Marc Jaffe (1) (–2023)

This is an anthology of essays by nine Native American writers of nine different tribes/nations.

All of these nations were mentioned in the[ Journals of Lewis and Clark]. But each nation had a different perspective on the Journey of Discovery.

First of all, most of them had seen and traded with French, Spanish, Scottish, English and even Russian white men before Lewis and Clark. No matter what the L&C Journals said, they did not think of white men as gods. They did not feel that this group of whites were of greater import than others they had met. They did, however, almost universally perceive them as rude and had no regard for a Great White Father meeting his children and owning the land that they had lived in and on for centuries.

It is only in retrospect that the Native Americans learned how vastly and quickly their lives would be changed. In as little as thirty years for the nations along the Oregon coast or still within one generation (seventy years) for some of the plains people, wars were fought, treaties broken and survivors pushed onto reservations.

Several of the writers’ essays were about the shabby ways they had been treated and the ongoing negative consequences of the white colonization. Other writers comment on their oral traditions of the coming of Lewis and Clark, especially compared to the official writings of the white men of the expedition.

This is an intriguing essay collection of an event seen by most Americans as one of the highpoints of US Western exploration and settlement. However, like all history it’s an event told by the conquerors, with little regard given to the Native side, until this book. As in all anthologies, I enjoyed some essays more than others. I would recommend it to anyone interested in American frontier history.… (altro)

Most historians credit Lewis and Clark with a courageous exploration of new territory; this book provides a view from the perspective of the existing people on the land. This anthology is a collection of essays by nine modern-day Native Americans. In it, we learn that the expedition was about American (Jeffersonian) imperialism and commercialism. Perhaps the most revealing theme was that the expedition really wasn't a terribly noteworthy event for the tribes...just more white people coming through. In many cases, the coming was predicted by vision and the moccasin grapevine presaged their coming as they traveled West. Only a couple of the articles were interesting and talked to the title; others either beat the same old subject or completely avoided the book's theme and could be easily expunged without impact to the author's dominant idea. In the positive column, the verbal history was very enlightening.… (altro)

It’s always interesting to see through the eyes of the “other” in any event, whether it’s a mythologized, patriotic event like the Lewis and Clark Expedition, a battle or war or revolution, a protest, or a first date. In some ways, this book reminds me of Howard Zinn’s superb A People’s History of the United States, in that it takes a one-sided textbook event and gives us the other perspective. Of course this book is just focused on one small event in U.S. History while Zinn’s book covers Columbus through Clinton. But this small event had huge implications for both the explorers and the explored.

From the U.S. history perspective, there is no doubt that this was an epic and brave journey and achievement for the Americans. But a journey of discovery? Sort of, but the French and other white men had already been in almost all the places the expedition went through. This was not unpopulated wilderness, especially along the Columbia where there were large populations of Native American tribes firmly established.

One of the primary purposes was commercialism. President Jefferson directed the leaders to seek out “…the most direct & practical water communication across this continent for the purposes of commerce. As Bill Yellowtail writes, “Lewis and Clark [were] envoys of free-trade agreements, long prior to NAFTA and CAFTA and the WTO.” And most of the tribes they encountered were happy with the prospects of trade.

But the primary purchase was imperialism. The French did not sell us land in the Louisiana Purchase, they sold us “discover’s rights”. These rights were commonly used legal instruments employed by European colonial powers in their efforts to control resources throughout the world and justify the exploitation and elimination of indigenous peoples and cultures. As Vine Deloria, Jr. points out in the first essay, France claimed that it “owned” a large tract of the North American West simply because Frenchmen were the first white men to set foot there. A similar claim was held by Spain for the North American Southwest. So Jefferson purchased the release of those rights from France and sent his white men through the lands with rituals, gifts, and other activities that were common practice to establish a new “discover” of those lands under the new United States.

One of the most interesting things to me that came through many of the stories is just how un-newsworthy the expedition was to the tribes that encountered it. Stories were of course handed down, and in fact form the basis for some of the essays in this book. But for most of the tribes, it was not news. Most of them did not know the ramifications of this expedition and that soon their way of life would disappear under a subsequent wave of white settlers, soldiers, businessmen, and agents. Some tribes had oracular forebodings about the coming of the white men. That foreboding was well grounded. But the hopeful common thread I got from the contributors to this book was that despite what happened, many of their tribes are still here and still living on their land. I, for one, am glad of that.… (altro)

Essays by:
Vine Deloria, Jr
Debra Magpie Earling
Mark N Trahant
Bill Yellowtail
Roberta Conner
Gerald A Baker
Allen V Pinkham, Sr
Roberta and Richard Basch
N Scott Momaday
This is a short but interesting collection of essays from Native American written in conjunction with the elapse of 200 years since Lewis and Clark's "Corps of Discovery Expedition".
The essays begin with one by the late Vine DeLoria. His pragmatic spiritualism is always informative and entertaining. Next is Debra Magpie Earling. Her writing is very good, and I might try to read other books by her. All of the other essays are also interesting and well written. I think that for many Americans with European, or other non-native ancestry, the Lewis and Clark Expedition is just a mundane, mandatory part of our grade school American History lessons. It is very rare for any of us to have a grandparent who can pass on an "I remember when" story to us about events like this. But it is still part of the family history to many Native Americans. This makes sense upon thinking about it, but it is books like this that prompt that thinking.… (altro)