SCOTT SHALAWAY Lewis and Clark's 1805 Christmas

Christmas with Lewis and Clark, part 3 in an occasional series commemorating the bicentennial of the expedition.
On Dec. 7, 1805, Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery established its winter camp, Fort Clatsop, near the mouth of the Columbia River. The men had traveled more than 4,000 miles from the mouth of the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean in 19 months, thus completing the first half of the mission authorized by President Jefferson.
But there was little celebration. It had been a rugged trip and many of the men were sick or injured. All were tormented at night by fleas they had picked up along the way. Their clothes were rotten. And they were hungry. But by Christmas Day 1805, they had almost completed construction of Fort Clatsop.
Compare your Christmas Day to Lewis and Clark's. They rose at dawn, fired their guns to mark the holiday and sang a few songs. Then they exchanged gifts. Private Whitehouse gave Capt. Clark a pair of moccasins he had made. Pvt. Goodrich gave Clark a woven basket. Sacagawea gave Clark two dozen white weasel tails, and from Capt. Lewis, Clark received a vest, pants and socks.
The captains divided the tobacco that remained. Half they gave to the men who smoked; the rest they saved for the Indians. The members of the corps who didn't smoke got handkerchiefs.
Christmas dinner was less than memorable. Clark described it as "spoiled elk, spoiled fish and a few roots."
The difference a year makes
Just a year earlier while wintering in what is now North Dakota, the corps had celebrated Christmas in finer fashion. According to the journals of Patrick Gass, Capt. Clark gave each man a glass of brandy, and they toasted the American flag waving over Fort Mandan.
They cleared out one of the fort's rooms and danced throughout the day. The corps' first Christmas of the journey seems to have been more festive than the second.
The year between the Christmases of 1804 and 1805 had been grueling. That first winter at Fort Mandan had been brutal, with temperatures averaging 4 degrees above zero. On April 7, 1805 they broke winter camp and continued upstream. They encountered raging rapids, impassable waterfalls and ultimately the Rocky Mountains. It took a month to travel 25 miles just to get around the Great Falls of Montana.
The most fortuitous event of the entire 28-month adventure occurred in August 1805. The corps needed food, they needed horses, and they needed a guide. On the morning of Aug. 17, they encountered a group of Shoshone Indians. During the meeting one of the Shoshone women recognized Sacagawea; immediately they jumped into each other's arms, hugged, cried and talked. This was the tribe from which Sacagawea had been captured years earlier.
Later in the day Lewis met with one of the Shoshone leaders and communicated via a complicated system of translators. Sacagawea translated Shoshone to Hidatsa, which her husband, Charbonneau, translated into French.
Pvt. Labiche then translated French to English for Lewis. As this transpired, Sacagawea stared at the Shoshone leader and suddenly ran to him, hugged him and began crying. It was her brother.
Help with the journey
Now there was a bond of trust and familiarity as Lewis explained his mission to the Shoshones. Ultimately, Lewis and Clark obtained everything they needed, including an old Shoshone guide who helped them across the mountains.
By early October they had crossed the Bitterroot Mountains, though many, including Lewis and Clark, were quite ill. On Oct. 6 they were back in the water, finally heading downstream for the first time since they entered the mouth of the Missouri River in May 1804.
The ride down the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia rivers was fast and furious, thanks to many treacherous rapids that have long been flooded by modern-day dams. On Nov. 7 they got their first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. Clark wrote, "Ocean in view! O! the joy!" These words now grace the 2005 commemorative nickels. And on Christmas Day 1805, the corps rested and savored the haven the men called Fort Clatsop.
On March 23, 1806, the Corps of Discovery began the journey back to civilization, which would end Sept. 23, 1806.
XSend questions and comments to Dr. Scott Shalaway, R.D. 5, Cameron, WV 26033 or via e-mail to sshalaway@aol.com.