In the fall of 1809, three years after the successful completion of the expedition, Sacagawea, her husband Toussaint Charbonneau, and their son Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, traveled to St. The disarming presence of the mother and child reaffirmed the trust of many of the Native tribes the adventurers encountered, as some of the tribes had never before witnessed white faces. Her skills as a translator were instrumental to the success of the mission, all while she cared for her son, who had been born merely two months before joining the expedition. The Role of SacagaweaĪlong the way, a bilingual Shoshone woman named Sacagawea decided to join the expedition.
The Corps of Discovery returned from the expedition with a wealth of information about the people, plants, geography, and species they had encountered, but they didn’t do it alone. During their 28-month journey, Lewis and Clark learned about Native American cultures and social customs, taking notes and keeping journals. Charles, Missouri, and traveled up the Missouri River with a crew of more than 45 men. On May 14, 1804, the corps departed the camp for St. Over five months, William Clark recruited and trained men for the rigors of the upcoming expedition. Lewis and Clark began by establishing an encampment at the mouth of the River Dubois in Illinois in December 1803.
In addition, Jefferson wanted the men to take a scientific approach by collecting as much information about the geography, people, and samples of flora and fauna in this unmapped part of the nation along the way. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson assigned two young men from Virginia-Meriwether Lewis and William Clark-to lead an expedition along the Missouri River with the goal of exploring the Louisiana Purchase and finding a water route to extend American commerce to the Pacific coast.