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Along the Lewis and Clark Trail
  In 2004, Americans will celebrate the bicentennial of the Lewis
and Clark Expedition. Senate Resolution 57 of the 105th Congress (1997) added
momentum to the planning activities already underway. Among the "whereas" sections
of Resolution 57 appear the following, read on the Senate floor by Senator Byron
Dorgan.
Whereas the Expedition significantly enhanced amicable relations between
the United States and the autonomous Indian nations, and the friendship and
respect fostered between the Indian tribes and the Expedition represents the
best of diplomacy and relationships between divergent nations and cultures; and Whereas the Native American Indian tribes of the Northern Plains and the
Pacific Northwest played an essential role in the survival and the success of
the Expedition.
In a similar vein, the mission statement of the National Lewis and Clark Bicentennial
Council includes the following: "The Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1803-1806 was
a major event that shaped the boundaries and the very future of the United States.
It is the mission of the National Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Council to commemorate
that journey, re-kindle its spirit of discovery, and acclaim the contributions and
goodwill of the native peoples."
The language of Resolution 57 and of the Council's mission statement reflect
the historical reassessment of the Lewis and Clark Expedition that has been ongoing
during recent decades to take into account the Native American role. A striking
example of that reassessment is the redefinition of Sacagawea's role as the trail
blazer of elementary- school folklore and romantic statuary fame to an Expedition
member with useful, practical knowledge of wild foods and herbs and to an information
broker whose resourcefulness as a go-between was necessary, especially with her
own people, the Shoshones, in the acquisition of horses during that critical time
in the fall of 1805.
Despite the growing recognition of the role Native Americans played in Lewis
and Clark's achievement of American national goals and in the Expedition members'
safe return from their journey, some feel that the tribes and native nations whom
the exploring party met should be watchful of the way the bicentennial is packaged
for public consumption. For example, some members of the Nez Perce Tribe, whom Lewis
and Clark met in the fall of 1805, have voiced the following concerns.
According the the Associated Press (Confederated Umatilla Journal, February
1998), Allen Pinkham Sr., a Nez Perce and a member of the National Lewis and Clark
Bicentennial Council, is concerned that a distinction be made between a celebration
and an observance, saying: "The general population wants to see heroes, and to them
Lewis and Clark are heroes. To us, they mean something completely different." Carla
HighEagle, a member of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee and president of
the Nez Perce National Historical Trail Foundation, wants the bicentennial to be
commemorated, not celebrated.
Native opinion is by no means unified on the issue. For example, the Lewis and
Clark Trail, along with the Oregon Trail and the Nez Perce War Trail, was among
the exhibits featured by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
in its display at the International Tourism Exchange in Berlin, Germany, in March
of this year.
As the bicentennial of the Expedition approaches, the debate over, and exposition
of, Native American concerns will likely heat up. Just as native information brokers
were necessary to the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, so too are they
necessary today to make native perspectives on the bicentennial and other issues
of local, state, and national concern known to the larger society. Among the most
important of the information brokers will be members of the Native American media--publishers,
reporters, broadcasters, and others--who work for the tribes, in this case the native
nations along the Lewis and Clark Trail. In that respect, the role of native publishers
has changed little since William Clark's time.
Meriwether Lewis died only a few years after the Expedition, but Clark lived
to see drastic changes in the relationships between the native nations and the American
nation. In the wake of legislation such as the Indian trade and intercourse acts,
the Civilization Act of 1819, and creation of the Office of Indian Affairs in 1824,
the goodwill and generosity that had marked the Expedition--implied in the peace
medals doled out by Lewis and Clark and inherent in the offers of supplies, hunting
privileges, and safe passage by the Native Americans--gave way to pressure by the
states for control of the Indians within their boundaries and, east of the Mississippi,
for their removal.
It was in part a response to such pressures that the Cherokee Nation sent one
of its young men to the North in 1826 to raise money for a printing press. Elias
Boudinot asked his American audience:
Will not a paper published in an Indian country, under proper and judicious regulations,
have the desired effect? I do not say that Indians will produce learned and elaborate
dissertations in explanation and vindication of their own character; but they may
exhibit specimens of their intellectual efforts, of their eloquence, of their moral,
civil, and physical advancement, which will do quite as much to remove prejudice
and to give profitable information.
Boudinot's speech suggests that he was perhaps too modest about the capabilities
of Indian writers. But, after all, he was a diplomat, an information broker between
the Cherokee Nation and the American nation, much as Sacagawea had been twenty years
earlier between the Americans and the Shoshones and as others would be for their
nations in later years. As a result of Boudinot's efforts, the Cherokee Phoenix
was established in 1828, the first native-owned and published newspaper.
By 1838, the year William Clark died, the Cherokees had failed to convince the
American public of their right to retain their homeland, the Georgia militia had
destroyed the printing press, and the Cherokees were in the process of being removed
to the West. In New York that year, two young Senecas, Maris Bryant Pierce and James
Young, had watched the unfolding Cherokee disaster and had undertaken to publicize
in the American press the opinions of Senecas who opposed the Treaty of 1838, which
called for their removal. Though the tribes along the Lewis and Clark Trail were
not subjected to removal policy in those early years, in the post-Civil War era
a number of them, such as the Pawnees, the Otoes and Missouris, and, for a time,
the Nez Perce, would be removed to Indian Territory.
Founded in the removal era, the native press has served as mediator with the
task of informing non-natives about Native American thought and opinion concerning
issues of mutual concern. It is the mission of the American Native Press Archives
to collect the products of the native press and to preserve that thought and opinion.
As the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition approaches, those wishing
to read more about the native peoples along the Trail might consult backfiles of,
or subscribe to, one or more of the following newspapers.
The Times serves the three affiliated tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation.
In the premier issue (1988) the editor recognized the role of the Times as
an information broker in the last decade of the twentieth century: "We, as a people,
need to look beyond the reservation boundaries to what is happening on the state,
regional and national level because decisions, some not in our best interests, will
ultimately affect us or our future generations." Write MHA Times, HCR3, Box 1, New
Town, ND 58763-9410.
Sho-Ban News, the oldest Native American newspaper in Idaho, is published
weekly for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe of the Fort Hall Reservation. It has published
in its present series since 1976. Write Sho-Ban News, P. O. Box 306, Fort Hall,
ID 83203.
Char-Koosta News is published weekly by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai
Tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation. The News says this about its title:
"The name 'Char-Koosta' is a combination of the names of the last two traditional
leaders of the Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Charlo was the last traditional chief
of the Bitterroot Salish and among the last of his people to move to the Jocko.
Chief Koostahtah was the last of the Kootenai traditional leaders. His office was
eliminated by the Constitution of 1935." In its present series, Char-Koosta News
has published continuously since 1971. Write Char-Koosta News, P.O. Box 98, Pablo,
MT 59855.
The Confederated Umatilla Journal began publication in 1975 to serve the
Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla peoples of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation. It appears monthly in its present series. Write Confederated
Umatilla Journal, P. O. Box 638, Pendleton, OR 97801.
Yakama Nation Review
The Yakama Nation Review, which began publication in 1970, appears twice
monthly. Its motto "Red from cover to cover" reflects its lively content. Write
Yakama Nation Review, P. O. Box 310, Toppenish, WA 98948-0310.
The directors of the American Native Press Archives encourage readers to visit
the Archives or other repositories that preserve such materials and browse not only
the titles profiled here but the dozens of others that are published by tribes and
native nations along the Lewis and Clark Trail.
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