WEBVTT - How Lewis and Clark Worked 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:04.800 Brought to you by the All New Toyota Corolla. Welcome 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:14.360 to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:16.959 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:22.599 Charles W. Lewis Bryant. I thought you were gonna come me, touis. Yeah, 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:25.520 I thought, you know, like I thought about it. You're 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:28.760 like that chuckle, do that dumb joke. I wondered if 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:32.319 I was related to um Mr Clark. Oh yeah, yeah, 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:34.880 I'm just gonna say I am from now on. She's like, 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:38.000 if you heard of William Clark, the explorer, Lewis and Clark. Yeah, 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:41.760 well I'm Josh Clark because Clark's the unusual name. You 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:47.040 might be no, but I mean like his family, Uh 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:53.120 was from the Ohio River Valley. I grew up in Toledo. Hey, 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:57.280 there you go. I wonder you have an explorer spirit. 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:01.880 You're a laid back guy. He was laid back yep, 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:08.000 not like Lewis. He was semi literate. Yeah, I'm fairly literate. Yeah, 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:10.840 that's the big distinction. It is funny, like have you 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:14.440 read some of his verbatim journal unentry Clark's or Lewis's, well, 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:18.399 both of them, but Clark's way worse. Uh. Yeah, Lewis 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:20.720 is pretty good writer, I thought, yeah, but he had 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:25.839 some weird spellings. To Clark was just like frontier Kentucky 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:30.800 boy writing in a Yeah. They were a good pair though. Yeah. 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:33.640 And this isn't one of those podcasts where or stories 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:36.320 where you look back and you're like, oh, you know, 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:38.720 histories really pumped this up and they were really kind 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:42.200 of like this and like jerks and no, No, this 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:44.880 was really a great story and they were actually true 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:51.560 American heroes, you know, one semi tragic. I would say, well, 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:56.520 the ending is pretty tragic. No, but Lewis lewis manic depressive. Yeah, 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:00.600 by all accounts. Yeah, back then they called it prone 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:05.800 to you know, prone to fits, but modern people say, no, 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:10.000 he was probably manic depressive. Uh. And I prepped by 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:14.480 watching the four hour Ken Burns documentary last night. Four hours. Yeah, 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.440 I thought it was two hours, and I was like, oh, 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:20.160 I got this, And then I got to, uh, the 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:21.880 two hour point, and I was like, wait a minute, 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:24.000 they just hit the Continental divide. I don't think I'm 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:26.600 at the end. That's so funny because in the email 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:30.920 you you emailed me to suggest that I watch it. 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:34.760 You called it a six part not four hour. Well 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:36.960 they had it on YouTube in six parts, but in 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:41.240 actuality it's twelve parts. All right, So let's do this. 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:43.240 This is one of my favorite stories in history, is 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:47.000 it really? Yeah? Man? And again I've said this before. 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.120 Why isn't this a movie, like a really good movie? Not? 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:56.959 Have you seen almost heroes? Yeah? Right, there you go. No, alright, 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:00.840 So Chuck um Lewis and Clark Merriwether Lewis William Clark, 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:09.000 pair of UM army folk turned explorers thanks to a 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:13.000 little bit of um I guess serendipity. It would have 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:15.399 been somebody else had it not been these guys. Because really, 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:19.400 the whole idea of this expedition, which was called the 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:24.760 Core of Discovery, it sounds like a soccer team. Um 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:28.320 it was. It was the brainchild of Thomas Jefferson. Yeah, 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:32.040 in the brainchild of t J. Because he's like, hey, 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.040 I just bought I just doubled the size of our 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.960 country by buying a bunch of land from Napoleon. Do 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.160 you know the background on that, the Louisiana purchase. I know, 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:46.040 it's the greatest land deal in the history of the world. Probably, 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:48.800 But what what do you mean, Well, it was the 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:52.920 Frenches land and they were about to get it from 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:55.839 they were about to get it given to the Spanish. Well, 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.080 the Spanish were west of them, so probably, and the 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:00.880 French like had barely any presence in this area, but 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:04.280 it was their land. But the Spanish, had they taken over, 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:06.800 they would have been a real problem because the Americans 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:08.880 had access to the Port of New Orleans because the 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:12.920 French were basically absentee landlords there, and so the idea 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:14.760 that the Spaniards were about to get it, that was 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:16.919 a big problem. So Jefferson sent some people over to 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:20.040 France to try to negotiate something, and it turned out 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:23.440 Napoleon was having all sorts of problems and it had 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:26.640 been recommended to him by his people, like just sell 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.279 it to the Americans. They're coming over, they want to talk. 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:33.240 So I think James Monroe was sent by Thomas Jefferson 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:37.280 with the a limit of ten million dollars to do 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:40.559 something to buy Florida and New Orleans or New Orleans 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:44.080 for ut the ten million dollars, Monroe found out he 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:48.040 could get all of the Louisiana territory, which went up 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:51.880 to Canada. Yeah, Louisiana is really undersells it. It was. 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:54.560 They went from the Rockies all the way over to 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:58.080 the colonies and then up to Canada and down to 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:00.920 the Gulf of Mexico. It was a double the size 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:04.680 of our country. Yeah, overnight. So Monroe was like, I'll 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.000 give you fifteen million dollars for it, and the French 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:10.000 are like sold. So he bought eight hundred and twenty 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:14.880 seven thousand square miles of North America about three cents 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.720 an acre, and uh, that was a chunk of change, though, 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:22.320 I think that was double what our are gross economy 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:24.560 was at the time. But it's a pretty good investment. 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:27.040 That's a great investment. Could you imagine, though, how weird 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:30.000 that would be off if it had gone a different way. 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:32.480 The United States could have ended it about the Mississippi River, 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:35.960 which it did at the time, and just beyond that 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:39.280 on the other side could have been Spain or not Spain, 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:40.960 but you know what I mean, a Spanish colony. Well, 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:43.039 it could have been a lot like um Africa, you know, 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:45.880 like all these former colonies that are just like adjacent 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:47.720 to one another. But this is a French colony. This 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.120 was a Belgian colony. This was a British colony, and 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:52.240 I think the Brits controlled Canada and like the Oregon 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:56.120 territory at the time. Yes, um, yeah, we were all 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:58.680 sandwich kind of in there together. So we buy from 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.360 the French, we go fight Spanish for the rest of it. 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:05.599 And uh, in between all of this, we send Lewis 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:09.040 and Clark to go check out what had just been bought. 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:12.680 And this expedition was gonna happen anyway, but we thought 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.080 that we were going to have to ask for permission 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:18.400 to go through this area. But now all of a 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:22.320 sudden it was America. And that added a facet to 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:25.279 this expedition that hadn't been there before, which was basically 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:28.080 informing the Indians that they were now living in America 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:31.800 and they had um a new great father, which is 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:35.440 how Meriwether Lewis put it. How he described t J. Yeah, 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:37.680 you have a new great father who lives in a 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.400 lodge in Washington, d C. And you can come visit 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:42.200 him and see like how great it will be to 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:47.120 live under his patronage. But not really right sign this treaty. 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:51.320 Uh so uh he named he was his private secretary. 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:54.960 Lewis was his kind of personal aid, and he knew 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:57.000 what kind of dude he was. Maybe drink a little 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:01.280 too much, was prone to depression, but he he sort 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.120 of gave him this job to help him out. He 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:06.120 thought he'd be good for it. Don't get me wrong, right, 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:08.200 he groomed him for the position. But yeah, he he 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:10.400 thought it would be. He had he had invested interest 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:12.760 in the man, and he's like, this is gonna be 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:15.440 really good for Lewis, is what he needs. He's twenty 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:20.400 nine years old, which is remarkable to me. Uh good, sharpshooter. 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:23.200 He said, you pick your partner. He picked William Clark, 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.720 who was his former captain I believe in the army, 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:28.680 a couple of years older. And he looked up to 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:32.000 Clark quite a bit. It was like, I need you, brother, 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:37.320 because you compliment You complete me, right, which, by the way, 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:40.240 we should probably say there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever that 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:44.680 Lewis and Clark were ever gay. Clark definitely wasn't. Yeah, 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:47.760 there's a lot of conjecture about Merriwether Lewis was. He 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:50.480 courted several women and was rejected by all of them. 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:55.000 He was a total eligible bachelor, never married, never was 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:58.960 engaged or betrothed or anything. So of course, as time 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:02.560 wore on, people were, well, he must have been gay. Yeah, 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:04.840 there's been a lot of a lot of conjecture, and 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:09.040 they come up with the idea that he probably wasn't gay, 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:14.360 but that he was um bye. You know that he 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:16.880 had um something of an aversion to women that was 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:20.600 not necessarily based on any kind of sexual orientation. He 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:22.640 just didn't know what he was doing and he didn't 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:25.640 feel comfortable around women. Well, like we said, he was 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:28.040 by all accounts manic depressive, So he was kind of 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:29.400 a messed up guy in a lot of ways, a 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:33.559 little bit semi tragic figure. You said, yeah, and we'll 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:36.600 get to that. Um, the main goal, well, there are 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:39.840 a couple of main goals. The main goal for Jefferson was, Hey, 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:42.960 I want to find this all water route to the 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:47.200 sea that's really important for trade. And also, hey, let's 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:49.920 check out this thing we just bought and go out 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:55.440 and record as much of it as you can. Animals, plants, people, Uh, 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:57.520 what the heck is out there? Basically come back and 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.200 tell us. Right, and Lewis wasn't exactly a slide, which 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:01.800 when it came to this kind of stuff. His mother 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:06.599 was a celebrated herb doctor um in Virginia. Yes, you 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:09.320 knew what she was doing. And um, she kind of 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:11.280 raised him in the woods, so he was he was 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:14.120 pretty good at botany. But to just kind of further 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:16.200 his education and not just that, but all sorts of 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:18.239 other things that would come in handy on the expedition, 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:23.160 Jefferson sent him to the American Philosophical Association, which was 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:27.280 the first learned society in North America, and basically he 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:32.080 underwent this like grueling crash course of everything from astronomy 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:37.280 to cartography to geology, medical training, everything everything you could 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:40.200 you would need. They basically just filled Lewis's head with 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.160 and he in turn filled Clark in on a lot 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:45.200 of it too. Yeah, also a lot of what they 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:49.640 might encounter in ways of uh, we'll call them Indians 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:51.760 for the purposes of the show, because that's what they 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:54.160 called them, right, And Jefferson was like, and don't forget 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:59.120 to call me great father. It's awesome. So, um, Lewis 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:02.440 is in Pittsburgh or in Philadelphia getting this training. He 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.120 writes to Clark, says, please join me on this and 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:08.439 you were my captain. I'm a captain. Now we're gonna 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:11.280 be co captains on this, just so there's not any 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:14.680 kind of weirdness or anything like that. Like I'm I 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.360 was chosen to leave the expedition, but I'm choosing you 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:20.720 for help. But let's do this evenly, which is unheard of, 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:25.320 and it actually even more unheard of. It worked out 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:28.160 really well. Yeah, it did. Like there wasn't any kind 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:31.760 of like backbiting or problems, and they actually ran it 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:34.679 a bit like a democracy too. Yeah. In the end 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.400 um the they were kind of described as a family, 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:42.040 like really really tighten it. I kept waiting for the 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:44.480 story to go off the rails, but it didn't. They 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:49.000 really hung together and stuck together. After some initial discipline 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:51.679 problems once they kind of weeded out, I think from 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:53.360 summer to fall they kind of weeded out some of 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:56.520 the bad apples. Well, what's funny. One guy got um 0:10:56.800 --> 0:11:01.320 discharged for mutinous acts and another guy got discharged for desertion. 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.000 But they they this happened in the middle of the 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:07.480 the first leg of the trip, so they had to 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:10.000 stay on and so they could get them to a 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:12.439 place where they could go back. So they just had 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:17.439 them doing hard labor the whole time. Wow. Uh so, Um, 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:20.200 they brought along a couple of people of note. One, 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.600 Clark took his slave, York, that he had had since 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:26.920 he was a kid. He was only only black guy 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:32.240 and only slave on the on the party, right on 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:35.440 the adventure party, we'll call it. He was he was 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.600 technically a man servant I guess, like a valet or 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:42.520 something like that to Clark outside of the expedition, but 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:46.440 on the expedition, York was basically just a member of 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:49.800 the party. Yeah, he was a member of the party. Um. 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:53.560 He played a really great role in diplomacy because, uh, 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:58.240 the American Indian was had never seen black people before 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:01.720 and they didn't have hang ups obviously like white people did. 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:05.560 So they're like, this guy is awesome. He's huge, and 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:09.600 he's strong, and look at that, like amazing black skin 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:11.920 that's even darker than ours. Like they really thought he 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:14.240 was great. And I'm you know, I'm sure all the 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:16.880 white people and they were like, well, yeah, look at me, 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:19.920 Look what about me, my pale white skin. I'm friends 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:21.840 with the great father. But he played a great role 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:24.840 in diplomacy. Um, and like you said, was generally treated 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:27.920 pretty well. Um. Although he did get sort of sort 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:30.440 of some of the crap duties. Well, plus he also 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:33.360 got royally screwed over at the end of the expedition. 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:35.880 Oh yeah, we'll get to that though. Okay. Uh. And 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:39.160 so we have York with Clark, and then um Louis 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:43.320 purchased a dog for twenty dollars name c Man. And 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:46.240 they used to think it was scanning because these guys 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:51.920 um handwriting was so bad that for yeah, basically a century, like, 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:55.319 everybody thought it was scanning for two centuries. And then 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:57.640 somebody figured out, well, wait a minute, why is one 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:02.120 of these rivers called Siemens Creek right, And then they realized, wait, 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:05.080 that's the dog. That's the dog. Everybody, by the way, 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:07.720 had something named after them, and they had trouble coming 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:10.920 up with names for everything, like York, the York Islands 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:14.360 of Montana, like everybody on that tour had something named 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:16.439 after them, which is kind of neat. So he was 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:18.720 a Newfoundland dog and he made it the whole way. 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:21.480 We're happy to go ahead and spoil that one. Yeah, 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:23.800 which is great because they ate dogs, by the way. 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:25.559 At some point on this trip, they had a lot 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:29.600 of horse. Yeah, they did, so like you said they 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:33.439 started in Pittsburgh, but the officials start was really in St. 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:39.800 Louis in December of UM three, and they're like, all right, 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:42.560 let's hit the river, the Missouri River. Well, that's where 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:47.079 they assembled camp and wintered. They started all their people 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:49.880 and ran them through like army training, and took the 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:51.880 best of the best. They officially started in May, the 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:53.720 falling spring. Of course, you wouldn't start in the winter. 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:56.760 Uh So they had a big keel boat and a 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:59.880 couple of smaller canoes and said let's hit the river. 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:03.959 And they did. So they stillst to it because again, 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:08.360 ultimately Jefferson was looking for a northwest passage across the 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:11.360 continent to the Pacific, and he wanted to see if 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:13.600 you could basically ride a river all the way across 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:16.920 the country. Yeah, by the time, I think they're about 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:19.440 forty five people at first, but when they eventually whittled 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.840 it down, the official Corps discovery was thirty three people. Right. So, 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:26.200 they they head out and they start going upstream up 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:29.320 the Missouri River, and it was rough going at first, 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:32.680 and they literally pulling their boat out from outside the 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:37.120 water waist deep by tow rope against the current again. Yeah, 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:40.200 they're going upstream the whole way to the source of 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:43.760 the Missouri River. Yeah. So the first Indians they encountered, 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:47.320 well not the first, the first situation they encountered where 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.160 the Titan Sioux or the Lakota. And they're actually warned 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:53.080 by previous American Indians like, watch out for these guys. 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:58.240 They're basically the mafia of the Missouri River. Like they'll 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:02.800 demand payment, they won't. Uh, they'll take your goods, they'll 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:06.080 control the trade. Yeah. They wanted them to trade exclusively 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.280 with them. Yeah. And they had done this to the 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.120 French in the Spanish for years. Uh and they I 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:14.520 think Lewis called them the pirates of the Missouri. But um, 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:17.480 when they did reach them, it came to a standoff 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:19.560 over a canoe that they they gave them their gifts. 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:21.800 The first thing they would do whenever they encountered a 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:24.320 new tribe was to like give them these trinkets, tell 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:27.680 them about the Great Father, give them like handkerchiefs and 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.320 things like we come in peace and um with with 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:33.640 the Titon Sue though, there was a standoff over a 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:35.320 canoe that they wanted and they're like, we're not giving 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:37.840 this canoe and it literally came to a point where 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:42.000 guns were raised and like hundreds of Indians had their 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.120 arrows pointed at them, and it was about to go down, 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:50.120 and uh, chief Black Buffalo intervened. It was like, you 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:53.040 know what, let our women and children toward your really 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:55.320 cool boat that we've never seen and meet all you 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:58.520 guys and then y'all can have safe passage. So they 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:00.840 managed to get through their unscathed. But that was their 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:03.280 first like run in where they were like, man, this 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:06.560 could go down pretty badly. And luckily that was one 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:10.080 of just a few I think as far as cross 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:15.480 country unchartered expeditions, uncharted expeditions go, this went about as 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:17.720 good as you could possibly hope for. Yeah, I mean 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:23.880 it was super peaceful. Um, they were the well, they 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.000 only shot one bullet in anger the entire trip. It's 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:29.520 pretty remarkable. Man, that is neat. So they hit the 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:32.360 great planes and that might as well have been Mars 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.280 to them. Um, if you think about it, if you've 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:37.680 never been west of I think there's a saying that 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:40.160 a squirrel can jump from tree to tree until it's 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:43.320 the Mississippi. And so when they hit the great planes, 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:44.960 they had never seen anything like it like there were 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:48.800 no trees, just just planes. It's just planes, and it 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:51.200 was just you know, they were absolutely blown away by this. 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:57.800 And uh, there they encountered the Mandan and Minotauri or 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:00.760 Hidatsa Indians, right, and they just I did, all right, 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:03.000 this is pretty good place to build a camp, stay 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:06.000 here for a few months. And they built Fort Manden, 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:08.320 which they named after the local one of the local 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:11.600 tribes and Um and they were buddies. They had like 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:15.680 lived together in harmony, right, they got they they forged friendships, 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:19.360 they were visited by locals, and uh, something big happened here, 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:21.560 which we'll get into in a second, but first let's 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:29.840 do a message. Okay, Chuck. So we're at Fort Manden, 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:34.600 which is we're in South Dakota. I think they were 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:39.480 having a good time hanging out having Yeah, there was 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:42.960 a big problem with venereal disease on the expedition because 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:45.240 like they were having a lot of sex with Indians 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:48.639 and the Indians um had syphilis, which was something that 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:53.240 was unknown to Europeans, and Europeans contracted it very easily. 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:56.680 So that was a big thing. Well that was another 0:17:56.760 --> 0:17:59.600 thing about Louis too. Apparently like everybody else in the 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:03.560 exped had sex with Indian women, and he was like 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:07.240 he stayed away from his journal. Entries about like Indian 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:10.440 sexual practices were very like and just snide. I think 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:14.000 is away one person put it um. Yeah, there's just 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:16.840 he's an odd duck. I get what if he tried 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:20.200 to put on that. He was just you know, cleaning up. 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:23.720 And they're like, Louis, it doesn't hurt when he peas 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:27.400 like something's going on, it doesn't burn. I don't think 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:29.880 he's having sex. He says he had sex with all 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:33.080 those women burns. When is a burn? When you be 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:36.640 doesn't burn? Win Louis Peace. Yeah. So apparently burning when 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:39.960 you pee like was a big thing on this core 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:44.040 of discoveries. Discovered syphilis too, all right. So the other 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:45.919 important thing that happened here, which is I think what 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:49.120 you were getting to was they hired a French Canadian 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:54.080 trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau. But they really what they were 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:58.760 doing was hiring his wife. Yeah, Soicago way or Soicago wea. 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:01.639 I didn't mispronounce that. You didn't mispronounce it. There's a 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:04.240 lot of pronunciations, yeah, but there's only one that's right, 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:07.240 and they're the right. One is based on the journal 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:11.359 entries of Louis Clark everybody else in the expedition. Because 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:14.400 this was an expedition, everyone was expected to like make 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:16.680 notes and and yeah, they were all ord of stuff 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:21.520 down right. And Sacaea is mentioned dozens of times in 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:26.080 these journals because she did do some outstanding stuff. Um, 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:32.360 and she's mentioned phonetically, so it's Socca Gowa. Also at 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:35.760 some point it's also mentioned that her name is Shoshone 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:41.160 for bird woman and the shy Sacaga is bird and 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:47.080 Weya is a woman, so it's Chicago Wea, not Sacca Joeya. 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:50.280 That's right. Well, I mean that's a big point. It's true, 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:53.400 although the ken Burns thing, these historians all pronounced it differently, 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:56.200 which is sort of frustrating. Well, yeah, there's such a 0:19:56.280 --> 0:20:00.320 kaka and then Saca joweyah. Yeah. One of the ladies 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:02.639 called her straight up Sacada and I was like, straight up. 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:08.520 So she was very important because A she was a translator. 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:13.640 B she was essentially a white flag everywhere they went. Um. 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:15.119 And I don't think we said this, but by the 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:18.080 time they broke camp to leave, she had a baby. Yeah, 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:21.080 she actually gave birth to her first child. Um and 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:24.880 Fort Manden Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, Yeah, who was pretty cool, 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:28.399 grew up to be pretty cool. Yeah. Sure, But Scagia 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:31.560 if we say Soca Dwia too, I think that's fair. 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:36.119 Okay she Um, she was sixteen at the time, and 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:38.840 she was married to Charbonneaux. She's one of two of 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:42.280 his wives. Um, and I didn't hear anything about the 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:46.080 other showy woman. Did she not go along? I don't 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:50.960 think so? Okay, all right, so, um she John Baptiste 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:56.720 and Toussaint were a family, even though Sacagawea was Toussant's 0:20:56.800 --> 0:21:00.720 slave wife, like he purchased her. But she was Shoshone. 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:03.840 And the reason why she was so valuable is because 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:07.440 the expedition leaders had found out that the Shoshone were 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:13.120 known for their horsing abilities, and the expedition had two 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:15.359 horses that they set out with, and we're like, we're 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:18.359 gonna need a lot more. So we need to trade 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:20.400 with the Shoshone when we make it to the Rockies, 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:23.800 and we will need this woman. And she comes in 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:27.240 handy to a spectacular degree in this sense. Yeah. And 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:29.320 not only was she a white flag She was just 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:31.560 great for the spirit of the camp to have a 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:35.520 woman there. Uh. And baby was a charmer too. Oh, 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:36.919 of course. You know, you can't pull up with a 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:40.800 woman and a baby and say like we're warring people exactly, 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:44.400 you know, apparently across all tribes along the plains, if 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:46.760 you have a woman and a baby in your party, 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:50.080 you're automatically not a war party, and therefore you come 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:54.120 in peace. Yeah, and she was also pretty awesome. Charbonneau 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:57.960 himself was described as quite average, but Chicago Way was 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:01.280 the real deal, like one of the bravest members of 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:04.159 the expedition. And at one point one of the boats 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:06.520 overturned and they lost we're losing a lot of their 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:09.560 important records and things. And she was the main one 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:12.439 that was like boom in the water retrieving the stuff 0:22:12.800 --> 0:22:14.680 while Charbonneau was I don't know what he was doing. 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:18.080 Who knows what Sharbonneau was doing. But Psychic Awaya was 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:21.160 swimming retrieving the stuff. This is after she'd given birth, 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:26.159 This is while she's breastfeeding, walking scores of miles and 0:22:26.480 --> 0:22:28.639 in a given week, she was pretty tough. Yeah, and 0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:31.080 you know, we'll go ahead and spoil this that baby, 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:33.320 like we said lived. It made it all the way 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:37.080