Lewis and Clark Journey: The Renaming of a Nation

In 1803, an incredible burst of stars falls out of the eastern indigo sky; hundreds, maybe thousands, blaze spectacularly bright, leaving behind glowing trails. Native stargazers consider this a sign—something in the universe warning of a great disaster approaching, something that will begin in the east at the Mnisose, the river. It will bring sickness, starvation, and death. To the Lakota, the Mnisose is the Grandfather River. This immense artery is the source of life to the northern lands.

Mnisose, nomadic, serene,
sometimes violent
has seen stars fall
leaving black holes in the sky

It has heard the prairie wolves
now extinct, it has seen the smoke
rise, stretch along earth's rim
trapping the Sicangu in the low hills
it has seen agony and mindless violence
rise and fall against "the people"

This is the time when the United States purchases the land stretching from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains: the Louisiana Purchase. The U.S. federal government buys land for three cents an acre from the French. It does not seem illegal to the Europeans to be selling and buying what isn't theirs. William Clark and Meriwether Lewis, both military men, are commissioned to explore the Mnisose, the Missouri River. They are to map the land, gather information on the people and on the plant and animal species—all that lived on these lands.

Canwape Nanbleca Wi, May 1804

The Corps of Discovery, as this expedition is named, leaves from St. Louis, Missouri, exploring the Mnisose and its tributaries to its source, seeking a northwest passage, a water route to the Pacific Ocean. Thomas Jefferson, the president of the United States, envisions the expansion of population, commerce, and trade for the growing nation.

from this narrow twisted place
mythical American history is born
like the rings in a great oak, embedded deeply
year after year, generation after generation
directly, indirectly, it poisons and shapes
America's collective consciousness.

On their way up the river, Lewis and Clark meet the Kickapoo, Osage, Oto, Ottawa, Ponca, Arikara, Missouri, and Yankton nations: the peoples of what is now Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Lewis and Clark deliver speeches, express the wishes of the government. Peace medals are given, and paper chiefs are selected for each tribe. They tell the tribes that the land belongs to the United States, to their "Great White Father" who lives in the east. Shotguns and cannons fire from endless arsenals to show the father's power. A Yankton newborn is wrapped in the U.S. flag, and paternalism for native tribes is born.

The soil you see is not ordinary soil
it is the dust of the blood,
the flesh and bones of our ancestors....
The land, as it is, is my blood and my dead
it is consecrated....¹

The Corps of Discovery leaves its calling card, peace medals, the new order of the plains. They give papers to the friendly Indians, but Washington will hardly hear of, let alone recognize, these commissions. Indians are told that the "Great White Father" wants "his children" to live in peace, and that by following his counsel the "Great Spirit" will smile on Indian nations. There are promises of friendship and promises that native homes will always be in this territory. The natives believe them.

destiny held in the stars
ancient nations doomed
kegs of rum legitimize theft and slaughter
of nations, ordered to America's wastelands
like the 6,000,000 who could not escape
Hitler's grasp, they will suffer starvation, disease,
grief and death

This is the beginning of the surrogate parents, the "Great White Father" and "Great Spirit." Both concepts will facilitate the federal government's attempts to dismantle native cultures through secular paternalism. This is the beginning of bureaucratic regulations and hierarchical powers of U.S. government that will dictate the "best interests" of tribal peoples. It is the beginning of a...