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Showing posts with label Thomas Jefferson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thomas Jefferson. Show all posts

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Sending home the artifacts

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/12.11/05-lewisclark.html
When Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery left Fort Mandan, they didn't take everything with them. In fact, they loaded the keelboat with artifacts to be sent back to St. Louis and shipped to Thomas Jefferson. Included in the artifacts was a painted buffalo robe (above) depicting a battle between the Sioux and Arikaras against the Mandans. This robe currently resides at Harvard University. 

Here is a list of things that went aboard the keelboat with Corporal Warfington and his crew back down the Mississippi:

  • Lewis's dried plant specimens 
  • Lewis's "Summary View of Rivers and Creeks"
  • Lewis's "Summary Statement of Rivers, Creeks and Most Remarkable Places"
  • Maps
  • William Clark's journal
  • Seargean Charles Floyd's journal
  • Mineral specimens
  • Astronomical and weather data
  • Muster rolls
  • Accounting records 
  • Skins, bones, antlers, stuffed animals
  • Four live magpies
  • One live sharp-tailed grouse
  • One live prairie dog
  • Clark's description of tribes east of the Rocky Mountains they had met
  • Four boxes and three turnks of Indian artifacts that included a painted buffalo robe, bows and arrows, and a cooking pot.
At Monticello, Thomas Jefferson displayed some of the artifacts in a wing of his home he called "Indian Hall."

http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/indian-hall

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Good Trade

When Lewis and Clark set out on their journey west, they took with them gifts for the native peoples they would meet on their way to the Pacific Ocean.

Among these were American flags:


 Peace medals:

Indian artist Paha Ska, of Keystone, S.D., an Elder of the Oglala Sioux tribe from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, holds an authentic Presidental Peace & Friendship Medalion from President Thomas Jefferson, Monday, Dec. 17, 2001, during a visit at St. Mary School in Elyria, Ohio, that was given to Indian leaders by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1803. Paha Ska, who is about 80 years old, talked about and answered questions about Native Indians. (Photo/Paul M. Walsh)


And brass pots.
littlereview.blogspot.com

Other trinkets they brought with them to trade included:
  • 12 dozen pocket mirrors
  • 4600 sewing needles
  • 144 small sewing scissors
  • 10 pounds of sewing thread
  • Silk ribbons
  • Ivory Combs
  • Handkerchiefs
  • Yards of bright colored cloth
  • Handkerchiefs
  • 130 rolls of tabacco
  • Tomahawks 
  • 288 knives
  • 8 brass kettles
  • Vermillion face paint
  • 20 pounds of assorted beads (mostly blue)
  • 288 brass thimbles
  • Armbands
  • Ear trinkets
What would you take with you to trade?