lewis & clark fun facts!!
The Admiral
Did you know that men of the native tribes that Lewis and Clark
encountered frequently offered their wives and daughters to the
whites?
There's nothing like a little sex to cement relationships among
different cultures. In fact there was a lot of sex, and the offers had
nothing to do with fellowship among men.
The tribes of the High Plains had very different attitudes from white
men about these matters. Plains Indians believed that spiritual power
passed between people during the sex act. By sharing their wives, they
could appropriate the power of the other person. Nobody seemed to have
more power than a white man, with his guns, his ability to work metal,
his technological prowess.
One young member of the Corps of Discovery was offered four Mandan
women in a single night. Clark's black slave, York, was even more
magical to them. The Native Americans Lewis and Clark encountered had
never seen a black man. York made out like a bandit.
Some stories claim that the expedition left children behind as well.
In the 1870s a blue-eyed, blond-haired Nez Perce told the Western
photographer William H. Jackson that he was William Clark's son.