Traditional Economies along the Lewis and Clark Trail: The Missouri Headwaters Before and After the Expedition

By Kelly Gorham

  • Part 1: Students will watch the video and read the essay by Dr. Doyle
  • Part 2: Students will begin the process of listening to the Lewis and Clark Journal Entries on the web and engaging in the small group discussions about potential action plans to address the contemporary legacy of Lewis and Clark.
  • Part 3: Students engage in their action plans and present them to their peers.

Selected Common Core State Standards/Subjects

English, Writing, Literacy, Sociology, Government, and History

  • CCSS Literacy SL 10-1

Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

  • CCSS Literacy SL 10-1d

Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, summarize points of agreement and disagreement, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views and understanding and make new connections in light of the evidence and reasoning presented.

  • CCSS Literacy WHST 10-4

Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

  • CCSS Literacy RH 10-5

Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.

GOALS FOR UNDERSTANDING

Students will understand:

    • How Indigenous people along the Trail created a hunting-gathering-trading economy.
    • That Lewis and Clark entered an Indigenous realm that had been changed forever by the influence of European trade goods and diseases.
    • That Native people showed great hospitality towards the Expedition, helping them with goods and services, but also expecting a mutually respectful relationship.
    • That Native people on the Trail lived for thousands of years without horses, mass diseases, or constant warfare.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

    • What types of economies did traditional Indigenous societies use along the Trail?
    • Did European economic models impact Native people before the arrival of non-Indigenous people?
    • How did Native people engage with the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s traditional economy?
    • What were traditional economies like before any European influence, and how do we know?

STUDENT OBJECTIVES

Students will be able to:

    • Identify key elements of the hunting-gathering-trading economies existing along the Trail.
    • Understand that long before any non-Indigenous arrived along the Trail, the influence of European culture had already changed life for Native Nations forever.
    • Explain ways in which members of the Corps of Discovery were  treated with generosity and hospitality by many Native Nations along the Trail.
    • Describe how Native American economies along the Trail thrived for thousands of years before European influence.

ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE

Suggested Formative Assessment of Learning Outcomes

    • Active listening through note taking/word web.
    • Class discussion.

Culminating Performance Assessment of Learning Outcomes

    • Students create a learning tool to inform their peers of some of the economic lessons they learned in the teachings. They may create a video, audio, poem or rap, some form of artwork, or a written essay.

LEARNING MAP

ENTRY QUESTIONS

  • Lewis and Clark were the first non-Indigenous explorers to travel the entire Trail, but how much of the area was truly not influenced by European-American culture?
  • From what we know about the Expedition’s experiences with Native Nations along the Trail, how can we understand the nature of traditional economies before European influence?

MATERIALS

Computer and Internet access or printed copies of the reading materials listed below.

LEARNING MODALITIES

    • Auditory
    • Visual

SITUATED PRACTICE

Introduce the students to the program Day by Day with Lewis and Clark http://www.lewis-clark.org/article/18050725

This curriculum will focus on the Missouri Headwaters area, an important place that Lewis and Clark passed through on their journey to and from the Northwest Coast.

OVERT INSTRUCTION

Dr. Shane Doyle will now provide us with a virtual tour of the Missouri Headwaters State Park area, from an Indigenous point of view.  When the Corps of Discovery passed through there in July of 1805, they had no idea of the ancient history under their feet and before their eyes.

Have learners form small groups of 3 or 4 and begin a discussion process about what they think it means to have a thriving economy.  Some of the questions to consider about traditional Indigenous economies are: Can an economy exist without money?  How did the Native people’s generosity towards the Expedition show their economic values?  How did Lewis and Clark display economic values with their Native hosts?

CRITICAL FRAMING

Still in small groups, each student will read Dr. Shane Doyle’s informational essay about the historical context of the Indigenous economies during the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Indigenous Economies on the Northern Plains 1804–1805

by Shane Doyle, EdD

            Welcome to a story of how traditional Native American communities thrived and prospered in 1804–1806 along the Missouri and Columbia Rivers, in the Rocky Mountains, and along the Pacific Northwest Coast.  The Lewis and Clark Expedition discovered this when they traveled that entire distance: from St. Louis, Missouri, to the coast of the Pacific Ocean, and back again.  During their expedition, which is noteworthy because it was the first recorded voyage across the continent by any non-Indigenous explorers, the Corps of Discovery entered into a realm that had been dramatically altered by European-American contact on both coasts.  Even in the most remote areas of the continent—like along the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains—European trade goods, culture, and diseases had already dramatically changed Native American communities and lifestyles.  Rather than entering a region that was untouched by European influence, they were traveling  across an area of the continent that had been devastated by diseases unknown to Native people. Deadly viruses and bacterial infections, like smallpox and typhus, created pandemics all along the Trail decades before the Corps of Discovery arrived in the region, becoming the first white, and in the case of York, the first black man ever seen by most of the communities they entered into.  Though most Native communities had not seen white or black faces, their entire lives had been shaped by the influence of European presence on the continent.  By the time the Corps arrived, the pandemics had shattered Native societies along the Missouri River, reducing their populations by 70%.

            While the Native communities on the Great Plains were suffering through catastrophic loss of life, they were also being empowered by the new infusion of horses, rifles, steel tools, and artistic materials like trade wool and glass beads.  Life had changed in a big way for Native people who lived west of the Mississippi in 1804, but they had no way of knowing that in less than 100 years their homelands would be permanently altered with fences, railroads, highways, and many other unimaginable introductions.

The entire trail that the expedition traveled was marked by a new way of life for Native people, especially in the Great Plains, along the Missouri River.  Although it must have seemed ancient to Lewis and Clark, the culture that they had entered into was barely recognizable to the ways of life that had existed there since the beginning of time, before the European invasion began with Christopher Columbus’s voyage in 1492.

Archaeological and genetic research has provided evidence that the Indigenous people of the continent, or Native Americans, have been living throughout the landscape for well over 12,600 years.  Up until the arrival of Europeans and the introduction of horses onto the Great Plains in the 1700’s, nearly the entire economy of North America was trafficked on foot.  There were no horses, cows, oxen, camels, elephants or other large domesticated animals to pull wagons, plough fields, or otherwise transport any items weighing over 100 pounds.  Therefore, the trade economy on the Northern Plains and throughout most of the continent, was conducted on a smaller scale, because people could only bring as much as they could carry or as much as dogs could pull over many miles of trails.  During the winter, the trade economy was largely quiet, as short days and severe weather limited travel in the open country.  When springtime came, the Indigenous people of the region left their winter campsites to travel a seasonal cycle and gather wild plants and animals along their routes.  Every community had a different circle they would travel, and at different times of the spring, summer and fall, and this constant and consistent movement brought them into frequent contact with each other.

This ancient way of life of seasonal travels is what prompted Plains Sign Language to be created.  This universal Sign Language connected different nations with different languages, and their friendships grew over time.  The Plains Indian Nations used their language to trade everything with each other, including stories, ceremonies, trade items, songs, and humor.  Other products that were specific to the places where the communities spent the winter, like medicinal plants and herbs, dried meat or tanned hides, were what kept the trade relationships important, because every community had various things that they specialized in harvesting and producing.  There was also a high value placed on specially designed shirts, leggings, and moccasins, which could be traded for any number of other items, including ethereal items like songs, prayers, dances, or stories.

This was the basic structure of a hunter/gatherer/trade economy that existed for many thousands of years on the Northern Plains before agriculture began to be practiced by tribal nations along the edge of the region about 2,000 years ago. Corn, beans, and squash became part of the seasonal economy when communities like the Mandan-Hidatsa and Arikara villages along the Upper Missouri River learned how to grow large quantities of vegetables for their own food and for trading with their partners who lived both east and especially west of them. Walking hundreds of miles in a summer, communities enjoyed stable and long-lasting ways of life.

This ancient economic stability and these ancient trade networks were confronted with extreme pressures and huge losses after European contact.  Communities were dramatically transformed from death, destruction, and also from new technology that made their way of life easier. Horses were probably the most iconic and fantastic additions to the Plains Indian way of life, but they came at a time when communities were being destabilized from oncoming pandemics.  As one consequence, wise leadership was being replaced by younger and more aggressive leaders who frequently were caught in a cycle of violence against neighboring and competing communities, and they used horses as a primary means to exact revenge on their enemies and simultaneously build their own wealth.  It is difficult to measure the impact that horses had on the Plains Indian way of life, as there was so much more that came along with them.

Consider the story of Sacagawea, whose name is pronounced Suh-gog-ah-WEE-ah, which translates from the Hidatsa language as “Bird woman.”  Lewis and Clark met her during the winter when they stayed near the Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara villages along the Missouri River at a fort they built called Fort Mandan.  She was a 16-year-old with a new baby, married to a French fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau, who had come to the villages to trade with the Natives. Sacagawea had been taken captive as a prisoner when she was a young girl at a time when her Nation, the Eastern band of Shoshone, had traveled northward along one of the rivers.  According to her story, she was taken during the summer, when her family had visited the area where three rivers mix to form the Missouri River to trade and gather foods and other materials.  It was during their summer journey that they encountered a group of Hidatsa men who attacked them, killing some of the group and taking the 11-year-old Sacagawea as a new member of their community. This type of violent raiding, though regarded by the Corps of Discovery as common practice among Plains Indians, really was very new and did not exist for the many thousands of years that Native people lived on the Great Plains.

Sacagawea’s life was a story that could not have happened before Europeans came to the continent because raiding by horse would have been impossible without any horses.  She was also an indirect victim of the smallpox pandemics that struck and nearly wiped out the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara villages in 1780, 1837, and 1851.  In total, over 90% of the villagers were killed by the deadly outbreaks, which caused massive trauma for the survivors. This was the first of three major pandemics, with two others occurring in 1837 and 1851.  The disease was so destructive when it first hit the communities in 1780 that survivors abandoned their old village and built anew in a different location, understanding the need to completely break away from their former spaces where the virus could still be lurking.

The horrible loss of life impacted survivors in many ways, and one of them was the realization that without a significant population increase, their communities could be in real danger of disappearing completely.  Empowered with horses, young warriors could now turn to raiding during these desperate times in order to gather all resources, including people, and transport them back to their shattered villages.  Sacagawea’s capture and the violence that occurred along with it were signs that the once stable societies on the Great Plains were now in crisis, because too many wise elders and other important leaders had died in the pandemic, and chaos and uncertainty became a part of the new normal.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition discovered that Native people all along the Trail were self-sufficient in every way, but also maintained a thriving trade network that enriched Native communities throughout the entire West.  The Expedition found out that although Native people were generous and helpful, they were also industrious and savvy traders, who understood the value of both natural and man-made resources.  While spending the winter of 1804–1805 near the Knife River Indian Village, the Corps of Discovery traded tin to the local Natives for gallons of dried corn that locals had grown themselves during the summer months. The Corps fared well during that winter, and their supplies provided them with enormous quantities of dried corn, beans, squash, wild game, and dogs.  They continued to be generously gifted by Native people along their trek, as the Shoshone people gave them many horses to cross the mountains. The Salish gave them food and shelter and sent a guide along with them to show them the passage through the mountains and into the land of the Nez Perce, where they were once again treated with hospitality and warmth.  In their journals, they wrote that the Nez Perce were the nicest people they had yet encountered, which was no small compliment considering the generosity they had received all along their travels.  Finally, when they arrived on the Pacific Northwest Coast, they entered a region that European traders traveling by ship had begun encountering over 100 years before.

Instead of acquiring much in trade from the Coastal Natives for their supply of items, they discovered that those communities had similar and sometimes better items that were cheaper for them when acquired from European trade ships.  Inflation had caught up to the Expedition, and they could no longer afford the processed foods and local handmade items that they needed for continuing their voyage.  The link here http://www.lewis-clark.org/article/18060318 will take you to the story of how the Corps of Discovery had to resort to dishonest bargaining to acquire their goods for their return voyage.  Two hundred years later, during the Bicentennial celebration, the United States government returned the canoe to the Clatsop people.

TRANSFORMED PRACTICE

  • Considering how to move forward with our new knowledge of our shared homelands, here are some articles for students to review and reflect upon. A video link is imbedded within the article for students to view:

https://www.artisticfuel.com/public-art/an-indigenous-scholar-uses-art-to-redeem-american-history/

  • Explore this wiki link on “How to Create an Action Plan” at:

https://www.wikihow.com/Create-an-Effective-Action-Plan.  Review part 1, steps 1–11, and use them as a guide for the coming work. In small groups or as individuals, students should choose a wrong from their world that they would like to make right.  Once a wrong has been chosen, students should follow the creating-an-action-plan steps to create a plan for bringing change to this wrong so that it never happens again. For inspiration students can explore the work of these teens and others:

  • Students should be given adequate time to write up their action plans in class or as homework. The plans should be actionable in real time.  Upon completion of the written plans, students should present their plans to the class. If desired, students could choose one or two plans to carry out as a class. A few ideas for the action plan could be to recognize Native contributions along the Trail, not just Sacagawea’s presence and place, but the Native Nations’ as well.

DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION FOR ADVANCED AND EMERGING LEARNERS

Struggling learners may need to have a printed copy of all articles and have more time to read and locate important points using a highlighter. Struggling learners may compose shorter word webs (filling in one or two circles instead of three). They may also be paired with a student who can allow them to follow along as they talk through the contents of the word web together. Students may voice a wrong and an action plan as an audio or video submission if writing is a challenge or move from an audio recording of their thoughts and ideas into a written document supported by their verbal notes. Advanced learners could research the work of other young people and present this work to the class as a means of informing their peers of important work they can become involved with. They could also lead or be responsible for keeping class justice projects moving forward and communicating among groups.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES