Lewis and Clark

What children learn in Level 22

• Jefferson chose Meriwether Lewis to lead the trip west. Lewis asked his friend William Clark to lead it with him.
• Their group was called the Corps of Discovery. It had dozens of people, and one big black dog named Seaman!
• Jefferson gave them jobs: follow the rivers west, make maps, and learn about the plants, animals, and people they met.
• In May 1804, they set off in boats from near St. Louis, up the Missouri River.
• Every day, they wrote in journals. They wrote about animals that were new to them, like prairie dogs and grizzly bears. They even sent a live prairie dog to Jefferson!
• Clark drew careful maps of the rivers and mountains. Later, other people used his maps to travel west.
• York, a Black man, went on the whole trip and worked as hard as anyone. But York was enslaved by Clark. That was cruel and wrong.
• Their journals and maps are primary sources: made by people who were there. A book about them written today is a secondary source.
• Your turn! Sort them. Is each one a primary source, or a secondary source?
• Now sort them. Who did it: Jefferson, or Lewis and Clark?
• Try it with a grown-up! Keep an explorer's journal for one day. Write or draw something you saw outside.