Corps of Discovery
By Trent Loos

On May 14, 1804, about 40 soldiers jumped into three boats and headed for where “the sun disappears behind the great sea of water.” Led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, they were the first whites to see the Rocky Mountains and encountered 51 Indian tribes along the way. In 1801, when Thomas Jefferson was elected President and the Mississippi River was the western edge of the United States, two of every three people lived within 50 miles of the Atlantic Ocean. If those folks had been of the mind set of today’s society, Lewis and Clark may have never jumped into the Missouri River and headed west.

With all the special interest groups and money devoted to returning the land west of the Mississippi River to Wilderness, one must wonder if those people have ever read the history of the Lewis and Clark expedition. If so, anyone who believes in the mission could have no explanation for their actions other than attempting to apologize for being human.

Meriwether Lewis was 28 years old and spent three months preparing for the journey by studying science, medicine and geology. He was an Army man and close to Jefferson but was considered by many to be an unlikely candidate to lead the expedition. Attorney General Levi Lincoln suggested Lewis was “too impulsive and takes too many risks which will endanger this enterprise of a national consequence”. Now what individual could have succeeded in this endeavor without accepting the challenge of risk?

Lewis and Clark were both considered men of great individual achievement yet the only path of success for this undertaking would require cooperation, teamwork, discipline and networking. No amount of preparation could have readied them for the situations they were to encounter but would give them a basis for making sound decisions. With each decision they became wiser and learned from their experiences.

Within the first 30 days of the journey, they had a vivid picture of what the next two years would be like. Traveling 14 miles per day was considered great progress. Bouts of dysentery were common and they were forced to drink water from the Missouri River and each cup was half full of filth. Amazingly enough, the only death on the entire journey came before the expedition reached South Dakota. On August 20, 1804, a very strong 21-year-old named Charles Floyd died of what would now be considered a burst appendix.

Once the corps reached South Dakota, their desire to meet Indian Tribes was finally realized. Near what is now Pierre, SD an incident occurred which put the fate of the entire expedition in jeopardy. It took place with the Lakota Sioux. After their lives were threatened, Clark wrote of the Lakota, “These are the most vial miscreants of the savage race and must forever remain the pirates of the Missouri River until such measures are pursued by our government as will make them feel a dependence on it’s will for supplies of merchandise.”

I find that a fascinating statement because of the four years I spent living on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in S.D. This reservation has in excess of 80 % unemployment, endless health care issues their lack of pride and hope have lead them to complete dependence upon the government.

Our country has not been the same since this expedition. I find tremendous parallels between the “Corps of Discovery” and life in general. Today we have faster cars, space shuttles and computers that show us what is happening globally in an instant. But those are just tools to take us where we want to go. There was a point when Lewis seemed to sense that they would reach their target destination and he wrote, “The men seem to have committed themselves to succeed in the mission or perish”.

So what has really changed in 200 years? We still feel the effects of individuals who are willing to swim upstream and we study to better prepare for decision-making. We still rely on cooperation, teamwork, discipline and networking no matter what toys we have to help us. It is the interaction with humans that made it possible for Lewis and Clark to turn the Wilderness into a great nation. We are living with the impact of decisions made by our forefathers and the only thing we know about the future is that the decisions and relationships we make today will impact the lives of those who are to follow.

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