The story of the Lewis and Clark expedition is typically read several times by American students as they progress through the grades. It is a drama of adventure, courage, and success—the stuff of great history. Usually students learn about Lewis and Clark from a history perspective. However, the Corps of Discovery is also a perfect model for an integrated social studies curriculum because it illustrates all the social studies strands: history, culture, civics, economics, and geography.

This monograph relates some lesser-known aspects of the Lewis and Clark story that can help you use this familiar topic to naturally integrate social studies concepts. Some brief activity ideas at the end suggest ways for you to use the information with students.

History
Two hundred years ago, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark of the U.S. Army led their Corps of Discovery across the North American continent to the Pacific Ocean. The guiding hand behind the Corps of Discovery was President Thomas Jefferson. In January 1803, he requested $2,500 from Congress to defray its costs, citing the need to encourage trade with the western Indians. Jefferson outlined a modest effort to reach the Pacific Ocean by sending a few soldiers up the Missouri River until they reached some westward flowing river, presumably the Columbia, and then continuing on to the Pacific coast. Congress accepted his claim that the trek across the continent would have commercial value and authorized the use of federal funds for salaries and supplies. In so doing, the Congress blessed scientific exploration under military auspices, thereby setting a precedent for the scores of other government explorers who followed.

The enterprise proved more daunting than Jefferson anticipated, but its successful completion in 1806 was a triumph for the young republic. The explorers today are justly honored as American heroes and our country might well be a different one today had it not been for their courage, their fortitude, and their faithfulness to each other, to their service, and to their president.

Culture
One of the great moments in American history, the Corps of Discovery demonstrated teamwork at its best—a handful of comrades from different educational, social, and ethnic backgrounds working successfully for a common goal. What a model of social harmony it is for America today. With the party was a Shoshone woman, Sacagawea; her infant son, Jean Baptiste nicknamed Pomp; an African American man named York, the slave of Captain Clark; two interpreters; and two dozen soldiers of mixed ethnic and national heritage, including one who had recently immigrated to America from Germany. Meriwether Lewis was a patrician; his comrade William Clark was a product of the frontier. Yet all of them were totally dependent upon one another for their well-being and the success of their mission. It was Lewis and Clark who opened the gateway to the West. They blazed a trail that enabled the young republic to become the world power it is today.

Government/Civics
From its inception, the Corps of Discovery did not hold promise to become a model of democracy in action. The Corps was a military operation, and as such was organized in typical military hierarchy. Yet, on November 24, 1805, while huddled together on a sandy beach in sight of the Pacific Ocean, the Corps of Discovery did something unusual for a military unit of any kind. They voted on a crucial issue: Where would be the best place to set up camp for the winter? Not only did the soldiers vote, but so did everyone else in the party, including York and Sacagawea. Each of their votes was recorded in the diary entry for that day. This was certainly an unusual and special moment in American history because neither African Americans nor women had yet won the right to vote in the United States. In this, as in other ways, the Corps of Discovery foreshadowed the future multicultural inclusiveness of American democracy.

Economics
The economic aspects of the Lewis and Clark expedition actually began when President Jefferson came to believe that the land and rivers of the Louisiana Territory were valuable for trade. His beliefs were based on a journal written in 1801 by Alexander Mackenzie, a Scotsman and explorer for the British Empire. The journal described Mackenzie's journey through parts of the Louisiana Territory. Jefferson became alarmed that Great Britain would succeed in finding a path to the Pacific and expand its trade with Asia. Knowing that international trade was vital to the success of the new nation, Jefferson was eager to learn more about the territory before the British and other European rivals could take action.

The journals kept by Lewis and Clark are replete with economic examples of opportunity cost and economic choices both producers and consumers have to make. For example, with the $2,500 Congress appropriated for the expedition, Lewis purchased about 200 different items for the expedition, including 3,500 doses of sweat inducers, 1,100 doses of emetic, fifty dozen of Dr. Rush's pills known as "thunder clappers," thirty gallons of liquor, 130 rolls of pigtail tobacco, 193 pounds of portable soup, 500 gun flints, six papers of ink powder, 176 pounds of gunpowder packed in fifty-two lead canisters, plus 420 pounds of sheet lead for bullets that the soldiers would need. For the Indians they would meet, Lewis obtained, among other things he thought would make nice presents and trade items, thirty-three pounds of beads of assorted colors, 4,600 sewing needles, 144 small scissors, ten pounds of sewing thread, twelve dozen pocket mirrors, and 288 knives. The total weight of all these purchases was about 3,500 pounds.

For the most part, Lewis selected well, but there were glaring shortages. Although Lewis and Clark had enough paper and ammunition to make the trip again, the liquor—that was part of the daily ration to the U.S. military at that time—was consumed by the time the explorers reached the Great Falls in June 1805; the tobacco ran out while they waited for winter to end at Fort Clatsop. A serious deficiency was blue beads, which the Indians coveted. "This article," Lewis wrote, "among all the nations of this country may be justly compared to gold or silver among civilized nations."

Lewis and Clark quickly discovered that the Indians were shrewd traders who knew the value of the food, horses, and other goods the explorers needed. Late in the expedition, on the return journey while traveling along the Columbia River, Clark tried without success to buy a horse from an Indian despite offering "a blue robe, a calico shirt, a silk handkerchief, five parcels of paint, a knife, a wampum moon, eight yards of ribbon, several pieces of brass, a moccasin awl, and six braces of yellow beads." This, Lewis grumbled, was twice the value of goods he had paid the previous year when purchasing horses from the Shoshone and Flathead.

Geography
The social studies discipline, other than history, that is most obvious in the Lewis and Clark story is geography. Just about every aspect of geography is found in the diaries that Lewis and Clark wrote during the expedition. Jefferson had charged his captains of discovery with measuring the western landscape and this they did with fidelity and accuracy. Indeed, their expedition marked the first effort of the young United States to attempt a scientific survey of the continent, setting the standard that was followed so successfully by later army exploring expeditions.

The keystone of that scientific survey was mapping the landscape and Jefferson instructed his captains of discovery accordingly. "The work we are now doing," he advised them, "is, I trust, for posterity . . . We should delineate with correctness the great arteries of this great country; those who come after us will extend the ramifications as they become acquainted with them, and fill up the canvas we begin." Lewis and Clark heeded well Jefferson's admonition. Later explorers filled in the details, but they compiled the first accurate map of the Far West. In fact, we know today that the Lewis and Clark maps are accurate to within fifty miles of the route they traveled.

Teaching about Lewis and Clark
There are many good sources for learning the history of the Lewis and Clark journey. If you would like your students to get a taste of the expedition in the explorers' own words, a readily available paperback abridgement with modernized spelling of their diaries is The Journals of Lewis and Clark, edited by Anthony Brant with an afterward by Herman J. Viola (National Geographic Society, 2002).

History teaching idea
Lewis, Clark, or both wrote a journal entry for nearly every day of their journey, but they didn't attempt to detail all their activities. Instead, they wrote highlights of the day as they considered them to be important. Assign different entries from the journals for students to read, then ask them to explain the passages and tell why they think Lewis or Clark chose to record the information in the entries.

Culture teaching idea
As described in the monograph, Clark failed in his effort to buy a horse from an Indian. To give students an opportunity to take an alternative perspective, ask students to imagine how that Indian might have explained this incident to his friends. Have each student write a paragraph to explain his or her thinking, then discuss their answers.

Government/civics teaching idea
Being a military expedition, the Corps of Discovery soldiers were organized in a military chain of command: officially Lewis was the captain and Clark was a lieutenant although they functioned as co-captains; there were three sergeants and twenty-three privates. The other members of the group—two interpreters, York, Sacagawea, and Pomp—were not employed by the army and held no official status. Direct students to draw a graphic organizer to show the "official" organizational structure of the group. Then have them draw a second graphic organizer to illustrate the equality in voting among the expedition members after they reached the Pacific and had to decide where to wait out the winter.

Economics teaching idea
When Captain Clark complained that he was unable to buy a horse from an Indian, despite offering him twice the value of goods with which he had purchased horses the preceding year, he was exemplifying a basic economic principle—supply and demand. Ask students to suggest strategies Clark might have used to "strike a deal" with the reluctant trader.

Geography teaching idea
Select some key locations mentioned in the Lewis and Clark journals. These might include: St. Louis; Bismarck, North Dakota; Great Falls, Montana; Powell Ranger Station or Weippe, Idaho; and Ft. Clatsop, Oregon. After students have read the Lewis and Clark entries describing these locations, have them locate pictures (perhaps on the Internet) of the areas today. Ask students to hypothesize about why the locations have or have not developed into populated areas.