Missouri Archives - Lewis & Clark Research Database

Lewis and Clark with Sacajawea at the Great Falls of Missouri

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 18:46:30 +0000

Seltzer’s small oil shows the Corps of Discovery party at the Great Falls of the Missouri, with Sacagawea included in the foreground group. The composition places the human figures on a rocky promontory or bank in the middle distance while the cascading falls dominate the right and background of the picture. Seltzer worked in a tight, illustrative manner here, with crisp drawing and a controlled palette of earth tones, blue-greens in the river, and the white of churning water. At eleven by roughly sixteen inches, the painting is an easel-scale work rather than a mural, and its detail rewards close viewing in the manner of Seltzer’s miniature historical scenes.

The scene depicts the late June 1805 phase of the expedition, when Meriwether Lewis first encountered the Great Falls on June 13 and the party then undertook the arduous portage around the series of five cascades over roughly the next month. The journals describe the falls in detail and record that Sacagawea, recovering from severe illness, was with the party as they reconnoitered the terrain. By placing her prominently in the composition, Seltzer reflected the early twentieth-century reframing of Sacagawea as a central expedition figure, a popular cultural shift driven by Eva Emery Dye’s 1902 novel and by suffrage-era monuments and pageants.

Olaf Carl Seltzer (1877–1957) was a Danish-born painter who emigrated to Great Falls, Montana, in 1892 and became a close friend and studio associate of Charles M. Russell. After Russell’s death in 1926, Seltzer increasingly took on historical commissions, and in the late 1920s he began a long association with Tulsa oilman Thomas Gilcrease, for whom he eventually produced a large series of small historical paintings documenting events of the American West. This 1927 canvas dates from the start of that productive late phase. The painting is held in the Gilcrease Museum collection in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Seltzer’s expedition and frontier subjects form one of the strongest concentrations of his work. Among Lewis and Clark imagery, Seltzer’s contributions are valued for their geographic accuracy, owing to his long residence in Great Falls within sight of the very landscape depicted.

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Osage Nation Tree Planting and Lewis & Clark Commemoration

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:36:06 +0000

we lose a fact only he sees if you see the rifle but we creep up to the r it begin to turn us slowly toward Shore we lose a few things I sa the whole Expedition you ah see thank you but I fear that no one would remember I Fe that no one will remember any of the good things that I do it is because of that accident out in the woods with Captain Lis still I cannot speak of it let us sing another song huh ah we both men we boers we have many songs that we sing to make the work go easier all the time when we are rowing the boats we are singing the songs so I would like to sing one of my favorites with you it is called janula it mean I hear The Mill at the Mill are the stones that grind the wheat now I will sing the common part and then I will teach it to you so I may all sing it together now everybody sing with me very nice here now I will sing the verses but first I must tell you what they mean for they are in the fren it is a young woman speaking she says my father built the house he built it with three on one two three three carp in buildings and the youngest is her sweetheart then one of the carp TI jump on the set table TI tip on from the Shoni Nation who live there in the Rocky Mountains these horses they carry our things as we walk many many sleeps to cross these mountains many nights we have nothing to eat we must eat some of our horses now horse it is not bad H it is better than dog but when you have much hunger even the little doggies they’re good with a pinch of salt huh we but though we have much hunger we work together and we cross those mountains then we must cut down big trees for to make new canoes and then the Columbia River we go and every day the river goes wider and wider and shake alling for the doctor doctor said Shake That Shake that little get up D now you ain’t sick all you need is a Hickory Stick shake that little shake that little cannot succeed in our voage we cannot even survive on a way home we meet chief deant of the wala wala nation and we are very hungry so he bring us many roasted fishes for to eat there are those of us who do not like fish so we rast some dog and we have a great f Feast when we are done with our Feast Chief Yap says my people wish to see you dance so that night 500 people maybe more both of the waa Wala and shnap Nation they come to our camp and they gather around the biggest fire of the boage first we dance for them and then they dance for us all of them men’s women’s and childrens they make a great circle around the fire and then the drumming begins with drums such as this one many drums and rattles and singing beautiful singing as if you can put the Fire in the Sky into sound the Indians dance about the flames and then they come to us to the members of the Expedition they reach out their hands and they guide us into their Circle where we dance among them Chief Yap says my people will be Lonesome when you are gone but we will dance day and night until your return that then he says that to remember us he wishes to learn one of our medicine songs to themselves and sing it with great pride so let us all sing this one together with great pride huh Yan dood went to riding on a stuck a p in his and called it macaron keep it up y do find music the St the behind and I went down we saw keep it up y the music and the step and with the and there was Captain Washington Upon A SL St shout to his men I there was a mar it up musep thank you we leave the Indians that we cross the mountains we have Many Adventures and then finally we are racing home with the current of the river toward friends family and honor as great explorers at the first Americans to cross the continent but I fear that the honor will not be mine it is because of that accident I think I must tell you about it now I do not think I can wait any longer it happened as I say just in the last Moon about a month ago we are almost home we see a great herd of elk on the side of the river so we paddle our boats to show and I go out hunting with cap Lise we track the along the side of the river cap L you go one way I go the other then there in the trees I see a brown shap moving and I think to myself ah I have found our dinner a nice fat elk so I raise my rifle aim and Fire go now I will become Captain Lise Cru out you SC you have shot me for many sleeps Captain Lis he cannot stand nor can he sit he must lie in the bottom of the boat until his wound la thank you very much you thank thank you all so much it was really a pleasure to play for you uh my name would I’m not being misten okay we like that that country Mexico now is I had to slavy calling chains will fear them not we trust in God new Eng’s God for when God ins us oh were ships were shly my the comes on with all our troops Veterans and to be for are re I have your invit dad hey l as you can tell that’s why I talk softly so you come closer so uh but uh I welcome you all and I it’s great to see so many people here and um and they have some some children that have been able to come from their from St Michael’s cool um so that I’ll let we’ll turn over to Bob Bob good morning I’m Bob archabald I’m the uh president of the National Council to Lewis and Clark Bicentennial as well as the head of the Missouri Historical Society over on the other side of Forest Park and I want to welcome you all here and a number of people have said to me uh please tell audience members and anyone else who’s here to please turn their cell phones off oh so we can start with turning off S of Good and Evil and that point at which human beings with the knowledge of Good and Evil became capable of making choices of choosing to do good of choose choosing to do things that are ugly choosing Beauty uh choosing the right or choosing the wrong and in some ways what we’re here to commemorate today is really in part the tragedy which is the legacy of Lewis and Clark the dispossession of many people the oage included I’m also reminded of Frederick Douglas less ugliness more Justice more fairness and more Beauty and so with that I welcome you all here this morning and it’s now my pleasure to introduce Leonard maker who is a distinguished oage Elder director of planning and velopment for the oage nation a fluent speaker of the oage language he is a historian and a keeper of traditions thank you Dr Lord and we all ask each of you to pray with me I’m not the only one that should be pray think of all the good things that you’ve seen here and have heard and will hear here so I’m actual moment of reverence our dear heavenly father we’re coming to you this morning thanking you for this most wonderful day you have made for us in this good weather you have made and again we we come at this time of the new year to to to ask your blessings on this special occasion and in this special place here and all these good people who have been gathered here to observe this wonderful commemoration of our people’s presence here in this country that was once ours we come again today today to ask you to watch over this activity here today and ask you to bless each one who had an opportunity to participate in the making of this great occasion and in in this piece of work that’s been done here the artists and all those who have supported her we ask that you just bless the good people here in this state and this city who have been wonderful to us and have welcomed us here again back to our homeland so today we just we’re mindful of all those good things you have done for us and again we thank you for this great country of ours whose history now we all share and for all this wonderful things that share together so we put these things in your hands today believing that you are truly our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that through you all things are possible and we just raise up our voice to you in praise and glory and worship and ask these things in your precious name amen amen I’d like to ask Elizabeth Sayad who is the chair of the Louisiana Purchase by Centennial to say a few words I just want to welcome everyone here we are so delighted to have this very creative and moving work as is a part of the three flags thank thank everyone very much for coming and I have a few people I I would like to thank first and foremost Matthew my wonderful colleague and um and the oage nation who has been so very generous to to teach us to listen to us to Mentor us um many many people and so please forgive if I forget anyone but St Louis um city parks and Forestry Department have been very helpful I see some of them here um thank you so much for your support um members of the national signature event committee have helped us our work for a very brief presentation and understood what we were up to and what we were about and chief grade began to immediately teach us some things that were very important for us to know we went to the reservation in Pusa Oklahoma and Katherine redcorn who’s the director of the museum organized or artfully created an incredible day for us in which we met and learned from many people so here at the site you will see this very old red oak tree trunk Matt and I were walking looking for a special place and we wanted an open canopy because we knew we wanted to plant a special sapling that we could Mark in the oage way of of bending a branch down which would then later go grow go to the Sun and Mark away so and I believe Sean will talk about this a little more but I wanted to especially let you all know that the branch is pointing Eastward and there’s a short path to the east if you would like to make a brief meditative walk along that path it points to a New Day to a new beginning to better relations between all peoples and between us in the environment and and that is the way that Matthew and I would like to to commemorate this day to honor the ancient oage Presence by planting a new tree that encourages growth and vitality um in honor of the oage culture and language and all of our relationships and I think that Matthew has something he would like to sh uh I just wanted to reflect with you just quickly about uh how I came to to very much be interested in what we decided to do here um in January when the Lewis and Clark exhibit opened in the Missouri historical uh there was a there was an opening ceremony and a series of symposiums and talks that were given and for me personally I felt uh very compelled um realizing that there was a lot of it seems like there’s always been a lot of talking you know a lot of discussion going on a lot of sharing of information and that’s a very wonderful thing and I think that that was a great start at that time in January and I felt as an artist as I do for my work as I believe I could speak for Karen with her work uh it’s an opportunity for us to do something physical get my friend Chief Jim Ron Gray principal chief of the oage nation um like to just um keep my comments relatively brief on this because there’s a this is a I want to hear what many of the other people that are up here today just have to say about this um I know for the tribe standpoint as I may have mentioned before um we left a lot of ourselves here when we left these lands uh that had been our homeland for for generations and generations and um we left our Mark here as you can see in the Mounds and the various Village sides that have been uh discovered or or accidentally discovered over the years um and our presence is still felt in the streets and the names of towns and lakes and rivers and cities and uh but very little is known about the people themselves and I think after this weekend I think that’s going to change and uh and I and and because of that uh all these gestures of Goodwill by the community here um I felt compelled to um to acknowledge at least the an opportunity to kind of extend the tribe’s cultural influence in this area not in a grand way that um but more of in a humble uh simple way uh of this tree planting as uh many of you know the story of American Indians in the East have been uprooted moved to a distant land now known as Oklahoma and this is a opportunity to kind of um acknowledge the the passing of the an entire Society from this area but in a way that doesn’t really imply anything other than the fact that that we were here but in in such a humble way and especially with the tree in such a vulnerable state you can easily understand how tenuous this gesture is because environmental forces vandals animals Anything could happen to disrupt this thing in the future but the fact that we’re all here today and we’re working on this to try to make it possible for this thing to live I think is a is a perfect symbolic gesture of what this event meant to me and hopefully to all of us involved that uh hopefully we can build a new relationship that could be symbolized by a tree that could very well last for 250 years and on that it’s worth it’s worth participating and it’s worth having hope that uh this thing will last long after we’re gone and uh and it’ll be a good way to remember our people’s presence here thank you for the invitation to be here today and um uh when Karen first called me and asked me uh you know what what can I do how can I commemorate the O ages and so uh we decided that she would visit the museum and I asked asked her uh what time she would be there and then I planned for elders to be there to meet with her people and traditional people to come and visit with her uh and we met from 9:00 in the morning we didn’t even break for lunch I had lunch sent in and we talked till 7 that evening oh and I think all preaches here uh uh none of us is more important than the other whatever and um and uh I’m just glad to be here today and uh I just wanted to say that uh we feel like we’re residents of Missouri too we’re formerly from here and uh and you’re the show me state so show me that we are thank you thank you Pastor now I call on Nori Boyd executive director of the Missouri Arts Council thank you the Missouri Arts Council is very proud to be be part of this event and to be part of the commemoration of the Lewis and Clark we are sponsoring uh partners with the National Assembly of State Arts agency the National Endowment for the Arts the New England foundation for the Arts and various other Statewide Arts councils across this area that the Lewis and Clark path took and our local partner uh that is helping us with some of the artist sponsorship is the regional Arts commission here in St Louis so we’re quite pleased that the Arts have had a major part in this event today there’s a very thin line between Arts and Humanities and some people say the humanities are history and the art is is Art yet before cameras before cam quarters before tape recorders history was recorded through the written word and through pictures and art depictions few more I’ll take to the musicians and singers thank you very much thank you so much now I call on I’d like to address chief my elders Foresters singers brothers and sisters and I’m very happy to be here I think this is a Monumental moment in all our history our history is tied together and as an further example of that there is not more than a there is more than a few here that are related to Captain Nathaniel hail prior who was on the Louis and Clark expedition he married an oage and the rest is history I believe we’ve come home this exhibition that’s going on in the museum here at the St Louis Art Museum these objects I would like all the citizens to try and take ownership of this because we belong to you and you belong to us and I’m very honored to be here and I thank you for this time Mr van be course don’t sing talk first and see later good morning and uh good to see everybody this morning and and it’s good to have our elders here our people here with us today and it’s uh very touching on what you all are doing here for our people it’s a historical moment here and uh we I’ve heard about uh just read about this what’s going on what’s Happening here today at this uh pointing tree and and it just feels good that we’re able to come back to where our people used to be our our ancestors of all of us here that that made it that made the the trip back to Oklahoma and our parts just uh we’re going to sing a couple of songs here today and bring God into our midst and uh and bring him here with us as we uh carry on this uh this occasion here so the songs that we’re going to sing today is going to we’re going to call upon almighty God to come here and be with us here look down upon us today so with that that’s all I want say you at this time I thank you for this occasion today as I said couple months ago I’m glad to be here with my ancestors in this area here and it’s a your people and my people lot of commemorating a lot of stories about that and is and I uh like this tree little tree they use that in a Native American Church from 1800s this way we try to uphold that tradition our elders sit down for us it always been said that what they said back there we’re saying it today they said everything we trying to uphold what they’ done back there like there ceremonial dances na American church we still involved in that like I said there tree that’s what they use back there they could not that longw build it up we going evening time stay all night midnight stop going into a new day they always say what happened back there yesterday forget about it look forward that’s what they tell us we try to do that if they were here today they would be talking those things their language our language some of us know how to use that language today we thankful for that and these songs my nephews going to sing they call me Uncle that’s a good word Uncle I’ll have one if he was here he would he’d be doing this what I but they call him Uncle call me Uncle that’s a good word and these songs that we going to sing you can visualize back there when they were here they had old sages singing Old Sage songs but come this away we got uh the ceremonial dancing like that big drum they had here you want to hear that that’s a blessing for the Indian people to hear that drum that’s a blessing on there these are songs that he’s going to sing it’s going to be a blessing to you for us continue on with one and these songs they have a prayer song and it’s good they do that but you get closer to almighty God when their song sing when hear that song hear that drum and ceremonial dances that’s when all everything gets together all those ages maybe this they have it in summertime maybe you people Venture down that way four days all month of June we have it down there that’s what they done back then that song that the seral dancers brought even to our tribe in 1800s we try to uphold what they brought here be careful with them they said take care care of him take care of it’s going to take care of you in the future to almighty God and his songs that his nephew is going to sing like you said that’s Prayer song they have them songs it’s like the church got songs in there you get get close to God you can hear those songs Church same way here in people understand those song Our People different tribes all the United States there’s over 500 tribes of Indians in the United States understand to God pray to him as I said the other day at the Museum our people are praying people when that sun comes up he to pray I noon evening time still that way they said you ask almighty God he’s going to fix this way whatever you want to ask you it’s been that way your people said that my people said that different tribes of Indians understand that and those songs that they going to sing is going to it’s a prayer song and I want to thank you for listening to me and and I want to God bless each every one of us here today thank we’re going to now make a bit of transition me watch see msh I’m cold that tree may be an intangible thing to you intangible it may be a uh a non life thing to you this ground you’re standing on May look like it’s not not much to it but when our people talk to the elements Sky the Sun the trees the birds ground they listen they listen to us listen to our people you that are biblical go back to those first days of Genesis and God spoke the word Let There Be Li night day there be time he spoke to the Earth and said let there be Land There Be Water Mass there be the heavens and when he spoke they listened and they did what he said became land became the Sun the moon the elements all that it became from his word so God put that there spoke to those elements and and they became and they listen hence they’re sacred from the word of God that sacredness is still there still in this tree still on that ground you’re standing on Satan our people that o AG that was here mon why M you why that old one back there that’s gone that’s buried he understood that and that pressure for our people to Westford that pressure we kept that the few things we kept of that o age you see some of their things that they gave us just a little bit to hold on to those say we still do and this and and we’re well with it we’re prospering with it and I say it with confidence H AG people are blessed people because from this spot when that pressure come on us things happen in the Divine we called from New Orleans we called that black Rob we called it the rosary the Native American Church come from the South Way deep in Texas and Mexico it come to us and our brothers the con Indians they were dying out and they brought a drum to us those three things I look at that as divine intervention that saved our people and gave us Hope and Faith and regeneration for were not for them and we came when we walked into Oklahoma we were devastated Give It Up going there to die but those things came and now look at us healthy we’re alive we have little old saes we have old old saes we have all our ways we’re going and we’re going into going into the future so that’s what we’re going to talk about today we’re going to talk to elements we’re going to talk about them open we going to talk about you Lewis and Clark we’re going to talk about what what was what is and what will be what we’re going to be asking for our people always start as as my my brother van said we we we ask God to come in and be part of this ask him to guide this let him do this we’re too little we’re nothing let him have a hand in this and when he comes in we’re going to turn it over to him because from this spot from what was this was all o AG at one time from Chicago to New Orleans to amarill to Witchita back this way that was oage it was on now we’re over there but for a little while for a little while the old s is going to have this this is ours for a little while this right here but Karen and Matthew did we’re going to take it just for a little while turn it back to O and then we’re going to give it back you and you take care of it you turn this to a nice part clean it go Stoke up clean it up that’s what we say clean it up stand up clean it up clean it up turn it green put benches out there make it nice if you call us we’ll come help that’s we’re going to do that for a little while take this make it o Ag and give it back to you back and forth that exchange back and forth you give us some things we’ll give you some things that’s what Lewis and Clark and Jefferson and Washington and Adams they understood that about the ending respect those men started with respect with the indan read Jefferson’s letter and you’ll find that how he wanted to treat the Indian he said treat them with respect those men on that expedition Savvi that they understood that somewh New York understood that respect prior shanos saaka Jia they understood that they took that respect and put it in front of them and they left from here in 1804 and they come back in 1806 had it not been for that respect for that Indian they’ never made it you walk up to an Indian if you got respect he knows it can see it if you don’t have you’ll never connect with an Indian if you got respect with you you bring respect stronger than blood so those are the things we’re going to do we’re going to start now and we’re going to turn it over now to our singers my my brother van and his helpers they’re going to ask God to come in for a little while be part of this and then after after that we’ll have nephew tether this limb because this limb when it’s tethered it’s going to it’s going to Point East MH walk k the way y WI the the wind there’s one spot in here we’re going to have to hit because there’s tree roots’s see yeah I’m going to hang on my now we’re going to going to give my closing prayer like a what kind of you Jinky walk on to eorn E bet Missouri Missouri ma there it keep you enough on that day they talked of respect and fell fellowship and Brotherhood with our leaders and their leaders on this very ground red oak tree young sapling this land this park w w yink it’s good what they did you give this tree strength you give this land strength count walk wel ehorn When you pray our people told us listen I ask you to listen to this prayer to she there there we brought in she walk by strength it thank you at this time like to have our closing song from our singers we’ll consider ourselves dismissed up the God up the at this time if you would let’s give them a round of applause thank you so all to be with i a I see you again it mess me up great great day yeah guess we better shells are beautiful I said like stes we have to go single excuse me yeah you can

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Roadside Art Signs and Lewis & Clark Bicentennial History

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:35:58 +0000

like 125 yeah it’s pretty fast give me a chance to change my angle too so if we go slow that should be good okay that sounds good it’s great it’s going good yeah that’s cool yeah it’s pretty fast come back here when it’s more don’t work I there’s probably to little faster spe in for oh okay all go so up hey excuse me they’re artists from Kansas City Missouri and they are the on that put together the signs out along the highway so we’ll visit with them how’s that sounding sounds good okay how’s your background noise is that tolerable it’s tolerable it is you’re definitely overpowering it okay good all right get rid of your product you want to do it in dark glasses or light okay is the Tacko T should I jump why don’t you take that off um should we just have them kind of talking with each other and trade the microphone back and forth microphone exactly um we want it like here are you going to ask questions I will at least right there maybe a little bit closer like this yeah that’s perect really where you have to keep it okay um you got a two shot here or a three right now right now I got a three shot okay um are you rolling I’m rolling okay that’s a good thing to do okay we’re here with Matt the hamers if I pronounced that right Matt the hamers and K and McCoy They’re artists from Kansas City Missouri and we just found one of their art projects out on County Road B I think it is on our way into pter sou tell me a little bit about the project uh if you can talk to me about the inspiration for this particular one well it was a couple months in the making uh and we went through a variety of ideas and spaces um visiting a couple of different reservations um speaking with people about how do they want their voice to be represented ladies and gentlemen and CLK you can blame it on me we got some dancers we got stuck we got a phone call way about 15es down the road told they going be here 130 we’re going to have grand entry going to impact 13 dancers people involved give you a little extra time I know a lot of you had a hard time finding this place adult age would call these take off on when I started living here you remember those signs absolutely absolutely what if anything did that have play there’s I contact unfortunately I mess up again you must make three one of the ideas of having but we didn’t know what they say and um only about 10 days ago in the voes listen to Alan pink and Bobby con I wrote the text came out with and said IDE made anybody with circle Tri there decision of the power must make Grand ENT we’re going to put this on hold for another half hour big sh back and for we or thought we work their nature area they have a beautiful new nature area we also about working with the sound Native American languages and it turned out that that is an idea that for us to sit down and tell a story your hisory he would just tell me a story but we learned that for gentem welcome toell so with their history it is questions they don’t just tell a story they need to have lead time to with the elders that this would be an appropriate story this one would not and we really didn’t have enough we went back to the idea F shave style signs and when we heard I heard Alan speaking I began to understand a lot said there was a a lot of background a lot of deep background going to visit with tribes with the sh with the the Poria gentl you know we’ve both had a lot of back off a little biters hold on second call about so it couldn’t have come minut deep well research and I might not have understood that what Allan and Bobby were saying you know I couldn’t have edited it said these are key issues these are crucial if I hadn’t had a lot of time to learn from a lot of people that as well have any of uh the people that inspired these seen seen the exhibit yet seen the inst um well John White analou who’s officiating here at the pow and was on the crossing border Symposium panel said during the panel that he loved them that he thought they were provocative and very important so that couldn’t have made me more great um what else would you like to visit about General thoughts maybe about why you know what we think of it yeah let’s maybe talk about some of the text yeah or just I mean I have my own sense of you know we’ve been talking about our own sense of how people would approach these or what how want appro okay um I’m just going to hand off the microphone to them and let them freelance up a little bit you have to kind of keep it talk the and you got a memorized I take it the 25 signs no we’ll probably have to prompt each other no there’s the by right well I think in general uh one of the things when we were coming up with this idea that I was thinking about we were thinking about is just the idea of how roadside signs catch people’s attention and no matter what you’re focused in on while you’re driving you can’t help but notice a sign and you can’t help but react to it subconsciously on some level and so the idea that we put questions out there that are kind of open-ended and make people um think even if it’s just for a second think about what that means to them and really you can take the questions either way you can you can talk about them in terms of dominant culture U uh in terms of the United States and the history behind that but you can also talk about in terms of the history of the American Indians and how um it it it takes on both sides so it makes you think about something that maybe you usually don’t think about kind of a recontextualization of culture yeah and I also just want to emphasize how um Matt and I have worked together bouncing off of each other during the all the projects we’ve worked on and um and this project is definitely that same way if we look at the text the first one says celebrate commemorate that was a big question early on in the commemoration of the lisis and Clark my centennial who is celebrating who is commemorating what do those things mean for most American American Indians it was the beginning of the end and it’s not a happy time or or something to celebrate so we wanted to bring that up to people that are just coming to this event to people that may not have been in on that discussion but who certainly understand what those words mean the next set who discovered who that’s also that’s a really interesting question I mean we’re on land right now that that was once kapoo land this wasn’t just an empty space questions of language is culture language is language culture um those are brought up and as soon as you read that and then you read I think next is who names places and do place names tell stories and then you look up and you see the water tower at page T and you think what does page t mean that’s a French name it contains an Indian name it’s about a story this place is on a little spit of land between the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers and it’s a place where people portaged their canoes a long time ago Indian tribes early white people you cut off I don’t know 22 35 miles if page across here um just thinking about um also things that we’ve learned about how history is recorded how it’s recorded in the landscape how certain um John White anope was talking this morning about Devil’s Tower it’s a place in the landscape that tells a story that means something it’s a it’s a way of recording history so we ask in the sign boards um oral Traditions written Traditions how many ways can history be recorded um and and so we want people to start to honor other Traditions other than our own tradition as well as kind of one of the other things that seems to still be a u a factor in today’s world is the issue of land land ownership and uh one man’s Wilderness is another one’s Wilderness is another’s backyard and the idea that uh American Indians think of themselves as stewards of the land and land is owned communally it’s it’s it’s not necessarily Theirs to own it’s it’s uh something that they respect and are reverent toward in terms of nature uh and our concept of land of course is different uh the Jeffersonian grid and the idea that land gets broken down and everybody has their portion so two different perspectives you know which one’s more valid than the other are they both valid um if kind of those are some of the questions that we hope people might think about even if it’s just for a minute or two yeah that’s a good way end okay thank you thank you here with us folks he’s going to read these signs us um can I can can I get the microphone so we don’t get the um can we can we do this I want to do it without the microphone and the photo is there any way to is this directional or how about sideways and I could have him hold that so I don’t have the clip on I can go pretty close you know from here on up we can do it that way I have a question may I tape as well can you uh let’s be Clos just start reading just start reading things and we’ll move the mic as she needs if you want you can stand with your sign here and you can have the mic there and I’ll still get them in the closeup I’m sorry yeah okay celebrate commemorate who discovered whom is one’s Wilderness another’s backyard what is Wilderness what is civilization is culture language is a language culture who names places do place names tell stories how many ways can history be recorded written Traditions oral Traditions is everything you read true okay let’s let’s do it again let’s slow it down the microphone too cuz you have to hold the mic down okay I have to hold the microphone up it won’t work down that far but about a foot way we could probably do it this one do looking at the in between I think right there that should be able to get the money remember the question mark thing yeah slow it down yeah in between yeah you can slow down the pace and more time between signs okay right celebrate that’s a question started over okay celebrate celebrate close enough the question celebrate I don’t know celebrate commemorate who discovered whom is one’s civilization is culture language his language culture who names places who place names tell stories how many ways can history be recorded written Traditions oral Traditions is everything you read true okay um do you want to do one looking at the camera now getting any familiar with little bit you know what we’ll do I’ll if you lose one I’ll just repeat it to you and you just feed it back into the camera okay okay when you’re ready why don’t you just say them and then you re them and then I’ll re cut that out that’s fine okay celebrate celebrate commemorate commemorate who who discovered discovered whom whom is one’s Wilderness is one’s Wilderness another’s backyard another’s backyard what is what is Wilderness Wilderness what is what is civilization civilization is culture language is culture language is language culture is language culture who names who names places places do place names do place names tell stories tell stories how many ways how many ways can history can history be recorded be recorded written Traditions written Traditions oral Traditions oral Traditions is everything is everything you read you read true true what do you think I think that’s good that’s a good time and that should work okay are you rolling yes we’re rolling okay celebrate celebrate commemorate commemorate who who discovered discovered whom whom is one’s Wilderness is one’s Wilderness another’s backyard another’s backyard what is what is Wilderness Wilderness what is what is civilization civilization is culture language is culture language is language culture is language culture who names who names places places do place names do place names tell stories tell stories how many ways how many ways can history can history be recorded be true cool I like those you can start at any okay uh my name is Jeff Olson I’m the public information officer for the lisis and Clark National Historic Trail and this is Clint Brown he’s a grov on Indian from Harlem Montana and we’ve been out in Portage to Su Missoura for the past couple of days for the signature event here and on our way up yesterday we drove by some signs that we we saw on the side of the road and it’s an art project Bicentennial art project and the artists are Matt deamer and Karen mcoy both of Kansas City and Missouri I I was just struck by the by the signs and by the by the words on the signs they’re things that I’ve been thinking about in the last four or five years because of the bison and I know that you you know you and I have had conversations about what what kind of a message are we going to work on what kind of a message are we going to try and carry that’s not about Lewis and Clark it’s not just about science or Discovery or things like that what what what was your first thought when when you saw those signs yesterday when I’ve seen all the signs along the road there’s one that stuck out in particular and it’s still in my mind and uh the question was who discovered whom to me I believe that uh that is the thing that we are celebrating as Native Americans or commemorating I I should put it we as Native Americans have been here for years and years and years uh the idea of loose and Clark coming through our homeland is something that I should I think should be discussed more you know we and we’ve also talked about celebrate commemorate and those two years two those two words and and what do they mean and and words that should they be used but you know you and I have talked about those words before and we’ both SLI we both said celebrate but I have a you know I think commemorate is the is the appropriate term but there are still some things to celebrate no matter who you are exactly what is there for the groans or for you and your family to celebrate in this place well I believe the celebration part of of the the Lewis and Clark Trail is that it is our turn as Native Americans to tell our story this time around we as Native Americans will have a chance to tell our story as opposed to what we’ve all heard or read maybe in the his out of the history book uh which I’m sure the majority of that has been written by non non-native you’ve probably done whole 15 or 20 programs in the ten many voices so far since the F Centennial began where are people with wanting to know about the American Indian story that’s a really good question uh when I first started the uh uh presentations in the 10 of mini voices I had no idea what to expect after the first one I realized that people in the United States who live side by side Native Americans know very very little about it why do you think that’s so I believe it’s we’ve all kind of been trained to believe what we have in our history books as elementary students going through school even on the reservations we got a very very small part of the Native American during the ls and Clark trip when in fact if it wasn’t for the Native Americans I don’t believe the Lan FL trip would have made it as far as it did can you think of a specific instance I know you’ve read the journals and you’ve been to a lot of other leou and cl presentations tell me a couple of instances where you think American Indian Health was critical was a could have been a a watershed or a turning point for the exavation well right off the bat as far as the uh Lewis and Clark group that traveled North or traveled West their group was a military group uh I’m sure that turned off a lot of Native Americans that they ran into but one of the plus things that for the Lewis and Clark group itself for the core too was having a female aboard and York to the Native Americans York the color of his skin represented a God to the Native Americans I truly believe that a lot of Native Americans that they encountered or they might not have encountered who watched them travel by on the river let them go because of that female and York I was just going to ask you what does a female and a small child mean on something like that a female and a small child would represent that they weren’t a hunting party they weren’t a war party the female and a child would represent that these Travelers are traveling as a family what else what else struck Us in this uh struck you in these uh I like this one though is one’s will backyard there were two signs um pretty early on in the in the uh installment installation Karen help me installation installation there were two signs that popped into my head pretty quickly when we saw him in that installation out on the highway there one of the signs said is one’s Wilderness and the next sign said another’s backyard so the the question is is one’s Wilderness another’s backyard what what does that mean oh that to me means that when the Lou Park Trail when they left West when the cor two left West from here and started into what they thought was a Wilderness when in fact they were traveling into a very very uh lived in land uh the there was a uming amount of people that they never ever seen they simply traveled along the waterways when in fact the land was inhabited by many people is there so so we’re talking that uh civilization is civilization and civilization even if another group of people say it’s Wilderness how about Wilderness out in the uh in the on the Western Plains was it all civilized land that where people lived or are there were there places or are there places uh in the west that that tribe still consider to be Wilderness yes there is the uh the tribes that were in the area specific specifically in the Northern Plains and Along the Rockies the tribes that lived in that areas were simply hunters and gatherers and they moved about the countryside throughout the year to find the best spots for instance maybe to uh pick berries or hunt meat or find wood for the winner so there was parts of the Wilderness where even the Native Americans basically left alone as soon as the uh The Core 2 came through and the the N or the uh the white people moved West all of those Wilder wildernesses were soon doubled up by people looking for beautiful places to live Beautiful Homes when in fact the Native American people they too believe those as beautiful places but they respected them so much that they would not Venture into them as much as maybe the white people did after the uh 4 two you you talk about the respect that the Indians had for these places that’s a that’s a word with a lot of different meanings but what what did respect mean in in that instance where there’s a place out there that we’re respect and we’re not going to go there why I guess why about respect that well there could have been several different reasons one of the reasons that uh right off the top of my head would have been it might have been a uh ceremonial grounds there might have been certain certain types of uh uh resources that the Native American people might have gotten from that certain area and they and then would respect that area for what Mother Earth had to offer there uh just besides the idea of ceremonial of burial grounds but there was a lot of things that the Native American people used from Mother Earth and those areas to them were they were they were sacred areas I take it though that sacred doesn’t mean that you that they never went there there were there were uses what what uh brief periods of time or how would you describe that sure there would be more than one tribe who would venture to one certain area of the uh uh for instance Wilderness there would be different tribes who would travel all to the same place maybe to get one piece of Pipe Stone and I’m talking several different tribes Waring tribes there might have been certain areas where they would go to get certain shells certain types of clay How would how would Waring tribes deal with going to the same place without Waring on one another or did those things happen the the respect for the resources that Mother Earth had to offer would be put in front of uh all of the Waring uh the Waring thoughts that maybe the uh the Young Warriors would have their their Elders would have taught them to respect no matter who was there that Mother Earth let us use these resources whether there was your Waring tribe there or an Allied tribe they would respect it so much as to let them finish what they were doing and then move in here any other you want to comment on or how many ways can history be recorded okay let’s see let’s let’s go into this uh what did you lead into this uh something else uh was funny was sad was all right um how many ways can history be recorded uh when I first started out here on the uh uh tent of many voices as a presenter one of the things that I was told by the uh the Indian liaison with the National Park Service was to look for misconception within the Lewis and Clark Journal well I sat down and I I come through the journals again and uh within the uh maybe the first three pages of the journals I found several misconceptions um I always asked the idea how many ways can it be recorded how many ways can the Native American people let the non-native crowd know about our way of life I believe this is one of the the the stepping tools right here that with the trail of Ls and Clark that the Native Americans need to use it is our chance to tell them about our history and see myself with the arena director the veteran is going to help us out here that’s dinner High w we go all right dancers last call start making your way to the east side of the Arena dancers start making your side yourselves over that east side of the Arena this time start lining up Eagle staff carrier we need you up front cing that stop in there once again registration is now closed registration is now closed getting ready for Grand entry you must make three of three grand entries oh you dancers start making your way over there start lining up get a high sign from my Arena director that c Dr grand inry song coming back over to Milwaukee Bucks flag song out to that Center drum from Memorial song to wach or who back to the milwauke Bucks Victory s back to the Bucks photography okay all right dancers this is it we’re going Grand entry at this time everybody I’d like you to please stand up all you participants so respect for these uh Eagle staff and the slag coming in at this time ladies and Gentlemen please remain standing if you are able to until this is over with this is a proper protocol that we do out of respect yeah for the United States flag and our Eagle staff so I tell you to sit down please remain standing you can give me the high sign all right Max you ready Grand entry song Gentlemen remove your hats got an eagle feather on it I’m you on the I know what sing that song now man head lady the royalty bringing in that eagle staff this time Logan men’s traditional men’s traditional by that is our flag bear and next is our powow princesses our visiting royalty Mar powow and visi royalty is our head man and head lady dancer bringing in the dancers at this time first UPA now traditional dancers stand stand next step is our one grass Dancer by in and out this time our two bustle dancers our men’s fancy dance men fancy dancea now it this time is our ladies dancers F dancers or traditional ladies dancers all women’s categor no team yet no te Junior women jingle women’s fancy boys team boys traditional team boys traditional and straight women’s jingle bu jingle and is our Junior categor excuse me FY Shaner very of our ladies coming in fancy Shaw dancers comes in our Junior categor Team categories for young menal dancer young man straight follow directly behind traditional grass dancer danc on by our boys f little boys fancy dancer little girls are R it out this time Girls Doll sha dancers hey if you remain standing ladies and gentlemen we’re going to have our flag song this is the same as it’s all right to clap too it’s the same is a national anthem for Indian people if you a standing at this time send over to the Milwaukee Bucks he hey y all right this time gentlemen you come up here and post those colors for me all right we’re going to go to Memorial song please stay ATT at this time Memorial song going to that Center drum un the

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Lewis and Clark Journals and Archives Overview

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:35:55 +0000

the journals of Lewis and Clark notebooks loose sheets of paper in the lie and I’m talking about the whole of the party not just the two c 90% are the American philosophical Society in Philadelphia the next largest call is at the Missouri Historical Society in St Lou and after that then you get a bit of piece here and there new liary Newberry library in Chicago Illinois the Miss uh Wisconsin State Historical Society in madis so you have a few pieces around then if you want to include Botanical specimens and Maps it even gets more complicated so the whole Corpus of leis and cl materials Maps journals Botanical specimens and other artifacts are fairly voluminous and you may have seen that the Missouri Historical Society mounted an exhibition of many of the artifacts and it was a beautiful thing and very complicated and involved so uh it’s hard to just say a set number of journals a set number of maps of Botanical specimens because there’s always some ambiguity there thank you again oh well we’ll still do something here in a second but um I just want to say you know I I’ve heard Gary talk and a number of times as all of you have I even eded did some of his videos but um I’m always and I I I think you’ll agree with me the ability he has to paint a picture to help us visualize as well as to challenge us to think in different ways about the exposition it’s just phenomenal really thank you guys and we hope that um you and F will continue to be friends of mouth of the plat and in order to do so we hope that you will find pleasure in wearing these right all right thanks for coming uh we hope that you’ll come for our Christmas event it’s going to be here and uh the bar will be open there’ll be plenty of Christmas Che e

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