Voicing the Voiceless: Double-Consciousness in When Winter Come

For his second book about the Lewis and Clark expedition When Winter Come, Frank X Walker explores the voices of characters forgotten by history. The central character York, William Clark’s slave, and the Native Americans that the Corps of Discovery encountered on their trip have been absent from history or been mythologized through stereotypes. Walker shows his readers that the colonized men and women, both African Americans and Native Americans, have more depth than has previously been depicted. Colonialist literature, like the journals of Lewis and Clark and the history written after their journey, depicts these marginalized men and women as two-dimensional stock characters. Abdul R. JanMohamed states that part of the purpose of the colonialist writing is to “dehistoricize and desocialize the conquered world” (68). As a post-colonialist writer, Walker rehistoricizes and resocializes the history written during or soon after colonization. Through this attempt, Walker shows the double-consciousness of the colonized people who up until this point have had no context and been described as caricatures, stereotypes, or left out of history completely. It is through this exploration of double-consciousness that Walker can begin to create and the reader can begin to relate to an identity for the colonized people.

In his first book about the Lewis and Clark expedition, Buffalo Dance, Walker recognizes the often historically overlooked York. After completing more research, Walker realized that York’s story was not complete. In the introduction, Walker states his aims for When Winter Come: “It seeks to validate the voices of enslaved African Americans and Native peoples during a time in American history when their points of view were considered invalid” (Introduction). Walker’s second book gives a voice to Sacagawea, York’s enslaved wife, and York’s Nez Perce wife along with York himself, which leads to a more complete depiction of the journey. Walker uses the Native American culture as a foil that allows York to understand himself and his lack of an identity outside of the one imposed on him by his master. By comparing the Native Americans’ pre-colonial identity with York’s colonized identity, Walker shows the reader how complex York’s character is.

In his essay “The Souls of Black Folk” written in 1904, W. E. B. DuBois coins the term double-consciousness. DuBois is specifically discussing double-consciousness as an African American’s struggle to reconcile his or her two separate identities: a self-consciousness and an imposed consciousness. Du Bois says that African Americans do not have a true self-consciousness, but rather they see themselves through “the revelations of the other world” (694). He writes, “It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings” (694). While DuBois is writing after the end of slavery, this idea of double-consciousness is revealing when considering Walker’s When Winter Come. Walker shows York continually struggling to understand his identity. As he travels on the expedition and meets different Native American tribes, his eyes are opened to men and women who have formed their own identities outside of colonization. Walker creates an environment in which York and the reader can begin to explore the dual nature of identity after colonization.

While preparing to write both books, Walker did extensive research into the life of York and his experience on the expedition. One book that Walker found particularly useful was Robert Betts’ In Search of York. Betts takes the reader through York’s depiction in history, both in Lewis and Clark’s journals and in subsequent history and novels written about the trip. It is important to note that Lewis and Clark’s journals do not depict York simply as a stereotype. Through the journals, it is clear that York contributed strongly to the success of the expedition. York is not a central figure...