The Corps of Discovery: The Nucleus of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

By Nathan Deng (SMHS ‘20)

In my Honors US History class, students learn about something called the Corps of Discovery and in this regard they learn that:

• The Corps of Discovery was “an American expedition from May 1804 to September 1806 commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson in 1803
• The primary goals of the Corps of Discovery was to explore the western United States after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and establish trade and U.S. sovereignty over the native peoples along the Missouri River.”
• “A total 59 people participated in the Corps of Discovery, with the majority of the expedition party having consisted of US Army volunteers.
• The expeditions primary goals was to explore the territory Louisiana Purchase, and establish trade and U.S. sovereignty over the native peoples along the Missouri River.

When writing the Historical Fiction Letter appearing below, San Marino High School student Nathan Deng, assumed that he was a Corps of Discovery (aka Lewis and Clark Expedition) volunteer.

He also assumed that he was writing his letter on the evening of Friday, November 15, 1805, hours after the Corps of Discovery had arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River and for the first time saw the Pacific Ocean.

— — — -

Dear high school graduating class of 1805:

Most of you may believe that we are dead after more than a year with no new details about the progress of our journey across the western half of the continent, but we are in fact well and alive with great news: We have finally arrived at the Pacific coast!

The geography and ecology of the uncharted territory along our route to the Pacific has been exceptionally diverse and extraordinary, if not sometimes dangerous and unpredictable. During the first year of our expedition, we traveled up the Missouri River and passed through a magnificent landscape of grassy plains abounding with a variety of large animals, including bison, elk, and deer. We also encountered a peculiar burrowing rodent, which we drowned out of its den and sent to President Jefferson for further scientific study.

After passing through the plains and past the thundering Great Falls of the Missouri, we entered the rugged mountains of the west, where we saw countless river valleys interspersed between a vast maze of towering snow-capped mountains that were clothed on the sides with a blanket of dark green conifer trees. The numerous snowstorms that we encountered while travelling through this stunning but daunting landscape proved to be, at several times, life-threatening for us, especially when we were starving along the Lolo Trail and were forced to eat portable soup, candles, and horses.

Fortunately, by October, we had crossed the worst of the mountain ranges, and we journeyed down several thundering whitewater rivers until we reached the wide, slow-moving Columbia River, which we followed until we had reached the river’s mouth at the Pacific Ocean. The landscape here of impressive virgin rainforests of moss-covered conifer trees that grow right up to the rugged shoreline is often shrouded in a thick sheet of cool fog.

Although we exult over our achievements, we cannot forget to reflect on the importance of the help that we received from the Native Americans whom we met during our challenging but memorable journey west. Without their help, we would have become hopelessly lost and eventually starved to death in the unforgiving wilderness. Perhaps, however, the Native American who has provided the most help has been Sacagawea, one of the two wives of our interpreter, French-Canadian fur trapper Toussaint Charbonneau. We met Sacagawea and her husband in November of last year when we were preparing to settle in for the winter after travelling a considerable distance across the Great Plains.

Both Sacagawea and Charbonneau joined our expedition party when we resumed our journey in the spring and remain with us today. Although she had to care for her newborn baby, Sacagawea remained loyal to our expedition and guided us through the wilderness with the help of other Native Americans. She calmly recovered our supplies when they were washed into the river during a rough storm, and she helped us negotiate with the numerous Native American tribes along the way to provide us equipment, horses, and food, especially in times when we were destitute.

Now that the Corps of Discovery has reached the Pacific coast, we will soon need to decide where to settle for the upcoming winter. For tonight, using planks from an abandoned Native American village, we have built temporary camps on a sandy beach along the bay. Although we have failed to find the Northwest Passage, which would have served as a quick route across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, we have successfully established friendly trade relations with numerous Native American tribes. Moreover, we have many objects of cultural and scientific value to bring back to the east, and we have gained valuable information about the geography and ecology along our route west, which we have noted in our journals, notes, and maps.

By the time this letter arrives to you, we will probably already be on our way back to St. Louis, Missouri, but in the end, we hope that our expedition will help facilitate the growth and westward expansion of the United States, our country.

Sincerely,

Nathan Deng
US Army Volunteer
Corps of Discovery

SOURCES

“Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.” Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/. Accessed 15 Nov. 2018.

“Lewis and Clark.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/lewis-and-clark. Accessed 15 Nov. 2018.

“Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.” U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/lecl/index.htm. Accessed 15 Nov. 2018.

McNamara, Robert J. “York, the Enslaved Member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.” ThoughtCo, Dotdash, 4 Apr. 2017,

ACADEMIC HONESTY STATEMENT

I declare that this work is my own work and that I have correctly acknowledged the work of others. This work is in accordance with the SMHS Academic Honesty Policy and its guidance on good academic conduct and how to avoid plagiarism and other assessment irregularities.

• Nathan Deng