Idaho Chapter Newsletter MARCH 1996

at the Museum if you are in the Boise area DUES DUE on April 2.

If your Chapter dues are due, you will UNDAUNTED COURAGE RECEIVING find a return envelope addressed to our ATTENTION treasurer, Ruthann Caylor. Please support the Chapter and return your dues. The dues Stephen Ambrose's just-released book on are low and only cover the bare minimum , entitled Undaunted expenses of the newsletter. Your mailing Courage, has been receiving a lot of attention label will give the current status of your in the national media. It was reviewed in dues. (PS. The envelopes are "recycled" Parade Magazine (see enclosed) earlier this but they do save the chapter this expense.) month. Listeners of National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" heard two segments of an FEBRUARY: BLACK fflSTORY interview with Mr. Ambrose. On public MONTH television's "Charlie Rose Show", the host interviewed the author for a half hour on February was black history month and in February 23. Idaho Chapter members will Idaho it was noted that the first highlight in enjoy Ambrose's forward to the book black history for this state came in 1805 explaining his family's attachment to Lewis when York, 's slave, was and Clark beginning with a family camp out among the first non-Indians to travel through on for the nation's bicentennial what is now Idaho. {Idaho Statesman, in 1976. February 4, 1996) Mr. Ambrose was tiie feamred speaker at last LC SPORTS NEWS year's Foundation banquet in Charlottesville.

Lewis-Clark State College played Lewis and Clark College last November. The Warriors of Lewiston, Idaho defeated the Pioneers of 1996 DATES Portland, Oregon 87-84 in Lewiston in the championship game of the Snake River April 2 - Carol MacGregor Shootout. Ironically, the two were to meet presentation, Boise in Portland for the Lewis and Clark Tournament title in December but the game June 1 - Idaho Trails was postponed when two major electrical Day - Clearwater National transformers went down. Forest

CAROL MacGREGOR TO SPEAK Aug. 4-7 - National Meeting, Chapter member Carol MacGregor will give Sioux City, Iowa a lunch hour presentation on Corps of Discovery on April 2. This event is part of TBA (Sept.) - Salmon area the Friends of the Idaho Historical Museum meeting and field trip monthly program. Plan to attend this event Ambrose also had an article in the forced marches in American history." Autumn/Winter edition of , The "Lewis tried to describe his emotions: Magazine of Western History. It is entitled 'tiie pleasure I now felt in having triumphed "Lewis and Clark Breach the Bitterroots" and over the rocky Mountains and decending it taken from his new book. It is of interest once more to a level and fertile country to Idaho Chapter members as it goes into where there was every rational hope of detail about the meeting of the finding a comfortable subsistence for myself and crossing Lemhi Pass. Here are a couple and party can be more readily conceived than of excerpts from that article: . ^ expressed, nor was the flattering prospect of the final success of the expedition less At Lemhi Pass: "How, then, to cross those pleasing.'" mountains? Cameahwait said he had never "Outstanding leadership made done it, but there was an old main in his possible the triumph over the Rocky band 'who could probably give me some Mountains. Lewis and Clark had welded the information of the country to the N.W.' He Corps of Discovery into a tough, superbly added that 'he had understood from the disciplined family. They had built an persed nosed Indians who inhabit this river unquestioning trust in themselves, and knew below the rocky mountains that it ran a great the strengths and skills of each of their men way toward the seting sun and finally lost intimately. They had taken a calculated risk itself in a great lake of water which was illy in trusting Old Toby, but their judgment that taisted.'" he knew what he was talking about (even "That sentence linked the continent. though the talking was in sign language) For the first time, a white man had a map, proved to be justified." however imperfect and imprecise, to connect the great rivers of the western empire. Also On women and the Expedition: "First for the first time, a white man heard of the , now Watkuweis [Nez Perce Nez Perces, the major tribe living west of the woman]. The expedition owed more to mountains." Indian women than either captain ever acknowledged. And the United States owed On Lost Trail Pass: "They were entering more to the Nez Perce for their restraint than mountains far more difficult to pass than any it ever acknowledged." American had ever attempted. The confusion of creeks and ravines cutting T-SHIRTS STILL AVAILABLE through the steep mountainsides has made the route the expedition used one of the most The Chapter still has a good supply of Lewis disputed of the entire journey. One expert, and Clark t-shirts available. They are Harry Majors, call the route 'the single most available in sizes M-XXL and in four great obscure and enigmatic of the entire Lewis colors: purple, teal, jade, or fuschia. and Clark expedition.' On September 4 the Contact Steve Lee at PO Box 96, Boise, ID party fell down a very steep descent to a 83701 if you would like to order one. north-flowing river that Lewis named $10.00 is the cost that includes mailing. 'Clark's River' (present day Bitterroot (XXL shirts are $1 extra). Thanks for River)." supporting the Chapter by your purchaset. One dollar goes to both the Chapter and the On the Lolo Trail: "The expedition had Luna House Museum in Lewiston whose made 160 miles since it left Traveler's Rest Lewis and Clark Trail marker from the eleven days ago. It was one of the great 1930s was used in the shirt design. ERBERG Sacajawea's heroic aura still shines lis "She was our only dependence for a ne• gotiation with the Indians on Iweek' whom we depended for horses to assist us in our portage from the Missouri to the BOOKS Columbia River." They Went West Stephen E. Ambro.se, known for his writ• — Meriwether Lewis about Sacajawea ings about Worid War II, has turned back Nearly two centuries have lapsed since the to an earlier heroic age in Undaunted Lemhi Shoshone's most famous tribal member, Courage, which has the whopping sub• Sacajawea, etched her place in America's history title •'Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson by helping the Lewis and Clark expedition. and the Opening of the American West" (Simon & Schuster, $27.50). The book, But time hasn't dinamed her heroic aura. of course, is the story of the Lewis and Her popularity has remained because she's so Claik Expedition or, as President Jefferson politically correct, says Wyoming author Ken called it, "Corps of Discovery." Starting Thomasma. He researched her life while writing from St. Louis in 1804, Louis and Qark a series of stories about Indian children. followed the Missouri River to its source, Sacajawea's life represents motherhood, explo• crossed the Rocky Mountains and de• ration and cooperation, said Thomasma last scended the Columbia River to the Pacific, weeL He was in town then returned safely. to read from his book, Ambrose has cast his nearly 500-page "Naya Nuki" and to book, which is illustrated with period pic• meet with Lemhi lead• tures and excellent maps, in the form of ers about building the a biography of Lewis, who began his ca• Sacajawea National reer as Jefferson's private secretary and Historic Museiun near committed suicide in mysterious cir• cumstances at the age of 35. In fact, Lewis Tendoy. so dominates these pages that we get only As a young girl, shadowy images of William Clark, the Sacajawea and her invaluable co-c^)tain who led an impor• friend Naya Nuki were tant side ex• captinred and enslaved cursion of his in southwestern Mon• own along the tana by Hidatsa war• Yellowstone riors, They were taken River, and of KEN THOMASMA to , Sacajawea, where Sacajawea was the Indian sold to a trapper, . Naya interpreter Nuki eventually escaped and returned to the and guide who, with her Lemhi Valley. The friends were reunited when baby on her the expedition reached the valley. back, helped Much misinformation has been printed about them cross Sacajawea, Thomasma said. For example, she the Rockies. served more as an interpreter than a guide. In the end, it's the adventur• Still, she was indispensable. In August 1805, ous expedition itself, rather than she helped obtain horses and a Shoshone man to the pCTsonalities connected with guide the expedition over the Bitterroot Range to it, that makes this an exciting the Clearwater River in northern Idaho. and stimulating book. With no "Lewis and Clark marveled at her ability to "mission control" to monitor find food everywhere," Thomasma said. "Saca• and safeguard their movements, jawea knew every berry, every root and every Lewis and Clark and their 30 stem of every plant that were good to eat." or so companions followed a Some people have criticized Sacajawea for literally trackless path through unknown territory inhabited by selling out her people, Thomasma said. That's strange tribes. Even much of unfair because the expedition was peaceful and the natural hfe they encoun• gave gifts to her tribe and other Indians, he said. tered was previously un- Historians disagree about where Sacajawea is reccHided—they discovered 178 buried and when she died. The confusion arises new plants and 122 animal because Charbonneau had two wives. species. And in so doing, they Thomasma believes she died fairly young from telped build a nation. Theirs is tuberculosis or small pox and is buried in South a remarkable and even inspir• Dakota. Others beUeve she lived to be in her 80s ing story that can't be retold and is buried at Fort Washakie, Wyo. too often.

PARADE MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY It, 1996 • PAGE H Page 36 THE WASHINGTON POST NATIONAL WEEKLY EDITION March 4-10, 1996 The Vision of a YDung Amenca

the Mississippi and the Pacific—and, on his reasons known only to himself, the explorer ry," blended paternalism and genocide in UNDAUNTED COURAGE way back home to a hero's welcome in never turned his journals into a book. his dealings vnth tiie Indians. As tiieir "new Meriwether Lewis, Ihomas Jefferson, Washington, managed to get himself shot in Lewis found it impossible to hold on to great• Father," Ambrose explains, Jefferson had a and the Opening of the American West the butt by one of his own men. ness. After his grateful friend the president nonnegotiable Indian policy—"get out of the Ambrose, whose 17 previous books include named him governor of the Territory of way or get killed." Louisiana, he did not report to work in St. By Stephen A. Ambrose one on D-Day and a highly regarded trilogy on Ambrose neatiy captures the primitive- Richard Nixon, showcases himself in this book Louis for nearly two years. He was gamboling Simon & Schuster. 511 pp. $27.50 ness of Jefferson's era, a time when no as an exceptionally shrewd storyteller. In his in Philadelphia, Ambrose explains, enjoying introduction, Ambrose explains that he and his "too many balls with too many toasts." When means of transport moved faster than a gal• Reviewed by Blaine Harden feunily have been obsessed \rith the Lewis and loping horse, when the learned president eeling unmoved? Sensing per• Clark Expedition for 20 years. They have himself believed the Mandan Indians to be haps that you live in uninterest• repeatedly followed the explorers' footsteps a lost tribe of Welshmen, when the cure for ing times? Weary of politicians across the Great Plains and through the Lewis found it impossible the flu was fi-equent bleeding and massive who define vision as kicking Rockies. That obsession has paid off hand• doses of laxatives. AIDS victims out of the mili• somely. For by digging beneath schoolbook to hold on to greatness. If this book has a weakness, if s the rela• Ftary? If so, historian Stephen Ambrose has a sermons about the expedition, Ambrose has tive paucity of detail about the Columbia, tonic for you. uncovered an extraordinary American he did take the governor's job, he attempted— the great western river that Jefferson had "Undaunted Courage" is about a time character. and Med—to use his influence to make hun- hoped would be the Northwest Passage when America was young, the federal gov• self rich.Ambros e believes Lewis was probably across tiie continent Lewis and Clark disap• ernment was bold and the president knew a a maniodepresshre. AMBROSE'S LEWIS IS A TENDER AND pointed their president by findingtha t the what he was doing. President Thomas In 1809, just three years after his glorious Columbia did not link up with the Missouri. Jefferson executed the Louisiana Purchase tormented soul. like the West that he con• return from the West, his performance as gov• In seeming sympathy with that disappoint• for a song, doubled the territory of the quered, his natural blessings seemed without ernor came under attack in Washington. While country overnight and in 1803 dispatched a limit. He was exceptionally good-looking, a traveling east to explain himself, Lewis surren• ment Ambrose gives short shrift to a river handsome 30-year-old Virginian to do noth• kind and loyal fiiend, an instinctive naturalist dered to depression. He was just 35 years old that Lewis and Clark called "inconceivable" ing less than fill in the blanks of our collec• and a gifted writer (whose sti'eam-of

Rigby recognized by Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation J. Wilmcr ligby, a retired Salmon meetings and, during the national pharmacist aii< Lewis and Clarlc histo• Foundation meeting in Lewiston and rian, was presc tod with the Lewis and Missoula, he led trips to Lemhi Pass Clark Trail 1 eritage Foundation's and that portion of the trail along the "Award of 1 eritorious Achieve• Salmon River. He has also generously ment" on Fri ay. The presentation given his time in sharing his knowl• was made on I ;half of the Foundation edge of Lewis, Clark and the Expedi• by Idaho Chaj er President Sieve Lee tion to many students in the area. of Boise. The ward is in the form of Mr. Rigby joins an elite group of an etched met 1 and walnut plaque. people receiving this award — the first This nation award recognizes Mr. awards were given in 1972 — and is Rigby for his outstanding conuibu- only the third Idahoan so honored. lions in bringir ; to this nation a greater Other Idahoans receiving the award awareness an appreciation of the are Marcus Ware of Lewiston and the Lewis and Cla* Expedition. late Ralph Space of Orofino. He has long )een interested in Lewis The Foundation was founded in and Clark w 0 came through the 1969 to stimulate public interest in Salmon area i August of 1805 and matters relating to the Lewis and Clark has studied t : explorer's journals Expedition, the contributions to Ameri• extensively an personally has walked can history made by those members, and phoiogruficd the Uail in Lemhi and events of a time and place con• County. He 1 is assisted local land cerning following the Expedition managers in siting of the actual which arc of historical importance to route and help d with the preparation our nation. of an inicrpn ive brochure on the The Foundation recognizes the Lewis and Cia|k Trail for the Lemhi value of tourist-oriented programs, and area. supports activities which enhance the Other acccl'iplishmcnts include cnjoNTnent and understanding of the leading field L(ns for Idaho Chapter Lewis and Clark storv.