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CURRICULAM MATERIALS
Activity 1 Overview Main Ideas
Lewis and Clark had to be knowledgeable, resourceful, courageous, goal-oriented, persistent, and fair to be successful on their expedition. Connections with the Curriculum The activity may be appropriate for Illinois Learning Standards 16. A.;17. A. and 17. D. It fits any lesson involving early American history as well as any unit on Exploration. Teaching Level This lesson would be appropriate in grades 6-8. Materials for Each Student Worksheets and answer sheet provided Objectives for Each Student Students are to relate to the variety and the difficulty of problems Lewis and Clark faced during their expedition. SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING THE LESSON Opening the Lesson Students should be familiar with the Lewis and Clark Expedition - its purposes and accomplishments-before teaching this lesson. Hand out the worksheets provided and read the instructions. Let students work individually on it. Developing the Lesson Have class or small group discussions about what students would do in the situations faced by Lewis and Clark, and why students would make those decisions. Concluding the Lesson Hand out the paper explaining what Lewis and Clark actually did. Present it to students and discuss it with them. Extending the Lesson Study other explorers to find out not only what they did, but what problems they faced along the way, and why they made the decisions they made. Assessing the Lesson Assess assignments based upon how thoroughly and logically students developed their solutions to the problems presented. Grammar, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, neatness, and punctuality can also be factored into the grade.
Activity 2 Main Ideas Lewis and Clark had to focus upon the scientific purposes of the expedition as well as their goals of making accurate maps and establishing friendly relations with the Indians. Connections with the Curriculum The activity may be appropriate for the Illinois Learning Standards 16. A, 17. A and 17. D. It fits any lesson involving early American History as well as any unit on Exploration. Teaching Level This lesson would be appropriate in grades 6-8. Materials for Each Student Worksheets and answer sheet provided Objectives for Each Student Students are to relate to the task Lewis and Clark faced of observing and describing all that they saw, including specific plant and animal life. 22
SUGGESTIONS FOR Opening the Lesson Students should be familiar with the Lewis and Clark Expedition purposes and accomplishments before teaching this lesson. Hand out the worksheets provided and read the instructions. Developing the Lesson Let students work individually on the assignment. Concluding the Lesson Tell students what Lewis and Clark actually described. Extending the Lesson Give students names of other animals or plants found in the western United States and ask them to write descriptions of them as if they were being seen by them for the first time. Then other students will try to guess plants and animals. Assessing the Lesson Assess assignments based upon how many answers were correct. This assignment is best used for extra credit because there are no materials to refer to for answers. The animal and plant descriptions in the extension activity can be assessed by how thoroughly and logically students developed their descriptions. Grammar, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, neatness, and punctuality can also be factored into the grade.
Activity 3 Main Ideas Lewis and Clark had to be knowledgeable, resourceful, and accurate in making their maps. They had to compare Indian descriptions of routes and locations with what their surveying instruments showed them Connections with the Curriculum The activity may be appropriate for the Illinois Learning Standards 16. A; 17. A; and 17. D. It fits any lesson involving early American history as well as any unit on exploration.
Teaching Level This lesson would be appropriate in grades 6-8. Materials for Each Student Worksheets and answer sheet provided Objectives for Each Student Students are to relate to the problems of accurate communication, measurement, and cartography faced by Lewis and Clark during their expedition.
SUGGESTIONS FOR Opening the Lesson Students should be familiar with the Lewis and Clark Expedition's purposes and accomplishments before teaching this lesson. Hand out the worksheets provided and read the instructions. Let students work individually Developing the Lesson
Have class or small group discussions about what student maps should look like and why they should look that way.
Concluding the Lesson Show the students a correctly made map and explain it to them. Extending the Lesson Have students describe how to get to places within their community or local area using only time and direction as measurement descriptors, not any units of distance measurement. Then see if other students can determine to where they were given directions. Discuss problems with the various descriptions that were given. Assessing the Lesson Assess assignments based upon how thoroughly correctly and neatly students drew their maps. 23
The incredible expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark across the North American continent to the Pacific Ocean and back is a historic event that captivates Americans and inspires us to set challenging goals and persevere until those goals are achieved. When their journey ended, it was easy to recognize them as heroes and reward them for their great accomplishment. But think about what it was like for them before and during the journey, when they had to plan for and then undertake a mission that no American had ever tried. During most of this time they could rely only upon themselves and the crew they had personally chosen to survive and succeed. It took more than seventeen months to get ready for the trip and more than twenty-eight months to complete. Three winters were spent in the wilderness. Government officials thought they had failed and died. During that long period of time, they had to solve all of their problems on their own, not knowing for sure what might happen next. In this activity, imagine that you have also been put in charge of this expedition along with Lewis and Clark. Think about what decisions you would make before and during the expedition and what it would feel like to be in charge of an actual mission into vast, unexplored territory. What follows are actual problems faced by Lewis and Clark before and during the expedition. Decide what you would do and why Then you will discover what Lewis and Clark actually did. Here is your opportunity to think like an explorer. Preparing for the Expedition 1. President Thomas Jefferson chose Meriwether Lewis to lead the expedition. Lewis then chose William Clark to help him lead it. What qualities and skills do you think you must have to be chosen as a leader of the expedition? 2. Lewis went to Philadelphia to study for the expedition with some highly educated Americans. President Jefferson had asked them to teach Lewis as much as they could to help him succeed on the journey. What would you ask to learn from these wise men? 3. Lewis, Clark, and the members of the expedition they chose were called the Corps of Discovery. Considering the difficulties and demands of the journey, how many people would you take on the trip, including Lewis, Clark, and yourself? Would you take 10, 20, 40, 80, or 100? Why? During the Expedition 4. The expedition began on May 14,1804, from near St. Louis and headed up the Missouri River. Sand bars, snags of logs, mosquitoes, rapids, rain, heat, and monotonous days pushing their boat upstream against strong currents wore down the crew. Some of them broke various rules. How would you punish each of them? A. June 29, 1804 - John Collins got drunk while on guard duty because he drank whiskey from a barrel intended to be distributed equally to all the men. He said he is not guilty. A jury of his peers found him guilty. B. June 29, 1804 - Collins persuades Hugh Hall to also drink whiskey from the same barrel without permission. He admitted he was guilty. C. July 12, 1804 - Alexander Willard was found guilty of lying down and sleeping at his post while on guard duty. He admitted to lying down, but says he was not sleeping. The jury finds him guilty. D. August 7, 1804 - Private Moses Reed deserted the expedition along with a French boatman named Liberte. Four of the crew were ordered to backtrack and try to catch Reed. Liberte was never found, but Reed was caught and brought back to the Corps of Discovery. He admitted that he had deserted and stolen a rifle and ammunition, too. 5. On August 20, 1804 Sergeant Charles Floyd died from an unknown ailment. (From the description of his condition, it was probably a burst appendix.) Sergeant Floyd was one of only three sergeants in the Corps of Discovery and a highly respected crew member. What would you do? (Floyd was the only crew member to die during the expedition.) 6. September 25-27, 1804. The Corps of Discovery encountered their first hostile Indians-the Teton Sioux. They were an aggressive and untrustworthy people who controlled all trade passing them. Greatly outnumbered, the Corps of Discovery tried to buy their way upstream with gifts of various kinds. The three chiefs they meet take what is offered and want more. They tried to bully and frighten the expedition. How will you deal with this situation? 7. October 24, 1804. It is late fall on the northern Great Plains. The days grow shorter and the temperatures colder. The Corps of Discovery encounter five villages of friendly Mandan and Hidatsa Indians. Should they stop for the winter near these Indians or go on? What would you do? 8. Winter, 1804-05. A man named Toussaint Charbonneau introduced himself to Lewis and Clark. He is part French and part Indian. He is an interpreter who knew the languages of the Indian tribes along the river. He asked if he could join the expedition. But, he wants to bring along one of his wives-a 16-year-old pregnant girl who would have her baby by the time the expedition got under way again in the spring. She was kidnapped by the Hidatsa Indians several years ago. She knew the languages of the Indians in the Rocky 24
Mountains. If she came along, it will show the Indians they encounter that the expedition is not interested in conquering the Indians. Would you decide to add the Charbonneau family or not? 9. April 29 (Lewis) and May 5 (Clark), 1805. Each of these expedition leaders encountered for the first time the ferocious "white bear" (grizzly bear) described by the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians. They sometimes weighed up to 500 pounds. In both instances, they were each with one other man when they spotted bears along streams near the Yellowstone River. The Indians tell of how the bears prefer to attack people rather than flee from them, even if they have been injured. When you spot one for the first time, what would you do? 10. June 2,1805. The expedition reached a fork in the Missouri River. Both streams were about the same size. The north fork of the stream was muddy, just like the rest of the river has been its entire length. It is also headed in the right direction. The south fork has clear water and headed in the wrong direction. The crew wanted to take the north fork. Both Lewis and Clark preferred the south fork, but no one knew for sure what to do. This is an important decision because a mistake would cost much valuable time. It will also probably destroy the high morale of the crew. What would you do? As you can tell, being the leader of an expedition into unknown territory is difficult and dangerous. The events described above represent only a few of the many remarkable experiences and problems encountered by the Lewis and Clark expedition. What Lewis and Clark Actually Did 1. Jefferson chose Lewis because he knew him and the Lewis family who lived near him in Virginia. Jefferson knew Lewis was loyal, curious, organized, disciplined, intelligent, skilled, and experienced in traveling through wilderness. Lewis chose Clark because they were friends from the military and because Clark was an experienced and skilled soldier, out-doorsman, and leader. Lewis was twenty-nine years old and Clark was thirty-three when the mission began. 2. Lewis learned about medical care and nutrition from Dr. Benjamin Rush. Benjamin Smith Barton also taught Lewis about medicine and botany. Caspar Wistar taught Lewis about anatomy. He also learned how to take accurate measurements using all the most accurate surveying and timekeeping devices of that time. Jefferson fully intended this to be a mission to establish trade, territorial ownership, and to gather scientific information and create accurate maps and descriptions of the region. 3. The best answer is forty. The actual number was 46. Including you, it becomes 47. During the trip one man died, two deserted, and one was discharged. Three were added. Ten of the 46 are boatmen and only go as far as the large boat will travel up the Missouri River. Six more stay at Fort Mandan in North Dakota and do not take the complete trip. Only 30 of the original Corps of Discovery make the entire journey.
4. A. John Collins was given 100 lashes to his bare back. 5. Lewis and Clark buried Sergeant Floyd with a full military honors on a bluff overlooking a small stream, which they named the Floyd River in his honor. A cross was placed at his grave. Then they appointed Private Patrick Gass to replace Floyd as a new sergeant. 6. They got in their boats and left the Indian encampment for the safety of the river. Then they prepared to fight and refused to give in to demands from the chiefs or be bullied any more. The Teton Sioux backed down peacefully and let them pass. 7. They stopped for the winter and built Fort Mandan near the Indian villages. It was warm and comfortable. They spent a very enjoyable winter with the Indians.
8. They decided to take Charbonneau and his wife and child (Jean-Baptiste or "Pomp"). This was a brilliant decision because the wife was Sacajawea, who became very valuable as an interpreter and guide in the Rocky Mountains. 9. Both Lewis and Clark shot and killed the grizzly bears they first saw. The bears turned out to be a serious problem for many of the men throughout the journey. 10. They compromised. Lewis followed the clear fork and Clark followed the muddy fork for a day and a half. Then they returned to make their final decision. It was easy to determine that the clear fork was the correct one. 25
Thomas Jefferson ordered Lewis and Clark to not only find a route to the Pacific Ocean, but also to learn and report all they could about the places they visited and the things they saw. Lewis and Clark created detailed maps and descriptions of all that they saw. Here are their actual descriptions of some animals they had never seen before. What animals do you think they are? 1. July 30, 1804 (Clark). Joseph Fields killed and brought in an animal called a brarow by the French and a cho car tooch by the local Indians. He burrows into the ground and feeds on animals, insects, and plants. His shape and size is like a beaver. Its head and mouth is like a dog with short ears. His tail and hair is like a ground hog, but longer and lighter in color. His internal organs are like a hog. His skin is thick and loose, its belly white, and he has a white streak from his nose to his shoulders. His hind feet are small with crooked toes, his legs short, and when he moves, he raises up just enough to get his body off the ground. He is a type of bear. We had his skin stuffed. 2. September 7, 1804 (Clark). We discovered a village of small animals that burrows into the ground. The French call them Petite Chien. We killed one and caught one live by pouring a great quantity of water in its hole. We attempted to dig to the beds of one of those animals. After digging six feet, I found by running a pole down that we were not halfway to its lodge. We found two frogs in the hole and a dark rattlesnake nearby with one of these ground rats in him. The village of these animals, which we call barking squirrels, covers about four acres an a gradual descent of a hill and contains a great number of holes on the top of which those little animals set erect and make a whistling noise and when alarmed step into their hole. We poured into one of the holes five barrels of water without filling it. 3. September 14, 1804 (Clark). In my walk I killed a buck goat of this country - about the height of a grown deer, its body shorter. The horns are not very hard and forks 2/3 of the way up. One prong is short. The other is round, sharply arched, and immediately above its eyes. The color is a light gray with black behind its ears down its neck. Its face is white around its neck. Its tail is short and white. It is very active and has a pair of hoofs on each foot. His brain is at the back of its head, its nostrils large, his eyes like a sheep, and he is more like an antelope or gazelle of Africa than any species of goat. 4. September 18, 1804. George Drouillard killed a prairie wolf. It is somewhat larger than a fox, has long teeth, and looks different than any wolf in the United States. Its bones were taken apart and the skin saved to send back next spring. 5. May 25, 1805 (Clark). I killed a female ibi, or big horned animal. The places they generally collect to lodge is the crannies or crevices of the rocks in the face of inaccessible precipices, where neither the wolf nor bear can reach them. Yet these animals bound from rock to rock and stand in the most careless manner on the side of precipices of many hundred feet.
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Friendly Indians gave Lewis and Clark directions how to get to places on their expedition. But, there was a problem with those directions. Indians had different meanings than Lewis and Clark for the various time and distance terms. Lewis and Clark sometimes had to learn this lesson the hard way. Here is an activity with some examples of miscommunication. On the following map start at the camp of the Corps of Discovery and follow the given directions twice. First, use the Indian definitions of the terms to determine their destination. Second, use the Lewis and Clark definitions of the same terms to determine where they would map the route of the Indians using the same directions. Put a 1 on the map at the several spots where the Indian directions lead. Put 2 on the map for each place Lewis and Clark thought they went using their own definitions of terms. Here are the two sets of time and distance definitions.
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