Process

 

·  Ethnographer

·  Linguist

·  Paleontologist

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ø     Provide a definition of the scientific approach

Ø     Show or explain the tools, methods, and results typical of this science

Ø     Describe two examples of the expedition engaged in this scientific work

Ø     Show on a map where along the trail the examples happened

Ø     Describe similarities and differences in the two examples

Ø     Identify a modern scientist working in your chosen field of study

Ø     Describe what they are studying

Ø     Show on a map the geographic area where the scientist works

 

In addition, all research process notes should be organized, compiled, clearly labeled, and turned in as part of the evaluation.

 

 

 

 

Ethnographer

Ethnographers learn about the everyday life of people by observing their activities to better understand what, how, and why people do what they do. The goal is to develop an appreciation for human differences. Ethnographers observe the world of a culture. Ethnographers use fieldnotes and images to document events, gatherings, and activities. Field analysis and later study help the ethnographer to identify patterns in behavior that characterize the culture.

President Thomas Jefferson asked three prominent Philadelphia scientists, Casper Wistar, Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, and Dr. Benjamin Rush to prepare some thoughts on, among other things, “Indian history which you think most worthy of inquiry & Observation.”

The consensus was that the ethnographic questions should cover every aspect of Indian life. Historian James Ronda noted that a fundamental belief of Thomas Jefferson was that “if two people knew each other more fully, each would treat the other with respect and consideration.”  Fostering respect among cultures is one of the many results that can come from ethnographic study.

Expedition advisors suggested that the ethnographic research should include languages (the realm of the linguist), customs, values, morals, religion (ceremonies), laws, property rights, diseases, and medicine. Some of the most interesting ethnographic work of the expedition was when attention turned to food, clothing, shelters, and the everyday tools used in the home, work, and at play.

Members of the expedition did not consider the collection of ethnographic information their primary goal, though it was part of the overall mission.  The expedition was also preoccupied with maintaining their backbreaking efforts to move as rapidly as possible, which limited their available time to devote to ethnographic observations.  When time allowed they employed various methods to collect information, including asking questions, collecting or illustrating objects of interest, observing people, and participating in various activities, such as group hunting, ceremonies or games.

President Jefferson had directed Lewis to pay specific attention to the Sioux, considered by many to be the most powerful of the tribes along the Missouri . The expedition recorded details of the Arikara as they passed their agriculturally based villages. From October 1804 to early April 1805 they were at the Mandan-Hidatsa villages, where they had the opportunity to learn about the people of this important Great Plains trade center.  From April through August 1805, the expedition did not meet anyone. Later encounters included people on the west side of the Rockies along the Snake and Columbia Rivers , and at the coast.  Because of their prolonged stay at the winter camps, ethnographic information recorded about the Mandan and Clatsop are strongest. 

The challenge of the ethnographer is to be objective.  However, the choices of what to record are often influenced by the observers own culture and biases.  Their mission included making ethnographic observation to contribute to scholarly knowledge, but they were also guided by goals of national expansion, future commercial enterprise, and their service to the United States government.  Lewis and Clark had different interests that guided their observations.  Lewis used his skills as a naturalist to record information about ethnographic objects.  Clark ’s military background honed his skills at political analysis as he observed alliances, leadership, and relations among tribes.  Ordway was curious about the everyday lives of the Indians.  Sometimes they recorded observations about activities that they could not understand or explain.

1. Use the following links to define ethnographer, and the tools, methods, and products of ethnography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnography                                    

http://www.ethno-insight.com/ourservices_2.html           

http://www.aiga.org/resources/content/3/7/4/5/documents/ethnography_primer.pdf 

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=ethnography                      

http://www.si.edu

 

2. Using the expedition journal Keyword Search at http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu to find two or three example of Lewis and Clark as ethnographers. 

 

Or search by date for these entries:

     October 6, 1804

     October 12, 1804

     April 14, 1805

     May 4, 1805

     July 13, 1805

     October 24, 1805

     October 28, 1805

     October 31, 1805

     November 1, 1805

     November 4, 1805

     January 1, 1806

     January 8, 1806

     January 9, 1806

     January 18, 1806

3. Use the internet to find a modern ethnographer [suggested search: enter a tribe name and ethnography]

Additional related sites:

http://www.peabody.harvard.edu/Lewis_and_Clark/objects.html http://www.uidaho.edu/idahonatives/nez/journey.html

 

Linguist

The study of linguistics is a sub-discipline of ethnography.  The study of languages through observation provides one of the avenues for understanding different cultures.  Linguists primarily focus on the spoken word, rather than the written word. 

For the Lewis and Clark expedition, the issue of different languages encountered along the trail was not just a matter of curiosity.  Communicating and accurate interpretation was key to their survival.  Misunderstandings could easily erupt into life threatening conflict.  The expedition needed help to find their way and avoid danger.  Finding interpreters along the journey was an essential task, and sometimes very difficult.  It would not have been possible for one interpreter to know all the languages along the trail.

 

In many instances, translations would pass through multiple languages in order to make the connection.  At one meeting in Montana , Lewis and Clark spoke English, which Labiche translated into French, which Charbonneau translated into Hidatsa, which Sacagawea translated into Shoshoni, which a boy then translated into Salish.  Imagine how all these translations might inadvertently alter the original message.  Sometimes the interpreters they found had only very limited understanding of what they were interpreting, adding to the confusion.  In other instances, they resigned themselves to the sign language of Droulliard, but that offered only limited communication.  Gifts were often given to reinforce the notion of friendly intentions, because language translation could easily fail to do so. 

 

Language barriers increased as the expedition moved further west.  At Fort Mandan there were many traders who spoke different languages and translation chains were possible.  At Fort Clatsop they often relied on trade jargon that had been developed over a decade of maritime fur trade at the mouth of the Columbia River , but it was specific to the business of trading and could not adequately convey more complex communication.

 

Creating written records of languages, or “taking vocabularies”, required the skills of these same interpreters.  To guide the process, the explorers were asked to record words for simple numbers, common animals and plants, seasons, family relationships, and basic human emotions.

 

As the expedition passed among regions with different language families, they encountered sounds that were difficult to spell, even phonetically.  Clark describes the Salish language as ‘a gugling kind of language spoke much thro the throat.”  Ordway describes this same language as spoken as though they had “a bur on their tongue.” 

 

Twenty-three vocabularies were recorded on the expedition.  Jefferson intended that these would be published, in addition to 50 native language vocabularies that he had collected east of the Mississippi , so that they may be studied by scholars of the day.  Jefferson and his contemporaries thought that perhaps the languages would indicate links to Asian and/or European languages, offering clues to the origins of the first Americans. 

 

Lewis, in consultation with Jefferson , intended to publish the vocabularies after he published the journals of the expedition.  Lewis died before publishing anything related to the expedition.  The journals were edited and published by Nicholas Biddle in 1813.  The vocabularies were among Lewis’ papers that were sent to Clark after Lewis died.  Clark reportedly gave the vocabularies to Biddle, who then passed them on to Dr. Barton to be studied in Philadelphia .  After Dr. Barton’s death, the vocabularies were not discovered in his papers.  It is unknown what became of the vocabularies.  To this day they remain lost.

 

Linguists today recognize more than 1,000 Native American languages.  About 600 are still spoken.  In 1891 these languages were sorted into 58 families by John Wesley Powell.  In the 1920s, Edward Sapir identified similarities that reduced the number of recognized language families to six.  In 1987, Joseph Greenberg suggested that there are only three families in Native American languages:

In the past 20 years, linguists have begun challenging these groupings, and pulling the language families back apart.  It is a highly controversial subject and the focus of much scholarly debate.

 

1. Use the following sites to define linguistics, and the tools, methods, and products of linguistics:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics

http://www.teachersparadise.com/ency/en/wikipedia/l/li/linguistics_1.html

http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/3920/

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/lingfaq.html

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-linguist.htm

http://www.si.edu

 

2. Using expedition journal Keyword Search at http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu [suggested keywords: “vocabulary”, “interpreter”, “language”]

3. Use the internet to find a linguist who worked in the Columbia River Gorge Region.

 

4. Use the internet to find a modern linguist and learn what they are studying [suggested search: enter a tribe name and linguist]

 

Paleontologist

 

Paleontologists are scientists who study fossils of plants and animals, as well as soils and geological formations, to learn what the earth was like in the ancient past. Paleontologists use picks, hammers, chisels, and shovels to excavate fossils buried in layers of sedimentary rock. The age of the sedimentary rock tells the paleontologist how old the fossil is. Paleontologists reassemble the fossils to reconstruct the plant or animal so they may understand ancient life forms and the environment in which they lived.

 

In his instructions to Captain Lewis, President Jefferson wanted the expedition to collect information on “the remains or accounts of any [animals] which may be deemed rare or extinct.” Extinction was hotly debated in 1803.  Though some people believed that mammoths were extinct, Jefferson was not so sure. He wanted Lewis and Clark to keep an eye out for living mammoths and to, by all means, bring one back. Examine the letter written February 24, 1803 by Jefferson to Bernard Lacepede to find evidence of Jefferson speculating about living megamammals at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/.  Search for the letter using the date, then go to the transcription to read it.

Jefferson was interested in mammoth bones excavated earlier at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky and Claverack on the Hudson River in New York . In September of 1803, Lewis made his first paleontological collections when he visited Big Bone Lick, Kentucky , in route to St. Louis . Lewis collected numerous specimens for shipment to Jefferson .  Lewis wrote details of activities and thoughts about fossils in a letter dated October 3, 1803 to President Jefferson. The following spring the specimens were sent down the Mississippi River to Natchez , for further transport to Monticello .  Unfortunately, the boat sank at the landing and the specimens were lost. 

Enter the date October 3, 1803 to search for the actual letter.  Go to the “transcription” to read what it says. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/

Jefferson had collected American Indian oral histories that offered legends of elephant-like creatures.  He wrote “I understand from different quarters that the Indians believe this animal still existing in the North & North West, tho’ none of them pretend ever to have seen one. It is said that the bones abound on the upper Missouri .”  Lewis’s writes about rumors of mammoth bones near the Affluents of the Missouri River .  Once the expedition set out, fossils were collected on August 6 and September 10, 1804, and again July 25, 1806.

1. Use the following sites to define paleontology, and the tools, methods, products of paleontologist:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleontology

http://www.teachersparadise.com/ency/en/wikipedia/p/pa/paleontology.html

http://www.priweb.org/ed/lol/careers.html

http://www.emerson.k12.nj.us/staff/rmkelly/Custom/Classwebpages/DreamBig/GroupB/JobPages/Paleontologist/BPaleontologist.html

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/faq.php#paleo

http://www.si.edu

 

2. Using the key word search at http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu [suggested keywords: “fossil”, “mammoth”]

3. Go to the following link and explore various paleontologists and the contributions they have made to science.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/glossary/Paleontologists.shtml

 

4. Use the internet to find a modern paleontologist and learn what they are studying.

Additional information:

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/miomap/use/index.html