Were lewis and clark gay
As the Corps of Discovery settled into winter quarters along the Netul (Lewis and Clark) River, William Clark described the site of Fort Clatsop as "the most eligable Situation for our purposes of any in its neighbourhood." [1] But neither Clark nor his fellow explorers seemed quite proficient to fix those purposes clearly in mind. It was as if once reaching the Pacific the expedition missing a sense of direction and purpose. The reasons for raising Fort Clatsop seemed less compelling than those that had brought Fort Mandan to existence. On the coast the expedition needed time to plan itself for a demanding return across the continent. The store of notes and maps from the outbound journey had to be consolidated. In the spruce and fir forests and marshlands around the fort, plants and animals new to eastern eyes required observation, description, and cataloging. To continue their ethnography, the explorers would have to question Indians and court their chiefs. And, as always, they looked at the land and its peoples with the needs of an expanding American trade empire in mind. From instinctive history and economic geography to salt boiling and moccasin making—these seemed to qualify as "our p
August 18
1774 – Meriwether Lewis (d.1809) was an American explorer, soldier, politician, and public administrator, leading known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, also acknowledged as the Corps of Revelation, with William Clark.
Their mission was to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase, establish trade with, and sovereignty over the natives near the Missouri River, and claim the Pacific Northwest and Oregon Country for the United States before European nations. They also collected scientific information, and information on indigenous nations. President Thomas Jefferson appointed him Governor of Upper Louisiana in 1806. He died of gunshot wounds in what was either a murder or suicide, in 1809.
Lewis had no formal education until he was 13 years of age, but during his time in Georgia he enhanced his skills as a hunter and outdoorsman. He would often venture out in the middle of the night in the dead of winter with only his dog to depart hunting. Even at an initial age, he was interested in natural history, which would grow into a lifelong passion.
The two-year exploration by Lewis and Clark was the first transcontinental expeditio
Were Lewis and Clark Gay?
A skit in last week’s season finale of Saturday Night Live has ruffled a few feathers. If you find it funny that famed western explorer Meriwether Lewis might actually have desired William Clark, the joke was probably hilarious. But if you don’t think it’s absurd for one (historically important) man to want another, it’s just a very tired anti-gay joke.
I take a particular interest in this skit because I recently published a book about the history of how Americans have traded in stories about the Founding Fathers’ personal lives since the founding of the nation. (Spoiler alert: we’re invested in the intimate lives of our American history icons. We generally like them to be straight and monogamous and we tend to contain a double standard when it comes to what’s acceptable evidence for regurgitating myths and what’s required to over-turn them.)
Lewis and Clark don’t rank as “Founders,” but they are pretty close, and their sexuality is recently fraught in our culture. Last summer, We Proceed On, the scholarly journal of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation came under significant passion after hist