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5 Homeward Bound
- The University Press of Kentucky
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5 Homeward Bound The explorers were so eager to start for home that they left Fort Clatsop a month too early. In late March 1806 they left their winter home and started up the Columbia. They continued to keep journals, draw maps, and collect samples, but they also tried to travel as fast as possible. As the Corps moved eastward along the Columbia, they met many Indians. Most of the meetings were friendly, but some were not. The explorers almost got into a fight with some Indians who stole Seaman. Lewis gave orders to shoot the thieves if necessary, but the men rescued the dog without violence. There seemed to be regular cases of items being stolen or a fight almost taking place. The explorers disliked the local Indians so much that they didn't want to leave anything behind for them to use. When they were done with their boats, Lewis ordered them burned rather than left for the Indians. The Corps continued eastward toward the mountains. They reunited with the Nez Perce on the west side of the Rockies. The explorers believed they were again among friends. It was a good thing they felt that way. In their eagerness to leave their winter camp, they had reached the mountains too soon. The snow was still so deep in the Bitterroots that the Corps spent more than a month with the Nez Perce. They passed the time pleasantly, visiting and playing games. The captains kept busy doctoring sick Indians. The Nez Perce remembered Lewis and 41 Clark so fondly that they remained friends with the U.S. until the 1870s, when they fought to try to keep their homeland. Finally, the snow melted enough to allow the Corps to cross the mountains. Three Nez Perce guides took the party across the trail. On the last day of June they reached the east side of the mountains. The captains were now faced with a hard decision. Should they stay together or should they split up for a while in order to explore more country? They had earlier made a plan that called for Lewis to take nine men directly east to the Great Falls of the Missouri. Once there, he planned to take six of the men north toward Canada. Clark, meanwhile, would retrace part of their route from the year before and get the canoes they left along the Beaverhead River. His group would float downstream to the Three Forks of the Missouri (where three rivers form the Missouri). From the Three Forks, a party would take boats to the Great Falls to join Lewis. Clark would take the rest overland to the Yellowstone River and explore down it. Not much happened to Clark and his party. Indians stole all their horses, so everyone, instead of just part of the group, floated down the Yellowstone. It was along the Yellowstone that William Clark left behind evidence of the Lewis and Clark Expedition's passing through the American West. In late July, the party came to a large rock formation along the river. Clark named it Pompey's Pillar, in honor of Sacagawea's little boy, of whom he was very fond. On it Clark carved his name and date. Meanwhile, a lot was happening to Lewis and his party. They reached the Great Falls without much trouble. Indians had 42 [54.224.124.217] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 11:13 GMT) stolen some of their horses. This caused Lewis to take only three men (Drouillard and the Field brothers) on his scouting trip to the north. The result was almost a disaster. While scouting along the Two Medicine River, they met a band of eight Blackfeet Indians. That night the Indians camped with them. At dawn the next day, the Blackfeet tried to steal the explorers' guns and horses. Lewis and his men had no choice but to fight. They could not be left on foot without guns so far away from the others. In the fight that followed, two Indians were killed. Lewis and his men kept their guns and horses. They quickly traveled south and met up with the rest of the party on the Missouri. This fight with the Blackfeet was the only actual bloodshed between the Corps and American Indians during the whole expedition. Of the thousands of encounters that took place between the explorers and native peoples, this was the only one that ended in violence. This is a tribute to the captains...