ultimately when you get down What will the West mean to what we become as a people? to it most of the points he makes are perfectly answerable. It

30 We Proceeded On E Volume 43, Number 4 seems to me when you look at the evidence, when you weigh the hell. Your point is a great one, and it reminds me of it reasonably, I can’t see any other answer but suicide. something that I’d like to emphasize. The Lewis and Clark Trail really starts in Charlottesville. And it starts in Philadel- WPO: For you, what’s the Lewis and Clark place where phia. It doesn’t start at St. Charles. It has many threads that you feel their presence as much as one’s going to feel their come together at that particular spot and then fan out across presence as a serious historian? the Northwest. It all starts there in Charlottesville and that’s EW: I think it’s at Three Forks. the place that Lewis was headed to truly make this a round trip, to bring it to an end. WPO: Why? EW: I’m not sure I can tell you why. Part of it is the his- WPO: If you look at the history of explorers, Park, Cook, torical resonance of that spot, or the geographical resonance Magellan, Columbus, Lewis, there’s a pattern of people who of it. To stand there at that place and to think about where don’t get home. The homecoming is an incredibly problem- this river goes, and all the hundreds of hours we’ve all spent atic thing for the true explorer. Lewis belongs in exact par- along it or on it. Then to pivot and look in the other direc- allel to Mungo Park. tion, and to think about how the story unfolds going from EW: You see that in other figures in American history. there across the mountains. And the whole cultural story Jedediah Smith was arguably the greatest explorer of the there too. Maybe it’s metaphorical, threads coming together, West. He covered 26,000 miles out there, and then he tries the three rivers coming together. to go home and can’t do it. He ends up going back to become a guide on the Santa Fe Trail, and he’s killed by the Coman- WPO: What if someone came to you and said, “What book che out on the Cimarron Cutoff. Like Bridger and others, should I read before I even touch the journals of Lewis and he can’t do it. Something happens to them when they’re out Clark?” What would you suggest? What’s the book you need there. You can see why. It must have been in many ways a to come to terms with before you start thinking about this transforming experience. Which in a way brings us back journey? maybe to Clark. Clark did go home. He was able to re-inte- EW: That’s a great question. I think it would be a good grate and had a highly-successful career, a successful family biography of Thomas Jefferson himself. Or a selection of the life. What was it? What psychological strength did he have writings of Jefferson. Ultimately that’s where it all starts. It that Lewis didn’t? ❚ was Jefferson’s baby. It all came out of Jefferson’s brain, Jef- ferson’s perceptions, Jefferson’s understanding. It was Jeffer- son’s view of the world, of life. All of that is where it all starts. Note: WPO intends to feature interviews with great scholars and others who bring insights to the Lewis and Clark Expedition. If you have thoughts about individuals who should be interviewed, WPO: What’s the burden of being Jefferson’s protégé? contact the editor. Not all of the interviews will be published in EW: Maybe it was to ultimately fail. It’s one of those their entirety; a few words have been adjusted to preserve clarity. questions you wonder about. To what extent did Lewis take Thanks to Russ Eagle, the former record holder for the Lolo- this on as a kind of a son’s obligation to his father, to his Wendover trail hike, for assisting in the transcription. Ed. virtual father, his political father? Maybe ultimately that is what he couldn’t face, going back to dad with some really bad news.

WPO: One theory is that Lewis never came home. We think that you get to St. Louis on the 23rd of September 1806 and you’re home. But you’re not home until you’re in Char- lottesville, that where Lucy is, his mother, and that’s where his spiritual father is. EW: But it wasn’t just that. I think that everything else had fallen apart. His life was a mess. His public reputation was in question. And I think at some point he just said what

November 2017 D We Proceeded On 31 LettersDear Editor, who worked for Manuel Lisa at Fort Seaman is another issue. I mean I am not impressed with part one Manuel Lisa recorded that a young arguments about Meriwether’s dog’s of the interview with this Elliott West. Shoshone woman named Sacagawea name. Lewis mentions Seaman and Like Stephen Ambrose and his over- died of putrid fever in December, 1812, so does John Ordway in his journal, rated book, Undaunted Courage, Dr. leaving behind a baby girl, Lisette. so why do some still have arguments West answers questions with another Clark had Jean Baptiste Charbonneau with the facts? No, I will not run out question. I left Pompey’s Pillar after in St. Louis already. Sacagawea would and buy Dr. West’s books. I want eight years as a volunteer guide inter- never abandon her children. Indian facts, not re-churned butter that melts preter. Because it is now owned by the women breastfed. Lisette was still when confronted with evidence. Stick BLM and the Department of Interior, breastfeeding when her mother died. with the journals for advice and what they play political correctness. We No record of any visit to her grow- happened. Example, in the journals know there exists a long paper trail of ing children in care of Captain Clark Sacagawea clearly says and expresses Sacagawea’s life and death. The BLM, exists. Her son never mentioned his the fact she is Lemhi Shoshone. In the like Dr. West, wants to say to inquir- mother in adult life. journals it is related that she spoke only ing visitors, “We don’t know what hap- You want a tip? Follow the jour- Shoshone and Hidatsa, the language of pened to her or her life after the expe- nals these men left behind. They were her capturers. Her husband spoke only dition.” BULL! Read the journals of there and lived through the expedition. French and Hidatsa. ❚ Captain Clark before and after the Patrick Gass, Charles Floyd, and John — Nancy Kemler journey. They have revealing proof of Ordway also left excellent journals for Roundup, Montana what happened to Sacajawea. A clerk us to read.

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32 We Proceeded On E Volume 43, Number 4 depicted include the Clearwater River and its perfect reflections (ID), the vista ReviewsScenes of Visionary from the “Smoking Place” (ID), and the Enchantment: majestic Trapper Peak in the Bitterroot A Photographic Journey range (MT)--all neglected in this book. Along the Lewis and Other missing images include plant Clark Trail and flower specimens such as fields of light blue camas, the majestic bear by Jeffrey P. Havens grass, and most certainly the Bitterroot Helena, Montana: Self-published, bloom (Lewisia rediviva), first collected 2017, 192 pp. photographs, captions, by Meriwether Lewis himself. The Bit- tracting structures and a close-up of a two maps, and index. Softcover, $59.95. terroot gave its name to a valley, a river, fence post. Another photo that should Reviewed by Steve Lee and a mountain range. have been edited out was the one at The author did a great job on identi- Once again, a photographer has the Knife River Hidatsa Indian villages fying each picture and its importance to been taken in by the beauty of the (ND) that actually shows the photogra- the story. This constituted the narrative nation’s most scenic national trail. pher’s shadow! The most confounding of the book. Each photo was identified However, this book has a number of photo in the whole book is the one the by the location in the county and the flaws that detract from Mr. Havens' author included of the broken inter- state where it was taken. However, the intent of showing off that beauty. pretive sign for “Bear Oil and Roots” author took the title of the book from For example, the photos of the dis- campsite (ID). Is the author showing a journal citation yet failed to quote play cases from Camp Dubois to Great the beauty of the trail or the need for the journals in any other location. Had Falls detract from the book. Photos of increased trail maintenance? he done his homework with the jour- the individual items would have been Most of the photographer’s images nals the captions could have been even much more attractive than glass and feature very broad expanses. While more creative and informative. wood cabinets. this shows the impressive broad vistas, This book could have used some The author should be commended the reader’s attention would be better editing on both its photograph selec- for including the 1806 return route retained with a greater variety of images, tion and the composition and quality which is often neglected. The return including some close-ups. Variety is the of many of its photos. Page numbers route includes great scenes such as spice of life and the sheer number of would make the book easier to navi- Pompey’s Pillar, the Yellowstone River, images in this book calls for it. gate. Those who know the Lewis and and the Big Hole Valley, all in Montana. The biggest flaw in the book is the Clark Trail expect something more of a Most of the pages feature a sin- inclusion of two unrelated photos: the book with such a lofty title. ❚ gle scene. However, in the section Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone in on the portage around the great falls, Yellowstone National Park and Glacier no less than five photos are crammed National Park’s Grinnell Point. The onto one page. Another detraction author should be congratulated for hav- are the photos which show interpre- ing taken these beautiful images of two tive signs and plaques from a distance. of the grandest scenes in the American They are usually too distant to be read. West. However, they are out of place The Choteau County (MT) camp- in a book on the Lewis and Clark Trail site is a good example of the problem. and should not be showing up twice, Steve Lee served as treasurer and The campsite photo for September including on the back cover. Their president of the Lewis and Clark Trail 19, 1805, includes a distracting foot- inclusion in this book is a disservice Heritage Trail Foundation. He also served bridge inartistically cut off on the right. to this amazingly beautiful Lewis and on the Idaho and Washington governors' Yet another poor photo selection is of Clark Trail and its incredible scenery. committees; and served as president of Weippe Prairie shot complete with dis- Neglected scenes that could have been the Idaho chapter. NONPROFIT U.S. POSTAGE PAID PULLMAN, WA PERMIT NO. 1 PO Box 3434 Great Falls, MT 59403