Telling Stories About Lewis and Clark: Does History Still Matter?

Authors

Andrew R. L. Cayton, Miami University

Date of this Version

2004

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in Great Plains Quarterly 24:4 (Fall 2004). Copyright © 2005 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

It is obvious that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark are famous men. The story of their expedition and the people who traveled with them, including Clark's enslaved African-American York and the Indian woman called Sacajawea, is an iconic narrative of Americana. The fifty-four page annotated list of books, pamphlets, and articles published between 1906 and 2001 in The Literature of the Lewis and Clark Expedition attests to a fascination that took hold during the centennial of their great trek and threatens to swamp us all during its bicentennial.