As the Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled west, white explorers and Native American peoples encountered each other for the first time. Learn how the natives lived, how they interacted, and what they thought of the explorers from the east.

Particularly valuable for Ronda's inclusion of pertinent background information about the various tribes and for his ethnological analysis. An appendix also places the Sacagawea myth in its proper perspective. Gracefully written, the book bridges the gap between academic and general audiences.OCo"Choice""

At the heart of this landmark collection of essays rests a single question: What impact, good or bad, immediate or long-range, did Lewis and Clark’s journey have on the Indians whose homelands they traversed? The nine writers in this volume each provide their own unique answers; from Pulitzer prize-winner N. Scott Momaday, who offers a haunting essay evoking the voices of the past; to Debra Magpie Earling’s illumination of her ancestral family, their survival, and the magic they use to this day; to Mark N. Trahant’s attempt to trace his own blood back to Clark himself; and Roberta Conner’s comparisons of the explorer’s journals with the accounts of the expedition passed down to her. Incisive and compelling, these essays shed new light on our understanding of this landmark journey into the American West.

Lewis and Clark's Expedition from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean was the first governmental exploration of the "Great West." The history of this undertaking is the personal narrative and official report of the first white men who crossed the continent between and British and Spanish possessions.

The diaries and personal accounts of William Clark, Meriwether Lewis, and other members of their expedition chronicle their epic journey across North America in search of a river passage to the Pacific Ocean and describe their encounters with the Native American peoples of the West, exotic flora and fauna, and amazing natural wonders.

On September 4, 1805, in the upper Bitterroot Valley of what is now western Montana, more than four hundred Salish people were encamped, pasturing horses, preparing for the fall bison hunt, and harvesting chokecherries as they had done for countless generations. As the Lewis and Clark Expedition ventured into the territory of a sovereign Native nation, the Salish met the strangers with hospitality and vital provisions while receiving comparatively little in return. ø For the first time, a Native American community offers an in-depth examination of the events and historical significance of its encounter with the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The Salish People and the Lewis and Clark Expedition is a startling departure from previous accounts of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Rather than looking at Indian people within the context of the expedition, it examines the expedition within the context of tribal history. The arrival of non-Indians is therefore framed not as the beginning of the history of Montana or the West but as only a recent chapter in a far longer Native history. The result is a new understanding of the expedition and its place in the wider context of the history of Indian-white relations. ø Based on three decades of research and oral histories, this book presents tribal elders recounting the Salish encounter with Lewis and Clark. Richly illustrated, The Salish People and the Lewis and Clark Expedition not only sheds new light on the meaning of the expedition but also illuminates the people who greeted Lewis and Clark and, despite much of what followed, thrive in their homeland today.