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Wondery Plus subscribers can binge new seasons of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. This is a special encore presentation of our three-part series on Lewis and Clark and their 1804 expedition to explore the West, hoping to find a route to the Pacific Ocean and change the map of North America.
Imagine it's January 8th, 1806. You're at the Washington Navy Yard in the nation's capital, on the banks of the Anacostia River. The stench of the excrement-filled waters fills the air. All around you, workers are building new ships. In the harbor sits a large frigate with American flags fluttering from its masts. You're the Secretary of War, and you know this place well. It's the heart of America's growing navy. That's why you and President Thomas Jefferson are giving a group of Plains Indians a tour.
These Native American diplomats are from the Osage, Otoe, and Pawnee people, tribes now in American territory since the completion of the Louisiana Purchase. They were invited to Washington by Lewis and Clark and arrived just a few weeks ago. You walk alongside Jefferson as he leads them toward the frigate. Well, Mr. President, I'm sure the USS Adams will impress them. Yes, it's a fine demonstration of America's strength. I think it should convince them that they need to live in peace with us. Mind what we say.
A demonstration of strength is the whole point of inviting these Indians to Washington. Jefferson's plan is to move all tribes who now live east of the Mississippi west into Louisiana territory, freeing up more land for white American settlers. But for that to happen peacefully, these Plains chiefs will have to agree to share their lands with tribes from the east. You and the chiefs follow Jefferson up a gangway.
On the deck of the USS Adams, a line of uniformed sailors salute. Jefferson addresses the chiefs. My children, this ship has just returned from a mighty battle on the great waters where the sun rises. It destroyed our enemies with ease. It proves our power. But America is a peaceable and just nation. So if you honor us by following my advice, we will live in harmony with you. The chiefs listen but seem unmoved.
Through a translator, one of them asks if the big ship can travel up rivers. Jefferson shakes his head. No, it can only navigate the great waters. That answer seems to satisfy the chief. You suspect he's glad to learn that the ship can't travel up a river to his home territory in the plains. As the sailors lead the delegation away to show them the ship's cannons, Jefferson turns to you. I wonder where they are now. Who, sir? Captain Lewis and his men.
He was supposed to report on his progress before crossing the mountains, but we haven't heard anything from the expedition since this summer. When Mr. President, we can't ignore the possibility that the expedition has met some kind of tragic end. But I do have total confidence in Captain Lewis. I imagine he probably is wintering on the Pacific coast as we speak.
You say nothing in reply. You sense that Jefferson is still trying to convince himself, hoping that his investment in a risky expedition doesn't prove to be his downfall. But the truth is, no one in Washington, D.C. knows what's happened to the Corps of Discovery. They are missing in action somewhere in the western wilderness. Jefferson is still counting on the expedition to forge new alliances with the Plains Indians. So if they fail to return, his plans for America's westward expansion could be in jeopardy.
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Fuel up at Shell. Download the Shell app to find a station today. From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers. Our history. Your story. In May 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark headed west up the Missouri River and into the unknown.
Eighteen months later, their expedition had crossed the Rocky Mountains and battled the whitewater rapids of the Columbia River to reach the Pacific Ocean. They had discovered prairie dogs and other exotic wildlife, met new native peoples like the Shoshone and Nez Perce, and identified suitable sites for forts and trading posts that could aid America's growing appetite for land and power.
Now, they needed to bring their discoveries safely back to the United States, where President Thomas Jefferson eagerly awaited their return. But before they could start their journey back, they had to endure winter in the Pacific Northwest. This is Episode 3, The Long Way Home. On the evening of January 5, 1806, Lewis and Clark hunkered down by the fireplace in their wooden lodge at Fort Clatsop near the Pacific coast. It had been another rainy day in the Pacific Northwest.
The deluge hadn't stopped since November. It had rained when they first arrived at the coast, and it rained when they scattered locations for this fort on the south side of the Columbia River estuary, and it was still raining when they moved in for the winter.
Life at Fort Clatsop was monotonous. The whiskey was long gone. For many of the men, consorting with women from the neighboring Clatsop Indian villages was their main pastime. It had become such a feature of life at the fort that Lewis and Clark grew concerned at how many items their men were giving the women in return for their favors. The captains eventually started giving the men ribbons to use for payment. Mealtimes were a constant rotation of elk, jerky, and dog meat bought from the Clatsop.
But on the night of January 5th, there was something new on the menu. Whale. The Clatsop had given the Americans some small cubes of blubber from a whale that had washed ashore a few miles to the south. Impressed by the meal, Clark decided to form a party to go find the whale and collect some more.
On hearing this, Sakagawiya demanded to go too, which irritated the captains. They were used to their young Shoshone guide being a quiet and compliant presence on their expedition, and at first they refused her request. But Sakagawiya would not take no for an answer. She had traveled thousands of miles to reach this place, and she wasn't going to miss her chance to see the ocean and the monster fish.
So the next morning, Sacagawea strapped her infant son, Jean-Baptiste, onto her back and joined Clark's party on the trek to find the whale. Two days later, they reached the site, but they were too late. The local Tillamook people had already picked the whale clean. All that was left was its enormous, 105-foot-long skeleton. Clark visited the Tillamook and managed to buy a small amount of whale oil and blubber. It was a poor haul for a four-day round trip over rocky terrain.
And after the brief excitement about the whale, the tedium of life at Fort Clatsop resumed. Entire weeks passed with little to report. The captains and their men counted down the days to spring, when they could finally pack up and head home. Lewis and Clark used the time to learn what they could about the Native American people who lived close to the fort. They were most struck by the Chinook custom of flattening the skulls of their babies so that their heads became permanently elongated.
They also noted the influence of British traders, who visited the coast between April and October, offering goods for furs. The Clatsop had even learned some English words and phrases from their British visitors, including musket, powder, damned rascal, and son of a bitch.
When not studying the local tribes, the captains laid plans to help the United States stake its claim to the Pacific Northwest. They wrote letters detailing their presence and asked the Clatsop to hand them out to the British when they arrived that spring. The letters wouldn't make these lands Americas, but they could help the United States make its case for claiming the territory in the future.
Lewis also thought about what he was going to tell President Jefferson when they finally returned home. All he had so far was bad news. The president hoped Lewis would find a connection between the Missouri and Columbia rivers that would facilitate East-West trade, but the expedition had proven that this transcontinental river route existed only in Jefferson's imagination.
Lewis desperately wanted to return home with some good news for the president, so he and Clark hatched a plan. After they crossed the Bitterroot Mountains, they would split up the expedition into smaller groups, then search for the fastest way to get from the Missouri to the Columbia. In addition, Lewis would go north to make friends with the Blackfeet tribe and find the northernmost border of the United States.
This plan ignored the president's order that the expedition must never jeopardize its discoveries by taking unnecessary risks. But Lewis wanted to return east in a blaze of glory, rather than with a message of disappointment. Plans in place and letters distributed, the captains counted down the days until they could begin their long trek home.
On March 23rd, 1806, that day came. After almost five months on the Pacific coast, the Corps of Discovery piled their remaining supplies into their canoes and began paddling back up to Columbia. But as they traveled upriver, they re-encountered some of the same Chinook tribes that had harassed them on their way downriver. Day after day, the Chinooks brazenly helped themselves to the expedition's supplies. Anything left unguarded was at risk of disappearing.
The Chinook seemed to regard helping themselves to the Corps' belongings as a toll for letting the expedition travel through their lands. But Lewis and Clark weren't above stealing either. Before setting up river, their men stole a canoe from the Clatset people. But now that the tables were turned, between the expedition and the Chinooks, sparks began to fly.
Imagine it's April 22nd, 1806. You're private in the Corps of Discovery, and you're at Chinook Village, close to the Columbia River. In the distance, the snowy peak of Mount Hood rises over the hills. But you're not here to admire the scenery. A saddle and robe belonging to your expedition's interpreter, Toussaint Charbonneau, has just been stolen. You've come here to get them back.
You barge into one of the village's wooden lodges, pistol in hand. The Chinooks inside back away as you point the firearm in their direction. Where's the saddle? They don't answer. You know they don't understand the words, but you're certain they know why you're here, and you're getting sick of being pushed around. The Chinook have been stealing from the Corps for days. You start searching the lodge. In a corner, there's a pile of clothes.
Sir, I found the saddle. It was hidden in that lodge.
Fury flashes in Lewis's eyes. You sense the captain's ready to snap. Oh, those damn thieves. What about the robe? Any sign of the robe? No, but Private Labiche is still searching. The Indians said they don't have it, but they said that about the saddle, too. Lewis clenches his fists. They have pushed me too far this time. I've had enough of this villainy. What should we do, Captain? Reinforcements are coming. While we wait, we give them one final chance to return the robe.
"'And if they don't, then we burn this place to the ground. You're taken aback.' "'You want to punish the Chinooks too, but it's a shock to hear the captain threatening to raze the whole village. Time after time, he's been the one ordering restraint. But just then, Private Labiche emerges from one of the lodges, and in his hand is the missing robe. Lewis unclenches his fists. He glares at the watching villagers for a moment, and then turns around. "'All right, come, let's leave this sorry place.'
You back away slowly from the villagers, your pistol still drawn, then turn to follow Lewis back through the trees toward the river. You can't wait to get away from here, back to the friendlier Nez Perce.
Captain Lewis came within a whisker of raising a Chinook village after the theft of a robe and saddle from Sacagawea's French-Canadian husband, Toussaint Charbonneau. The pressure was getting to Lewis and the rest of the Corps. With supplies running out and game scarce, they needed goods to trade for food. Every item stolen pushed the Corps a step closer to starvation.
But the captains also knew that if the tensions between them and the Chinook boiled over into violence, they had little chance of victory. The Corps had superior weapons, but they were vastly outnumbered. There was only one way a full-fledged battle could end, with the expedition members dead and their maps and records lost. So they focused on trying to get past the Chinook and back to the Nez Perce, who had saved them when they emerged half-starved from the mountains the year before.
Then, on May 4, 1806, near the present-day border between Idaho and Washington State, they encountered one of their old friends, Chief Tedawarski. He was one of the Nez Perce chiefs they had met the previous fall. He offered to lead the Corps to the current location of Chief Twisted Hair, who had been looking after the expedition's horses throughout the winter.
Three days later, the Bitterroot Mountains came into view. The sight of those peaks raised the men's spirits. On the other side was America and the plains where they could feast on beaver tails and buffalo humps instead of dogs and fish. But the elation was brief. The Bitterroots were still covered with snow, and the Nez Perce told them the peaks would be impassable for at least another month. Unable to progress any further east, the captains focused on bringing the Nez Perce under American influence.
The Nez Perce were expert horse breeders, and Lewis had come to see their horses as a way to overcome the lack of a river route across the continent. He imagined vast caravans of Nez Perce packhorses crossing the plains and mountains with furs and other dry goods loaded on their backs. It would be too slow a route for perishable items, but enough to strengthen America's hand in the great power scramble for North America.
So Lewis reiterated America's offer of friendship to the Nez Perce and invited them to come to Washington and meet President Jefferson. But the Nez Perce chiefs politely declined. Lewis then asked for a chief to come with him to try to make peace with the Blackfeet. The Nez Perce again refused. They knew Lewis had never met the Blackfeet, and they had little faith in his ability to deliver peace. By early June, Lewis was getting impatient.
The Nez Perce weren't cooperating with his grand plan, and they now said the snow wouldn't melt until early July. But then Lewis heard that the Nez Perce had sent a young scout over the mountains to get news from the east. Lewis decided that if a boy could cross the mountains, so too could the men of his expedition. The Nez Perce tried to dissuade him, but Lewis refused to listen. He had waited long enough. He and the Corps were going to cross the bitter roots right away. The snow and coal could be damned.
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On the morning of June 15, 1806, Captain Meriwether Lewis confidently led the Corps of Discovery into the Bitterroot Mountains. But he soon regretted ignoring the advice of the Nez Perce, who had warned him to wait for more snowmelt before attempting the cross. It was a miserable, rainy day, and the trail was slippery and covered in fallen trees. The expedition struggled through 22 grueling miles.
The next day, they reached the snow. It lay in a blanket ten feet deep over the trail and left little grass for the Corps' horses to eat. But still Lewis pushed on. The next morning, the trail got steeper and even more snow-covered. Soon they were battling through snow fifteen feet deep. It was impossible to tell if they were still on the trail or not. Lewis and Clark realized they would never make it in these conditions. So they turned tail and went back down the mountain.
On returning to the Nez Perce, they hired several guides and waited for more snow to melt. After a week, the Corps marched back into the mountains. With their new Nez Perce guides and one week's more melt, the expedition managed to cross the Bitterroots in just six days. On June 30, 1806, they arrived at a creek they had visited on their journey west, near present-day Lolo, Montana. They had given it an apt name, Traveler's Rest.
Ahead of them lay the Great Plains and America. But they were still more than 2,700 miles from home. The expedition spent the next two days camped at Traveler's Rest. Lewis and Clark used the time to finalize an elaborate plan that would see the Corps splinter into five separate details. Each group would have its own mission to complete before everyone regrouped in several weeks' time.
Lewis would lead nine men northeast to the Great Falls of the Missouri. Once there, six men would start retrieving the supplies the Corps stashed there the previous summer. Lewis and the other three men would follow the Marias River north into Blackfeet territory. Lewis was determined to meet the Blackfeet. They were one of the most powerful nations on the plains, and getting them to ally with America instead of Britain would be a big win.
He also wanted to find America's northern border. Thanks to the Louisiana Purchase, the United States now extended as far north as the tributaries of the Missouri River, including the Marias. Lewis's hope was that the Marias would go far enough north for America to claim a large chunk of British territory. While Lewis headed northeast, though, Clark would lead the remaining 23 members of the expedition southeast to the Three Forks in the Missouri.
At the Three Forks, Clark's group would also split in two. One group would recover the expedition's cached canoes, then head downriver to join the group retrieving supplies at the Great Falls. Clark and the remaining twelve explorers would travel by land from Three Forks to the Yellowstone River. There, Clark's party would split once more. Clark would lead a group of eight down the Yellowstone. His group hoped to map the river's course and make contact with the local Crow Indians.
The other group, led by Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor, would ride north. Their mission was to deliver a vital letter from Lewis to a British trading post in what is now the Canadian province of Manitoba. The letter was for Hugh Henney, a British trader the captains met when wintering with the Mandan Indians. In the letter, Lewis offered to pay Henney handsomely if he could persuade the Teton Sioux to send a delegation to meet President Jefferson.
The Tetons, who also called themselves the Lakota, had clashed with the expedition back in September 1804. Lewis hoped Henney could smooth over these relations and leave the door open for an American-Teton alliance. But the letter was also a Trojan horse. It confirmed to Henney that the Corps had made it to the Pacific and back. Lewis was certain that Henney would pass this news on to British authorities, which would reinforce America's claim on the Pacific Northwest.
Together, these extracurricular missions were Lewis's last-ditch effort to return from the West with some major political victories for President Jefferson. If all his plans came together, they would forge links with the Blackfeet, Crow, and Tetons, map the Yellowstone River, and pinpoint the United States' northernmost border.
So, with hope in their high aspirations, on July 3rd, 1806, Lewis and Clark shook hands and said farewell. They intended to reunite where the Yellowstone meets the Missouri, but they both knew it was possible they might never see each other again. Often hostile Indian war parties roamed the lands they were about to enter, and nature remained as unforgiving as ever. Still, after overcoming so many odds, they were feeling confident, almost cocky.
But Lewis's overconfidence wouldn't last. On July 15, 1806, as he prepared to head up the Marias, one of his men found a recently abandoned Blackfeet camp, a camp big enough to have been home to more than a hundred warriors. With such a large party roaming the plains, Lewis realized how vulnerable his tiny group was. But it was too late to go back. The members of the Corps had already gone their separate ways. He would have to see this through.
For the next ten days, Lewis and his three men followed the Marais River, but instead of pushing north as he hoped, it turned west, well short of British territory. On July 26, Lewis gave up on the Marais and turned back. Around noon that same day, he and his party stumbled upon a small band of Blackfeet warriors.
The Blackfeet seemed friendly at first, and the two groups agreed to camp together that night. The warriors told Lewis their large war party was a day's ride away. Lewis informed them that they now lived in America. He also told the warriors that America had befriended the Nez Perce, Shoshone, Hidatsa, and Mandans, and intended to open trading posts where these tribes could buy guns and other goods. Lewis imagined the promise of trading posts would win over the Blackfeet, but he had misread the situation.
The news that America planned to sell firearms to their enemies was far from welcome. The Blackfeet were the only tribe the British sold guns to. They wanted to keep it that way. Lewis was telling them that America intended to upend the balance of power on the plains. But rather than protesting against this plan, the warriors said nothing. Lewis went to sleep, believing he had notched up an important diplomatic victory.
But the next morning, Lewis woke to shouts. He saw one of his men wrestling with a Blackfeet warrior who was trying to steal his rifle. Lewis reached for his own rifle, but it was gone. He spotted the thief who had swiped it and gave chase. He drew his pistol and threatened to shoot if the warrior did not drop the rifle. The warrior complied.
By then, the Blackfeet's attempted robbery had already turned fatal. Two of Lewis's men had caught one of the thieves and stabbed him through the heart. Meanwhile, the two remaining Blackfeet began driving away the Corps' horses. As Lewis raced towards the two warriors, one turned to face him. In his hand was a British musket. Lewis raised his rifle and fired. The bullet punched through the Blackfeet warrior's abdomen. He fell to his knees but managed to find the strength to shoot back.
Lewis felt the bullet whiz just inches above his head. Realizing he didn't have his shot pouch on him and couldn't reload, Lewis retreated to the camp. There, he and his men rounded up as many horses as they could, both their own and those left behind by the Blackfeet. Then they fled. Lewis's journey up the Marias was a disaster. The river went nowhere useful, and Lewis was now convinced that a Blackfeet war party would be roaming the plains seeking vengeance.
So the following day, Lewis headed to where the Marias River flows into the Missouri and joined the men who had been recovering the expedition's canoes and supplies. Together, the party set out down the Missouri to find Clark and the others. But Lewis's run of bad luck wasn't over yet. Imagine it's August 11th, 1806, and you're creeping around a thicket of willow trees on the edge of the Missouri River.
"'You're here to hunt elk with Captain Lewis.' The expedition spotted some as they headed downriver in their canoes, so the captain decided to go after them and ordered you to come with him. But you're not sure why he chose you. You're nearsighted and not one of the better hunters on the team. But everyone on the expedition has to do their part. Captain Lewis has already taken down an elk and silently signals to you that there's another close by. You see it through the underbrush. You raise your rifle, aim, and fire.'"
Lewis frowns. You've only wounded it, Pratt. All right, let's spread out and find it. It won't get far. You both reload, and Lewis quickly vanishes amid the trees. You head off in another direction, eyes peeled for any sign of a wounded elk. You tiptoe through the undergrowth, clutching your rifle with both hands, being as quiet as possible. That wasn't you. You turn in the direction of the noise and squint at the greenery and willow trees. You're not alone.
You see something move. In amongst the vegetation, you spot a blurry patch of brown. It's hard to tell, but it looks like an elk. You squint harder. It's definitely an elk. You raise your rifle and take aim. You shot me! Your jaw drops. That was no elk. That was Captain Lewis. You begin to panic. You nearsighted... You shot me in the buttocks!
Your mind races. You know you should go check to see if he's okay, but you're too overcome with shame and fear to move. You hear more rustling. You poke your head up and see Lewis hobbling away as fast as he can toward the riverbank, clutching his behind. Then Lewis shouts again, Get your weapons! The Blackfeet have found us! They've shot me! You realize then that when you didn't answer him, Captain Lewis must have leaped to another conclusion that you're under attack from the Blackfeet.
so you stay hidden a few minutes longer, then stand up and stumble through the undergrowth back towards the river and the rest of the Corps. You're hoping that if you just plead ignorance, maybe everyone will keep on believing that it was the Blackfeet that shot your captain in the ass, and you'll be off the hook. When Private Pierre Cruzotte finally summoned the courage to return to the expedition, no one was fooled by his claims of innocence. By then, it was clear there were no Blackfeet nearby.
Cruzotte's errant shot left Lewis in agony. The bullet hit him an inch below his left hip joint and passed out through his right buttock. The wound would take weeks to heal. Until then, Lewis had little choice but to spend his days lying face down in a canoe because it was too painful to sit or walk. When the group finally caught up with him, Clark was horrified by the sight of his wounded friend. Fearing for Lewis's life, Clark took personal charge of the effort to nurse him back to health.
But Clark had no news to lift Lewis's spirits. He had successfully mapped the Yellowstone River, but his group never met with the Crow Indians. On top of that, Sergeant Pryor's mission to deliver Lewis's letter to the British trader Hugh Henney had failed. He had met the Crow, who had stolen their horses and left them unable to complete their journey. Lewis and Clark's decision to split up had jeopardized the success of the entire expedition, and they had little to show for it.
Now they would need to get home before more misfortunes befell them and find out whether their patron, President Jefferson, would receive them as heroes or failures.
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It was August 14, 1806, when the Corps of Discovery finally returned to the villages of the Mandan Indians with their large domed huts in what is now North Dakota. Their arrival felt like a homecoming. It had been 16 months since they left the Mandan villages. Since then, they had traveled over 4,000 miles to the Pacific and back.
As the Corps rode down the Missouri, Captain Clark ordered the men to fire a salute to signal their arrival. After the gunshots rang out, crowds of Mandan and Hidatsa came to the riverbanks. They greeted the Americans like old friends and gave them gifts of corn, beans, and squash. Lewis was still out of commission from being shot in the rear, so it fell to Clark to meet with the local chiefs.
As he smoked pipes with the chiefs, Clark learned that the shaky piece they had helped forge between the Mandan and Arikara had collapsed. The chiefs said the fighting resumed soon after the Corps left. There had been several killings on both sides. The Corps also learned that Hidatsa raiders had killed several of the Shoshone band who had helped the expedition cross the Bitterroot Mountains.
Lewis and Clark were disappointed. They thought the promise of trade with America would be enough to end the fighting between tribes. That flawed assumption underlined how differently the white and indigenous peoples of North America saw the world around them. When Europeans and Americans looked at the continent, they saw a land to be carved up by Britain, Spain, and America. The Native Americans were mere pawns in this grand chessboard to be manipulated in the name of their great power struggle.
The Native Americans of the Plains saw a very different picture. To them, the land had long been divided among various village-based tribes, like the Mandans and the Sioux, and nomadic peoples, like the Shoshone and the Cheyenne. The Americans, British, and Spanish were new and minor players that the strongest tribes could use as pawns of their own, pitting them against each other for their own gain. With the peace mission in tatters, Clark focused on trying to increase American influence over at least the Mandans.
He reiterated the invitation for the chiefs to come to Washington to meet President Jefferson. Most of the chiefs refused. They didn't want to risk traveling through Sioux territory. But one, Chief Shahaki, agreed to go. But even as the Corps of Discovery gained this new member, it said goodbye to several others.
The first goodbye was to interpreter Toussaint Charbonneau and his Shoshone wife, Sakagawiya. For Clark, it was a sad moment. He had grown fond of the couple and their now 19-month-old son, Jean-Baptiste. But Sakagawiya and her family planned to stay with the Hidatsa.
The next to leave the expedition was Private John Coulter. He wanted to go back west with two fur trappers the expedition had met when they approached the Mandan villages. Coulter would eventually become the first known person of European descent to explore what's now Yellowstone National Park, then gained fame as America's first mountain man. The goodbyes over on August 17th, 1806, it was time to leave. The Corps of Discovery left the Mandans with Chief Shahaki and his delegation for the final leg of their journey.
As they rowed downriver, they passed more and more traders. America's westward expansion had clearly accelerated in their absence. These traders told the captains that the American public had already forgotten or given up on their expedition. Some thought they had died on their way to the Pacific. Others imagined the Spanish had captured and enslaved them in silver mines. By mid-September, Lewis was back on his feet, and the Corps were rowing as fast as they could to get home.
Imagine it's midday on September 23rd, 1806, and you're in a pirogue that's just passed through the mouth of the Missouri River. Now you're heading south down the Mississippi to your final destination, St. Louis. You're a sergeant in the Corps of Discovery, and like everyone in the expedit, you're buzzing with excitement. It's been almost three years since you enlisted with Lewis and Clark. Now you're almost home.
Rain pours down your face as you watch the men rowing as hard as they can. You give them some encouragement. Keep going, men. We're nearly there. You look through the drizzle at the banks of the river. You can just make out the first houses. St. Louis is in sight. You march over to Captain Clark, who is standing on the front of the perroque. Sir, I would like permission for my men to fire a salute on reaching St. Louis.
Clark doesn't need to think twice. Of course, Sergeant. I think the men have earned it. My God, would you look at that. You follow Clark's gaze in blink and shock. A huge crowd has gathered on the riverbank to witness the Corps' return. You turn to Clark, your heart swelling with pride. It's as if all St. Louis has come to greet us. How many people do you think are there, Captain? A thousand. A thousand at least, Sergeant. You should order that salute right now.
You turn to your men. Attention, men. Stop rowing. Get your rifles. Prepare to salute the crowd. The men grin and reach for their rifles. They're eager to deliver the Corps' final salvo. After loading their rifles and lining up, we're all ready for your orders. By now, the pirogue is almost alongside the crowd. It's now time to give them a show. Attention! Eyes front! Present arms! Fire! The crowd cheers. You and the men grin.
Against the odds, you've made it home and you feel like a hero. For most of the Corps, the return to St. Louis marked the end of the journey. They would now go their separate ways after collecting their pay and land warrants. But for Clark's enslaved servant York, it was probably a bittersweet moment.
He had contributed just as much to the expedition's success as any of the enlisted soldiers, but there was no reward waiting for him. Clark expected York to continue being his slave. York clearly hoped for better.
In the years to come, Clark would complain to his brother about how York had become insolent since the expedition, and how he had to beat his servant back into submission. Clark refused to let York go to Louisville to live with his wife, who was enslaved by another owner. And in 1832, Clark claimed he had freed York and that he later died of cholera. But many historians doubt Clark's version of events. York's ultimate fate is unknown.
Sacagawea, Charbonneau, and Jean-Baptiste stayed with Hadassah until 1809 before moving to St. Louis, where Clark provided them with a home and funded the education of Jean-Baptiste. Charbonneau lived into his mid-70s and is thought to have died in 1843.
But what became of Sacagawea is harder to know. According to many historians, she returned to the frontier with her husband and died of typhus in 1812 in a place called Fort Manuel near the border between North and South Dakota. But according to Shoshone oral tradition, she left Charbonneau and returned to her people in what is now the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, where she lived until her death in 1884. But nothing is certain.
For Lewis and Clark, the work of the expedition didn't end at all at St. Louis. They still had to report their findings to President Jefferson and prepare their maps and journals for publication. Unfortunately, the big news they had for Jefferson was that the fabled water route across the continent did not exist. The captains also had little to show for their attempts to forge alliances with the Native Americans.
Jefferson's political opponents branded the expedition a waste of time and money. After all, they argued, its main achievement was not discovering something. This disappointment was compounded by Lewis's failure to publish his and Clark's journals. After the expedition, Lewis struggled to readjust to everyday life. While Clark went on to marry, Lewis remained a bachelor and sank into depression and drinking.
The publication of the journals was delayed repeatedly as Lewis's behavior became ever more erratic. Then, on October 10, 1809, Lewis checked in for the night at Grinder's Stand, a log cabin inn on the Natchez Trace Forest Trail in Tennessee. There, in the early hours of October 11, Lewis loaded his pistol and shot himself in the head, but the bullet merely grazed his skull. So Lewis tried again.
This time, he shot himself in the chest. It worked, but it worked slowly. It would take until sunrise for his heart to finally stop beating. Some people believed Lewis's death was murder, not suicide. But Clark had no doubt his troubled friend had killed himself. So after Lewis's death, Clark took on the task of publishing the expedition's journals. But when they finally appeared in 1814, few people cared.
Ten years had passed since Lewis and Clark's adventure began. Many more people had gone west by then, and many of the places the Corps of Discovery visited during their travels had been renamed. By the mid-1800s, Lewis and Clark were only dimly remembered. It would only be in the 20th century, after the United States had fully conquered the West, that America rediscovered the explorers. With every new edition of their journals and every new retelling of their story, the legend of Lewis and Clark grew exponentially.
But in their own time, they had delivered disappointment. It's only two centuries later that they and their group are recognized as the original American pioneers, the people who led the way to the West. From Wondery, this is Episode 3 of Lewis and Clark for American History Tellers. In our next series, in 1914, tensions among European powers erupted into a global conflict, World War I. Determined to keep the United States out of the fight,
President Woodrow Wilson officially proclaimed neutrality. But after German submarine attacks cost American lives and diplomatic treachery threatened to bring the danger to America's doorstep, the United States would finally join the war intended to end all wars.
If you like American history tellers, you can binge all episodes early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
If you'd like to learn more about Lewis and Clark's expedition, we recommend Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose and Lewis and Clark Across the Divide by Carolyn Gilman. American History Tellers is hosted, edited, and produced by me, Lindsey Graham, for Airship. Audio editing by Molly Bach. Sound design by Derek Behrens. Music by Lindsey Graham. This episode is written by Tristan Donovan, edited by Doreen Marina. Our senior producer is Andy Herman. Our executive producers are Jenny Lauer Beckman and Marsha Louis for Wondery.
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Business Wars is a podcast about the biggest rivalries of all time, and our new three-part series, Drug Cartels, dives into the war between the top two cartels in Colombia, combining the complex business acumen of a corporation with the calculated violence of the mafia.
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