Talk:Lewis and Clark Expedition
From Academic Kids
An event mentioned in this article is a May 14 selected anniversary
This aricle is in sad shape (much shorter than it should be). Here is a sentence that should be put in when when the article is expanded:
- Scouting ahead of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and four companions sighted the Great Falls of the Missouri River on June 13, 1805, confirming they were heading in the right direction.[1] (http://www.lewis-clark.org/GREATFALLSVT/FALLSOFMO/2GRANDFALL/gf03_grandfall-barralet.htm)
-- mav 08:32, 13 Jun 2004 (UTC)
Native Americans
There could be more here on the expedition and Native Americans. I am thinking of how to add something short enough. I'm particularly concerned that verbage like "that was a "Real American Moment", for York, who was a slave, and Sacagawea, who was an Indian and a woman, voted along with the rest of the men of the party." misrepresents the ways the expedition fits into the negative aspects of early 19th century American history glossing over, conflict, exploitation, and disease. York, for example, was not given his freedom at the end of the expedition despite Clark's promise to do so. Sacagawea's democratic priviliges do not seem to have extended to having much input into the fate of her own son. While the party's interactions with Native Americans were often friendly and intimate (and regularly sexual) in nature, violence was also an aspect of the expedition. In addition the Corp's mission of extending U.S. sovereignty into the West would ultimately prove disastorous for the Native populations in the region.
I moved the recent addition "roughly a decade after Alexander Mackenzie, the first European to cross North America by land north of Mexico, arrived at Bella Coola on the Pacific coast in 1793" from the first sentence. Yes, t's an important fact, but hardly the most important thing about the voyage. Placing it where it was comes across as hamfisted criticism. -- Decumanus 16:30, 2004 Dec 28 (UTC)
This article should be much, much longer. Can anyone fix it?
