Pat Jones

Al got got four of make sure secur well be here all day long we can take up the slack on this take her back we got we've got a fourth one right we have a fourth one we we have a fourth row okay you're going to have to do three take Mo this one over here this you brought four ropes up or did drop sry this this beautiful country up here to Rolling Hills yeah power uncover got get for recover oh know hey he again day over ho love down hey cor three cheers to the Maha Nation J off pil secure your pil facing to the left hey out right ready step you h okay are we going to do that we'd like to invite everyone to come on in and have a seat we have a little presentation that is going to continue so please morning my name is Pat Jones and I'm the chief of interpretation for the L Park National Historic Trail and for the cor Discovery te project I'd like to welcome you this morning here to the T of many voices I HED you enjoyed the short ceremony we had here this morning uh doing a reagin of a flag raising that occurred fairly near here over 200 years ago and you'll hear a little bit more about that uh historical event here shortly but we have some presentations that we would like to do and some individual that I would like to introduce you to but first of all I would like to thank the Omaha people for our wonderful visit here it was way too short we've only been here for uh less than a week though we have been on and off the reservation uh meeting with individuals everything from organizing a wonderful hand game that we had on Sunday evening to uh planning the events that you've seen over the last couple days so the National Park Service is very grateful to the Omaha people from W welcoming us into their uh community and into their homes and I think we've made a lot of wonderful friends here um I would particularly like to uh thank wona sere who has been one of our main contacts here and organizing this event as well as Pierre mer who I don't think is with us this morning but uh he is uh busy getting ready for the Sundance that is coming up uh so he's got his hands full both trying to organize the events here and other things that are going on in the community so um and what I would like to do now is uh introduce those of you that don't know him uh give an opportunity to uh make some remarks uh the chairman of the tribal council for the alah tri Donald gr cool I want to thank everybody for being here today um the relatives and among people you know maybe some I don't know right off that are visiting here from the city I apologize for that for not knowing you um you it's always a an honor to be treated as well as we have by the park service and by geted with all these soldiers and everything it was also you know honor to watch what happened there you know something that uh took place it's part of our history 200 years ago and so I think I can speak for all the M that are here that we one of the very few tribes that have never been removed from their Homeland this is our original Homeland you can he over you know 300 years so I think that's really says something about how we've survived and how we' succeeded for all these years and I think uh the people that have more knowledge of our and our culture and everything should be up here and I I kind of feel misplaced up here but I think we have a lot of individuals in here that you can visit and we tell you about not only our spirituality but our real Heritage as as it's grown through all these years these of these individuals that were presenting up here seeing and are part of that and they've carried it on through all these years with their ancestors as well so I think it speaks well not only our pres people but our our ancestors you know that they have enough time took enough time to hand all these things down to family generation to generation so I'm really grateful for that again before I closer I would like to also mention that we're crating our 200 uh years of power and that's going to be on through the 26th August 26th through 29th so anybody's in the area you know your more wel to come down and see some our original dances with that I I'll close I to thank everyone the Park Service Pat all her staff Adam and I just met and say a real special thanks for the prayer that was given by one of our ERS thank you for that and really nice hear you want to thank you for thank you we have been blessed here in the Ten of many voices with numerous representatives from the Omaha people who have come and shared their stories with us and with the general public we've had a significant number of Elders of the community who have come down and spent time with us um Pier mer who I mentioned earlier Joy how have actually traveled to other locations where this exhibit has been and U Rufus white and his wife Maxine were us when we were down in in Omaha and we have just been uh very fortunate to have them come and share their stories uh with us in the tenament voices uh it's a significant part of what this project is all about is to give a voice to uh the tribal people during this CL intentive commemoration and with that I would like to introduce you now to the superintendent for the Louisa Clark National Historic Trail Steve thank you p uh I would like members of the Park Service staff and the Legacy staff who can come up and join come up here now gr human uh chairman Durant and members of the Omaha Nation I'd like to Echo Cat words thank you so much for hosting us and for taking us into your community uh life Centennial simply would not be any event worth undertaking without the voices people from the first Na and they want to express our for you're allowing us to come here with that okay we're going to turn this over to Captain RS I'm going to go without the microphone it kills the pictures they give us enough trouble about having Motors on the boat Steve what a little microphone first of all I'd like to thank uh chairman Grant uh for something that was very important to us is and we're going to have a presentation a little later this morning talking about the discovery Expedition but one of the great things that's happened with the discovery Expedition as we've moved across the country has been the fact that we've been able to help communities from the very from Washington DC all the way to the St Louis area last year celebrate not only commemorate not only the vice IAL but celebrate their own Heritage and their own communities along the way and that's something that's been very important to us is while we're commemorating Lewis and Clark and this journey that took place 200 years ago we are excited about the opportunity to celebrate the communities and the people who we encounter along the way and there and and while this overall Bicentennial is a commemoration and we want to make that distinction the people along the way need to celebrate their Heritage and and the pride that they have in their communities and their people and we are so pleased to continue that tradition as we move into Indian country and we're very excited about the prospect um that flag that went up this morning on that pole up there there are two flags there one was a pennant flag that was typical of those used by the core during this period 200 years ago and the other is the tribal flag of the Maha people today and if you notice they're flying together up there and that's significant because 200 years ago two cultures met two distinct and fully realized cultures met one another and came together near this place to to find some middle ground and to communicate with one another and when they came to that meeting they came as proud and independent peoples on both sides so those flags are flying up there today together and co-equal and we're very proud of that and as you may know two members of the original Expedition were of a Maha extraction leish and crat and despite the fact that kisat would later shoot Captain Lewis in the rear end we don't hold that against and we want to honor both of those members of the Expedition and uh one of the things that we're proud to do is as we leave here today we were very flattered to be presented by the chairman with that flag to fly here today and when we leave here that flag will fly on our red perog as we move through this traditional homeland of the imaha people to both uh indicate our regard for your people today and recognition of your Sovereign Nation status as well as to recognize those the the heritage of those two individuals who served with distinction on this Expedition 200 years ago in service of what would become all of our country one day and we're so proud to do that and with that in mind chairman Grant if I could ask you to come up 200 years ago when the core came by much of the cargo they were carrying on the K boat was intended for use with negotiations with Native people it's important to remember that a lot of times we put this Louisiana Purchase in the perspective of a purchase that we bought something outright and fact fact what happened was we acquired from France the right to negotiate a relationship with the native nations that existed in this territory and part of the purpose of this mission was to negotiate those relationships and regardless of what came afterwards it is my strong belief and I know it's the strong belief of the membership of our organization that that expedition from 1804 through 1806 moving across the interior of this nation that the Expedition under the command of Captain's Lewis in Captain Clark was one of peace and friendship a promise of hope for the future of people working together to a common goal and history has given us all twists and terms but we are here today as the discovery expedition to reiterate the message of the first expedition on of peace and friendship and a hope for shared Commerce and mutual benefit as we move forward into the 21st century and a new day as we help to restore the hoop of trust between our people thank you chair with that in mind I'm going to let cther Clark present a couple of items that would have been typical on the original Expedition and these are gifts to you sir as well as to your people as a whole this is this is a replica of the Jefferson P metal that was carried by the core of Discovery it has an image of President Jefferson on one side and the message of peace and friendship on the other with the clasp hands the cross pipe and Tomahawk chairman Grant my privilege chairman Grant this is a traditional Pye tomahawk in peace and friendship we would like to present pipe Tomahawk and traditional bag while these items are are for you to hold to but we want you to know that these are extended to the to the Oma people as a whole but uh we know how hard that any politicians life is and that at some point in the day you probably are on the weekend want to go fishing or hunting or get away and do something for your own self and this is a personal gift for you sir that we'd like you to use with in good health and enjoy it in whatever Endeavor you may decide to use it in and this is a this is a hunting knife made by a member of actually a friend of our organ organization who makes these by hand as is the hawk pipes that you have there these are made by folks who are involved with our organization as we try to keep the traditional skills of our people alive and that's becoming increasingly difficult for all of us to keep our traditional skills alive but uh this again is a personal gift to you sir and we hope that you'll use it in good health thank you very much four three cheers for Thea hipip hipip hipip private deing H CH ground your p we and last but not least it's only fitting since you gave us a flag that we would give you one this is the 15st star 15 stripe flag that flew over the boats of the Expedition when they arrived here 200 years ago today and despite the fact that your people were out hunting and many of them were gone and may not have had the opportunity to see that flag 200 years ago we'd like you to have one now to keep in your a gift from us to you all and uh we want you to when you look at this to think of us the discovery of condition of St Charles Missouri and we want to assure that assure you that you have friends on the trail who are continuing to tell the story of the M people as we move across this country and we want people to know that your nation is alive and well and prosperous and each day has a brighter future thank you thank you I don't talk CU L as white people thank you for all the pr gifts you honored us I'd like to mention yesterday they had some Elders sitting up there and telling their stories about their their lives and I don't think uh there was one of them that didn't say they were real proud to be Omaha so that's how I feel right now very very thank you very as Captain Lewis mentioned 200 years ago when the core of Discovery came to the homelands of Maha it was with a message of peace and friendship and it is that that same message that we share today and with the discovery Expedition and with all those involved in the bicentennial uh we look forward to 2006 and Beyond to look back and talk about what our Legacy is what what the legacy is that we left after our adventure our core of Discovery Across the Nation and we hope in fact at this point I think we know that it will be a legacy of peace and friendship and that events like this brought our communities and our nation closer together and our Legacy will be one of coming closer together as a nation as an American family and it is is it's an honor to stand here today and a privilege where my ancestors stood with your ancestors and to be a part of making that Legacy become a reality thank you chairman it's an honor to be here ladies and gentlemen on behalf of National Park Service and the and discovery Expedition St Charles thank you for coming to our event this morning and also on behalf of the Oma Nation um our next program here in the tend to many voices going to start very briefly Captain Lewis Captain Clark Scott Mandell and K bu Clark Discovery Expedition St Charles we'll be talking a little bit about the Journey of the second core of Discovery momentarily and I want to thank you for coming to our opening event this morning and hope you enjoy the rest of your time here with our core of Discovery too ladies and Gentlemen please come join us uh our 11:00 program is about to begin and I'd like to thank you all for coming out this morning we've got a beautiful day nice little breeze blowing and uh we're very happy with the temperatures we are part of the National Park traveling exhibit the Lewis and Park traveling exhibit and we are following along in the footsteps of Louis Park and stopping in towns and cities and reservations along the way to talk about the ls and Clark Story and when we talk about the Lewis and Clark Story it's not just their story it's a story of Lewis and Clark the men that went with them the woman that accompanied them on this journey and of all of the peoples they met along the way so hopefully our tent of many voices is a place where all of these voices can be heard and shared to tell the entire Lewis and Clark Story and the stories of those people who have followed them Andross this land as well so welcome to our traveling Exhibit while you're here take time to go over and visit our exhibit tent there's a 35 minute audio tour you can do of the exhibit we have our scale model keelboat and our PLS Indian TP out in the front so you can see some of the artifacts that Lewis and Clark would have seen on their Journey that were used by the Plains Indians of that time so today let's go ahead and get started with our program and we'd like to thank you for joining us and we'll have Scott Mandell and pton Bud Clark here to talk about the Journey of the second core of Discovery so I'll turn it over to you all thank you we don't have to hold anything great well thank you all I I probably most of the people sit here a number of people already know about who we are there's a lot of small crowd but we we want to let you hear the story of our organization um the planning for the vi Centennial has been going on for a long time I guess by a lot of different people people who uh all across the country who had some different connection to the story or whatever and some places in excess of 30 years people have been anticipating this Bicentennial which is really the bicentennial of New West as many people have referred to it it's the vice Centennial of everything west of the Mississippi River with regard to the United States of America as a nation and uh one of the individuals who was keenly interested in taking steps to prepare for the vi Centennial was a man by the name of Glenn bishop and Glenn and Bishop was from St Charles Missouri and he was a contractor and businessman and among other things he was an antique boat hobbyist and he had built wooden boats in the past and sort of thing it had a real love for boats and particularly old boats Wooden Boats and had built a couple and uh living in St Charles Missouri in 1979 I actually had the privilege in 1979 when I was a little kid of uh of attending the very first Lewis and Clark uh Heritage Days event that took place there 25 years ago in that town and from that time on roughly uh there was a deep commitment in the community of St Charles to tell their story as it related to the overall expedition in in this chapter in American history and one of the things that frustrated Glenn very much was the fact that despite the fact that in Clark's field notes from Wood River there had always been available to anyone who wanted to go and look and see but there was a an image of the kilbo that Clark had drawn in his field notes and yet everywhere you went across the country every sign for Lewis and Clark had two guys in skin caps in a birch bark canoe paddling up the Missouri River and this really irritated Glen he was a kind of he was a mild mannered guy but there was one thing that was a bur under a saddle blanket it was it was this image of two guys in skin caps in a Birch Park canoe so he decided that in an attempt to set the record straight that he would build a model of the original Kel booat so people would have an understanding of what this vessel was like and you have to remember that 200 years ago the largest vessel that had ever plied the Missouri River was the kilb that L and Clark had taken with them this was this was a massive BFF by comparison to to anything else that been up there there were 50 foot canoes but they were dogouts and things like that and there were there were large boats but nothing like this on this order so he built the model of it and in 1982 kind of showed it to the world as it were and and people were very excited they thought it was neat and that model still exists and it's really quite beautiful and all but it was a 1 in to 1T scale so even though it was 50 5 in Long which is pretty pretty big model it did not heat though communicate in full the scope of what this vessel was like and particularly it did not communicate what this boat looked like moving on the water and if you haven't seen our boats you should they really are quite spectacular when they move on the water and so he decided to actually start constructing a replica of the first boat based upon field Nots from Clark and Wood River based upon good information from the uh Maritime Museum smithonian Institute and he studied a great deal about boats that were common and typical at that time the man who built the original boat for Lewis we believe is a man by the name of John Walker and there was a great deal of information about John Walker who was a boat right on the 9 Hill River and using this very good research and having been both a carpenter in his own right as well as a boat right he was able to bring a lot of common practical understanding of what was needed to make this boat operational and that sort of thing so he started working in 1983 on building this boat in his backyard if you're not aware a boat has to be boats like this are built upside down well it's a 55 ft long structure that's bowed and when he was making the frame of it for the longest time people thought that he was building this wooden Greenhouse in his backyard and he was kind of the object of ridicule in his neighborhood people would kind of laugh at him and thought he was kind of this Ecentric kind of crazy old guy and then one day as the planks went on and it started to look like a boat and he flipped it over then people really started kind of giving him a hard time and kind of foking fun at him because Glenn had a big white beard and they used to sort of make Noah jokes you know and laugh at him that you know his old guy thought he was Noah building his ark that was in the mid 80s late early '90s then in 1993 we got the great flood and everybody stopped laughing and at any rate in '96 the boat was finally finished and we took a 1,000m trip from Wood River Illinois to St Joe Missouri and back to St Charles it took us 7 weeks and if it started out it was only going to be a trip from Wood River up to St Charles for the vice or for the for the Heritage Days event and it kind of grew and grew and grew before you know it was 7 weeks in 1,000 miles and it changed many of our lives fundamentally those of us who were involved with the project because we started to see not only the possibilities with regard to the bicentennial but we started to have a much deeper understanding of the Missouri River Corridor and what it represented to us as a nation environmentally historically spiritually even as this this Great River coursed through the interior of our nation and all that all the things that that that commentated to us as a society the Missouri River is more than simply a river it is a it is an idea in many ways and it became a passion for many of us and we had started to plan on what we would do the next year and indeed we started working over the winter on the white pero the first of the two smaller boats and we had that boat all framed out and the last day I worked on that boat was the 30th of January of 1997 on the 31st of January of 1997 Glenn and another CJ Lanahan who's been instrumental in our group over the years they did some finishing touch some touchup work on the kbo because that next week we were going to move the kill booat down to the transor Dome down where the Rams played football for a big boat show it was going to be a display item there with all the boats around it and they were doing a little touchup on it on the 31st of January and they left the warehouse that night about 5:00 Glenn got home at about 520 the phone rang and it was the fire department the warehouse had caught on fire and the boat that had taken him 13 years to build with his own hands by himself in about 40 minutes was reduced to ashes it was a terrible terrible thing was a devastating experience for all of us and I remember the next morning standing in the still smoldering Embers of that moat completely for Lor with a tremendous sense of loss because this vote had come to sort of represent what might be and when I asked Glen what are we going to do his response was I was never completely happy with that vote anyway and that was the day and I've said this many times before but that was the day that I truly understood the meaning of undaunted courage if a man could spend 13 years of his life by himself his own money building this thing that he only wanted to give as a gift to the American people by building it if he could experience this tremendous loss and go forward without any without any hesitation that was the kind of character and a man that I had tremendous respect for and I swore my allegiance to him that day quite literally and from that day on our organization actually grew it's sort of like sometimes when you cut a tree back or PR a tree back it it grows more hearty and healthy and that's what happened with our organization and in countless members of our greater St Louis St Charles Community came forward retired individuals men who had carpentry skills or some other skill and we immediately started working on the fleet of boats because our Dream had grown by that time to build the whole Fleet of boats and we knew that we couldn't get the kbo done in one year so we started working on the white perog because we knew that as important as the boats were just like the original Expedition the most important thing on the trip with the men and it was important to train a crew and if we had to wait until the kill boat was done we would lose valuable and precious time training Crews so in 1997 we completed in 6 months the white pero and that year we took that boat from down to Mississippi from St Louis down and up the Ohio to Fort Massac on the Ohio and then in 1998 we built the red boat in about 8 months and that year we took the white and red Pro together from yank from South kot back down to St Charles passed by here that first time in 1998 in 1999 we began work on the kbo the second kbo and now there were many hands to make the labor light and the work went much faster and in addition to working on the kbat we took the two proges in 1999 from Louisville Kentucky down to Fort Massac on the Ohio River and then in 2000 we took the two foges continued work on the kilbo and took the two foges to Elizabeth Pennsylvania we brought them down to manongi hila to the Ohio and down the Ohio to Louisville and then in 2001 the kilbo was finished and we took it up to Pier South Dakota and brought it back to yanes so by 2001 we had trained on the entire water route from Elizabeth Pennsylvania where it began all the way to Pier South Dakota below D and that was a tremendous amount of training we had a very qualified crew by that time in 2002 we were very worried it was only a year away from the bicentennial and we were very concerned about putting our boats in the water and having an accident and then not having time to have them rebuilt for the bicentennial but we wanted to continue to train Crews so we took 30 men in five dugouts five dugouts not Dugout canoes no such thing a Dugout is a Dugout is a dug at it's a log and we took five big logs and 30 men from Beacon Rock to the ocean to the mouth of the Columbia River 140 Mi to continue to train those Crews and so we were ready the B Centennial was about to begin and then it kind of dawned on me that Lewis hadn't rided a car from herds and ran out to Pittsburgh to get the boat and he had to get there some other way and part of this story is about understanding how vast a nation we are how big a nation we are and how difficult things were for all of our forefathers as they moved across this great continent and I realiz realized that in order for the story to be complete Lewis had to get to Pittsburgh and so last year on the 5th of July I mounted a horse at Washington DC and rode to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania the core gathered in Elizabeth Pennsylvania in August and in August we departed Elizabeth Pennsylvania we came to abang Gila River to the Ohio down the Ohio River to Koo Illinois up the Mississippi to our winter camp at Wood River arriving there on December 12 just as the original core had done day for day mile for mile and then we spent the winter at camp deis and that fellow who had been helping Glenn years before CJ Lanahan he had dedicated the last three years of his life to building a replica of camp deis in Wood River Illinois a working functioning camp deis that would allow us to train there over the winter and learn the skills necessary for what we were embarking on and over the winter we brought men from our organization now up to 250 members strong from 36 different states and we brought them there over the winter and we trained there and we learned infantry skills from the time and that sort of thing we participated in the three Flag Ceremony which changed the The Sovereign flags that flew over St Louis 300 200 years ago on in March when when Spain and France relinquish their claims to Louisiana and then in may we put the boats in the water on the 7th of May and on the 14th of May the same date and the same hour of the original Expedition once again we were underway and we entered the mouth of the Missouri River and we've ascended the Missouri River now 691 miles on a journey that this year will take us 1350 mil to waser North Dakota and Fort Mandan and we will complete those miles in the same time frame that the original Expedition did it is a tremendous honor for us to share sh this story with America but as we talked about today this story is about much more than simply two individuals LS and Clark and for a long time that's been the way we referred to this story as Lewis and Clark but Lewis and Clark is like an icon on the desktop of your computer that you never clicked on you know it came with all that preloaded software that you never used and one day you clicked on that icon and all those great applications were in there and you thought wow if I'd known this was here earlier I would have used it that's what Lewis and Clark is like and while it's important to tell the story of the many tribes along the way before we even get to the tribes last year one of the big things we had to talk about was the many tribes that comprised the core itself in 1803 this nation was not a homogeneous Nation it wasn't a bunch of people who got up in the morning and thought of themselves as Americans there's people who got up in the morning and thought of themselves as Virginians and pennsylvanians and new englanders and Kian and tennesseans and they thought about themselves in a very colloquial way yeah they had joined together to fight the British and gain independence and autonomy from the British crown but a Virginia was a Virginia a Pennsylvanian was a Pennsylvanian and there the two would meet unless maybe in the case of the Whiskey Rebellion and when they met there they were on opposite sides this story is about the moment when those East eastern states started to understand that they were part of something bigger and the men who comprised the core of Discovery were not one group of people they were Scots and Irish and Germans and Welsh and French and it was an Eclectic group of individuals to begin with some like Lewis and Clark from the upper class Gentry aristocracy as it were some from the very lowest levels of society poor dirt Farmers from Appalachia people who knew that this Expedition and being on it would change their lives fundamentally if they could go on this trip and come back that they would reap rewards that would change their lives and the family's lives it would give them a chance to have a fresh start in the world a chance to have a leg up upward mobility and it was very important for that group of individuals but they were not a common group of individuals and there was a tremendous amount of angst between them which at Wood River we see played out it was very difficult for the captains to bring discipline and order to this group of unruly individuals but they finally did but then LS and Clark even complicated matters further because they went to St Charles and they recruited all of these French batment to help make the trip possible another chapter in the story of America a melting pot that strength is in its diversity leis and Clark bring into the story Frenchmen who are not only French and speak a different language but are Catholic which is a very complex issue in the late 18th and early 19th century and we see the eclecticism and the diversity of this group of people growing day by day as these people join the crew and then ultimately as they make their way across the nation so many times over and over and over again the turning point in success or failure pivots on the assistance that they are given freely and hospitably by the native nations that they encounter along the way and that is the message and the model that this Bicentennial continues to offer us and that we must Embrace and share Across the Nation is that the story of this core of Discovery 200 years ago is a story that reflects the character of America today it is eclectic Multicultural and diverse and that was its strength then and it is the strength of our nation today it is a great honor for us to be able to bring this story to life it's a great honor to be here with you today I'm going to stop talking let Bud say a few words Bud as you know is the great great great grandson of William Clark we have several descendants with us today and it's tremendously it's a special honor for us to get to serve with them as we move across the country in this exercise but it's also magical to be at places where we get to stand next to descendants of the original Expedition once again grasping hands with descendants of those native people who met them for the first time 200 years ago and see evidence that once again there is an opportunity for the promise of Thomas Jefferson to come true that one day we can live in peace and friendship together and this hopefully is the beginning of that age oh thank you thank you Scott as Scott mentioned we do have some uh other descendants here today the uh um Bob if you would stand please Bob Anderson who is a collateral descendant of George Shannon and his grandson Josh Josh lus um Josh is the youngest member of our organization making the entire trip as George Shannon was the youngest member of the original Expedition also Church my cousin Churchill is here the back Churchill is part of our organization planning to make the entire trip um you know I think that very early on as students of Lewis and Clark one of the first things we recognize is that uh perhaps the the title Lewis and Clark expedition is sort of a misnomer I think if I could change any of the written words that uh my ancestor wrote I I would change that title and give it some a name something like uh the core of Discovery Journey Through the lands of the Native Americans because in fact that is exactly what it was and one of the things that that makes this event today so significant and and so important and why we feel so honored to be here is that quite frankly without the the help without the hospitality and the assist of the Native Americans there there's a very good chance that I wouldn't be standing here we can say with absolute certainty that the Lewis and Clark expedition would not have succeeded how dismal that failure might have been well we'll never know because they had the assistance of the Native Americans and it did succeed and as we proceed across the country and travel through the homelands of the Native Americans we hope that there'll be many more like days like this one where we can really enjoy coming together as a nation and as we mentioned earlier this morning that's that is what we want our Legacy to be it's quite straightforward it's really quite simple when this is all over we want to stand tall and say we were a part of bringing this nation closer together as a family and we can see that happening on days like today and it's magic it's really magic I think Scott did you want to yeah like to entertain any questions now I think that's probably best because yeah why don't we do that we'd like to answer questions either about the original Expedition if we can if you have interest in something that happened on the original Expedition something about our Expedition something about the boats um just raise your hand we'll bring the microphone as you have questions wave to us Angeles on that side I'm on this side and we'll be glad to entertain those questions for you question um maybe I shouldn't say do you plan to do this but will you do this will you write a book are you keeping journals as the original Le and Clark did and write a book to compare what they went through as compared to what you are going I uh my journals are online at Lewis and.net um they are you I've been writing journals for this organization for many many years our our previous training exercises were brief so those journals are shorter but I have journaled since last year since I left Washington DC last year that's a journal that probably might be a good historical document to compare what happened on a daily basis as far as books go I don't know on the 23rd of September 2006 I'm probably going to put on jeans in a sweatshirt and you know try to think about something else at least for a little while um I know some of the guys are planning on writing book one of the guys actually last night told me that he's got a title for his book they're all writing books they're all talking to agents and Publishers all the time but the uh one of the guys last time told me and sarden pry appreciate this one one of the titles that I heard last night that one of the guys is working on is sweet corn and Anarchy on the Missouri River yes I'm sure there'll be a book out of it I don't know whether the market can bear too many more can't throw a stick without hitting a new book on leou and Clark you know uh I'm trying to keep a journal I I have to tell you I I have a newfound admiration for the members of the core Discovery and their diligence in terms of keeping journals men like orway and white house and my ancestor um I don't know how after those long tiring days those physically taxing days that are that were were so much much more strenuous than taxing than anything that we experience you know I get falling down tired doing what we do and it's nothing in comparison and I find myself thinking that I should be catching up on my journals and it doesn't always happen um in terms of publishing something later um I can tell you this I I did inherit one uh trait from my ancestor and that is the ability to spell extremely creatively in fact uh I have the talent and the ability to even stump spell check and get that sort of sinking sensation when I see that message no suggestion so I'm probably more of a nuts and bolts guy than than an author but I am trying to keep uh keep a journal my kids me about it you got to do it do it for your grandkid and they lay the guilt trip on me then I can't sleep at night cuz I know I should be up working on my journals by candle light but anyway um Le are you related to the actual Le that went on Expedition no Mary Mother Lewis did not have any uh legitimate erors now he did have collateral descendants but he did not have a direct descendant however uh we do believe that he may have uh a direct descendant although not recognized not recognized through a formal marriage or anything that he may have had a child with the lower bruy woman when they passed through the bruy Sue uh in in the late September of 1804 that he may have had a child in the spring of' 05 uh with with her and uh there's some speculation about that I am not a descendant of Mary M Lewis however I curiously enough when I was an act Duty in the Army I am an Army soldier and uh when I was on active duty service I'm in the guard now and the unit that I served on served with when I was at Duty was the unit that evolved out of the very same unit that Mary weather Le served with other questions all right let's give them all a big hand thank you very much it's our pleasure to have the discovery of St Char with us and to have Scott and Bud with us to talk about the discovery Expedition thank you both so much and thank you all for coming as well we have another program scheduled at 12