In writing about Lewis and Clark over the past twenty years, I’ve used all editions of the journals, those of Nicholas Biddle, Elliott Coues, Reuben G. Thwaites, and, at last, Gary E. Moulton’s monumental annotated set whose publication by the University of Nebraska commenced in 1986. My 1984 Lewis and Clark novel From Sea to Shining Sea contains errors of misinterpretation and vagueness that I could have avoided if Moulton’s magnificent scholarship had been published by then.
Dr. Moulton’s first volume is an atlas of maps from the expedition. The journals themselves commence in Volume 2, which contains an introduction to the journals, a piece on editorial procedures, and an appendix on provenance and description of the journals. A look at those sections will show the reader what enormous scholarship was required to preserve and prepare this priceless American literary masterpiece. The material was not in a simple, organized set of notebooks, but comprised field notes and fragments, paraphrasings and duplicates, doodlings, lists, and columns whose relevance and context were not immediately apparent. The intelligence and dedication of researchers and editors enhance the wonderful story of how the original authors wrote them under their most trying circumstances. It is therefore a shame that so few Americans have ever bothered to read any part of them.
Those familiar with the journals will see that excerpts I’ve used in this book do not change the authors’ idiosyncratic spelling or phrasing. I have condensed by excerpting, and by omitting or deleting independent clauses and other connective matter, not by changing or paraphrasing the authors’ own words. Thus their information and style remain intact. I have not always used ellipses to mark omissions because they can distract the reader from the sense and flow of the text.
This is the story of a métis, or mixed-blood Indian, a tan man who in his time would have been considered far down the scale of innate human worth. By excelling in these excruciating tests, he showed again and again that human worth is measured in the heart, not the skin.
That’s a lesson that can’t be taught too often. As many such lessons are, it is woven through the pages of great literature—in this case, the journals of Lewis and Clark, who were white supremacists, whether we like to admit it or not. York, who came to appreciate his own worth as a man during the expedition, kept pestering Clark for his freedom until it was granted in 1811, only after he had become more trouble to Clark than he was worth as a servant.
Though there is no written proof of it, I tend to believe that Drouillard and the many other Indians along the way inspired York’s determination to be a free man.
William Clark kept his promise to supervise the education of Sacagaweah’s son, Jean Baptiste. His higher education was completed in Europe. Then he returned to America for an adventurous life as a Western guide and prospector.
Meriwether Lewis, ill, depressed, paranoid and confounded by drink and drugs, shot and cut himself to death in 1809. (A few scholars cling to a notion that he was murdered.)
As plans for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial observances develop, Western tribes are arranging to participate. They will give their own interpretations of the historic passage through their domains, and the impacts it had on their way of life. For the first time in two hundred years the other side of the great adventure will be vividly shown and told, and this masterpiece of American lore will be much enriched.
The story has always been that the Voyage of Discovery succeeded because of the vision of Jefferson and the courage and resourcefulness of the young explorers. That remains true, but the neglected side of the story is that they would have failed, and probably perished, without the help of the native peoples, who have been suffering the loss of their freedom and sovereignty and country ever since.
Last year, acting on a proposal from Richard Drouillard of Everett, Washington, a relative of this story’s protagonist, the United States Board on Geographic Names agreed to change the name of 8,236-foot Mount Drewyer in the Lewis and Clark National Forest to Mount Drouillard.
So someone finally corrected Lewis and Clark’s spelling.
—James Alexander Thom
May 1999
Frances Slocum, kidnapped from her frontier home when she was five by the Lenape, was raised by them to become an honored leader and healer of her adopted people.
When she has a chance, as an adult, to return to her white family, there is no doubt in her mind that her heart is a red one.
THE RED HEART
by
James Alexander Thom
This powerful story about a real woman out of history adds another strong chapter to the large contribution James Alexander Thom is making to American literature.
Published by The Random House Publishing Group.
Available in bookstores everywhere.
They came to North America three hundred years before Columbus, mingling their blood, their legends, and their dreams with the New World’s Native peoples.
THE CHILDREN
OF FIRST MAN
by
James Alexander Thom
Sweeping from the blood-soaked castles of medieval Wales to the landmark expedition of Lewis and Clark, from virgin wilderness to native villages, based on the legendary story of Madoc, the First Man.
Published by The Random House Publishing Group.
Available in bookstores everywhere.
The epic true story of Tecumseh, whose birth-sign meant
PANTHER
IN THE SKY
by
James Alexander Thom
A spellbinding novel about one man’s magnificent destiny: to unite his people in their struggle to save their land and their way of life from the relentless press of the white settlers. A work of such sweep and compassion that it blurs the line between novel and history.
Published by The Random House Publishing Group.
Available in bookstores everywhere.
The famous true story of Mary Ingles. She was twenty-three, happily married and pregnant with her third child when Shawnee Indians kidnapped her from her peaceful Virginia settlement in 1755. For months they held her captive, but she vowed to escape, and to
FOLLOW THE
RIVER
by
James Alexander Thom
With the rushing Ohio River as her guide, Mary Ingles walked one thousand miles through an untamed wilderness no white woman had ever seen. The author retraced much of her journey on foot to write this book. One feels every perilous and weary step Mary took to return to her own people.
Published by The Random House Publishing Group.
Available in bookstores everywhere.
A Ballantine Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright © 2000 by James Alexander Thom
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
www.ballantinebooks.com
eISBN: 978-0-307-76315-0
Map by Mapping Specialists, Ltd.
v3.0
Table of Contents
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Dedication
Map
Part One - November, 1803–October, 1804
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Part Two - November, 1804–March, 1806
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Part Three - March, 1806–September, 1806
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Part Four - May 1807–May 1810
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Author’s Note
Copyright
Sign-Talker Page 52