Two centuries after the expedition, Indigenous students are conducting a new wildlife survey along the route<\/p>\n
In 1804, when Thomas Jefferson dispatched Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and their Corps of Discovery to explore the newly acquired land west of the Mississippi, the president\u2019s primary aim was political: Americans needed to establish presence, power and trade routes in these territories before the Europeans beat them to it.<\/p>\n
But Jefferson, an ardent naturalist, had a secondary agenda. He ordered that the expedition also survey the flora and fauna of these landscapes. On their two-year jaunt across the western half of the country, Lewis and Clark kept meticulous journals of the animals and plants they encountered: bison, horned lizards, sage grouse, prairie dogs, wild licorice and catfish, among them. These observations were pivotal in shaping an early understanding of North American biodiversity.<\/p>\n
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