Difference Between Lewis And Clark

Throughout the history of our great nation, over and over again, the white man has bullied the Native Americans. They have ultimately been pushed off land that originally belonged to them and been allotted meager portions of land to live on which the government (run by the white man) has felt that they have little use for (reservations). Looking passed the fact that the Native Americans have been stripped of their land, these feelings of white Ethnocentrism throughout America’s history has also caused great violence against the Native Americans, massacring them time and time again and diminishing their population to only a minute percentage of what it once was. For example, in the final defeat of the American Indian in 1890, known as the Massacre at Wounded Knee, nearly 300 Lakota men, women, and children - old and young - were massacred in a highly charged, violent encounter with U.S. soldiers because the soldiers incorrectly perceived a ritual ghost dance as a war dance. Native American corpses of men, women, and children laid still and lifeless in the dirt on that cold December night all due to the ethnocentric beliefs of the white man.

The relationship between Lewis and Clark and the Native Americans is an extremely controversial topic. It is generally in question whether Lewis and Clark were respectful to the Indian tribes they encountered on their expedition. The answer is much more complicated than a simple yes or no, and the answer changes through each person’s opinion. From multiple pieces of evidence, I believe that Lewis and Clark were mostly disrespectful to the Indians with a few exceptions. The evidence for this position come from: a passage of a letter from Jefferson(document A), a diary entry of Meriwether Lewis(document B), a modified Time Magazine article(document C), and Lewis’s speech to the Otoe(document E). These documents help to support the notion that

Decades of discrimination against the Native American people including the Indian Removal Act, the Trail of Tears, and the Massacre at Wounded Knee has led to a so called “compromise” and the much needed formation of the American Indian Movement to try and keep Native American culture and customs alive. This unfair treatment and discrimination has been fueled by many different people and reasons, but ultimately boils down to the greed and intolerance of the white man. Numerous indian tribes were already living in the United States when the european people settled here. The act of living and existing in nearly complete peace for a great deal of years started its swift decline in the years leading up to 1830, again fueled by greed for land and materials along with intolerance of the indians obliterated any chance of fair treatment, or the two groups living in complete peace again.

Lewis and Clark meeting. The scene where they appear, Lewis apparently confronted a lieutenant to a duel and is assigned to a new rifle troop where Clark is his administration

At the start of the Revolution in 1776 many of the patriots view towards the Indians was that of Thomas Jefferson’s, the paternalistic view. That the Indians were “noble savages, “uncivilized in their present state but if they would adapt to ways of the white society they could be redeemed. While others felt that they should be treated as conquered people because some of the tribes helped the British in the War, one of which was the Mohawks. That was one the main reason why most of the tribes choose to stay out of the war. At this point in time the patriots felt that they were merely trying to provide for their families and start a new life in the new world. But to the Indians they felt that the patriots were trying to push them off their lands, threatening their families and their way of life. And over time these views towards each other change with each push westward on the part of the patriots and each conflict of resistance on the part of the Indians. As the new nation grew the need for more land became evident, as a way of trying to bring resolve the government signed treaties with the tribes. The treaties promised them protection of the lands they had held if they ceded certain lands. But when it came right down to it treaty after treaty was broken, which lead to more and more distrust by the Indians. As time passed the views of Indians changed, in the early 1800’s whites viewed Indians as “savages” that should be removed from the valuable land that the

In the text, “There Is No True History of the Westward Expansion,” written by Robert Morgan he tells how he believed that there were villians and heroes in the westward expansion. The white men were the so called “heroes”, whereas the Indians were thought of as the “villains” in the expansion westward. In the text “Chief Joseph Speaks…,” by Chief Joseph he believes otherwise. The white men are in the wrong to think they can just come into someone else's territory and expect them to leave their homes.

Jefferson provided Lewis and Clark with many supplies. He provided nothing short of the best quality materials of the time. This included clothing, firearms, rations, and other various equipment. He not only provided them with materials, but also with workers and sailors to aid them along in their journey. There was also a slave named York. Jefferson instructed Lewis and Clark to put on record any possible resources which could sustain further settlement along the lines. The Louisiana Purchase had almost doubled the size of the nation. It was 1803 when they made the intelligent investment.

Greatness is, the quality of being great, eminent, or distinguished. Lewis and Clark, the leaders of the Corps of Discovery, can be described perfectly with the word greatness. The Corps of Discovery was a unit made by the U.S Army and tasked to explore and claim the land to the west. Fortunately, the Corps of Discovery had mapped and discovered the new land they had acquired, but also much more. President Jefferson ordered U.S. Captain Meriwether Lewis to be the leader of this exploration.

Americans who lived in the western frontier feared and resented native Americans. Americans believed that Native Americans were uncivilized, uneducated and lesser people. The Indians occupied land that the whites wanted and that was a problem for the whites. Some Americans thought a good way to rectify this problem was to change and civilize the native Americans. They wanted to convert Indians to Christianity, teach them to read and write English and adopt white American practices. In the southeastern portion of the united states, five Indian tribes embraced these changes. Even though these tribes embraced these changes and tried to conform to the white’s ways, the Americans still wanted their land. At this point the whites didn’t particularly care that they were now somewhat civilized, they just wanted the land so they could make themselves rich off of it. The whites pillaged and burned the homes of the Native Americans, stole livestock and lived on land that they didn’t own to try and force the Native Americans to leave.

Captain Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were two of the most important men on our expedition. They lead us on the entire journey, making it possible for us to discover everything we did. They each had their own skills that helped the Corps of Discovery successfully make it to the Pacific Ocean and back. Lewis served in the military, which assured he would have good physical endurance and be fit enough for the expedition across challenging land. While he served in the army, he even had become a captain. Being a captain allowed Lewis to have some previous experience being a leader of a large group, so when he lead us on the expedition, he had practice of being in control of groups with a large amount of people. Not only was he a strong person, he also was a

The United States perspective on the Native people has drastically changed from President to President. “George Washington originally started the ‘Indian Civilization Campaign’, which encouraged the Native people to adopt Western-European culture along with Christianity.” (Sturgis, pg 5) The United States was to recognize the Native groups as the owners of the land they inhabit, with the rights to sell or retain them. This ideology was later adopted and implemented by Thomas Jefferson who believed that it was, “established by Jus gentium for America, that a white nation settling down and declaring that such and such are their limits, makes an invasion of those limits by any other white nation an act of war, but gives no right of soil against the native possessors.” (Sturgis, pg 5)

Intro: Ever since the first white settlers arrived at America in 1492, the Native American population has been seen as a minority. People who weren’t as good as the new “white” settlers and unfit to live the new found land of America. As America expanded westward with the Louisiana Purchase and war with Mexico that ceded the south west to the U.S. as a result of the treaty of the 1803 Guadaplupe-Hildago Treaty, white settlers continued to move westward. They found rich fertile land, but there was a problem. The land they so desperately wanted was already occupied by Native Americans. The stage was set of inevitable conflict as a full out war between the U.S. government and natives then ensued. Some tribes fought back, like the Sauk, Fox,

"Men were seized in the fields or going along the road, women were taken from their wheels and children from their play. In many cases, on turning for one last look as they crossed the ridge, they saw their homes in flames, fired by the lawless rabble that followed on the heels of the soldiers to loot and pillage" (James Mooney). This is just one encounter shared by someone who witnessed the treatment of the Natives during the United States' Westward Expansion movement. The treatment of the Native Americans during Westward Expansion was unjustified. No matter the circumstances, the treatment of the Natives was unjustified. The Natives had fewer resources than the U.S. and the U.S. took advantage of that when they shouldn’t have.

Historically, relationships between European colonists and their descendants, on the one hand, and the native population of America, on the other, were extremely complex. Moreover, from the beginning of European colonization of America, Native Americans have become vulnerable to oppression and physical extinction because colonists wanted their lands and the pursuit of maximum profits moved settler westward wreaking havoc, diseases and destruction of the traditional lifestyle of Native Americans. Ironically, throughout the history of the development of relations between white Americans and Native Americans, the biased attitude to Native Americans emerged and white Americans had grown accustomed to view them as a threat but, in actuality, Native Americans were rather victims of white Americans, who oppressed Native Americans and forced them from their land causing numerous deaths and destruction of the traditional lifestyle of Native Americans.

Our president, Andrew Jackson could not have cared less about the Native Americans. During his presidency, he was ruthless when it came to gaining land. Jackson didn’t care who he hurt, as long as it bettered him and his country. During this period, America was half the size it is today, and the ways in which it gained the rest of its land was very cruel. For years, the Natives lived peacefully away from the hustle and bustle of the American life. The French had owned the land in the area, but did not bother the Natives whatsoever. When America made the Louisiana Purchase from the French, the way of life went downhill for the Native Americans. This new land was precious to Jackson, and he did not want “wild and rude tribes” living there. This name “savages,” given by Jackson, stuck to Natives for many years, even appearing on maps. The government pressured Natives to become “civilized” and to adopt the American ways. Jackson also spread propaganda like wildfire to his people, so he could get the people on his side to support his cruel plan. His plan to rid the American population of “savages” was called the “Indian Removal Act”, and many of the the actions he took through this plan were morally unjustified.