Teacher Talk
Lesson Plan on the Lewis and Clark Expedition
The 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition opened the Northwest to the influence of the United States and established relations with numerous Native American nations. Students can explore the impact of the expedition on Native Americans and explore their perspective.
Divide students into teams having them research the impact of the Lewis and Clark expedition on Native Americans. Ask each group to present their findings in an oral report. Then have them discuss the positive and negative impact of the expedition, depending on whose perspective you take into account.
The Native American Perspective
Explain to students the perspective missing in the accounts by Lewis and Clark and other journals kept by expedition members--the Native American perspective. Have students research what the tribes were like at the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition. If possible, try to find references to their encounters with the expedition members to determine what they thought of these explorers from the East. Have them compare what they find to the perspectives in the Lewis and Clark journals.
Discuss the following questions:
How do the perspectives differ? Is it possible to determine if there is a “correct” perspective? Why or why not? How do cultural biases reflect how we see others?
Many of the Native American tribes encountered by the Lewis and Clark expedition are active societies today. Choose one of these tribes and write a brief description of their history since Lewis and Clark.
How did their lives change in light of contact with European American settlers? Where are they now in comparison to when the corps encountered them in the early 1800s? What steps are they taking to maintain their own distinct culture? Are they a federally recognized sovereign nation? If so, what does that mean?
During the Lewis & Clark Expedition, contact was made with at least 55 different native groups. Some Native Americans literally saved expedition members from starving and losing their way as they crossed the continent. With some, like the Lakota and Blackfeet, there were hostile encounters, while with others, like the Mandan, Hidatsa and Nez Perce, friendships and alliances were forged.
Some Corps of Discovery members were all or part Native American. George Droulliard, was half Shawnee, while Pierre Cruzatte and Francois Labiche were half Omaha. Sacagawea with her baby boy Jean Baptiste (Lemhi Shoshone by birth and Hidatsa by adoption and clan) gave insights into Native American humanity, humor and devotion to creator and family.
President Jefferson sold the idea to Congress partly on the importance the mission regarding Native Americans. Some of his instructions to Lewis in 1803:
"endeavor to make yourself acquainted [ with] the names of the nations & their numbers;
the extent & limits of their possessions;
their relations with other tribes of nations;
their language, traditions, monuments;
their ordinary occupations in agriculture, fishing, hunting, war, arts, & the implements for these;
their food, clothing, & domestic accomodations;
the diseases prevalent among them, & remedies they use;
peculiarities in their laws, customs & dispositions ...
"... the state of morality, religion, & information among them; as it may better enable those who may endeavor to civilize & instruct them ... allay all jealousies as to the object of your journey, satisfy them of its innocence, make them acquainted with the position, extent, character, peaceable & commercial dispositions of the U.S., of our wish to be neighborly, friendly and useful
... If a few of their influential chiefs, within practicable distance, wish to visit us ... If any of them should wish to have some of their young people brought up with us, & taught such arts as may be useful to them, we will receive, instruct & take care of them
... inform those of them with whom you may be of [kinepox's] efficacy as a preservative from the smallpox
... if a superior force ... should be arrayed against your further passage ... you must decline its farther pursuit, and return. In the loss of yourselves, we should lose also the information you will have acquired ..."
Lewis brought along silver peace medals produced by the U.S. Government for presentation to Native American chiefs. Showing clasped hands and the motto "Peace and Friendship," the design depicted Native American nations as coequals of the United States.
Lewis also knew that gift giving and trade were an important part of most Native American cultures, and that he would need to have trade goods along for diplomacy and for acquiring needed goods and food.
TMEALF.com has tribal flag information.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/ and http://www.nps.gov/jeff/LewisClark2/TheJourney/NativePeoples.htm.