#shynesses

Of course! I’m not sure how much you know about Lewis and Clark (I had a friend from Chicago who had no idea who they were), but I’ll give you a rough overview:

So way back when in the 1800s President Jefferson bought a big chunk of land from France (he bought it from Napoleon Bonaparte) and it was called the Louisiana Purchase. It doubled the size of the U.S. and some people were happy about it and some weren’t. Anyways, Jefferson needed some people to go exploring this new land to find the Northwest Passage (supposedly there was a water route connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean which would make travel and trade much easier). He elected U.S. Army Captain Meriwether Lewis (he was ~30 y.o.) to go on this adventure and Lewis asked his best friend Lieutenant William Clark (~33) to go with him. 

They took 33 men (including Clark’s slave York) and a dog (a Newfoundland named Seaman) and set off with their stuff from St. Louis all the way across North America to the Pacific Ocean. Along the way they also picked up a French-Canadian fur trapped named Toussaint Charbonneau and his Shoshone wife Sacagawea (she was 15 at the time and pregnant w her son Jean Baptiste). 

(btw they only lost one man along the way. His name was Charles Floyd and they believe he died from a ruptured appendix, something they couldn’t have helped anyways. Floyd’s Bluff in Iowa is named after him.) 

They left in May 1804 and returned September 1806 (not bad for walking on foot and paddling up rivers against the current). Well it’s a pretty big deal where I used to live (I lived up in northern Idaho close to Canada and there was a lot of Lewis and Clark stuff up there including a college). My family used to travel the Lewis & Clark trail every summer and sometimes during the school year since I was homeschooled, but we never made it back to St. Louis. I’ve been to Fort Clatsop quite a few times and we’ve been to the rivers that they were on and everything. Anyways, they’ve been a huge part of life ever since I was born so they’re pretty important to me and my family. 

For my English class I was asked to write an essay about “the best thing ever” and I was given the option of writing about a historical figure so I chose Meriwether Lewis (tbh I think he was my very first love even though when I was younger I couldn’t remember who was who, and I know I make that claim about a lot of people but I honestly believe Lewis was my first love other than dinosaurs). I’ve been having to do research about him and the Corps of Discovery so I can write my paper and it made me really nostalgic so I started my side blog lesjournauxdelewis so I could blog about them without annoying my followers on my main blog. 

There is also a blog called Inonibird who does some art of Lewis and Clark (which is super cute and I love it so much) and they designated August as Lewis & Clark month. They have a tag about it on their blog. (There’s also another super rad blog that’s all about history & that is courage-undaunted. I’m assuming their URL is either based upon the Stephen Ambrose novel Undaunted Courage, which got it’s title from a letter Jefferson wrote about Lewis or directly from Jefferson’s quote itself. Idk, you or I would have to ask them.)

I think the reason you’ve seen a lot of them on your dash recently is because September 23, 1806 was when they finally returned to St. Louis. 

They did so much to catalog animals and plants and establish trading relationships between the Americans and Natives so we could advance as a nation and idk they’re super rad and amazing but people like Christopher Columbus get all the credit for “discovering America” (??? he didn’t even land on U.S. soil I don’t think??, he was in the Bahamas and Cuba and that area). Like, we have Columbus Day but you only ever hear about Lewis & Clark from the nerdy kids who sit at the front of history class, or sometimes you don’t even hear about them at all (like my friend in Chicago). 

Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you get to do an elementary school play about them (apparently my music teacher wanted me to play Sacagawea but I didn’t know so I was just a Native American girl) but as far as I know, that’s all you really learn about them. But I was homeschooled from 6-10th grade and all we really learned about was History because history is rad as all heckie. 

Also, HBO is supposed to pick up a miniseries based on Undaunted Courage but they cast Casey Affleck as Meriwether Lewis and idk how I feel about that. :/ Maybe he’ll do all right, idk. I’ve always wanted a TV show or movie based around Lewis & Clark but I’m very picky about it too. You have to cast perfectly or else it’s just nah. Idk it’s just very iffy for me. 

It’s like when you write something (like for Creative Writing), it’s your baby and you want to take care of it. You put it out there for people to see but you want them to treat it with respect and care for it and not tarnish it. You cringe at the thought of someone taking a red pen and marking up your paper or making unnecessary notes in the margins. Sure, you’d be excited if someone were to take it and make it into art or a movie or something but then you see their choices of actors or their “headcanons” for your characters and it’s the opposite of what you want/what you’ve written. Meriwether Lewis is my baby and I want to protect him. (Does any of that make sense? Am I just rambling on about nothing?) 

Tbh I don’t care if people like Casey Affleck, I mean he’s okay? But I’d much rather have someone like Tom Mison play him. Maybe, maybe someone like Joe Anderson or Lee Pace? Idk maybe I’ll fall in love w Casey Affleck over this, who knows? I’m just very attached to my boys so. 

Sorry this is so long!! I’m also publishing it so I hope that’s all right :c 

If you have any questions feel free to ask me, and if I’ve made some mistakes on this please tell me! I’m just going off what I remember but it’s been so long since I studied this stuff, unfortunately. ;-; The more I read, the more I remember but I still have a lot of learning to do.