What Now?

What thoughts flickered through Merriweather Lewis's mind as he looked west from the crest of the Rockies? Despair? Anger? Disappointment that God had let him and his men down? Fear? He had struggled westward from St. Louis for a year and a half only to reach the Continental Divide short of supplies, horses to replace his canoes, or Indians that could guide him across the endless mountain ranges he saw before him. He couldn't go westward; he couldn't go eastward back down the Missouri River; and it was August and winter was in the air. Prospects were bleak. All his slogging had been for naught.

So what happened? Lewis picked his way westward down from the crest about 12 miles and suddenly encountered a small party of Shoshone Indians. He persuaded them (in sign language) to take him to their main camp. There he met the chief, Chief Cameahwait. After lengthy negotiations, the Chief and fifteen of his people accompanied Lewis eastward, back over the crest and downhill until they ran into Clark and the rest of the L&C expedition, including Sacagawea who had been a member of the L&C party since February. A conference was arranged for the same afternoon (August 17, 1805). At the conference, Lewis used Sacagawea as an interpreter. She immediately recognized Chief Cameahwait as her (long lost) brother. (She had been kidnapped from the Shoshones five years earlier by plains Indians.) One thing led to another and Lewis was able to buy horses and hire a guide to take the L&C party westward downhill from the Rockies. L&C finally reached the Pacific Ocean via the Snake and Columbia Rivers on December 7, 1805.

What message, if any, can we take home from this slice of history?