Contents Letters: Gunshots at Grinder’s Stand; Fort Clatsop 2 President’s Message: Third Century Endowment 6 Bicentennial Council: Waters of life connect us all 8 Trail Notes: Creating linkages through trail stewardship 10 L&C Roundup: Lewis plant specimen found in London 12 The Fight on Two Medicine River 14 Canadian fur-trade documents help answer questions about the deadly encounter: Who were those Indians, and how many died? By John C. Jackson Clark on the Yellowstone 24 Lewis fleeing the Pikanis, p. 15 His often neglected reconnaissance of the “Rochejhone” left us a vivid record of a vanished ecosystem By Landon Y. Jones “Some difference between him and me” 35 Benjamin Smith Barton agreed to describe Lewis’s plant specimens, but the celebrated botanist appears to have pursued his own agenda By Susan Buchel Reviews 42 Joined by a Journey; Floyd’s 1804 journal; new biography of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau Biographical Brief Robert Patterson, Lewis’s tutor in practical navigation 46 Soundings 48 Clark entering the Yellowstone Valley, p. 24 Sergeant Floyd and me By Landon Y. Jones On the cover John F. Clymer’s painting Arrival of Sergeant Pryor depicts the reunion of Pryor’s party with William Clark’s on August 8, 1806, on the Missouri River below its junction with the Yellowstone. Nathaniel Pryor and Privates George Shannon and Richard Windsor had descended the Yellowstone in bullboats from Pompey’s Pillar after Crow Indians stole their horses. Clark’s main party suffered a similar loss at the hands of the Crows during its exploration of the Yellowstone on the return journey. For more on Clark on the Yellowstone, see Landon Y. Jones’s article beginning on page 24. Painting reproduced courtesy of Mrs. John F. Clymer and the Clymer Museum of Art. Benjamin Smith Barton, p. 35 February 2006 We Proceeded On ! 1 Letters Gunshots at Grinder’s Stand February 2006 • Volume 32, Number 1 We Proceeded On is the official publication of In “The Gunshots at Grinder’s Stand” The caption on the drawing of a Model the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, (Soundings, November 2005), Ann 1799 Army pistol used to illustrate Ann Inc. Its name derives from a phrase that appears Rogers reminds us that the often-pre- Rogers’s “The Gunshots at Grinder’s repeatedly in the collective journals of the sumed sequence of shots that killed Meri- Stand” says this may have been the type expedition. 2006 wether Lewis—the first to head, the sec- of pistol carried by Meriwether Lewis on E. G. Chuinard, M.D., Founder ond to the chest—is conjecture, not fact. his last journey. I doubt this was so. ISSN 02275-6706 I was intrigued to learn that Captain While outfitting for the expedition in John Brahan, a close friend of Lewis’s, Philadelphia, Lewis bought a pair of Editor wrote three letters concerning his death pocket pistols with government funds, J. I. Merritt (to Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of War and he also checked out a pair of large 51 N. Main Street William Eustis, and Captain Amos military “horse” pistols from the Schuyl- Pennington, NJ 08534 Stoddard) on the same day that James kill Arsenal. Lewis seems to have been 609-818-0168 [email protected] Neelly wrote his letter to Jefferson. This careful about keeping his personal pos- means that Jefferson simultaneously re- sessions separate from government gear, Volunteer Proofreaders ceived two reports on Lewis’s death, one and I suspect that, following the expedi- H. Carl Camp from Brahan and the other from Neelly. tion, he either traded or auctioned off all Jerry Garrett Brahan’s report, unlike Neelly’s, men- these pistols. Printed by PRISM Color Corporation, tions a presumed sequence and alludes There is evidence that while on the Moorestown, New Jersey to the possibility of an eye witness. Why expediton Lewis also carried a set of pis- didn’t Jefferson investigate further to re- tols purchased with his own funds. On EDITORIAL BOARD solve the shot sequence and track down April 29, 1806, while camped with the James J. Holmberg, leader the possible witness? Nez Perce Indians during the return jour- Louisville, Kentucky The only thing we can say for certain ney, he traded “one of my case pistols” Robert C. Carriker is that Lewis died of gunshot wounds at for a horse; on August 5, 1807, about a Spokane, Washington Grinder’s Stand, along the Natchez Trace, year after the expedition’s return, he re- Robert K. Doerk, Jr. on October 11, 1809. Both sides of the quested reimbursement from the govern- Fort Benton, Montana “suicide or murder” debate rely on cir- ment for (among other items) one pistol. Glen Lindeman cumstantial evidence to support their re- I believe this pistol was the one traded to Pullman, Washington spective views. If a trial were held today the Nez Perces. Among the items listed to determine Lewis’s “guilt” or “inno- as Lewis’s personal property to be sent Membership Information cence” of the “crime” of self-destruction, home after his death (Donald Jackson’s Membership in the Lewis and Clark Trail I believe that the lack of solid evidence Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedi- Heritage Foundation, Inc. is open to the public. would probably result in acquittal. Our tion, page 472) is “a Pistol case—contain- Information and applications are available by system of justice requires that a person ing a Pocket Pistol.” A pistol case would writing Membership Coordinator, Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, P.O. Box be proved guilty beyond a reasonable usually hold a pair of pistols. I suspect 3434, Great Falls, MT 59403. doubt, and by that standard Lewis would this pocket pistol was the match for the have to be judged innocent. pistol traded to the Nez Perces, for which We Proceeded On, the quarterly magazine of the Foundation, is mailed to current members It is also possible, as Thomas Danisi he later sought reimbursement. in February, May, August, and November. pointed out in the February 2002 WPO, The pocket pistol listed among Articles appearing in this journal are abstracted that malaria may have affected Lewis’s Lewis’s effects almost certainly was not and indexed in HISTORICAL ABSTRACTS and sanity and that he shot himself while used in his killing. Lewis was shot twice. AMERICA: HISTORY AND LIFE. mentally deranged. This theory needs fur- Because virtually all pistols of his era Annual Membership Categories: ther exploration. We also need to probe were single-shot weapons, whoever fired deeper to resolve, if possible, other ques- the shots must have used two pistols. On Student $30 Individual/Library/Nonprofit $40 tions. Why, for example, was there no his last journey Lewis probably carried Family/International/Business $55 federal inquiry at the time of Lewis’s a pair of “traveler’s pistols,” also known Heritage Club $75 death? Why was Lewis, a high govern- as gentlemen’s pistols and great-coat pis- Explorer Club $150 ment official, apparently abandoned by tols, among other names. Such pistols, Jefferson Club $250 other high government officials (Jeffer- which were usually sold in pairs, were Discovery Club $500 son, by then retired at Monticello, and bigger than pocket pistols, with large Expedition Club $1,000 Secretary of War Eustis)? bores and barrel lengths of four to seven Leadership Club $2,500 Lewis’s death is a matter of ongoing inches. They normally were carried The Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc. interest. We can thank Ann Rogers for loaded for use in an emergency. is a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation. Individual giving us additional food for thought. Lewis is exactly the sort of person to membership dues are not tax deductible. The portion EVELYN L. ORR have traveled with a set of such pistols, of premium dues over $40 is tax deductible. Omaha, Neb. and if he did shoot himself, these were 2 ! We Proceeded On February 2006 the weapons he undoubtedly used. There officials will take this into consideration Advertise your is evidence that James Neelly, Lewis’s when they construct a new fort to replace traveling companion at the time of his the replica that burned in October. L&C products death, wound up with these pistols and GLEN KIRKPATRICK several other of Lewis’s belongings, in- Molalla, Ore. and services cluding a horse, a rifle, and a dirk. Neelly mentions these items in a letter to Tho- mas Jefferson on page 468 of Jackson. On in WPO! page 136 of his book Suicide or Murder? Error in Lewis’s octant calibration The Strange Death of Governor Meri- Readers comparing the recorded and AD RATES wether Lewis, Vardis Fisher quotes a let- sidebar-noted latitudes for June 10 and Inside front or back cover: ter written by Lewis’s executor, John 20, July 28, and August 21, 1805, in Gary Black & white, $650; color, $750 Marks, to the explorer’s brother, Reuben Moulton’s The Journals of the Lewis and Outside back cover: Lewis, reporting that he had gone look- Clark Expedition will note the very large Black & white, $800; color, $900 ing for Neelly to recover Lewis’s prop- difference between the two entries in each erty. Marks failed to find Neelly but did case (roughly 30 to 35 statute miles). Ex- Inside pages (black & white): 1 1 amination of the complete journals shows Full page: 7 /4 X 9 /2 $600 meet with his wife, who surrendered the 3 1 horse and rifle. As related by Marks, she a similar systematic offset of Lewis’s de- 2/3rd vertical: 4 /4 X 9 /2 $400 5 1 said that her husband “carries the dirk and duced meridian latitudes for the entire 1/2 horizontal: 4 /8 X 7 /4 $300 3 5 summer of 1805 (octant data).