Lewis and Clark

The Lewis and Clark expedition is often mentioned when discussing westward expansion by early Americans into the western frontier.  What is not well discussed is the overwhelming number of tribes that Lewis and Clark encountered on their expedition and the various methods that Lewis and Clark used when encountering these different tribes.  They would explain to the tribes that President Thomas Jefferson was their new “great father.”  This was a title reserved for the patriarch of the tribe.  The members of the expedition would trade with the tribes and give a peace medal with the image of President Jefferson and two hands held together, which clearly shows peaceful unity between the United States and the tribes.  One of the tribes that the expedition encountered, the Blackfeet Indians, had a bad interaction with the Americans.  Rival tribes to the Blackfeet, the Shoshones and the New Perces, reached a peace agreement with the United States via the expedition, which resulted in the expedition trading guns and other supplies.  The Blackfeet Indians felt threatened and attempted to steal the guns from the expedition.  They were caught by the expedition and a gun battle ensued that resulted in the deaths of two Blackfeet Indians.  This caused distrust and open hostility by the Blackfeet Tribe towards the Americans.  There are plenty of more interactions between the tribes and the expedition which explains, in much greater detail, why there was so much hostility between the United States and the Native Tribes, which includes much more political alliances than one would think occurred between the Tribes and the United States.  

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 26, 2017 at 4:11 PM

    When reading everyone's blog entries it has become difficult for me to find the truth and personal feelings in these postings about what actually happened. All of history is just that and we could never have realized without study how poorly the Indigenous Peoples around the planet were treated by ideologies specifically designed to take over the world. All of these ideologies began in the Middle East were the conflicts continue which tells us what those people are actually like to this very day. I didn't say anything here that is not true.If you don't agree just study what happened to the Irish by the British.

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    1. UnknownNovember 26, 2017 at 4:12 PM

      This is my first response to anyone on theses blogs and I understand only I can delete my posts.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousNovember 26, 2017 at 8:44 PM

    I found your Lewis and Clark write up very interesting because the Westward Expansion is generally focused in most texts through a one lens perspective. Government legislation, land grabbing, and treaties greatly impacted many Native American tribes. “The United States established the right to make treaties in its earliest official configuration and codified that right in the U.S. constitution.” (Treuer 36) The Manifest Destiny along with the Doctrine of Discovery and definitely played a major role in how European settlers viewed the Native American land. Thomas Jefferson at the legislative level also went on to push this ideology. “They must no longer live so boundlessly, instead, they must enclose farms as private property and learn arithmetic so they could keep accounts of their production.” (Takaki 46)

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