Closed Captions

A descendant of William Clark delivers a comprehensive historical address examining Clark's career beyond the Lewis and Clark Expedition, focusing on his role as Superintendent of Indian Affairs and his efforts to negotiate treaties with tribal nations. He discusses the 1815 Council at Portage de Sioux, Clark's advocacy for the factory system and assimilation policies, and personal letters revealing Clark's deep affection for Jean Baptiste (Pomp), Sacagawea's son. The speaker emphasizes the need for Native American perspectives in understanding this complex period of American history.

Transcript

0:42 All right,
0:57 welcome,
1:07 Rocky Bucks. Victory song. Answer is good and dancing place.
3:07 Oh, yeah. Right. This time, I'm going to post those colors up. Current American flag is PFC William Clark, us Army National Guard from O Fallon, Missouri
3:23 Rattle, Paul, ladies and gentlemen.
3:31 Yeah.
3:33 And
3:39 because next up headman dancer all the way from Toma Wisconsin, Mr Bobby Bird, the Ho Chunk Nation, our head lady all the way from Marine Illinois, representing Kawa Panca and Southern Cheyenne, Tonya Blackout Moore. Big round of applause,
4:03 man. Keeping everything straight out there and helping me out from lame Deer, Montana, Northern Cheyenne, Mr Ruben. Little head, big round of applause. Next up is our host, Southern Drum all the way from Kansas City, Kan Kansas City, Missouri, Mr Max Noyer Redhawk singers,
4:23 these things rolling around our northern drum all the way from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Bucks
4:31 and our visiting drum all the way from Kansas is Wazi Chai
4:38 big round of applause. These guys and I am your announcer. I'm going to be keeping things running as smoothly as possible of Northern. Our apple ho from ST Louis, Missouri. My name is Mr John White Antelope
4:50 All right, we're going to go directly into intertribal dancers this time. Intertribal go to Wazi Chachi. Take it away, boys.
11:26 Hello,
13:06 the Great Council here at Port E Sioux and touched briefly on some of the issues subsequent to that. So anyway,
13:17 yeah,
13:21 we'll get started here in just a second. So next up
13:27 right now.
13:30 Ok. William Clark was born in 1770 in uh Virginia in Caroline County right next to Thomas Jefferson, his mentor, his home county of Al uh Albemarle County. He was the ninth of 10 Children. There were uh uh no infant mortality in the Clark family, which is when you think about it,
13:55 nothing short of miraculous at that point in time. So he must have come from pretty good stock.
14:02 He was no stranger to military life. He grew up in a military family. All five of his older brothers served as officers in the revolution. His brother Jonathan served as a colonel in the Virginia line was decorated by President Washington, brother George, the Hannibal of the West George Rogers. Clark conquered for
14:26 the US, all of the territory west of the Appalachians captured Kaskas Cahokia and marched on Vincennes, ah, the heroic march on Vincennes where he caught the hair buyer nestled snug in his winter quarters. Never dreamed that anyone would attempt such a feat. But old George waited the swamps of Indiana and uh
14:51 sent General Hamilton off to Virginia in chains
14:57 in 1784. Urged by brother George. The Clark family migrated to the Falls of the Ohio and it was there that little William found a perfect setting for what was to lie in store for him. Growing up on the frontier, he could sharpen his skills as a frontiersman, woodsman, a hunter and he became an excellent marksman,
15:19 but there were a lot of other things to learn out on the frontier,
15:24 aided by their British allies. The Native Americans were fiercely opposed to giving up their homelands and their home hunting grounds. And by the summer of 1788 troubles between them, the migrating settlers, the western movement into the Ohio Valley and the Native Americans erupted in the full scale war.
15:47 The Ohio Valley became known as the dark and bloody grounds. Clark joined the, the uh militia, the Kentucky militia and was serving in the militia at the time of Saint Clair's terrible defeat. The worst defeat in the history of American military campaigns with the Native Americans, with over 900 casualties, over 600 men killed.
16:12 And fortunately, we're not, it's unclear why he was not with Sinclair's forces, but fortunately he was not or perhaps I wouldn't be sitting here today telling you about this anyway, um Young William became acutely aware of the conflict, the clash of cultures between
16:36 Western civilization moving West and the Native Americans wanting to protect their homelands.
16:44 Williams served at the battle of fallen timbers. He led a rifle company there. And shortly thereafter after the Treaty of Greenville, a young ensign joined his elite rifle company. His name was Meriwether Lewis. And of course, as we all know, a historic friendship was born and it would uh
17:09 some years later, of course, lead to the Lewis and Clark expedition.
17:17 I'm gonna in the interest of cutting this a little short. I have a, a knack of going off on a tangent, things I like to talk about and I could be here all day if I do here in the course of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
17:38 Um at the mouth of the bad river in the summer of four, there was a conflict between the Teton Sioux and the core of discovery. We've come to know it as the great misunderstanding. And during this confrontation,
17:58 Captain Clark on one occasion was confronted by tea time. So Principal Chief Black Buffalo and one of his main chiefs, the partisan. After having counsel during the day, they were preparing to leave shore and go back to the keel boat on one of the pros and the partisans men did not want to let loose of the bow line and heated words were exchanged and
18:22 Captain Clark drew his sword and all the men stood ready and it could have gotten real ugly. If one person made the wrong move, it could have erupted into a whole scale battle. But fortunately Black Buffalo eased the tension, took the bow rope from the soldiers as they were known and handed it back to the bow man.
18:47 Things quieted down the next few days. Things seemed to go. Well, the t times appeared to be friendly and they were hospitable. But at the morning keel boat prepared to leave. Things turned a little sour again. And once again, it was the partisans men who said in so many words that they weren't going to allow the explorers to proceed up the river that they would have to pay more tribute.
19:13 The captains stood fast. They were not going to be intimidated. They held their ground and Captain Clark went forward and he took the pork fire. That's the slow burning fuse. They use to touch the cannon off. He took the port fire from the cannon here and he stepped alongside the cannon and in his journals, he says, I spoke so as to touch his pride. And once again,
19:37 there was a situation where the keel boat being up against the bank of overhanging bank of the Missouri, the Tetons with bow strung weapons drawn, having decided advantage over the core of discovery,
19:52 one wrong move on either side that set things off and the core of discovery and all probability would have discovered eternity. But fortunately, once again, it was Black Buffalo that decided that it wasn't worth the bloodshed. And he defused the situation and allowed the explorers to continue on
20:24 in the post expedition years. You know, we tend to think, we think of the Lewis and Clark expedition in terms of William Clark. Uh It's like, it's almost like one word Lewis and Clark. But actually in, I think in the final analysis, when we think of William Clark's career in the service of his country, which spanned another 30 years after the expedition
20:49 until his death in 1838. I think as more and more information becomes available just recently, there's two books that hit the streets in the last two weeks. While Lanny Jones's book and uh Bill Foley, both bios on William Clark, both with a little different perspective, but a lot of uh new insight if you will on his post expedition career.
21:13 And I think as, as we learn more and more about William Clark, the Lewis and Clark expedition as, as magic and as heroic as it was and as wonderful a story as it is in terms of how it impacted American history and Western expansion and in particular how it impacted our dealings with the native Americans. It will
21:38 stand in the shadow of Clark's post expeditionary career for 30 years. He served as the chief federal officer on the frontier in 1813, he was appointed governor. Well, he started out in charge of, of Indian Affairs and Brigadier general of the Militia.
21:58 In 1813, he was, he was appointed governor and served as all three officers
22:06 when the war of 1812 erupted. William Clark was much involved in uh the defense of Saint Louis and the West and the settlers on the western frontier. He knew through his trade network, his network of, of fur traders,
22:27 uh being himself involved with the formation of the Missouri fur company and much involved with the, the highways of the time. If you will, the fur trade links the waterways of the Missouri, the Mississippi and the tributaries. He had a pretty good handle on what was going on. And he knew that the British influence was in
22:51 his mind, what was encouraging the Indians to raid the settlers and propose it. It presented a risk to Saint Louis. It reached a point where the people in ST Louis feared for their lives.
23:06 There was a gentleman on the upper Missouri, excuse me, on the upper Mississippi, Clark's alter ego, if you will red haired no less by the name of Robert Dixon, who Clark saw as the single biggest
23:29 cause of the problem in terms of the British influence on the Native Americans and he had a stronghold on, uh, the Sox and the fox and other native American treads. He was located in the area 500 miles up the, up the Mississippi at 40 or Prairie to Shane. Excuse me, Clark thought that all things considered
23:55 that the best tactic would be to raise a militia, build some gun boats and, ah, armed boats and men up the Mississippi to try to defuse Mister Dixon and take control of the Sioux. And he did,
24:14 coincidentally when he got there, Dixon was off somewhere else and there was a skeleton force there and there really was no battle at all and they built a fort and assumed that they were taking control. Well, they, they made some wrong assumptions because shortly after they got back to ST Louis, a force of 650 British
24:38 and their Indian allies arrived back at Porto and promptly took it back.
24:46 So Clark once again found himself in a difficult position
24:54 in
24:56 18. Um what was it? 1814 when the treaty of Ghent was finally signed, and President Madison took over President Madison issues orders to his chief officer out on the frontier to meet with the Indians and treat with them in the interest of peace.
25:20 And the treaty with the Clark's orders were to were to negotiate with the tribes to bring the tribes together and negotiate for peace. This was not about uh Indian removal or uh negotiations for land, but rather just to quiet things down on the frontier. And it's interesting, I wanted to share something with you.
25:44 It's interesting that in the, in the Missouri gazette,
25:51 Clark published a proclamation
25:57 consistent with the President's Orders
26:01 in the Missouri gazette,
26:04 it was printed, having been appointed commissioners with full power to conclude a treaty of peace with those tribes or nations or Indians residing upon the Missouri's and its waters and where at which the United States at the time of the, of the ratification of the late treaty with Great Britain.
26:26 We have concurred to hold treaty at the village of Portage, Porto de S on the sixth of July. Next of which we have notified the Indians and invited them to attend in deriving precaution from a most unjustifiable attack that was made upon a party of Indians in 1812 on their way to the Council of Cahokia to which they had been invited.
26:50 We do most urgently enjoin it on our fellow citizens of the Missouri and Illinois territories to abstain from e from any and every act injurious to the Indians now invited or that might be calculated to prevent a successful issue to the negotiations. Ok?
27:11 In other words, he's issuing a proclamation telling all the citizens don't messing with the Indians, leave them alone. They're coming here at our request. We're going to try to make peace in the same issue of the Missouri gazette. There is a much, much lengthier article about a recent occurrence
27:35 with the Missouri rangers falling under Clark's supervision at Brigadier General of the Militia where a group of Native Americans attack the rangers and it talks about, ah, the battle that ensued and men being still killed and one man arriving back with a tomahawk in his head and he later died. And of course,
28:00 people that read this are going to see this as one more case of Indian atrocities. So here we have Clark right in the middle of this, this conflict, issuing a proclamation telling the citizens that we're going to negotiate for peace and try to, ah, make peace agreements with the Native Americans. While at the same time, they're hearing about in
28:23 more Indian raids and more problems with Indians killing the white intruders. Of course, these articles always failed to mention that all of these battles occurred on the Indians own home ground. Ok. In this same same time frame, the people of Saint Louis were crying for revenge.
28:47 And the Missouri Gazette again published uh an outcry. He says, let the North as well as the South be Jackson and the popular political position if you will was one of vengeance. What we need is not negotiations for peace, not treaties.
29:09 What we need is more militia, more army, more guns and, ah, get him out of the way.
29:18 So Clark finds himself in a very complex situation.
29:27 Once again, I gotta get back on track here
29:37 as the council at Portage de Sioux began on the 10th of July. A group of Sioux, ironically, including none other than Black Buffalo and the partisan Clark's old adversaries from the upper Missouri in 04. The same
30:00 among the Sioux were some of the Tetons, the same group of Indians that Clark had declared in his journals in 06, the viol mistreats of the Missouri and that something would have to be done about them. Our trade up to Missouri would never be secured. Well, ironically, these same warriors stepped forward when they arrived
30:25 in this area and told the commissioners that they were not like other Native Americans that took their gifts and their presents and their blankets and hid them away in their tepees and turned their back on the whites. They said, put something sharp in our hands that we may help ourselves and by so doing, help you.
30:51 So, it seems that this is another testimonial to the fact that Lewis and Clark failed ethnology 101 and greatly misjudged the Teton Sioux.
31:08 Yeah. So the treaty here, the council and the treaty signed here at Portage to sue became a, a pivotal point, not only for William Clark in his career, but for Western, ah, expansion in general, even though the treaties here were signed in the interest of peace.
31:33 And it wasn't about, ah, land removal, giving away their Native American land. It's, it's set a precedence. It, it's set, it's, it, it's set a procedure if you will for future negotiations and the treaties that would follow would be for the most part, dramatically different. And William Clark found himself, ah,
31:57 the old proverbial, uh, between a rock and a hard spot. He, he realized that, ah, this, this tidal wave of western migration was coming down. The Ohio Valley. People were spilling across the Mississippi by the thousands,
32:18 the population of the Missouri of the Missouri territories went from um in the course from 1814 to 1820 from 25,000 people in the scattered around the entire territory to 65,000 people. And William Clark recognized being acutely aware of what have transpired in the Ohio Valley.
32:43 He recognized that there was really only two alternatives for the Native Americans. You can sugar coat it, you can try and spin it one way or another. You can look at it from a 2004 perspective and talk about what should have could have. But if we stand in his shoes back in 1815
33:06 and for the rest of his career and think in terms of what he should have done, he really only had two alternatives. The Native Americans only had two alternatives. They could either negotiate for removal and relocation or is the government in their documents. I have a number of their original documents and they, they like to title them immigration of the Indians.
33:31 Well, immigration of the Indians meant we're going to negotiate unfair treaties and kick them off their homelands. So what was the alternative? The alternative was what transpired in the Ohio Valley for the most part. And that would be bloody conflicts and perhaps annihilation.
33:51 And William Clark was duty bound to make Indian relocation happen. And he did, he did a very good job of it. And one of the reasons perhaps that he was so effective at negotiating treaties and, ah, facilitating Indian relocation
34:14 because it really served two purposes. It, it served to satisfy the political pressure of the day. The Jacksonians beliefs were coming into, um, being politically correct if you will. And again, to, to not sugar coat it, it was get the Indians out of the way. We don't care what happens to them.
34:39 We don't care where they go. We just don't want them killing our settlers ST stealing our cattle, et cetera, et cetera. But for Clark,
34:51 for Clark
34:54 carrying his Jeffersonian beliefs, keeping in mind that he was a product of Virginia Gentry. His mentor, Thomas Jefferson is on record
35:08 with his beliefs that the Native Americans and Jefferson is very clear about this, that the native Americans were equal to the to the white people in every way. They were just lower in the evolutionary process. They had not been afforded the opportunity to escalate to the point where the white people were.
35:32 But yet Jefferson made it very clear that he felt they had all the potential to do so. They just needed to be given the opportunity. And Jefferson along with William Clark saw that opportunity in the form of the factory system and a simulation that is
35:54 you set up a chain of trading poster factories as they call them as they were called we wean the Indians from the native, from the their dependence on the British and the trader, the um British traders fur traders coming down from Canada and give them everything they needed, make the things they needed and wanted
36:19 more readily available from the US of A so that they would align themselves with the US and not with the British. And at, at the same time, it would facilitate their ultimate assimilation into Jefferson's agrarian society for men like Jefferson and William Clark. If
36:43 they didn't think in terms of, of will the Indians be assimilated. It was the, it was the only way they knew how to think it was only a case of when would they be assimilated? Not if, but when. So when we, when we look at the, at William Clark's career and we look at how effective he was
37:07 at negotiating Indian Indian removal. We also need to be reminded that he, he was an advocate of the factory system, which about midway through his career fell out of favor that it was contradictory to other American ideas like free enterprise. And instead of the US factories getting all the opportunities with the native Americans, the free traders
37:31 would like to have those opportunities. I think things haven't changed. It was a lot of a lot about money, right? But in any case, Clark never changed in terms of those kind of beliefs. And he became very frustrated over his situation. In, in 1825 he wrote a letter to his old friend Thomas Jefferson and rather than paraphrase it,
37:55 I'd like to, I'd like to share what he wrote this,
38:02 your father and I'll read in part
38:07 in my present situation of Superintendent of Indian Affairs. It would afford me pleasure to be enabled to the condition of these unfortunate people placed under my charge knowing as I do their wretchedness and their rapid decline. It is to be lamented that the deplorable situation of the Indians do not receive more of the human feelings of the nation.
38:32 And yesterday, the stone, the historic marker that we unveiled at the 100 year rededication of Clark's memorial on one side of that stone is engraved, it is to be lamented that the deplorable situation of the Indians does not receive more of the human feelings of the nation.
39:00 I think for William Clark,
39:05 the
39:07 conflict, the contradictions that he had to deal with must have been ex extremely frustrating and of course, as history records, uh unfortunately, it would be many, many decades. In fact, things probably got much worse before they got better. Um In fact, they definitely got worse before they got better and
39:31 we still have a long ways to go. And as a member of the Discovery Expedition, a few of my brothers are here today. Uh We, we have a charter, we have a charter that we often discuss and we make sure that new members recognize how we feel. And in no uncertain terms,
39:54 what our message is that we intend to carry up the Missouri and across the country for the bicentennial. And that message is that it's way past time to hear the rest of the story, right? It's time to go forward with open minds and open hearts and encourage the Native Americans to tell, not only their side of the Lewis and Clark story,
40:18 which we're very excited about and interested in hearing, but it goes way way beyond that, you know, the, the, the bicentennial celebration can serve as a catalyst to hear. Not only their side of the Lewis and Clark expedition, but their side of a very dark chapter in our American history, the period from
40:41 the post expedition days through most of the 19th century. And having said that I don't want to cast gloom and doom over what's coming. But I see that rather as a ray of sunshine, the gloom and doom is already there. We just, for the most part generally don't like to talk about it, especially in our educational system.
41:05 But the Ray of Sunshine is that the dialogue starts the healing process. And if we start to talk about it, and if we can talk openly about the bad side of our American history, OK. That dialogue and that healing process is going to bring us closer together and events just like this
41:29 and many other events over the course of the next few years, you know, can help generate a legacy for the bicentennial, uh a legacy that says we came closer together as an American family.
41:46 I hope we all can help make that happen.
41:50 I'd like to,
41:54 I would like to suggest that uh I'll be here till the last dog is hung. If you have any questions you'd like to discuss. Anyone wants to serve up something for discussion, be it, Lewis and Clark or the meaning of life or whatever. Um We'll try to entertain it,
42:12 sir. Good morning here. Good j
42:17 There are um a number of ancestors here in the Saint Louis area. Not too many Clarks with Clark with the name Clark, but Clark descend us. Nonetheless, I live in Dearborn, Michigan near Detroit. My first cousin Charlie lives here. Charlie G Clark, who is a member of our Corps
42:40 also shares portraying the role of his ancestor on occasions especially here in Saint Charles or Saint Charles area.
42:51 But then the clan is kind of scattered from sea to shining sea at this point.
42:59 Anybody got anything they want to kick around or question. I would just like to say one thing I didn't get to give Bud a proper welcome, but we are very honored to have him here in Port. He is Peyton C Bud Clark, the great, great, great grandson of the William Clark and he called, he was excited about us having a powwow here and he was very interested in being involved in Portage.
43:22 And as a resident of Portage to Sioux, I am Debbie. We are very very honored to have him here. And I'm glad that everybody made it here to here, this wonderful talk that he gave today. Ok. So if anybody else has any questions, yeah, if you have any thoughts, share them with us now is the time to kick them around. Sure.
43:45 I think, uh,
43:48 I don't know. I think that seems to be kind of typical. You're preoccupied with a lot of other things, but later in life, maybe it comes with wisdom, you start thinking that it's important to learn more about things that are important to your ancestry, you know, to eight,
44:11 our American heritage and all things came together, especially in terms of,
44:16 hello, what are the
44:23 on a hunting expedition and a tour of the West, took a shine to Jean Baptiste and I took him under his wing and encouraged him to come back to Europe with him and he did. So he went and lived in Europe for a number of years. He spoke four languages fluently. He must have been a very intelligent guy. I have a hard time with one and
44:48 led a very colorful life. He came back to the United States, um, served as a guide for a time with wagon trains, hunting parties, et cetera. Uh went west was in California for a time and in a civil position out there and died on his way to the Montana Goldfield. So
45:12 his story is a very colorful story, but I'd like to comment on his, uh,
45:20 on his influence on the Lewis and Clark expedition.
45:24 So I went to the journal.
45:28 What's, uh, let's, let's use our imagination here for a minute.
45:36 Try to, uh, the girl,
45:41 ah,
45:44 can.
45:46 It's kind of, it's, it's kind of a matter of record that
45:51 the core of discovery came together as a family. I mean, they started out as a rag tag bunch of r at Camp Dubois where drinking and fighting was routine and court martial. And I mean, these weren't West Point grads and altar boys. These were a bunch of frontier rout and soldiers on the frontier. You know, that wasn't a promising career. You know,
46:16 the guy you wanted your daughter to bring home for dinner was not a private in the army on the western frontier. These were oftentimes guys that were there because they were on the run or undesirables in other ways. Although Lewis and Clark had, I'm sorry, having an astute uh
46:39 Well, being astute judges of character, we were able to sort it out. And by the time they headed up to Missouri for the most part, they had a pretty tight knit group, but by the time they left Fort Mandan, it evolved to more than that not just a tight knit, well disciplined military group, but they were coming together as a family group.
47:01 And when we read in the journals about the winter they spent at Fort Klatz,
47:07 we know that it was wet and miserable. Almost all the time they saw the sun six days in the months that they were there, the fleas were so bad that you could hardly sleep at night. And there really wasn't much going on there in a positive way in terms of shoring up morale.
47:30 What they were really looking forward to was getting the heck out of there. Ok. And poor elk was about all they had to eat. They had literally walked out of all their clothing, their clothing made from skins would rot because of the weather. So it wasn't, it wasn't a fun place to be.
47:56 Now, let's think in terms of on your worst day,
48:01 you just got a speeding ticket on the way back from making a charitable donation. And just as you pulled away from the curb to get headed home again, you had a flat tire and then you turned on the radio and your stock just dropped another 25% and you walk through the door, wishing you owned a dog so you could kick it.
48:24 And unbeknownst to you, your grandkids have come to visit and here comes a little two year old or a one year old toddling across the kitchen floor. And what happens to your miserable day?
48:44 Think of what the presence of that mother and child had to mean to the core of discovery. Ok. Think about that littlest explorer and the role that he played and you can't go to Moulton and pick that out of the journals. But if you look between the lines, it, it's there
49:06 and you can imagine how that little guy shored up the morale of the men and lifted their spirits and certainly morale and the spiritual well being of the core of discovery is as much important to the ultimate success of the mission as probably any other single factor.
49:31 That's something I feel very strongly about. Personally,
49:44 we know Shane gets a bad rap because writers have taken editorial liberties to out of context. Talk about what a buffoon he was at the helm that he almost sunk the paro on more than one occasion. And on another occasion, he, he struck Chicago
50:07 and out of context, they've painted Charbonneau as you know, not such a good guy.
50:15 But I would argue that a serious student of Lewis and Clark recognizes that Charbonneau was there for a reason. He was there as an interpreter. He was contracted to go with the explorers and serve as an interpreter. They also enjoyed his fine cooking. OK? He wasn't there because of his expertise as a waterman.
50:38 He was probably the worst waterman on the planet
50:42 and not to not to defend him for striking Chicago. But to put it in context, you need to look at that standing in Clark or Lewis's Moccasins in 1805 and put it in context, you know, not that it would ever be a good thing to do,
51:05 but it probably didn't have the same stigma that it has from a 2004 perspective. Although Clark did chastise him for it. That's also in the journal,
51:17 you know, since we're on this track, let me share something with you that again was interwoven into my talk, but carelessly omitted
51:33 when, when Lewis and Clark,
51:39 when they left Tucson Charbonneau
51:42 and uh Chicago and the little guy
51:47 with the heat or the man dans, as Clark said in his journals,
51:53 Clark was really preoccupied with the order of business of the day. Keep in mind now these guys, they are anxious to get home. They are hitting us sometimes as much as 70 miles a day down the Missouri. They were not anxious to spend a whole lot of time at the mandates.
52:13 However, the captains were, were very anxious to have some of the head chiefs to have representatives from the hadads of the man down, the come down to Missouri and go to Washington to meet President Jefferson and they finally persuaded shake the big white and the man dances to join them. So in the,
52:36 in the midst of making arrangements for she and his family,
52:41 Clark is preoccupied with all the things that are going on. And his journal entry for that day notes that he had asked Sharne and Chicago where to take the little guy with him to ST Louis and see that he was educated and that they had declined saying that perhaps after he was weaned, they would send him down.
53:06 Well, two days later on down the river, William Clark, not the soldier, not the explorer, not the courageous leader of the core of discovery, but William Clark, the man just as much a human being as any one of us, you know, is tearing his heart out.
53:29 That family we talked about that evolved a big piece of it has just been torn away from him
53:37 and it's killing him. And he's, he's wishing he would have been more assertive. He's wishing he could have persuaded Sharne
53:46 to come with him or at least let him take the boy. So he writes a letter and sends it back up river. And when the first versions of the journals were published, this letter was unknown. It was unknown until it was found among what we refer to as the Boris Collection where most of the Missouri historical
54:07 Society Clark artifacts came from in that same stash of Clark stuff. They found a letter and I'll read it to you again. I won't paraphrase it. I'll read it to you literally in part
54:20 and he sealed it and made sure that no one but Charbonnet got a hold of him.
54:27 You have been a long time. It's addressed to Shana. You have been a long time with me and have conducted yourself in such a manner as to gain my friendship, your woman who accompanied you that long dangerous and fatiguing route to the Pacific Ocean
54:43 deserved a greater reward for her attention and services on that route than we had in our power to give her at the man dance
54:54 as to your little son, my boy, pop
54:58 you well know my fondness for him and my anxiety to take and raise him as my own child.
55:06 I once more tell you if you will bring your son Baptist to me, I will educate him and treat him as my own child. And he goes on to outline a number of alternatives for Charbonnet. He'll set him up in business. He'll give him horses. If he wants to go visit his relatives in Montreal. Uh If he wants to set, get set up in the fur trade business, he'll set him up with say a parole load of goods,
55:31 uh whatever it takes, just come and bring the boy
55:38 and he closes the letter,
55:41 wishing you and your family great success, suckess
55:48 and with anxious expectations of seeing my little dancing boy Baptist. I shall remain your friend, William Clark. Clearly, William Clark is deeply, deeply in love with that little guy. Ok. There is no question about it. It is representative of
56:13 how he felt about his family and how close family ties were and how much they meant to William Clark, even in his, in his complex and difficult life in the post expedition. And a further testimonial to that will be found in Jim Holmberg book, Dear Brother, where you're seeing the personal side of William Clark
56:38 as opposed to many rights within the constraints of either military protocol or political and government guidelines. If you will, knowing it's going to be read by whoever.
56:52 I think it's a uh
56:55 um a heritage uh that was passed along to his Children and through his Children. It, it's, it's a legacy that carried on. And again, I say that because there are a number of testimonials in family letters where in later years, in fact, uh a case in 0.1 I was just reading the other day where
57:19 it's rather obscure and little known second born son, William Preston Clark in a period in Clark's life. That's, that's uh
57:30 rather obscure. Not a lot known about the last few years of his life when he made his last trip east to visit friends and family. And William Preston Clark writes home to his brother George Rogers Clark, my great great grandfather.
57:46 And he says, talks about their father's health, pa is doing much right. They call him pa always. The reference in the family letters is to Pa
57:59 pa's health. Oh, my goodness. It's William Clark. Come on, sweetie. I didn't know you were coming here. You say hi,
58:16 thank you.
58:19 And anyway, William Preston writes to brother George and he says, Pa's health is much improved since we left Louisville and he goes on talking about his health and well being and then discusses their plans to go on and visit New York and Boston and West Point and a few other points. And
58:48 the closing of the letter is really neat because it shows that William Clark in his last years had still not lost his sense of humor and not lost his intimate relationship with his family. William Preston closes the letter says,
59:14 pa says you should look out for future times and then he illustrates a riddle
59:25 and he says,
59:28 figure, how do you say these systems, figure this allegory if you can or understand this allegory if you can. And he wrote his father's message in the form of a rental with little illustrations. I showed it to a few guys in camp the other night because I brought it with me
59:50 and we still haven't figured it out. But uh I wish I had it with me if you guys could help me. But anyway, um what I'm driving at is that even in William Clark's last year, there's that close family bond.
1:00:10 It was 68
1:00:13 in that day and age that, that was very old. Yeah, that was an elderly gentleman. William Clark buried four of his seven Children yet he lived with a lot of personal tragedy. His angel Julia died young,
1:00:34 his second wife, Harriet Kennerly Radford Clark died on Christmas morning.
1:00:41 He buried all of his nine siblings
1:00:46 yet he always seemed to have the strength and the perseverance to drive on.
1:00:54 There's no indication not to my knowledge, at least, although he was, of course, deeply saddened that who he spent great lengths of time, you know, wallowing in misery if you will for lack of a better way of saying. But rather that,
1:01:16 although he had, it's a matter of record that he had a very strong family bond uh in the face of tremendous personal sadness, He was able to drive on,
1:01:33 I guess, uh, indicative of his strength and character.
1:01:40 Bye.
1:01:45 Anybody have any other thoughts they'd like to entertain? No,
1:01:50 Greg, you look like you got some on the tip of your tongue. No,
1:01:59 we would like to have this like you to have this. Thank you, the Discovery Expedition.
1:02:05 I hope, I hope. Thank you. I hope, I
1:02:15 hope. Thank you guys. I appreciate that. Hang on to that. I will, I'll take it away. Thank you guys. I see you guys around here helping. That's cool. I realize that number is
1:02:27 exactly. Yeah, I'll be able to do different, uh, some of the larger, maybe the signatory events I'll be able to fly in with the park service and be in the 10th to many voices. And it just kind of depends on my work schedule at home too. But a group that