Really, four, but who is counting.

I have taken a sabbatical from reading Africa related books to a little more USA history (sorry to my non-US AR members, but a couple of these books will interest you as well).

Undaunted Courage by Stephan Ambrose - Wow! My first book at Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery. Prior to this book, I had thought that Selous' book was the best at making me thirsty or tired or scared in the face of danger, but this book is an amazing story of the twenty eight month expedition of the American West and Northwest. It is a fictional account based on the journals of the Lewis, Clark and 4 other members of the expedition. They describe meeting 20 to 30 different Indian tribes, poling up the Missouri River, crossing the Rockies, descending the Columbia River valley to the Pacific Ocean to seeing a beached whale, catching salmon, seeing endless numbers of elk, deer and dealing with the plains grizzly bear. They describe the grizzly as being very ferocious and aggressive. The Indians avoided the bear as well. They hunted pronghorn antelope on horseback, relaying with each other the "chase" until they could run down the fleet antelope. Sacagwea is prominent as a young Indian woman, sold to a French trapper and having a baby on the trip. She had been captured by one tribe, sold to another, then sold to the Frenchman. At the end of the trip, Clark makes an agreement with Charbano (the Frenchman) and Sacagwea to help raise the child. He follows through with this and Jean Baptiste (the baby) sees Europe and many other sights that a half Indian/half Frenchman would not have gotten to see had it not been for the honorable Clark. Fantastic book - a must read....

The Lewis and Clark Journals by Gary Moulton - This is what happens when you go a little deeper into the history of this amazing expedition. Moulton is a historian with a focus on Lewis and Clark. He takes all of the known journals (13 by Lewis and Clark alone, over 1,000,000 words) and condenses it to one book. It is written in the words and grammar of Lewis and Clark. It gives a clear picture of how the men thought, the relationships between them and with their men and slave (York, was Clark's slave and the first Negro seen by Indians. The Indians were afraid of him as he was very large. The Indian men offered their wives for breeding purposes to get large children. York suffered several bouts of venereal disease and even frostbite on his "man-parts"). Historically accurate and very fun to read and understand.

From Sea to Shining Sea by Alexander Thom - A fictional type story about the history of the Clark family. I learned that William Clark was the youngest of several sons in the Clark family. The most famous was his older brother, George Rogers Clark known as "Long Knife", who was very prominent in the Revolutionary War and a ferocious fighter of Indians, French and the British. The baby brother took after his older brother and was a natural leader and adventurer. This is a fast read and outstanding as well.

Sign Talker by Alexander Thom - the story of George Droulliard, the hunter/guide for the Lewis and Clark expedition. This guy was half Indian and half something else. He supplied thirty men with meat for the entire trip and acted as a sign language interpreter. This book picks up after the expedition and deals with his life and his end at the hands of Black Feet Indians near Yellowstone. This is likely more fictional than history but is a great read and addition to books about the "trip".


All are fantastic and you will not regret reading them. Enjoy!!!!

Dogcat;I have read all of those books and agree that Undaunted Courage was by far the best,it is probably the best book I have ever read.
George Drouillard was half Shawnee and French.The book about him was historicly pretty accurate.He was Killed by the Blackfeet at the three forks of the Missouri in Montana near the town of Three Forks.There is a state park there and a plaque comemorating his death.