The Pros And Cons Of The Westward Expedition

In 1804, a new age was dawning; the economy was growing, and so was the United States. For the sake of westward expansion, President Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory for the price of 15 million dollars, more than doubling the size of the United States. He then sent Meriwether Lewis, with his former military superior and chosen co-captain, William Clark, on an expedition into the West (Britannica). They and their team of over thirty men, the Corps of Discovery, set off with their goal not only to document their discoveries, but also to establish ties with native people, expand the American fur trade, and search for the Northwest Passage (Klepeis, 24). Along the way, the group faced countless dangers that put them at the risk of failure.

For example, “the Nez Percés provided….horses….to the party, both in the fall of 1805 and the spring of 1806” (Klepeis, 39). Those provisions certainly cut much time off the journey; traveling by foot is much more exhausting than by horse, and takes much longer. More time means more chance for danger to occur, and since danger in the wild often causes severe injury, the expedition members would have been less likely to avoid enough danger to reach all of their goals and make the exploration a success. Also, in order to cross the Bitterroot Mountain Range (part of the Rocky Mountains), the Corps needed transport; Captains Lewis and Clark knew that, come winter, traveling through the mountains would cause great problems for the Corps of Discovery, such as hypothermia and starvation. Fortunately, they soon reached a tribe of Shoshone Indians, whose chief, Cameahwait, provided a grand total of 29 horses to the Corps (Marcovitz). This transportation was essentially the reason why the expedition was able to pass through the Bitterroots at all; without horses, their travel through the mountains would have been much slower, and their food supply would have run out. After all, it was a 160 mile-long journey—the team would have starved to death (Isserman, 114). So, if the expedition had been left without the Nez Percé and Shoshone horses, they may not have made it far

For instance, during the winter of 1804, William Clark’s journal states that it was,“21 degrees below zero...and getting colder” (Duncan, 73). Unfortunately, the Corps had no place to build a shelter, until the Mandan Indians offered them land to build a fort on (Klepeis, 28). The team spent the winter there, protected from the frostbite, hypothermia, and death that comes with cold. This event took place early in the trip; if the party was killed by winter as this point, they would have failed to complete nearly all of their goals, turning the expedition into a disgrace. So, due to the native’s kindness, the Corps’s legacy was preserved. As for provision of food, the Native Americans often provided it for the Corps. For instance, after the party made their way through the Bitterroots, they were starving. “Normally, 4 deer were required to feed the expedition; in their 11 days in the Bitterroots, they managed to kill only five….Lewis killed one (coyote)...a few grouse ...one duck, and some crayfish” (Isserman, 114). If the expedition had spent much longer without real food, some members would have starved to death. However, the group stumbled upon the Nez Percé Indians, who provided them with dried salmon and bread (Isserman, 115). This kindness enabled the expedition members to avoid starvation and reach their original goals,