Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Cosmos Mariner
Taken: July 3, 2016
Caption: Marker detail: The West's First Trade Mission
Additional Description: President Thomas Jefferson instructed the Corps of Discovery to seek out Indian tribes and to record their languages, populations, religions, customs, food, clothing, and willingness to trade with Americans. The expedition found signs of Euro-American trade and commerce in this region: ”two Scarlet and a blue cloth blanket, also a Salors Jacket…,” wrote William Clark. The most prized items were blue and white trade beads. As Clark noted, ”they prefer [them]… to any thing and will part with the last mouthful or articles of clothing they have for a fiew of those beads…” Besides ornamental use, the beads could be traded with up-river tribes for robes, skins, biscuitroot bread, or other items. Clark’s distribution of gifts, the sharing of tobacco, and a fiddle tune by Pierre Cruzatte often eased tensions with the Indians.
Submitted: February 14, 2018, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Database Locator Identification Number: p416648
File Size: 0.562 Megabytes

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