Lewis & Clark: Journey to Another America

Topic 7: "Pacific Intentions": Lewis and Clark and the Western Fur Trade
By J. Frederick Fausz, University of Missouri-St. Louis

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The following text is excerpted from the essay in Lewis & Clark: Journey to Another America

Make ... [the Indians] acquainted with our wish to be neighborly, friendly & useful to them, & of our dispositions to a commercial intercourse with them; confer with them on the points most convenient as mutual emporiums, & the articles of most desireable interchange for them & us.
---Thomas Jefferson, instructions to Meriwether Lewis

[W]e took care to make them [the Shoshones] a conspicuous object of our own good wishes and the care of our government. [W]e made them sensible of their dependance on the will of our government for every species of merchandize as well for their defence & comfort; and apprized them of the strength of our government....
---Meriwether Lewis, journal entry, August 17, 1805

Among the many goals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the most practical one was to expand American commerce. The "pacific intentions" of the Corps of Discovery included the principal objective of finding an all-water route from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean to export western furs to the rich markets of Asia. Even if the fabled Northwest Passage was not found, however, the United States could expect immense profits from a domestic fur trade with the Indian hunters who controlled the vast animal empire of the Louisiana Purchase territory. That secondary pacific intention was designed to pacify and satisfy distant native nations through commerce--America's first step in expanding its control over the West. The fur trade figured prominently in many aspects of the expedition--its planning and personnel, subsistence and survival--and the Indians who helped Lewis and Clark achieve their exploratory and scientific objectives often did so because of a promised commercial alliance with the United States.

The information gathered by the Corps of Discovery had far-reaching consequences for the Indian trade, expanding its potential, profits, and popularity for two generations after 1806. The first Americans to follow Lewis and Clark went in search of fur fortunes, unleashing acquisitive and inquisitive processes that made the West an integral part of the United States well in advance of homesteading populations. Those developments had a devastating impact upon native populations that was unprecedented in the trans-Mississippi West, far more sinister and serious than the cultural changes previously experienced by trading tribes. As agents of the U.S. government and proponents of Jeffersonian ideology before, during, and after the expedition, Lewis and Clark advocated fur trading not as an end in itself but merely as a means for making Indians politically dependent and ultimately expendable. Because their distant discoveries included fertile lands and natural resources conducive to white settlement, Lewis and Clark viewed the Indian trade as a temporary expedient, being convinced by history that "savages in the hunter state" inevitably would be replaced by American farmers.

Photo credit: Typical trade good items. Brooch and ax are from the collection of the author. Other items are from the collection of William Guthman.

About the Author

1. The materialistic focus on fur trading often obscures the personal talents and cultural tolerance that allowed Euro-Americans and Native Americans from very different worlds to engage in peaceful, cooperative partnerships. What were some specific "frontier" skills and circumstances that enabled French fur traders to appreciate native cultures and to interact with Indians in long-term relationships?

2. What aspects of the pre-1804 western fur trade proved most valuable in the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition? Could the Corps of Discovery have even survived if it had not included fur trading Frenchmen and Indian mixed bloods (metis), experienced and comfortable with native cultures?

3. In 1804, the Far West was defined as a "wilderness" dominated by native nations. How did the Lewis and Clark Expedition set in motion the "taming" of the West, its integration into the United States, and the transformation of its indigenous inhabitants?

4. The fur-trading Indian nations along the Missouri and Columbia river systems had experienced dynamic change for decades prior to the arrival of Lewis and Clark--and yet they seemed unprepared for, and nearly defenseless in the face of, devastating changes to their lands and lifeways that occurred after 1806. Why?

5. At an 1807 Washington, D.C., banquet honoring Meriwether Lewis, one of the guests offered the following toast: "[To] The Red People of America--under an enlightened policy, gaining by steady steps the comforts of the civilized, without losing the virtues of the savage state"{italics mine}. Paying particular attention to the italicized words, discuss/debate the meaning of this passage.

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Fausz, J. Frederick. "Becoming 'A Nation of Quakers': The Removal of the Osage Indians from Missouri." Gateway Heritage 20 (summer 2000), 28-39.

Foley, William E. and C. David Rice, The First Chouteaus: River Barons of Early St. Louis. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983; Reprint. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000.

Gibson, James R. Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods: The Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1785-1841. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999.

Gilman, Carolyn. Where Two Worlds Meet: The Great Lakes Fur Trade. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1982.

Jackson, Donald. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, with Related Documents, 1783-1854. 2nd ed., 2 vols. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978.

Nasatir, A. P., ed. Before Lewis and Clark: Documents Illustrating the History of the Missouri, 1785-1804. 2 vols. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1990.

Robertson, R. G. Competitive Struggle: America's Western Fur Trading Posts, 1764-1865. Boise: Tamarack Books,1999.

Ronda, James P. Lewis and Clark among the Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984. Reprint. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002.

Utley, Robert M. A Life Wild and Perilous: Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific. New York: Henry Holt Company, 1999.