Montana History
Reading Response One
Lewis and Clark’s Journey in Comparison to Prince Maximilian of Wied’s
One of America’s first treks into the West was the Lewis and Clark expedition. The men’s journey brought about new discoveries for America. It also inspired other other explorers to go and visit the West. One of the said explorers was Prince Maximilian of Wied. The prince’s main goal for his expedition was to collect a variety of specimen from the West. By looking at each of the explorers’ experience, it is easy to identify vast similarities and differences with each man’s exploration of the West.
Prince Maximilian of wied and Lewis and Clark had differing resources available when beginning their treks. Much of Lewis …show more content…
Much of Lewis and Clark’s journey relied heavily on Native Americans to guide them. Having never been to the West before, the men were at a severe disadvantage when it came to knowing what was ahead. More often than not, Lewis and Clark were forced to rely on the French and Canadian translators on the journey (Malone et al 34). At the beginning of their journey, the translators and other men on the expedition regarded each other with suspicion. Charbonneau especially, was a “man of no particular merit” according to Lewis (Malone et al 34). The men were all forced to get along for the good of the journey. At one point in the expedition, Lewis chose to ignore multiple warnings from the Flatheads and Nez Perce and “makes camp with a band of Blackfeet” (Malone et al 39). This mistake led to the death of multiple members of the Blackfeet tribe. That being said, the men also formed valuable relationships with other tribes. Maximilian had similar experiences. The prince had a habit of collecting animal specimen for future knowledge of the West (Porter 9). The engages would “deliberately throw [the samples] into the river” (Porter 9). This caused the relations to become strained. Other engages gifted Maximilian specimen and shared their knowledge of Native American customs (Porter 9). In comparison to Lewis and Clark, Maximilian was more successful in having friendships with the Native Americans in their travels. He “saw through the cultural differences that separated him from frontiersmen and the Indians...earned their friendship” (Porter 15). Much like Lewis and Clark, Maximilian desired to go to a territory that other tribes warned him against. Unlike Lewis and Clark however, Maximilian heeded the warnings and avoided a battle (Porter 21). This instant portrays the difference between Maximilian and the men on Lewis and Clark’s journey. Maximilian held more meaningful