L is for L Blogs (Feature Friday) & Lewis & Clark Expedition

Before we get started, I wanted to pay some props to the Pikes Peak Library District, here in Colorado Springs. They put on great programming, and are wonderful in their support of local authors, putting on programs like this weekend's Mountain of Authors. It's National Library Week; have you visited your library lately?

Today I'll share some "L" blogs with you!

Lady Reader's Bookstuff is full of book reviews, author interviews and giveaways.

Erica M. Chapman is a literary agent intern at L. Perkins Agency, and she blogs at Laugh.Write.Play. She does author interviews, as well as posting interesting information about writing.

Laura Barnes writes about writing and learning how to market herself, but she also does a Blog Critique day about author blogs over at Laura B Writer.

Lisa Ricard Claro writes at Writing in the Buff about...writing. However, she has a fun voice, and she posts microfiction each week.

And, of course, I can't leave out my fellow co-host and bloggie friend, Katrina, over at Life is Good. With a title like that, how can you not check it out? For the A-to-Z, she is teaching us Swedish!

Cathy Olliffe-Webster teaches us about Life on the Muskoka River. She is hysterical! You won't regret stopping by.

Over at Little Red Henry, Heather Henry shares her art and photography with us. That's right! This is not a writing blog! I do follow something other than writer's blogs.

I've recommended this site before, because it is fun and different, but I'm doing it again today. Maeve Frazier at LolliPop's Cottage posts children's book reviews accompanied by yummy recipes.

ewis & Clark Expedition

In May 1804, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on an expedition across the United States. He wanted a water route that would create an easier passage to Asia for trade. He also wanted an accounting of what resources he had gained with the Louisiana Purchase, and to establish trade with the Natives, paving the way for sovereignty over them. In addition, some sources say he wanted to establish the U.S. presence on the west coast before Europeans could do so, thus making it easier to take over that territory.

In other words, there was a lot hanging on this journey.

Their group was called the Corps of Discovery, with Lewis as its leader. He chose Clark as his second. The two of them were veterans of the Indian Wars, Lewis having been a captain in the U.S. Army. They were supplied with cartography equipment, as well as many weapons and specially made coins meant as Indian Peace Medals. They had plenty of safety equipment, such as medications, and gifts for those they might meet.

Thirty-three people left Illinois Territory on May 14, 1804, heading to Missouri, where they would begin their trek along the Missouri River into the west. They lost their first member to appendicitis on August 20 in Iowa, Sergeant Charles Boyd.

Many Native tribes gave them aid through their travels. The only tribe they found trouble with were the Sioux. Things became tense between them, and the travelers built Fort Mandan in North Dakota to stay safe. This was in the winter. They continued north-west along the river, which is where they met a fur trapper and his fifteen-year old Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, who would continue on their journey with them, acting as a translator and helping with diplomacy when approaching Natives. It is said that she was not, in fact, their guide.

From this point on, they took canoes via several rivers, including the Snake and Columbia, ending up just past Portland, Oregon. They built Fort Clatsop near Astoria, OR to make it through their second winter, allowing both Sacagawea and an accompanying slave, York, to have a vote in where to put the fort, which was rather unheard of at the time.

They began the journey home March 23, 1806, splitting up July 3 to do further exploration. Both ran into Natives, with Lewis's group killing two Blackfeet during a struggle over weapons.

They reunited on August 11, Lewis having been injured when a member of his party shot him, thinking he was an elk. They arrived back in Missouri on September 23, 1806, having successfully mapped a passage to the west coast and made friendly contact with many tribes (as well as a couple bouts of not-so-friendly contact). They brought back journals full of data on indigenous lands, plants, minerals and other resources. Unknown to the Natives they had encountered, the Doctrine of Discovery meant that the medals, gifts and flags they had left behind in Indian Territory meant they could ultimately claim title to their lands. Rather unfair when the Doctrine of Discovery means diddly squat to the folks currently living on that land.

Their expedition was considered a success, though they had also been expected to find the Northwest Passage, which they failed to do. Lewis was made governor of Louisiana Territory upon their return, and Clark was promoted within the military and made a Superintendent of Indian Affairs. On October 11, 1809, three years after the expedition, Lewis died; he was 35. The true cause of his death is a mystery. He was staying at an inn near Nashville as he journeyed to Washington, D.C. to resolve some issues of non-payment. Shots were heard, and Lewis was discovered in his room, bloodied, with a portion of his skull missing. The official coroner's report said he was murdered, while some officials said it was suicide. His descendants called for the exhumation of his body between the years of 1993 and 2010, but after many back and forth court battles, were told it would not happen.

Clark lived quite a bit longer, dying September 1, 1838, age 68, in St. Louis, Missouri. His life after the expedition was marked by his involvement with Jackson's Indian Removal Policy. It is said he tried to maintain peaceful relations with the Natives, but he was also a seasoned Indian fighter and did not hesitate to fight, including in the Black Hawk War, where he issued an extermination order.

Sacagawea has two possible death stories. It is known that Clark convinced her, her husband, and the son she had birthed on the expedition, to accompany them back to Missouri. She birthed a daughter, who, it is believed, died in childhood. The whites say that Sacagawea died of a fever on December 20, 1812. On August 11, 1813, Clark officially adopted her ten year old son and one year old daughter.

Native oral tradition gives another story of her death. It is said she left her French-Canadian husband and married a Comanche. She then is said to have traveled back to the Shoshone people and lived until April 9, 1884. This woman was known as Povio, and told of a long journey where she helped white men get to the Pacific Ocean. Porivio had in her possession an Indian Peace Medal, like the ones given out by Lewis and Clark on their expedition.

Two mysteries wrapped up in one story!

For an interesting educational resource, see the National Geographic site on Lewis and Clark.

What do you think? Murder or suicide? Did Sacagawea die an early death in Missouri, or live to a great age, having left her two children behind to return to her Native roots?

May you find your Muse.

*Letter L by OCAL at clker.com
**Dual photos of Lewis and Clark, == Summary == Lewis and Clark. Made from the images at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:MeriwetherLewis.jpeg] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:WilliamClark.jpeg]. == Licensing == {{PD-self}} Uploaded from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:, by User Urban, Wikimedia Commons
***Expedition Map, This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license., Wikimedia Commons
****Painting Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia (28 × 24 in (71.1 × 61 cm)) by Charles Marion Russell; Opaque and transparent watercolor over graphite underdrawing on paper, 1905, Charles Marion Russell [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons