On September 4, 1805, cold and hungry, the members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition struggled down the north slope of the Bitterroot Mountains from Lost Trail Divide into an open valley later named Ross' Hole. Some 400 Salish people were camped there, on their way to hunt bison with the same Shoshone people the explorers had just left. The Salish welcomed them, fed them, and traded gifts and goods.
Ambassadors who needed help
Part of the expedition's job was to act as the United States' ambassadors to the Indigenous nations along the way, and it carried gifts — including several kinds of peace medals — to present to Tribal leaders. But for all their efforts to project authority, the explorers depended on help from many Indigenous peoples, among them the Shoshone, Nez Perce and Salish, to survive and to succeed.
The same nations, a new threat
Many of the nations Lewis and Clark met are still sovereign nations, and part of governing is protecting their people and resources from climate change.
| Nation | Climate work |
|---|---|
| Upper Snake River Tribes Foundation (including the Shoshone) | has identified drying sagebrush steppe, longer wildfire seasons, low summer river flows, warmer water and degraded rangelands |
| Nez Perce Tribe | a climate change adaptation plan including carbon capture, natural resource inventories, and monitoring of forest health and stream flow |
| Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes | a Climate Change Strategic Plan covering air quality, forestry, fish, infrastructure, lands, people, water and wildlife — drawing on the ecological knowledge of Tribal elders, which in their oral tradition reaches back 250 years or more |
Sources
Based on "Ross' Hole—Indigenous Nations Address Climate Change in the Intermountain West," National Park Service (Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail), a work of the United States government in the public domain. It cites Joseph A. Mussulman, "The Lost Trail Divide," Discover Lewis & Clark; the Library of Congress exhibition Rivers, Edens, Empires; Rod Gragg, Lewis and Clark on the Trail of Discovery (2003); the Upper Snake River Tribes Foundation's Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment (2017); the Nez Perce Tribe's climate change program; and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes' Climate Change Strategic Plan (revised 2020).
In these publicationsLewis & Clark National Historic Trail
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
1
0
0
0
Comments
