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Lewis & Clark Meet the Plains Bison

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Lewis & Clark Meet the Plains Bison Museum of the American Indian -- Lisette's Fate -- Sacagawea & Susan B. Anthony Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation I www.lewisandclark.org February 2005 Volume 31, No. 1 LEWIS & CLARK MEET THE PLAINS BISON PLUS: CAPE GIRARDEAU • "SERGEANT" wARFINGTON Contents Letters: Lisette's fa te; Cape Disappointment; John Pernier 2 President's Message: National Museum of the American Indian 4 Bicentennial Council: Where did the L&C Expedition begin? 6 The Corps of Discovery's Forgotten "Sergeant" 10 Lewis and Clark entrusted Richard Warfington with responsibilities far beyond his corporal's rank By Trent Strickland Cape Girardeau and the Corps of Discovery 14 Newly discovered documents detail the post-expedition lives of four veterans of the Lewis and Clark Expedition By Jane Randol Jackson Warfington, p. 11 Great Gangues of Buffalow 22 Lewis and Clark's encounters with the plains bison By Kenneth C. Walcheck Reviews 32 Scenes of Visionary Enchantment; The L ewis and Clark Expedition; An Artist with the Corps of Discovery; Sacajawea's People; The Story of the Bitterroot; "Most Perfect Harmony" L&C Roundup: Lewis and Clark in other journals 39 Trail Notes: Stewardship initiatives 40 From the Library: L&C on the World Wide Web 43 Soundings 44 Cape Girardeau, p. 15 Sacagawea and Susan B. Anthony By Bill Smith On the cover Titled Red Shirt, artist Michael H aynes's painting shows Sergeant John Ordway surprised by a buffalo bull on a rainy September 11, 1804, while the Corps of Discovery was making its way up the Missouri River in today's South Dakota. Ordway had come upon a herd of 16 bulls and was trying to remain unobserved when one of them, as he recalled in his journal, "discovered me .. he looked at me, & walked up near to me. I was obledged to Shoot, at his head. as I shot him in the head among the long hair he turned & run off. " For more on the explorers' encounters with the plains bison, see Kenneth C. Walcheck's "Great Gangues of Buffalow," beginning on page 22. More Haynes art can be fo und on his Web site, www.mhaynesart.com. Great Plains bison, p. 24 Letters Lisette Charhonneau's fate; Cape Disappointment February 2005 •Volume 31, Number 1 We Proceeded On is the official publication of A recent search I made of parish death vember 7, 1805, in the sense that he had the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, records at St. Louis's O ld Cathedral has an unobstructed view out to sea. It seems Inc. Its name derives from a phrase that appears turned up two items related to the fa mily Clark took Point Ellice for Cape Disap­ repeatedly in the collective journals of the of Touissant Charbonneau. pointment, but this does not change the expedition. © 2004 One item concerns the fate of Lisette fact that Clark saw and understood the E. G. Chuinard, M.D., Founder Charbonneau, his daughter by Sacagawea clear view toward the ocean to the west, ISSN 02275-6706 and the sister of Jean-Baptiste ("Pomp"). south of Point Ellice. We have known for some time that Lisette Clark in a boat could not have seen Editor was born in 1811 , that she was still an surf breaking on Point Adams or even on J. I. Merritt infant when Sacagawea died, and that she Point Ellice. Point Ellice is close to 14 51 N. Main Street was later adopted by William Clark. The miles fro m Pillar Rock. Estimating his Pennington, NJ 08534 609-818-0168 item, recorded in French under the index height of eye above the water at six feet, [email protected] line "Lisette, Sauvagess," translates, "The one can calculate that for Clark the dis­ year of J.C. CTesus Christ] 1832 and the tance to the horizon (how far one can see Volunteer Proofreaders 16th of June I gave ecclesiastic burial to an obj ect on the sea surface) was only 3.2 H. Carl Camp Lisette, fe male savage of the nation of miles. An object at Point Ellice, some 10.8 Jerry Garrett snakes, aged twenty one years, adminis­ miles farther, would have to have been 67 Printed by PRISM Color Corporacion, tered the sacraments decided yesterday." feet above the water for Clark to have Mooresrown, New Jersey The name Lisette, her designation as a seen the top of it. At Point Adams its "snake" (Shoshone), and the inferred height above water would have to have EDlTORlAL B OARD birth year of 1811 all point to the near been 130 feet. Clearly, Clark standing in James J. Holmberg, leader certainty that this woman was the daugh­ a boat near Pillar Rock could not have Loitisvil/e, Kentucky ter of Charbonneau and Sacagawea. seen surf breaking on either point, even Robert C. Carriker The other item is more ambiguous. if his view were otherwise unobstructed. Spokane, Washington Found under the index line "Burial of a These figures vary a little depending on Robert K. Doerk, Jr. Sauvegess of the Snake Nation," it trans­ atmospheric conditions, but not enough Fort Benton, Montana lates, "The 30th of August 1813 by us for Clark to have seen beyond the curve Glen Lindeman assigned to holy burial in the cemetery of the earth. My source is the U .S. Navy Pullman, Washington of the parish of St. Louis the body of a Hydrographic Office, American Practi­ young female savage of the nation of ser­ cal Navigator (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Membership Information pents [snakes] belonging t o Mr. Government Printing Office, 1962), Table Membership in the Lewis and Clark Trail Charbea\.meau aged one year." This item 8, p. 1254. Heritage Foundation, Inc. is open to the public. appears to show that Lisette had either a I doubt, however, Clark limited him­ Information and applications are available by twin or (more likely) a half-sister, since writing Membership Coordinator, Lewis and self to looking from a boat. The Corps of Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, P.O. Box Charbonneau was also married to a Shos­ Discovery camped near Pillar Rock, and 3434, Great Falls, MT 59403. hone named Otter Woman. the land behind its campsite rises 275 feet Sacagawea died at Fort Manuel, on the above sea level. Such a vantage he would We Proceeded On, the quarterly magazine of the Foundation, is mailed to current members upper Missouri, in December 1812. The have given him an unobstructed view of in February, May, August, and November. fo rt's clerk, John Luttig, brought Lisette the sea surface as far as Point Adams. Articles appearing in this journal are abstracted back to St. Louis in May 1813. It is pos­ Given the explorers' excitement about and indexed in HISTORICAL ABSTRACTS and sible that he brought this other infant girl, nearing their destination, he surely would .AMERICA: HISTORY AND LIFE. too, although there is no record to con­ have climbed this height of land to see Annual Membership Categories: firm this. the Pacific. ROBERT ]. MOORE, JR. STUART WIER Student$30 Individual/Library/Nonprofit $40 Historian, Jefferson National Boulder, Colo. Family/International/Business $55 Expansion Memorial Heritage Club $75 St. Louis, Mo. Explorer Club $150 It is always a pleasure to receive the lat­ Jefferson Club $250 est issue of WPO, and the pleasure is Discovery Club $500 double when it includes an article like Expedition Club $1,000 Cape Disappointment David Nicandri's examining the age-old Leadership Club $2,500 I enjoyed David L Nicandri's article question of what William Clark actually The Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc. "The Illusion of Cape Disappointment" saw when he exclaimed "Ocian in view!" is a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation, Individual in the November \WO. The author makes The Corps of Discovery was encamped membership dues are not tax deductible. The portion a convincing case that Clark saw the Pa­ at the time on the north shore of the Co­ of premium dues over $40 is tax deductible. cific Ocean from near Pillar Rock on No- lumbia near Pillar Rock, not far from 2 ~ We Proceeded On February 2005 present-day Altoona, Washington. I have the Pillar Rock campsite that afternoon mately 3,959 miles), and w = height of a home about six miles from there and of November 7, 1805. the waves in feet. SQRT stands for have studied the issue at some length. Clark's journal entries are sparse re­ "square root of." As Nicandri points out, those skepti­ garding the Pillar Rock campsite. Perhaps A discussion of this fo rmula may be cal of Clark's statement that he saw the he was so excited about nearing the Pa­ found at the Web site http://www­ ocean from Pillar Rock believe that Point cific that he neglected his usual thorough­ spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/ Shorizon. Adams, jutting from the south shore of ness in recording such details. As the htm (accessed December 4, 2004). Errors the river's mouth, would have blocked his party's chief surveyor, Clark never wasted due to tidal effects, atmospheric refrac­ line of sight. But the land west of Point an opportunity to explore the surround­ tion, nonspherical earth sudace, etc., are Adams now extends much farther than it ings at each camp along the expedition's small and not considered. did in Clark's day due to the buildup route. One can easily imagine him climb­ MIKE REES around a jetty built in 1895, and in 1805 ing above the campsite for a better view Skamokawa, Wash. it would not have impeded Clark's view. to the west.
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