Where Did Man Go Wrong?

[W. Gray]

From the log of Captain Merriweather Lewis on August 19th, 1805. The expedition is about 2,700 river miles from where it started at St. Louis on May 14, 1804. The observation is of the Shoshone tribe on the Lemhi River in western Montana.

Both Lewis and Clark were atrocious spellers and this paragraph represents some of the better work. Both had a tendency to not capitalize the first word of a sentence.

They seldom correct their children particularly the boys who soon become masters of their own acts. they give as a reason that it cows and breaks the sperit of the boy to whip him, and that he never recovers his independence of mind after he is grown. They treat their women but with little respect, and compel them to perform every species of drudgery. they collect the wild fruits and roots, attend to the horses or assist in that duty, cook, dress the skins and make all their apparel, collect wood and make their fires, arrange and form their lodges, and when they travel pack the horses and take charge of all the baggage; in short the man dose little else except attend his horses hunt and fish. the man considers himself degraded if he is compelled to walk any distance; and if he is so unfortunately poor as only to possess two horses he rides the best himself and leavs the woman or women if he has more than one, to transport their baggage and children on the other, and to walk if the horse is unable to carry the additional weight of their persons.

Their Indian "guide" Sacagawea was born into this Shoshone band. She was captured as a young girl and then sold to the Mandan Sioux, who lived on the Missouri River in present day North Dakota in about the middle of the state. The expedition hired Touissate Charbonneau, a Frenchman who lived with the tribe, as an interpreter since he spoke several languages needed to converse with tribes up river. His wife Sacagawea, whom he had purchased, came long with him. She became important only because she could speak Shoshone. It was from this tribe at the end of the Missouri River that Lewis and Clark knew they needed to buy horses to pack their baggage to the Columbia River. She gave birth shortly before the expedition left their winter quarters across the Missouri River from the Mandan village. The only guide duties she performed was when the expedition arrived in Shoshone territory. She was able to find the exact spot she was captured. It turned out that her brother was now the chief of this Shoshone band.

When the expedition arrived at the Shoshone village, her Indian owner was also there. He had purchased the rights to her when she was a young child. She was captured before he could exercise those rights. He was now twice her age. He rightfully took claim of her—but since she had had a child with another man he finally made the decision not to take her.

The Lewis and Clark was the third expedition to explore western North America by land and reach the Pacific Ocean. The first expedition was led by Cabeza de Vaca in 1536. The second was a Canadian expedition led by Sir Alexander Mackenzie in 1793.

[Leonardcrl]

The first expedition was led by Cabeza de Vaca in 1536.

Waldo: 
I don't intend this as a criticism but I believe you better check your source on this item.
If this is the same Spanish Gentleman that I know of I don't believe he ever made it into the Northwest but he claims to have made it to the Pacific.  He did live a great adventure in the south and is a legend in Texas history so that you can't avoid him if you have any interest in the history of this area.  (Which unfortunately I'm saddled with.)  According to his  Wiki page he was in New Spain, probably around Mexico City during 1536.  However the Handbook of Texas does say that he was at "Culiacán, an outpost near the Pacific Coast of Mexico, ... in early 1536.".  How he got there from Galveston Island nobody knows.

[W. Gray]

I think your eyes probably read northwest when the words were western North America.

He was the first of three explorers to explore western North America to the Pacific Ocean.

There are several maps on the web showing his route from what is now Florida to what is now Texas by following the coast and then traveling by land across what is now the southwest United States where he veered south to reach the Pacific via what is now Mexico.

Mexico is part of North America.

PBS explains his trip as one of the most amazing feats of exploration.

[Diane Amberg]

I wonder why someone would be named "cow head?"

[W. Gray]

Maybe his dad was a Toro. 

[Diane Amberg]

But I thought all men were bull headed.

[Leonardcrl]

Waldo:
Re:  Eyes seeing Northwest versus Western - you are probably right.  But I'm still counted in the skeptical camp on Cabeza de Vaca getting to the Pacific at Culiacán Mexico.  Google maps says it's 840 miles as the crow flies from Galveston to Culiacán.  The Handbook of Texas says Cabeza de Vaca and three other castaways left Galveston in 1534 and got to Culiacán in 1536.  According to USMHI Note On Marching covering the distance in that time would be doable.

Diane:
From The Handbook of Texas

CABEZA DE VACA, ÁLVAR NÚÑEZ (ca. 1490-ca. 1556). Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, an early Spanish explorer, was born about 1490 in Jerez de la Frontera, an Andalucian town near Cádiz, to Francisco de Vera and Teresa Cabeza de Vaca. Cabeza de Vaca was his preferred surname. It descended from an ancestor who had helped secure victory for Christian forces at the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212) by marking an unguarded pass in the Sierra Moreno with the skull of a cow. In gratitude, King Sancho of Navarra bestowed the surname "Cow's Head" on Cabeza de Vaca's matrilineal progenitors. The Álvar Núñez portion of Cabeza de Vaca's name also came from a prominent ancestor of his mother, who was an accomplished naval officer.

End Quote

[W. Gray]

Diane,

If they are bull headed, wouldn't that make them fishy?

Leonardcrl,

Do you suppose they were wearing their Spanish armor?

[Leonardcrl]

Re.  Did they have there Spanish Armor. 
I doubt it since they were:

• Beached after a severe storm.  So I doubt if the armor made it to shore. 
• Under control of the Indians who would certainly have taken the armor if they had any.

[Diane Amberg]

By the way, thank's for the cow's head history. I learned something. And yes, men can be VERY fishy sometimes. Occasionally their jokes are very finny too!