Discovery

It was on this date two hundred and twelve years ago, November 19, 1805, that Thomas Jefferson’s Corps of Discovery reached the Pacific Ocean. This event being a a year and one-half after they departed Camp DuBois on the east shore of Mississippi near St. Louis. Better known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the journey had varied purposes. One was to find a route to the Pacific, another was to study the plants, animals and geography, a third was to open trade with the Indians, and fourth was the geo-political—claim the land prior to either the British or the French making claim to the western territory. The expedition was largely forgotten until the early 20th century, but their expedition of discovery was not unlike others that occurred over the world from a Euro-centric point of view.

Route of the Corps of Discvoery

Up until the conclusion of WWII there was the saying the sun never set on the British Empire, and it is only the Anglo bias inherent in the nation that the thinking and claims rose that the British were less exacting of native populations than other nations, particularly those in southern Europe. Much our historical works are taken for granted and portray the British as rather regal in their dealings, while the others are more the devil. What is actually known is that some countries, particularly the French tended to better blend in with native cultures, where the British liked to impose their culture. Think of Toussaint Charbonneau, a Frenchman and trapper who was married to Sacagawea, and assisted the Corps of Discovery. Or, think of the French Jesuits who left a much lighter foot print on the landscape than many of the Protestant brethren during times of Anglo expansion. Many like to claim that capitalism began with Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, and while capitalism has brought a high standard of living, it has also brought a whole host of environmental problems and inequality.

Lewis and Clark

Today, it seems that most all European discoveries are claimed as bias, and hurtful to the native populations. Take Columbus. Once hailed as the founder of the continent, he is now denigrated, and much of this denigration comes from persons who themselves have no Native American blood in their genes. Columbus did not find the new world, but he brought about the social and political consequences. However, if it had not been Columbus it would have been someone else, as Europeans knew the seas and were taking advantage of ship technology and expanding knowledge of trade winds. Columbus had appealed to varied royalty to fund his expedition. These royalty, being somewhat enlightened leaders, would pass his request off to their counselors. They quickly realized that Columbus’ math was way off. Contrary to the fable taught for years, they did not think the world flat. The idea that the world was flat, according to Thomas Cahill, was a 19th century anti-Catholic construct (Fake News) by Jean Antoine Letronne, and furthered by Washington Irving.  What Columbus did find was that Ferdinand and Isabella were willing to take a risk, but knowing that his math did not work. It is the taking of risk that has led to adventure and advancement. Being static the world would resolve into some type of entropy of slow degradation.

Aztalan State Park, Pre-Columbian Settlement
near Lake Mills, WI

But, that does not mean that all change is good. Lewis and Clark may have left a light footprint, but what the United States did following the Corps of Discovery expedition to tribe after tribe is just as horrendous as what Columbus did, if not more so, since the world should have become more humane  in the 19th century compared to what it had been the 15th. This would have particularly been teh case had the English been so much more humane than other nations while establishing an empire.  Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the nation, the primary writer of the Declaration of Independence, third President, and a man hailed as having begun the Democratic party, was himself a slave owner. Yet, he was considered “enlightened.” Jefferson, with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was looking to spread the nation’s influence and expand its geography, much like what Ferdinand and Isabella were looking to accomplish with the Columbus expedition. Motive had not really changed over the centuries. Territorial expansion almost seemed (seems?) to be part of human DNA. The United States is still obtaining riches from its western lands. Think natural gas, oil, wheat from the Dakotas. Lumber and fish from Oregon and Washington. All though this, the nation made and broke treaties. They also broke the Native American culture. Some of the remaining reservations in the west are some of the poorest areas in the nation. Think of the Red River Reservation, the Lakota Sioux in South Dakota.

Recreated stockade at Aztalan State Park

The affect to Native American culture from western culture is not only the fault of many explorers and varied empires.  It is easy to sit in a family room or coffee shop in present day United States and criticize those that came before us, even though mores and thinking were different from our own.  It gets to the common idea of whether or not is right to judge a past culture based on present day values.  If present day moral values are to judge past actions, then certainly many pre-Columbian settlements and tribes should also be judged for their slavery to others, and their human sacrifice.  In the end no one culture is perfect and how we view a past culture is also determined by our biases.

It was also on this date, only 58 years after Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific Ocean, that Abraham Lincoln delivered perhaps the most famous address in American history--the Gettysburg Address.