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Native American Perspectives On The Lewis And Clark Expedition

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In the year 1803, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, alongside 31 other people, set out to find the source of the Mississippi and “discover” the land that they had bought from the French-- Louisiana. This expedition was by the command, and in the name of, President Thomas Jefferson. However, I believe that the Native Americans were the real heroes of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, as they guided the group in two (and probably more) instances, and went on to endure the aftermath of the expedition. While this isn’t evidence of them being the real heroes, as it is honestly just disproving the idea that Lewis and Clark are the heroes, the Corps of Discovery didn’t even do anything that great, and are being constantly romanticized by America, …show more content…

According to the documentary View From the Shore: Native American Perspectives On the Lewis and Clark Expedition, they talk about how the Native Americans “...told them the riverways, and gave them maps.”. This tells me that the land they were travelling had already been discovered. One of the biggest arguments that Lewis and Clark helped was that they had learned the land, and potential places to set up settlements, but they could’ve easily just learned all of that knowledge from the Natives, but they went the long way and “discovered” it, when they couldn’t have even have “discovered” anything without help of the Native Americans. And you can’t say that they couldn’t have just asked the Natives because of the language barrier, because they had …show more content…

Once again, according to Discovering Lewis and Clark, they state [and connect with my last paragraph point] that another reason why the group isn’t that well known in Native history is because the “Native Americans were inundated with move pressing matters than memorializing the explorers.” Later on they go on to explain themselves, talking about how Lewis and Clark’s expedition caused Americans to believe that they suddenly knew everything about the land, and start extending their territory and their settlements into Native’s land, bringing epidemics such as smallpox, which devastated the Native Americans, and taking them from their rightful lands and placing the Natives to reservations. Honestly, them just enduring that is an act of heroism all in

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