Lewis and Clark by Isaac, Noah, and Isabelle

Lewis and Clark were sent on a journey by the President, Thomas Jefferson, (he's the guy who wrote the Declaration of Independence.), to find a trade route through the practically unexplored lands of the Western United States by water.  He wanted them to reach the other ocean.  Merriweather Lewis and William Clark were good friends.  William Clark had been Lewis' commander in the war and they really liked and respected one another.  Their expedition took them a year and a half.  It was a hard, long journey.  Along the way, they met Sacagawea who was married to a French Trader and she went along with them.  She did it all with a baby to care for.  She was a translator for them.  Sacagawea saved the most important items on their boat when it turned over.  She also helped them get horses from the Shoshone because she was a Shoshone who had been captured earlier in her life and had been taken from her family.  She was reunited with her family on the journey.  Lewis and Clark's expedition changed the United States.  Their expedition was the very first transcontinental (from one side to the other, from ocean to ocean) expedition ever in the United States.  It didn't turn out good for the Indians because this meant that white people would be coming behind them.  Only one person died during the expedition and we thought alot would have died, but they didn't and we were surprised by that.  Merriweather Lewis committed suicide three years after the expedition and William Clark named his first born child, Merriweather Lewis Clark.  Sacagawea died six years after the expedition and William Clark provided for her child who was born during the expedition.  During their expedition, they saw many new species of plants and animals.  Merriweather Lewis found one new animal that he said barked like a dog.  He named it a prairie dog.  We watched a really good movie about them and the expedition.  If you'd like to see it, Mom is including the link.  We really liked learning about them.  We thought it was really interesting and would have been fun to do, except for the part where they had to go around the waterfalls carrying everything.

Part One of Four

 

Part Two of Four

 Part Four of Four