KEYNOTE: THE SCIENCE OF LEWIS AND CLARK

The successful expedition of 1803 – 1806 to the Pacific Coast fulfilled a long-held desire of President Thomas Jefferson to explore western lands for nation building. It has been argued that the Lewis and Clark expedition provided geographic, geologic and natural history observations only as an excuse for the principle objective of acquisition of territory. The expedition encountered numerous nation-states already in transitional cultural change. The occupants of the lands the expedition encountered employed considerable traditional ecological knowledge in their adaptation to life in the diverse regions traversed by the expedition. Although the expeditions leaders had been tutored in the scientific method and observational skills, their contributions to modern science went beyond the direct contribution to be found in their notes. Perhaps it is fortuitous that their journals were not consolidated and synthesized into a final report as the journals form a unique snapshot in time that is only now being fully appreciated. In the symposium that follows these themes will be explored in detail.