Nathaniel Pryor
Nathaniel Hale Pryor was one of the original three sergeants selected for the Corps of Discovery, a cousin of Sergeant Charles Floyd. He led a squad throughout the expedition and was entrusted with critical independent missions, including an attempt to return a Mandan chief to his people after the expedition. Pryor later served in the War of 1812 and became an Indian agent and trader among the Osage in present-day Oklahoma, where he married an Osage woman and was adopted into the nation.
Related Locations
Note: the longest gap between tagged appearances is about 5 months (Nov 15, 1804 → Apr 8, 1805). Nathaniel Pryor may have been present in the corps during that span but is not named in the journals.
Journal Entries (140)
Cross-Narrator Analyses
Analyses that cite or discuss Nathaniel Pryor — showing 6 of the most recent matches.
Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor: A Steady Hand of the Corps of Discovery
IntroductionSergeant Nathaniel Pryor stands among the three non-commissioned officers chosen at the outset of the Corps of Discovery to lead a squad.…
Bare Men, Bullboats, and a Wolf in the Night
The eighth of August 1806 finds the expedition still divided. Meriwether Lewis is descending the Missouri in pursuit of William Clark, who…
Three Camps, One Day: Divergent Trails on the Marias and Yellowstone
By late July 1806 the Corps of Discovery was scattered across hundreds of miles of plains and mountain country. The journal entries…
George Shannon: The Youngest Soldier of the Corps of Discovery
IntroductionGeorge Shannon was, at roughly eighteen years of age, the youngest enlisted member of the permanent party of the Corps of Discovery.…
John Shields: The Expedition’s Blacksmith and Gunsmith
An Older Hand Among Young SoldiersJohn Shields was, at thirty-four when the expedition departed, the oldest enlisted man in the permanent party…
The Crow (Apsáalooke) in the Lewis & Clark Journals: A Distant but Decisive Presence
A Nation Met Only at the EdgesThe Apsáalooke — rendered in the journals as "Crow," "Crow de Curbo," "de Carbours," and (for…
From the Heacock Memorial Archive
1 lewis-clark.org articles that mention Nathaniel Pryor, preserved here for Robert Heacock’s photography. The articles were written by that site’s contributing authors.
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