Missing Indian Vocabulary Sheets

By the time the keelboat was packed for its departure from Fort Mandan in April 1805, Lewis had collected 14 Native vocabularies for President Jefferson. And by September 1806, he had completed sheets for nine more. It was Jefferson’s ultimate plan to take all the vocabularies from Lewis and combine them with those he personally had documented (about 40), combining them into a published document to be shared with the world.

In 1809, Lewis included in his prospectus of the forthcoming journals, that the 23 Native vocabularies he collected were to be printed in the second part of his two-part, three-volume work. Of course, this never happened.

Unfortunately, as outlined in a July 1977 article in the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation publication, “We Proceeded On,” written by Bob Saindon, due to many unfortunate events, the vocabularies were lost or destroyed before they could be released to the public. To read Mr. Saindon’s article, go to the archives of the LCTHF at: https://lewisandclark.org/wpo/pdf/vol3no3.pdf. The article begins on page 4.

Image: A vocabulary sheet created by Thomas Jefferson in about 1791 of the Unquachog Indians. Held within the collection of the American Philosophical Society.

Image Description: Two images. The first shows an entire sheet of handwritten words in Jefferson’s handwriting -- first in English, then in the language of the Unquachog Indians. There are four columns of words on the sheet. The second image is a close up of one small section of the larger image showing several words, such as “geese” (“mim” in Unquachog), “fish” (“opiramac”), and “clam” (“poquahoe”).

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• Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail

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