PSU Magazine Winter 2003

The real story of the black man who traveled with Lewis and Clark. wo white explorers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, have long enjoyed top billing for blazing a rugged trail across the vast frontier wilderness 200 years ago. Their feat opened the door Lo westward expan– sion, paving the way for the unparal– leled growth and development that propelled the United States to its preeminent world position. For that reason and others, their credit is deserved. But the history books require amending. Missing is the true story of an African American slave whose diplomacy enabled the band of weary and ragged frontiersmen to make their way back to civilization. At least some credit should go to Clark's slave, York, a man who mes– merized the ative Americans with his black skin, a man whose skills with a rifle made him one of the most prolific hunters in the band, and a man whose blood and sweat on the trail were rewarded with chains and shackles instead of the accolades, money, and land grants the other explorers received. "They trusted him with their very survival," says Darrell Millner, profes– sor of black studies, of the only African American to accompany the Lewis and Clark expedition, which President Jef– ferson commissioned to unearth the mysteries of the uncharted lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. he expedition, known as the Corps of Discovery, encountered extremes in weather and traveling con– ditions, and experienced great fatigue and hunger as the group inched its way over the 8,000 miles from St. Louis Lo present day Astoria on the Pacific Ocean, and back. 16 PSU MAGAZINE WI TER 2003 By Dee Anne Finken On June 2, 1806, with all of their supplies exhausted, the expedition's three dozen men , weak from 22 months on the trail, were hunkered down in a region we know now as Idaho. Up ahead, the Rocky Mountains loomed large. So did the men's memo– ries of the previous September they spent on the outbound trip making their way across the jagged terrain. With a slice of a knife, Lewis and Clark cut the shiny buttons from their coats and handed the prized trinkets to York to trade for food with the ez Perce Indians. "If York hadn't brought back food , they would have starved to death ," says Millner, a scholar of African American history, including blacks on the frontier. York was successful, of course, as was the expedition, and within a few decades, thousands of American settlers would relocate to the lands west of the Mississippi. ntil now, York's contributions to the Lewis and Clark expedition and subsequent years have been passed over or misrepresented in books and popular legend. Who was this man who, like others on the journey, is believed to have fathered children with Native Ameri– can women? Who was this man for whom Clark named land forms, such as York's Eight Islands and York's Dry Creek? In some ways, York was just like any of the other explorers. It was an arduous journey and eve1y man was expected to pull his weight. And Millner says, despite the fact that many of the other explorers had been or would later in life be involved in the slave experience, there is no evidence they treated York as anything other lorer E than an equal. "There was no estab– lished hierarchy," says Millner. "The evidence is that York was well accepted and a well-respected, valued member of the expedition." Yet his treatment upon the expedi– tion's return was not that of an appre– ciated team member. A collection of letters found recently in the attic of a direct descendant of Clark paints a painful reality. The letters, which Clark wrote to family and friends after the expedition's return, provide significant supplemental detail to journals Lewis and Clark penned along the route. Instead of the freedom he hoped for after the return, York remained in bondage, perhaps for as many as 10 years. Clark maintained his ownership and control of York like he would a possession. It was just as Clark's father intended when he wrote in his wi.11: "I also give unto my son William one negro man named York also old York and his wife Rose and their two chil– dren ancy and Juba ..." "They don't tell us precisely when York got his freedom, but the letters do give us details about the master-slave relationship following the exploration, and how Clark had to whip York because he was misbehaving," says Millner, who has studied all of the notations pertaining to York in the journals. When the expedition returned to St. Louis, Clark refused to let York return to his wife in Louisville, Ken– tucky, a decision that ignited great bit– terness. Matters deteriorated so badly that Clark rented York to another slave master "to be broken," he wrote. Another leuer tells of Clark having York jailed for his behavior. ark's treatment is puzzling: Why couldn't Clark extend freedom to