Closed Captions Audio Described

Pat Jones, chief of interpretation for the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, welcomes visitors to a bicentennial commemoration event at the Omaha Nation. He thanks Omaha leaders and community members for hosting the Discovery Expedition's traveling exhibit, discusses the flag-raising ceremony reenactment, and introduces speakers who share the broader story of the expedition and its encounters with Native nations.

Transcript

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13:42 We'd like to invite everyone to come on in and have a seat. We have a little presentation that uh is going to continue. So please come on in.
13:58 Good morning. My name is Pat Jones, and I'm the chief of interpretation for Lisa Park National Historic Trail and for the Corps of Discovery team project. I'd like to welcome you this morning here to the Tent of Many Voices. I hope you enjoyed the short ceremony we have here this morning, uh, doing a reenactment of a flag raising that occurred fairly near here over 200 years ago, and you'll hear a little bit more about that, uh,
14:23 historical event here shortly. But we have some presentations that we would like to do and some individuals that I would like to introduce you to. But first of all, I would like to thank the Omaha people for our wonderful visit here. It was way too short. We've only been here for uh less than a week, so we have been on and off the reservation, uh, meeting with individuals,
14:48 everything from organizing. A wonderful hand game that we had on Sunday evening to, uh, planning the events that we've seen over the last couple of days. So the National Park Service is very grateful to the Omaha people for wel welcoming us into their community and into their homes, and I think we've made a lot of wonderful friends here. Um, I would particularly like to, uh, thank, uh, Wynonna San Cyr, who has been one of our,
15:13 uh, main contacts here and organizing this event, as well as Pierre Barra, who I don't think is with us this morning, but, uh, he is busy getting ready for the Sundance that is coming up, uh, so he's got his hands full trying to. Organize the events here and uh other things that are going on in the community. So, um,
15:33 and what I would like to do now is introduce those of you that don't know him, uh give an opportunity to make some remarks. The chairman of the tribal council for the Omaha, Grant. Cool.
15:54 said that I want to thank everybody for being here today, uh, relatives, uh among our people, you know, maybe some I don't know that all. Our listing here from
16:07 sending you I apologize for that for not knowing you. Um, you know, it's always, uh, an honor to be treated as well as we have by the Park Service and the like.
16:20 In all these uh soldiers and everything.
16:23 It was, uh, also, you know, honor to watch what happened here, you know, something that uh took place, as part of our history, almost 200 years ago. And Uh, I think I can speak for all these moments that I heard that we're one of the very few tribes that have never been. removed from their homeland. This is our original homeland we've been here over, you know, 300 years, so, uh,
16:47 I think that's really says something about, uh, how we survived and how we've succeeded, uh, for all these years. And I think, uh, the people that have more knowledge of uh our ancestors and our culture and everything should be up here and I, uh, kind of feel misplaced up here, but. I think we have a lot of individuals in here that you could visit and we'll tell you about not only spirituality,
17:12 but uh the real heritage as, as it's grown through all these years and each of these individuals that were presenting their parents and seeing you and you are a part of that and they've carried it on through all these years and with their ancestors as well. So I think it speaks well about. uh not only uh our present people, but our, our ancestors, you know, that they have enough time, took enough time to
17:35 hand all these things down to the family, generation to generation. So I'm really grateful for that. Again, uh, before I close here, I would like to also mention that we're celebrating our 200 years of the power, and that's gonna be on through the 26th August 26th through 29th. So, uh, anybody in the area, you know, you're more than welcome to come down and see someone. Uh, our original dances,
18:00 uh, with that, I'll, I'll quote them and thank, uh, everyone, Park Service, Pat Jones and all of our staff, um, uh, Mr. Adam Sherry and I just recently met and, uh, say a real special thanks for the prayer that was given by, uh, one of our elders, uh, Lucas. I'm gonna really thank you for that, and there wasn't very good for singing I think it was really, uh, really, really nice and hearing you out here voices in the church.
18:25 I want to thank you for that and I get our points for that. Thank you.
18:31 We have been blessed here in the Tent of Many Voices with uh numerous representatives from the Omaha people who have come and shared their stories with us and with the general public. We've had a significant number of elders of the community who have come down and spent time with us. Um, Peter Me who I mentioned earlier, Joy Howe have actually traveled to other locations. This exhibit has been and,
18:56 uh, Rufus White and his wife Maxine were with us when we were down in, in Omaha, and we have just been very fortunate to have them come and share their stories, uh, with us in the Tent of Many Voices. Uh, it's a significant part of what this project is all about is to give a voice to, uh, the tribal people during this bicentenary of commemoration. And with that, I would like to introduce you now to the
19:20 superintendent for the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, Steve Es.
19:30 Thank you. Uh, I would like members of the Park Service staff and the legacy staff who can come up. He come up here now.
19:51 And Grant as a Cuban.
19:58 Uh, Chairman Grant and
20:03 Members of the Omaha Nation, I'd like to echo Pat's words. Thank you so much. For hosting And for taking us into your community where you can. Oh The bicentennial simply would not be an event. were undertaken
20:26 without the voices of people from the first name.
20:32 want to express our.
20:37 Where you're allowing us to come here. I
20:41 And with that I'd like to. To find
21:14 OK, we're gonna turn this over to uh Captain Lewis.
21:20 I'm gonna go without the microphone. It, it kills the pictures. They give us enough trouble about having motors on the boat, Steve, microphone.
21:31 First of all, I'd like to thank Chairman Grant for something that was very important to us and we're going to have a presentation a little later this morning talking about the Discovery Expedition, but one of the great things that's happened with the Discovery Expedition as we've moved across the country has been the fact that we've been able to help communities from the from Washington DC all the way to the St.
21:53 Louis area last year celebrate not only Commemorate not only the bicentennial but celebrate their own heritage and their own communities along the way, and that's something that's been very important to us is while we're commemorating Lewis and Clark and this journey that took place 200 years ago, we are excited about the opportunity to celebrate the communities and the people who we encounter along the way and
22:17 while this overall bicentennial is a commemoration, and we want to make that distinction, the people along the way need to. Celebrate their heritage and the pride that they have in their communities and their people, and we are so pleased to continue that tradition as we move into Indian country and we're very excited about the prospect that flag that went up this morning on that pole up there. There are two flags there.
22:41 One was a pennant flag that was typical of those used by the Corps during this period 200 years ago, and the other is the tribal flag of people today. And if you notice they're flying together up there and that's significant because 200 years ago two cultures met, two distinct and fully realized cultures met one another and came together near this place
23:05 to find some middle ground and to communicate with one another. When they came to that meeting, they came as proud and independent peoples on both sides. So those flags are flying up there today together and coal, and we're very proud of that. And as you may know, two members of the original. Expedition of the Expedition
23:23 and despite the fact that Cruzat would later shoot Captain Lewis in the rear end, we don't hold that against him, and we want to honor both of those members of the expedition. And one of the things that we're proud to do is as we leave here today, we were very flattered to be presented by the chairman with that flag to fly here today and when we leave here, that flag will fly on our red pirogue as we move.
23:46 This traditional homeland of the people to
23:51 indicate our regard for your people today and recognition of your sovereign nation status as well as to recognize the heritage of those two individuals who served with distinction on this expedition 200 years ago in service of what would become all of our country one day and we're so proud to do that. And with that in mind, Chairman Grant, if I could ask you.
24:41 200 years ago when the corps came by, much of the cargo they were carrying on the keel boat was intended for negotiations with native people. It's important to remember that a lot of times we put this Louisiana Purchase in the perspective of a purchase that we bought something outright. In fact, what happened was we acquired from France the right to negotiate a relationship
25:04 with the native nations that existed in this territory, and part of the purpose of this mission was to negotiate those relationships and regardless of what came afterwards. It is my strong belief, and I know it's the strong belief of the membership of our organization, that that expedition from 1804 to 1806, moving across the interior of this nation,
25:26 but the expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Captain Clark was one of peace and friendship with the promise of hope for the future of people working together to a common goal. And history has given us all twists and turns, but we are here today as the Discovery Expedition to reiterate the message of the first expedition on a peace and friendship,
25:49 and a hope for shared commerce and mutual benefit as we move forward into the 21st century and a new day we hope to restore the root of trust between our people. Thank you, chair.
26:04 Clark a couple of items that would have been typical on the original expedition, and these are gifts to you, sir, as well as to your people as a whole.
26:20 This is the handicap.
26:25 This is a replica Of the Jefferson Peace Medal that was carried by the Corps of Discovery. It has An image of President Jefferson on one side. And the message of peace and friendship on the other. With the clasp pans and the cross pipe tomahawk.
26:46 Chairman Grant My privilege
27:02 Chairman Grant This is a traditional pipe tomahawk.
27:09 In peace and friendships, we'd like to.
27:14 Tomahawk
27:17 that
27:26 While these items are, are for you to hold and to, we want you to know that these are extended to the, to the people as a whole, but uh we know how hard that any politician's life is, and then at some point in the day, you probably are on the weekend want to go fishing or hunting or get away and do something for your own self. And this is a personal gift for you, sir, that we'd like you to use with good health and enjoy it
27:51 and whatever endeavor you make. and this is a hunting knife made by a member of actually a friend of our organization who makes these by hand, as is the hawk pipes that are made by folks who are involved with our organization as we try to keep the traditional skills of our people alive and that's increasingly difficult for all of us to keep our traditional skills alive, this again is a personal gift to you, sir,
28:16 and we hope that you'll use it in good health.
28:23 43 cheers.
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29:04 And last but not least, it's only fitting since you gave us a flag that we would give you one. This is the 15 star, 15 stripe flag that flew over the boats of the expedition when they arrived here 200 years ago today. And despite the fact that your people were out hunting, and many of them were gone and may not have had the opportunity to see that flag 200 years ago, we'd like you to have one now.
29:28 To keep in a gift from us to you all, and we want you to, when you look at this, to think of us, the discovery expedition in Saint Charles, Missouri, and we want to assure that assure you that you have friends on the trail who are continuing to tell the story of the people as we move across this country, and we want people to know that your nation is alive and well and prosperous, and each day has a brighter future. Thank you.
30:06 I don't talk as loud as white people.
30:11 Just
30:13 Thank you for all the uh precious gifts you. The part of the I'd like to mention yesterday, they had some elders sitting up here and telling their stories about their, their lives. And I, I don't think uh there was uh one of them that didn't say there were real problems of being a mom. So that's how I feel right now. I'm very,
30:38 very positive and you know, I can't move very much.
30:51 As Captain Lewis mentioned, 200 years ago when the cops of Discovery came to the homelands of Maha, it was with a message of peace and friendship. And it is that, that same message that we share today. And with the Discovery expedition and with all those involved in the bicentennial, uh, we look forward to 2006
31:15 and beyond. To look back and talk about what our legacy is, what, what the legacy is that we left after our adventure, our Corps of Discovery across the nation. And we hope, in fact, at this point, I think we know that it will be a legacy of peace and friendship and that events like this brought our communities
31:39 and our nation closer together. And our legacy will be one of coming closer together as a nation, as an American family. And it is, it is a, it's an honor to stand here today and a privilege where my ancestors stood with your ancestors. And to be a part of making that legacy become a reality. Thank you, Chairman.
32:03 It's an honor to be here.
32:21 Mhm Ladies and gentlemen, on, on behalf of the National Park Service and Discovery Expedition Saint Charles, thank you for coming for our event this morning and also on behalf of Omaha Nation. Um, our next program here in the 10 of many voices is going to start very briefly. Captain Lewis, Captain Clark, um, Scott Mandrell and Hayden Cuck Clark, Discovery Expedition Saint Charles. We'll be talking a little bit about the
32:45 journey of the second floor of Discovery momentarily, and I want to thank you for coming to our opening event this morning and hope you enjoy the rest of your time here with our Corps of Discovery II.
32:58 I see.
33:02 Ladies and gentlemen, please come join us. Uh, our 11 o'clock program is about to begin, and I'd like to thank you all for coming out this morning. We've got a beautiful day, nice little breeze blowing, and, uh, we're very happy with the temperatures. We are part of the National Park traveling exhibit, the Lewis and Clark traveling exhibit,
33:25 and we are following along in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark and stopping in towns and cities and reservations along the way to talk about the Lewis and Clark story. And when we talk about the Lewis and Clark story, it's not just their story. It's a story of Lewis and Clark, the men that went with them, the woman that accompanied. Them on this journey
33:49 and of all of the people they met along the way. So hopefully our 10 of many voices is a place where all of these voices can be heard and shared to tell the entire Lewis and Clark story and the stories of those people who have followed them and crossed this land as well. So welcome to our traveling exhibit. While you're here, take time to go over and visit our exhibit tent.
34:14 There's a 35 minute audio tour you can do. Of the exhibit we have our scale model keel boat and our Plains Indian TV out in the front so you can see some of the artifacts that Lewis and Clark would have seen on their journey that were used by the Plains Indians at that time. So today, let's go ahead and get started with our program, and we'd like to thank you for joining us,
34:36 and we'll have Scott Mandrell and Peyton Bud Clark here to talk about the journey of the 2nd Corps of Discovery. So I'll turn it over to you all. All right, thank you. We don't have to hold anything. Great. Well, thank you all and I, uh, probably most of the people say here a number of people already know about who we are and there's lot of uh small crowd, but we, we wanna
35:01 let you hear the story of our organization, um. The planning for the bicentennial has been going on for a long time, I guess by a lot of different people, people who, uh, all across the country who had some different connection to the story or whatever, some places in excess of 30 years, people have been anticipating this bicentennial, which is really
35:26 the bicentennial of the what. As many people have referred to it, it's the bicentennial of everything west of the Mississippi River with regard to the United States of America as a nation, and one of the individuals who was keenly interested in taking steps to prepare was a man by the name of Glenn Bishop. And Glen Bishop was from Saint Charles, Missouri,
35:49 and he was a contractor and businessman, and among other things, he was an antique boat hobbyist, and he had built wooden boats in the past and that sort of thing and had a real love for boats and particularly old boats, wooden boats, and they built a couple. And uh living in Saint Charles, Missouri in 1979, I actually had the privilege in 1979
36:11 when I was a little kid of uh of attending the very first. Lewis and Clark Heritage Day event that took place there 25 years ago in that town, and from that time on, roughly, uh there was a deep commitment in the community of Saint Charles to tell their story as it related to the overall expedition in, in this chapter in American history. And
36:33 one of the things that frustrated Glenn very much was the fact that despite the fact that in Clark's field notes from Wood River, There had always been available to anyone who wanted to go and look and see, but there was a, an image of the keel bow that Clark had drawn in his field notes. And yet everywhere you went across the country, every sign for Lewis and Clark had two guys in coonskin caps
36:58 and a birch bark canoe paddling up the Missouri River. And this really irritated Glenn. He was a kind of a, he was a mild-mannered guy, but there's one thing that was a burr under his saddle blanket, it was, it was this image of two guys in coonskin caps in a birch bark canoe. So he decided that in an attempt to set the record straight, that he would build a model of the original keel boat. So people would have an understanding of what this vessel was like.
37:22 And you have to remember that 200 years ago, the largest vessel that had ever plied the Missouri River. was the keel boat that Lewis and Clark had taken with them. This was, this was a massive boat by comparison to, to anything else that's been up there. There were 50-foot canoes, but they were dugouts and things like that, and there were, there were large boats, but nothing like this on this order. So he built the model of it and in 1982,
37:46 kind of showed it to the world as it were, and, and people were very excited. They thought it was neat and that model still exists and it's really quite beautiful and, and all, but it was a 1 inch to 1 ft scale. So even though it was 55 inches long, which is pretty, pretty big. It did not he felt communicate in full the scope of what this vessel was like, and particularly it did not communicate what this
38:10 boat looked like moving on the water. And if you haven't seen our boats, you should, they really are quite spectacular when they move on the water. And so he decided to actually start constructing a replica of the first boat based upon field notes from Clark and Wood River, based upon good information from the uh uh Maritime Museum, the Smithsonian Institute,
38:33 and he studied a great deal about boats that were common and typical at that time. The man who built the original boat for Lewis, we believe is a man by the name of John Walker, and there was a great deal of information about John Walker, who was a boat wright on the Hill River, and using this very good research and having been both a carpenter in his own right as well as a boatright.
38:56 He was able to bring a lot of common practical understanding of what was needed to make this boat operational and that sort of thing. So he started working in 1983 on building this boat in his backyard. If you're not aware, a boat has to be boats like this are built upside down. Well, it's a 55 ft long structure that's bowed and when he was making the frame of it, for the longest time,
39:21 people thought that he was building this wooden greenhouse in his backyard, and he was kind of the object of ridicule in his neighborhood. People would kind of laugh at him and thought he was kind of this eccentric kind of crazy old. And then one day if the planks went on and started to look like a boat and he flipped it over, then people really started kind of giving him a hard time and kind of poking fun at
39:42 him because Glenn had a big white beard and they used to sort of make Noah jokes, you know, and laugh at him, you know, this little guy thought he was Noah building his heart. That was in the mid 80s, late early 90s. Then in 1993, we got the great flood and everybody stopped laughing. And uh at any rate, in '96, the boat was finally finished and we took a 1000 mile trip
40:08 from Wood River, Illinois to Saint Joe, Missouri and back to Saint Charles. It took us seven weeks and it started out as was only gonna be a trip. Wood River up to Saint Charles from the bicenten for the uh for the Heritage Day's event and it kind of grew and grew and grew before you know it was 7 weeks and 1000 miles and it changed many of our lives fundamentally, those of us who were involved with the project because
40:31 we started to see not only the possibilities with regard to the bicentennial, but we started to have a much deeper understanding of the Missouri River corridor and what it represented to us as a nation environmentally. Historically, spiritually, and as this, this great river coursed through the interior of our nation and all the, all the things that, that
40:55 commentated to us as a society, the Missouri River is more than simply a river, it is a, it is an idea in many ways. And it became a passion for many of us, and we had started to plan on what we would do the next year. And indeed, we started working over the winter on the white Perro, the first of the two smaller boats, and we had that boat all framed out.
41:18 And the last day I worked on that boat was the 30th of January of 1997. On the 31st of January of 1997, Glenn and another fellow, CJ Lanahan. Who's been instrumental in our group over the years. They did some finishing touches, some touch up work on the keel boat because that next week, we were going to move the keel boat down to the Trans World Dome
41:41 down where the Rams played football for a big boat show. It's gonna be a display item there of all the boats around it. And they were doing a little touch up on it on the 31st of January, and they left the warehouse that night about 5 o'clock. Glen got home at about 5:20, the phone rang and it was the fire department. The warehouse had caught on fire and the boat that had taken him 13 years to build
42:06 with his own hands by himself and about 40 minutes was reduced to ashes. It was a terrible, terrible thing. It was a devastating experience for all of us. And I remember the next morning standing in the still smoldering embers of that boat. Completely For war. There was a tremendous sense of loss because this boat had come to sort of represent what might be.
42:32 And when I asked Glenn, what are we going to do, his response was, I was never completely happy with that vote anyway.
42:42 And that was the day, and I've said this many times before, but that was the day that I truly understood the meaning of undaunted courage. If a man could spent 13 years of his life by himself, his own money, building this thing that he only wanted to give as a gift to the American. people by building it. If he could experience this tremendous loss and go forward without any, without any hesitation,
43:06 that was the kind of character and a man that I had tremendous respect for, and I swore my allegiance to him that day quite literally. And from that day on, our organization actually grew. It's sort of like sometimes when you cut a tree back or prune a tree back, it, it grows more hardy and healthy and that's what happened with our organization and in 1997.
43:28 Countless members of our greater St. Louis Saint Charles community came forward, retired individuals, men who have carpentry skills or some other skill, and we immediately started working on the fleet of boats because our dream had grown by that time to build the whole fleet of boats. And we knew that we couldn't get the keelboat done in one year. So we started working on the whiteerot because we knew that as important as the boats were,
43:52 just like the original expedition, the most important thing on the trip was the men. And it was important to train a crew. And if we had to wait until the kill boat was done, we would lose valuable and precious time training crews. So in 1997, we completed in six months the White Perot. And that year, we took that boat from
44:12 down the Mississippi from Saint Louis down and up the Ohio to Fort Massac on the Ohio. Then in 1998, we built the red boat in about 8 months. And in that year, we took the white and red pirogue together from Yankton, South Dakota back down to Saint Charles past high here that first time in 1998. In 1999, we began work on the boat,
44:37 and now there were many hands to make the labor light and the work went much faster. And in addition to working on the kill boat, we took the two pirogues in 1999 from Louisville, Kentucky down to Fort Massach. On the Ohio River. And then in 2000, we took the two Perros, continued work on the keel boat, and took the two pirogues to Elizabeth, Pennsylvania.
44:59 We brought them down the Monongahela to the Ohio and down the Ohio to Louisville. And then in 2001, the Kiel boat was finished and we took it up to Pierre, South Dakota and brought it back to Yankton. So by 2001, we had trained on the entire water route from Elizabeth, Pennsylvania where it began all the way here, South Dakota below Hawai Dam.
45:22 But that was a tremendous amount of training. We had a very qualified crew by that time. In 2002, we were very worried. It was only a year away from the bicentennial, and we were very concerned about putting our boats in the water and having an accident and then not having time to have them rebuilt for the bicentennial, but we wanted to continue to train crews, so we took 30 men and 5 dugouts.
45:47 I dugouts, not dugout canoes, no such thing. A dugout is a dugout is a dugout. It's a log, and we took 5 big logs and 30 men from Deacon Rock to the ocean to the mouth of the Columbia River, 140 miles to continue to train those crews. And so we were ready. The bicentennial was about to begin, and then it kind of dawned on me that Lewis hadn't rented a car from Hertz and ran out to
46:12 Pittsburgh to get the boat, and he had to get there some other way. And part of the story is about understanding how vast a nation we are, how big a nation we are, and how difficult things were for all of our forefathers as they moved across this great continent. And I realized that in order for the story to be complete, Lewis had to get to Pittsburgh. And so last year on the 5th of July, I mounted a horse in
46:36 Washington DC and rode to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The corps gathered in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania in August, and in August, we departed Elizabeth, Pennsylvania. We came down to the Monongahela River to the Ohio, down the Ohio River to Cairo, Illinois, up the Mississippi to our winter camp at Wood River, arriving there on December 12th, just as the original corps had done,
47:01 day for day, mile for mile. And then we spent the winter at Camp Dubois, and that fellow who had been helping Glenn years before, CJ Lanahan. He had dedicated the last 3 years of his life to building a replica of Camp Du Bois in Wood River, Illinois, a working functioning Camp Dubois that would allow us to train there over the winter and learn the skills necessary for what we were embarking on.
47:26 And over the winter, we brought men from our organization now. Up to 250 members strong from 36 different states, and we brought them there over the winter and we trained there and we learned infantry skills from the time and that sort of thing. We participated in the three flags ceremony which changed the sovereign flags that flew over St. Louis 300 200 years ago in March when
47:51 Spain and France relinquished their claims to Louisiana. And then in May, we put the boats in the water on the 7th of May, and on the 14th of May, the same date in the same hour of the original expedition. Once again, we were underway and we entered the mouth of the Missouri River. And we've ascended the Missouri River now 691 miles
48:12 on a journey that this year will take us 1350 miles to Washburn, North Dakota and Fort Manan. And we will complete those miles in the same time frame of the original expedition did. It is a tremendous honor for us to share this story with America. But as we talked about today, this story is about much more than simply two individuals, Lewis and Clark, and for a long time,
48:37 that's been the way we refer to this story as Lewis and Clark. But Lewis and Clark is like an icon on the desktop of your computer that you never clicked on. You know, it came with all that preloaded software that you never use. The one day you clicked on that icon and all those great applications were in there and you felt, wow, if I've known this was here earlier, I would have used it. That's what Lewis and Clark is like.
49:00 And while it's important to tell the story of many tribes along the way, before we even get to the tribes last year, one of the big things we had to talk about was the many tribes that comprise the core itself. In 1803, this nation was not a homogeneous nation. It wasn't a bunch of people who got up in the morning and thought of themselves as Americans. There's people who got up in the morning and thought
49:24 of themselves as Virginians and Pennsylvanians and New Englanders, and Kentuckians and Tennesseans, and they thought about themselves in a very colloquial way. Yeah, they had joined together to fight the British and gain independence and autonomy from the British crown. But a Virginian was a Virginian, a Pennsylvanian was a Pennsylvanian, and they're the two would meet.
49:47 Unless maybe in the case of the whiskey rebellion, and when they got there, they were on opposite sides. This story is about the moment when those eastern states started to understand that they were part of something bigger. And the men who comprised the core of Discovery were not one group of people, they were Scots and Irish and Germans, and Welsh and French.
50:13 And it was an eclectic group of individuals to begin with. Some like Lewis and Clark from the upper class gentry, aristocracy, as it were, some from the very lowest levels of society, or dirt farmers from Appalachia. People who knew that this expedition and being on it would change their lives fundamentally.
50:35 If they could go on this trip and come back that they would reap rewards that would change their lives and the family's lives. It would give them a chance to have a fresh start in the world, a chance to have a leg up, upward mobility. And it was very important for that group of individuals, but they were not a common group of individuals and there was a tremendous amount of angst between them, which at Wood River we see played out.
50:58 It was very difficult for the captains to bring discipline and order to this group of unruly individuals. But they finally did. But then Lewis and Clark even complicated matters further because they went to Saint Charles and they recruited all of these French boatmen to help make the trip possible. Another chapter in the story of America, a melting pot, its strength is in its diversity.
51:21 Lewis and Clark bring into the story Frenchmen who are not only French and speak a different language but are Catholic, which is a very complex issue in the late 18th and early 19th century. And we see the eclecticism and the diversity of this group of people growing day by day as these people join the crew. And then ultimately as they make their way across the nation, so many times over and over and over again,
51:45 the turning point in success or failure pivots on the assistance that they are given freely and hospitably by the native nations that they encounter along the way. And that is the message of the model that this bicentennial continues to offer us and that we must embrace and share across the nation is that the story of this
52:10 Corps of Discovery 200 years ago is a story that reflects the character of America today. It is eclectic, multicultural, and diverse, and that was its strength then and it is the strength of our nation today. It is a great honor for us to be able to bring the story to life. It's a great honor to be here with you today.
52:33 I'm gonna stop talking and let Bud say a few words. Bud, as you know, is the great, great grandson. William Clark. We have several descendants with us today, and it's tremendously it's a special honor for us to get to serve with them as we move across the country in this exercise, but it's also magical to be in places where we get to stand next to descendants of the original expedition once again grasping hands with the.
52:58 of those native people who met them for the first time 200 years ago and see evidence that once again there is an opportunity for the promise of Thomas Jefferson to come true that one day we can live in peace and friendship together and this hopefully is the beginning of that age.
53:25 And he's got As Scott mentioned, we do have some uh other descendants here today. The uh Um, Bob, if you would stand, please, Bob Anderson, who is a collateral descendant of George Shannon and his grandson Josh, Josh Loftus. Um,
53:45 Josh is the youngest member of our organization making the entire trip, as George Shannon was, the youngest member of the original expedition. Also, church, come back cousin Churchill is here, the back.
54:02 Churchill is part of our organization, planning to make the entire trip. Uh, you know, I think that very early on as students of Lewis and Clark, one of the first things we recognize is that, uh, perhaps the, the title Lewis and Clark expedition is sort of a misnomer. I think if I could change any of the written words that uh
54:27 my ancestor wrote, I, I would change that title and give it a name something like Uh, the core of Discovery's journey through the lands of the Native Americans because in fact, that is exactly what it was. And one of the things that, that makes this event today so significant and, and so important and why we feel so honored to be here that quite frankly, with,
54:51 without the, the help, without the hospitality and the assistance of the Native Americans, there, there's a very good chance that I wouldn't be standing here. We can say with absolute certainty that the Lewis and Clark expedition would not have succeeded. How dismal that failure might have been, well, we'll never know because they have the assistance of the Native Americans and it did succeed.
55:16 And as we proceed across the country and travel through the homeland of the Native Americans, we hope that there'll be many more light days like this one where we can really enjoy coming together as a nation. And as we mentioned earlier this morning, that's, that is what we want our legacy to be. It's quite straightforward, it's really quite simple. When this is all over,
55:39 we want to stand tall and say, We were a part of bringing this nation closer together as a family, and we can see that happening on days like today, and it's magic, it's really magic.
55:52 I think Scott did you wanna,
55:55 yeah, I like to entertain questions now. I think that's probably best because, you know, why don't we do that we we'd like to answer questions either about the original expedition if we can, if you have interest in something that happened on the original expedition, something about our expedition, something about the boats, um.
56:14 Just raise your hand and we'll bring the microphone.
56:17 If you have questions, uh, wave to us. Angela is on that side. I'm on this side, and we'll be glad to entertain those questions for you. The question, um, maybe I shouldn't say, do you plan to do this, but will you do this? Will you write a book? Are you keeping journals as the original Lewis and Clark did and write a book to compare
56:40 what they went through as compared to what you are going through?
56:45 I, uh, my journals are online at Lewis and Clark.net. Um, uh, they are, uh, you get back, uh, I've been writing journals for this organization for many, many years. Our, our previous training exercises were brief, so those journals are shorter, but I have journaled since last year, since I left Washington DC last year.
57:08 That's a journal that probably might be a good historical document to compare. What happens on a daily basis. As far as books go. I don't know. On the 23rd of September 2006, I'm probably gonna put on jeans and a sweatshirt and, you know, try to think about something else at at least for a little while. Um, I know some of the guys are planning on writing books. One of the guys actually last night told me that
57:33 he's got a title for his book. they're all writing books. They're all talking to agents and publishers all the time. But the, uh, one of the guys told me, and Sergeant Pryor will appreciate this 11 of the titles that I heard last night that one of the guys is working on is Sweet Corn and Anarchy on the Missouri River.
57:50 like Yes, I'm sure there'll be a book out of it. I don't know whether the market can bear too many more though. Can't throw a stick without hitting a new book on Lewis and Clark.
58:02 You know, uh.
58:04 I'm trying to keep a journal. I, I have to tell you, I, I have a newfound admiration for the members of the Corps of Discovery and their diligence in terms of keeping journals, men like Ordway and the White House and my ancestor, uh. I don't know how after those long tiring days, those physically taxing days that are,
58:29 that were, were so much, much more strenuous and taxing than anything that we experienced, you know, I get falling down tired doing what we do and it's nothing in comparison. And I find myself thinking that I should be catching up on my journals, and it doesn't always happen, um. In terms of publishing something later, uh,
58:54 I can tell you this, I, I did inherit one, trait from my ancestor, and that is the ability to spell extremely and creatively. In fact, uh, I have the talent and the ability to even stump spell check and get that sort of sinking sensation when I see that message, no suggestion.
59:19 So I'm probably more of a nuts and bolts guy than a, than an author, but I am trying to keep uh keep a journal. my kids taught me about it. You gotta do it, do it for your grandkids and they lay the guilt trip on me. Then I can't sleep at night because I know I should be up working on my journals by candlelight thing.
59:40 Lewis, are you related to the actual No, Mary Lewis did not have any legitimate heirs. Now he did have collateral descendants, but he did not have a direct descendant. However, uh, we do believe that he may have, uh, a direct descendant, although not recognized, uh, not recognized through a formal marriage or anything,
1:00:04 but he may have had a child with the lower brewing woman when they passed through the Brewer. Uh, In, in, in late September of 1804 that he may have had a child in the spring of '05 uh with, with her, and uh there's some speculation about that. I am not a descendant of Mar with Lewis. However, I'm curiously enough, when I was in active duty in the army,
1:00:27 I am an Army soldier and uh when I was on active duty service, I'm in the guard now, and the unit that I served on, served with when I was active duty was the unit that evolved out of the very same unit that Meriwether Lewis served with.
1:00:43 Some other questions?
1:00:46 All right, let's give them all a big hand. Thank you very.
1:00:51 My pleasure to have the Discovery exhibition. Thanks for with us and to have Scott and Bud with us to talk about the Discovery Expedition. Thank you both so much and thank you all for coming as well. We have another program scheduled at 12.