Lewis and Clarks attitudes toward Native Americans - Essay Example

A Comparison of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s attitudes toward Native Americans to those expressed by Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson Institution Affiliation Date Thomas Jefferson was an American Exploration while Meriwether Lewis was his personal assistant. Moreover, Jefferson required an assistance officer who would guard them against the American native. Therefore, for this he had William Clark as his army officer. In 1804, Jefferson sent his colleague on a journal to the American interiors.

1 They headed to the northwest from St. Louis following the Missouri river.2 However, Jefferson had more or less different views toward how they would treat the American natives. Jefferson has his goals that he had instructed all his colleges, but they too had their opinion and sometime did more than they were supposed to accomplish. For Jefferson, he required to maximize their time looking for the natural resources and while learning more about the geographic of the American Interiors. Moreover, Jefferson required that they treat the natives America with kindness and establish a good relationship that would culminate to winning over their trust.

3 This was a different tactic from that that the British exploration were using in their quest for American territory. Jefferson, Lewis and Clark found an established natives in Mandan villages.4 The native had organized businesses and favorable settlement. For them, they required little effort to create rapport with the population of about 5000 natives. After they have spent the winter in the native’s villages, Clark and Lewis brought a new disease that wiped the entire populations of the natives.

They unwittingly wipe away local natives by 1830s. However, except for the interruption of the native by the white disease Lewis and Clark had achieve most of the things they were required to collect by President Jefferson. They had a wonderful time with a native, and they would feel lonely when they could not find any of Indians to talk to. More than the expectation of Jefferson, Clark and Lewis were able not only to gather ethnographic data, but they established a relationship that later defined the expansion of Jefferson administration.

Jefferson though had instructed Lewis and Clark to relate well with the native had his worst among the natives. He feared that they would end his political careers. His fear is confirmed by his spending on the study of the native to understand them better and offer opinions and recommendation on how to establish a working relationship.5 However, Lewis and Clark had cordial and well intentions to the local natives. For example, Clark argued that the native belonged to the Great chief of the white people.

For them, they did not fear the Native American but saw opportunities in their rich culture and settlements. Bibliography Bakeless, John. 2012. The Adventures of Lewis and Clark. New York: Courier Dover Publications. Jones, Landon Y. 2000. The Essential Lewis And CLark. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. U.S History. Exploration: Lewis and Clark. Ushistory.org. Accessed 03 November 2013. http://www.ushistory.org/us/21b.asp.