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President Jefferson asks Congress for $2500 for the expedition ($the total cost was $38,000). Later, during that year, Meriwether Lewis is put as commander of the expedition and goes to Philadelphia to prepare for the trip. Lewis, writes to William Clark, asking him to be second in command, and Clark accepts. Lewis and Clark are in constant preparation unitl the day they leave on their trip.
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Lewis, Lewis's dog, Clark, Clark's slave, and their crew ( nearly four dozen men) sets off on this day to begin their journey. They set off in a big keelboat and two smaller boats, proceeding up the Missouri River (traveling 14 miles was considered good progress in one day).
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The captains deide to build a fort called Fort Mandan, near what is now close to Bismarck, North Dakota. The captains also decide to hire Toussaint Charbonneau and his wife, Sacagawea, as interpreter. They all stay at the fort for a couple months.
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Lewis, Clark, and the Corps of Discovery has good nad bad things happen with Sioux Indians, so they decide to stay with them for a time.
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SAcagawea gives birth to her son, Jean Baptiste, and Lewis assists in the delivery.
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Lewis and Clark decides to send a dozen men on the keelboat back to Thomas Jefferson, to give him all sorts of items that had been collected. The people who were left (about 33 in total) departed in the opposite direction, with Sacagawea and her family, to continue on their expedition.
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Lewis discovers a Shoshone villages and is desperate to negotiate for horses. Sacagawea is able to translate and she later figures out that the Shoshone chief is her brother! After two days with the Shoshone indians, the group sets out for the mountains.
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In order to explore more of the Louisana Territory, Clark takes a group down the Yellowstone River while Lewis goes on a shortcut to the Great Falls, then the northern part of the Marias River (the entire group splits into four groups at one point).
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The whole group reunites downstream from the mouth of the Yellowstone.
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The expedition team arrives back at the Mandan villages and they say goodbye to Charbonneau, Sacagawea, and Jean Baptiste.
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The team reaches St. Louis, after two and a half years of traveling and exploring. Everyone is glad to be home. Later, the same year, the captains are considered/treated as national heroes. The Corps of Discovery men are each given double pay and 320 acres. Lewis and Clark receive 1600 acres. Lewis goes on to be the governor of the Louisana Territory. Clark is made Indian agent of the West and brigadier general for the territory's militia.
