The book I read was Lewis and Clark Among the Indians: By James P. Rhonda.
It included a lot of other information that helped me understand Lewis and Clarks view towards the Indians. It introduced me to a new name of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Corps of Discovery. This book was written in the 3rd person as a narrative. It was written for the purpose of informing the reader of the Corps of Discovery and its major components, also to help the reader understand the relationships between whites and Indians.
Before starting this book, the reader does not have to have any prior knowledge of Lewis and Clark, since this book was very informative. Short Summary: At the beginning of this book, Thomas Jefferson is trying to find people to be a part of this journey. He knew that the people who he chose to head this expedition had to be intelligent, and he wanted army-officers. He had a very long and detailed list of things he wanted Lewis and Clark to accomplish, a list that he revised many times.He wanted them to get accurate information about the Indians so that we could live peacefully with them.
He also wanted to get more information to know how America should proceed with the expansion and with the buying and selling that many would like to happen with the West. Lewis and Clark were supposed to take detailed notes on “medicine, Indian customs, and values… crime, suicide, and intoxication… native American worship practices, sacred objects, and burial rituals.”The expedition struggled during the winter, when they were exploring the Upper Missouri region. Progress was made though, when one village smoked with Clark. Later, Lewis and Clark also promised to bring different tribes American made goods.
Lewis and Clark also tried to help settle differences between some tribes, such as a peace treaty they wrote up. Some of the things like this that they did were not well received by the tribes, and were probably perceived as meddling. Lewis and Clark tried to study the Indians a lot as ethnologists.“Ethnologists study diverse cultures with an eye toward creating widely applicable concepts of social development and behavior. ” Interviewing the Indians was their best way to get this information. Getting :Across the Divide” and “down the Columbia” (2 chapter titles) was extremely hard for Lewis and Clark, but they made it.
This talks about going up the Missouri river, through the Missouri breaks, to Three Forks of Missouri, the Salmon River, the Columbia Plain, and many more. The end of the book is about the struggle for them to try and get back home in one season.The weather was a big part of the reason the trip was so hard. Analysis: I would say that James Rhonda really focuses on the relationships between the whites and the Indians.
It really helped me understand Overall, the trip that Lewis and Clark and others took was extremely influential and helpful to our society today. Evaluation/reaction: Overall, I thought this book was pretty boring. The chapters flowed together well but still provided different information, so that was a plus, but I still felt like reading this book was very tedious.It went into extreme detail, especially about the different Indian tribes, that I think maybe might not have been necessary to have a good understanding of Lewis and Clark. However, the book got a little more interesting as I read on and continued to read about the topic.
Usually, I don’t like nonfiction books, so this was not a huge surprise that this book was not my favorite. I would give this book a limited recommendation: the reader should know in advance that this book contains lots of information that if they are not interested in Lewis and Clark, they might find boring.If they are looking for a book chock full of information on Lewis and Clark and would like to become an expert, then I would definitely recommend this!! If I was the author, I would try to make the book more of a story. Even though it’s supposed to be non-fiction, I think adding a little more than just facts would make the book a lot more of an entertaining and enjoyable read.
I did enjoy the pictures that were in the book, even though some of them were kind of hard to see they did help break up the reading.
