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Sunday, July 13, 2003

Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809)

Lewis, whose masterful preparations, powers of observation and first-rate leadership helped ensure the expedition's success, seemed happiest walking in the woods with his Newfoundland dog, Seaman.

A gifted but moody man, Lewis was 29 when he set sail for the Pacific. He served as the ethnographer, biologist and zoologist of the expedition, making detailed notes about Indian tribes and their cultures as well as hundreds of birds, plants and animals.

Born to a distinguished Virginia family that lived a few miles from Thomas Jefferson in Charlottesville, Lewis was 5 when his father was killed while serving in the Revolutionary War. By his teenage years, he was managing his family's large estate while pursuing an education and his interests in the outdoors and adventure.

During the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, Lewis served with the militia sent to quell the uprising in Western Pennsylvania. Afterward, he joined the U.S. Army, spent six years on the frontier and rose to captain in 1800.

From 1801 to 1803, he served as Jefferson's personal secretary, living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, where the president noticed that Lewis suffered periodically from depression and imbibed Jefferson's liquor supply too often.

After the expedition, Lewis was appointed governor of the territory of Upper Louisiana.

In 1809, he became embroiled in a controversy over his handling of government money tied to Indian programs. A distraught Lewis pleaded for an investigation and set off for Washington in the hope of clearing his name.

While en route, he is believed to have committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at an inn about 70 miles from Nashville, Tenn. He died at age 35 on Oct. 11, 1809.

William Clark (1770-1838)

The key diplomat and most faithful journalist of the expedition, William Clark was a skilled boatsman, negotiator and motivator.

He was diligent in chronicling the expedition on a daily basis, while Lewis stopped writing for nearly a year. Clark also ensured the publication of the journals that author Stephen Ambrose called "America's epic poem."

A native of Virginia, Clark grew up the youngest brother of American Revolution hero George Rogers Clark.

He was 14 when his family moved to Kentucky and 19 when he joined the Kentucky militia. Starting in 1792, he served as a junior Army officer in three military campaigns against Indians north of the Ohio River, experience that served him well in his later dealings with Indians.

After the exploration, Clark was appointed brigadier general and superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Louisiana Territory. He married, and named a son Meriwether Lewis Clark. He helped raise and educate Sacagawea's son.

He died in St. Louis at age 68 on Sept. 1, 1838.

Sacagawea (c.1787 -- 1812)

Like Pocahontas, Sacagawea has grown to mythological proportions but remains an enigma because so little is known about her. She was the only woman who traveled with the Corps of Discovery, toting her infant son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, along the trail.

Her ability to interpret the language of Shoshone and Hidatsa Indians helped the expedition to obtain 29 horses for its greatest challenge -- crossing the Bitterroot Mountains.

Born near Idaho's Lemhi Pass, Sacagawea was the daughter of a Shoshone chief. Her name has been interpreted to mean either "Boat Launcher" or "Bird Woman."

In 1800, a Hidatsa raiding party from North Dakota captured her when she was 12 or 13 and she spent the next several years at the Hidatsa-Mandan village near modern day Bismarck, N.D. Those Indians sold her as a slave to Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian fur trader.

When the Corps of Discovery arrived in North Dakota in the fall of 1804, Sacagawea was about 17, the wife of Toussaint Charbonneau and pregnant with his son, Jean Baptiste. During the trip, Clark rebuked Charbonneau for beating Sacagawea.

Many historians believe Sacagawea died of fever in 1812 in South Dakota. Other scholars, who give more credence to the oral histories of Indian tribes than the writings of white men, believe she died on April 9, 1884, on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.

York (c.1772-1822)

York was William Clark's slave as well as the first African American to cross North America and reach the Pacific.

Exceptionally strong, athletic and capable, he helped move the boat up river, protected Clark and danced in front of the Indians, often at Clark's command. He also hunted for food with a gun, a privilege denied to slaves in that era.

York was the son of slaves whose names were Rose and York. William Clark inherited him when Clark's father died in 1799, but before that the slave had served as Clark's body servant and may have accompanied the young solider to the frontier during his military service.

To American Indians, many of whom had never seen white men, let alone a black man, York was a true curiosity along the route of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Le Borgne, a leader of the Hidatsa tribe, wet his fingers with spit and tried to rub the black from York's skin, thinking he was a white man who had painted his skin black.

Some expedition members did not treat York well. In June 1804, an unidentified member of the expedition threw sand in York's eyes, nearly costing him his eyesight, according to an entry in Clark's journal.

After the expedition, York became a raconteur in St. Louis taverns, regaling audiences with tales of his adventures.

Clark granted York his freedom sometime after 1811. He set up a wagon freight business that failed and later died of cholera in Tennessee.