The uniforms worn by the military and tribal face painting both contribute to:
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But there was another view of the West: that of the native inhabitants of the land. Their understandings of landscapes, peoples, and resources formed both a contrast and counterpoint to those of Jefferson's travelers. This part of the exhibition presents five areas where Lewis and Clark's ideas and values are compared with those of native people. Sometimes the similarities are striking; other times the differences stand as a reminder of future conflicts and misunderstandings. Show
Discovering DiplomacyOne of Lewis and Clark's missions was to open diplomatic relations between the United States and the Indian nations of the West. As Jefferson told Lewis, “it will now be proper you should inform those through whose country you will pass . . . that henceforth we become their fathers and friends.” When Euro-Americans and Indians met, they used ancient diplomatic protocols that included formal language, ceremonial gifts, and displays of military power. But behind these symbols and rituals there were often very different ways of understanding power and authority. Such differences sometimes made communication across the cultural divide difficult and open to confusion and misunderstanding. An important organizing principle in Euro-American society was hierarchy. Both soldiers and civilians had complex gradations of rank to define who gave orders and who obeyed. While kinship was important in the Euro-American world, it was even more fundamental in tribal societies. Everyone's power and place depended on a complex network of real and symbolic relationships. When the two groups met—whether for trade or diplomacy—each tried to reshape the other in their own image. Lewis and Clark sought to impose their own notions of hierarchy on Indians by “making chiefs” with medals, printed certificates, and gifts. Native people tried to impose the obligations of kinship on the visitors by means of adoption ceremonies, shared names, and ritual gifts. BlunderbussBlunderbuss, ca. 1809–1810. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Behring Center, Washington, D.C. (53) Discover! Pipe tomahawkPipe tomahawk (Shoshone), 1800s. Courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (39) Jefferson's Secret Message to CongressJefferson's Instructions for Meriwether LewisJefferson Peace MedalUnited States Mint. Thomas Jefferson peace medal, 1801. Reverse side of medal. Silver. Courtesy of the Oklahoma State Museum of History, Oklahoma City (41) Making Chiefs Certificate of loyalty, ca. 1803. Printed document with wax seal and ribbon. Courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis (43) Making SpeechesSpeech to the Yellowstone Indians, 1806. Speech of Arikara chiefs, 1804. Manuscripts. Courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis (44, 49) Making Kinship
Jefferson's CipherJefferson's cipher for the Lewis and Clark expedition, 1803. with sample message “I am at the head of the Missouri. All well, and the Indians so far friendly.” Manuscript document. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (55) Gifts with a Message
Displays of Power
Jefferson's Speech to a Delegation of Indian ChiefsIndian Speech to JeffersonGeographyIn the exploration instructions prepared for Lewis, Jefferson directed that his explorers record “the face of the country.” Geography, especially as recorded on maps, was an important part of the information collected by the Corps of Discovery. In planning the expedition, Lewis and Gallatin collected the latest maps and printed accounts portraying and describing the western country. This visual and printed data was incorporated into a composite document—the Nicholas King 1803 map—which the expedition carried with them at least as far as the Mandan villages. As Lewis and Clark traversed the country, they drew sketch maps and carefully recorded their astronomical and geographic observations. Equally important, they gathered vital knowledge about “the face of the country” from native people. During winters at Fort Mandan on the Missouri in 1804–1805 and at Fort Clatsop on the Pacific Coast in 1805–1806 the explorers added new details from their sketch maps and journals to base maps depicting the course of the expedition. The first printed map of the journey did not appear until 1814 when Nicholas Biddle's official account of the expedition was published in Philadelphia and London. Euro-American explorers were not the only ones to draw maps of the western country. As every visitor to Indian country soon learned, native people also made sophisticated and complex maps. Such maps often covered thousands of miles of terrain. At first glance Indian maps often appear quite different from those made by Euro-Americans. And there were important differences that reflected distinctive notions about time, space, and relationships between the natural and the supernatural worlds. William Clark was not the only expedition cartographer to struggle with those differences. But the similarities between Indian maps and Euro-American ones are also worth noting. Both kinds of maps told stories about important past events, current situations, and future ambitions. Both sorts of maps used symbols to represent key terrain features, major settlements, and sacred sites. Perhaps most important, Euro-Americans and Native Americans understood that mapping is a human activity shared by virtually every culture. Source Map for the Bend of the Missouri RiverDiscover! Indian Map of Columbia and Snake Rivers
Field Maps of the Fort Clatsop AreaWilliam Clark. [Draft of the Columbia River, Point Adams, and South Along the Coast] and [Map from a “Clott Sopp Indn.”], 1806. Copyprint of manuscript maps. Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven (59A) Sitting Rabbit's Map of the Missouri RiverSitting Rabbit (I Ki Ha Wa He, also known as Little Owl). [Map of Missouri River from South Dakota-North Dakota boundary to mouth of Yellowstone River], 1906–1907. Copyprint of painting on canvas. Courtesy of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bismark (59C) Missouri Route Map near Fort Mandan[Route Map about October 16–19, 1804], copy of original map made in 1833. Copyprint of manuscript copy. Courtesy of the Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha (59D) Fort Clatsop MapNicholas King after Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. “Map of Part of the Continent of North America . . . as Corrected by the Celestial Observations of Messrs. Lewis and Clark during their Tour of Discoveries in 1805.” Washington, D.C., 1806? Copyprint of manuscript map. Courtesy of the Boston Athenaeum, Boston (70) Clark's Map of Midwestern Indian Settlements
Frazer's Post-Expedition MapFirst Published Map of Expedition's TrackWilliam Clark. “A Map of Lewis and Clarks Track” from History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri, thence Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean, 1814. Samuel Lewis, copyist; Samuel Harrison, engraver. Engraved map. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress (67) History of the Expedition[Nicholas Biddle and Paul Allen, eds.] History of the Expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri, then across the Rocky Mountains and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed during the years 1804-5-6. By order of the Government of the United States. Page 2 . Philadelphia: Bradford and Inskeep; New York: Abm. H. Inskeep. J. Maxwell, Printer, 1814. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (67B) Calculating Distance
AnimalsJefferson subscribed to the eighteenth-century Enlightenment notion that assembling a complete catalog of the Earth's flora and fauna was possible. In his instructions, he told Lewis to observe “the animals of the country generally, & especially those not known in the U.S.” The Corps of Discovery was the first expedition to scientifically describe a long list of species. Their journals, especially those kept by Lewis, are filled with direct observations of the specimens they encountered on the journey. Through objective measurements and anatomical descriptions, they defined various species previously unknown to Euro-Americans. Indians studied animal behaviors to understand moral lessons. Animals were beings addressed respectfully as “grandfather” or “brother.” Because animals intersected the worlds of the sacred and the profane, Indians regarded them as intermediaries between the human and spiritual realms. Discover! Lewis's woodpeckerSpecimen of a “Lewis woodpecker” [Asyndesmus lewis, collected Camp Chopunnish, Idaho, 1806]. Preserved skin and feathers. Courtesy of Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology, Boston (71) Observing “the animals of the country generally”
Representing Beings
The Power of the Bear
Dressed in CourageIn both Euro-American and native cultures, clothing communicated messages about the wearer's biography, rank, and role in society. In both cultures, a warrior's clothing was his identity and men entered battle dressed in regalia that displayed their deeds and status. Symbolic insignia revealed a complex code about who a man was and what he had accomplished. But differences did exist. For instance, Plains Indian men wore clothing that incorporated symbols of their spirit visions, tribal identity, and past deeds as manifestations of the spiritual powers that helped them in battle. European soldiers wore similar symbols but as a way to display and inspire uniform loyalty to their nation. Discover! Wearing Achievement
The Plains WarriorWar shirt, 1843. Antelope skin, quill work. Courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery (80) Images of HeroismWashakie war robe (Shoshone), pre-1897. Paint on deer hide. Copyprint of artifact. Courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C. (81) The Ideal Military HeroCoyote HeaddressCoyote headdress (Teton Sioux), nineteenth century. Pelt, feathers, canvas, wool, hawk bell. Courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C. (78) Spontoon and Gorget
Bear Claw NecklaceAnimal claw necklace (Teton Sioux), mid-nineteenth century. Bear claws, hide. Courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C. (82) PlantsIn his instructions to Lewis, Jefferson directed the party to observe and record “the soil & face of the country, it's growth & vegetable productions, especially those not of the U.S. . . . the dates at which particular plants put forth or lose their flower, or leaf . . . .” The study and collection of plants was one of Jefferson's life-long pursuits. When he instructed the Corps in their approach to cataloging the country's flora, Jefferson again set the pattern for subsequent explorations. Jefferson, however, was not purely motivated by science; plants thought to have medicinal properties, like tobacco and sassafras, were important to the U.S. economy. As the Napoleonic Wars swept Europe and affected exports to the United States, there was a call to reduce America's dependence on foreign medicine and find substitutes on native soil. Indians and Europeans had been exchanging knowledge about curing and health for three centuries, yet they still held very different beliefs. Indian doctors focused on the patient's relationship to the animate world around him. Euro-American doctors saw the body as a mechanical system needing regulation. Meriwether Lewis, instructed by America's foremost physician Dr. Benjamin Rush, University of Pennsylvania botanist Benjamin Barton, and his own mother, a skilled herbalist, was to serve as the Corps doctor, but William Clark also became adept in treating various illnesses. Though Clark rejected Indian explanations, he often turned to Indian techniques when members of his own party became ill. Curing the CorpsTourniquet, early nineteenth century, brass, leather, iron. Lancet, early nineteenth century. Tortoise shell, steel. Clyster syringe, late eighteenth century. Pewter, wood. Courtesy of the Mütter Museum, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia (86, 87, 88) Rules of Health
Summoning the Spirits
A Botanical SpecimenCamassia quamash (Pursh), [“Collected by Lewis at Weippe Prairie, in present-day Idaho, June 23, 1806.”]. Herbarium sheet. Courtesy of Academy of Natural Sciences, Ewell Sale Stewart Library, Philadelphia (84) Flora Americae Septentrionalis
Root Digging BagRoot digging bag (Plateau), pre-1898. Wild hemp and bear grass or rye grass, with dyes of alder, Oregon grape root, wolf moss, algae, and larkspur. Courtesy of the Maryhill Museum of Art, Goldendale, Washington (95) A Gathering BasketBasket (Plateau), pre-1940. Cedar bark. Courtesy of the Maryhill Museum of Art, Goldendale, Washington (97) A Sally BagSally bag, pre-1898. Corn husk, dogbane [wild hemp]. Courtesy of the Maryhill Museum of Art, Goldendale, Washington (96) Storing RootsParfleche bag (Sahaptin), early nineteenth century. Hide, pigment. Courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C. (90) What principle explains why we help children and others who Cannot give back as much in return?One explanation for such behavior is based on the principle of reciprocal altruism (Trivers, 1971). Reciprocal altruism is the idea that if we help other people now, they will return the favor should we need their help in the future.
Which of the following is the most powerful predictor of friendship?Closeness is probably the most prominent predictor of friendships.
When people agree to a larger request after agreeing to a small request they have succumbed to?Terms in this set (105) Once people have agreed to a small request, they have a tendency to comply with a larger request. This is known as: the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon.
Which question would a social psychologist be least likely to research?Which question would a social psychologist be LEAST likely to research? In what situations do people tend to exhibit helping behavior?
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