Resources | Lewis and Clark | Northwest Education

Trail Foods

Summer 2003

Mary Gunderson's work is so unusual that she coined a term for it: paleocuisineology®. A food writer and culinary historian from South Dakota, Gunderson dives into primary historical documents to unearth the foods and recipes that graced tables—and tents—in bygone eras. She's written about the "cuisine" of the Corps of Discovery in two tantalizing and fact-filled books that will inspire teachers, parents, and kids to tuck in for hours of fun and learning.

The Food Journal of Lewis & Clark: Recipes for an Expedition (History Cooks, 2003) includes the sophisticated cuisine that Thomas Jefferson enjoyed as well as the savory wild game, hominy, and plum tarts the Corps members dined on along the trail.

Cooking on the Lewis and Clark Expedition is part of the series Exploring History through Simple Recipes (Capstone Press, 2000). The books, written in consultation with a curriculum consultant, are designed for kids in grades three through six.

"Lewis and Clark wrote about food almost every day," says Gunderson. "There are really nice moments in the journals about the food on the trip, then there are things that are startling to us today," such as reports that each Corps member ate 10 pounds of meat each day. (Gunderson thinks it was more like five.)

"Food really does help tell the story of where they were, culturally and geographically. It helps tell the story of the trip across the continent," she says.

Using food as a "time machine," she recreates the tastiest of the Corps members' meals—many of them inspired by Hidatsa and Mandan Indians—such as corn with sunflower and black beans. And she wouldn't dream of leaving out Charbonneau's famous Buffalo Boudin Blanc.

Usually, this is just what a kid needs to perk up his or her appetite for learning about the Lewis and Clark expedition and its importance to the history of the nation. And it fits right into cross-curricular learning, she says: "It's about culture, nutrition, geography, social studies, history, and it's about math and measuring—creative teachers are having a lot of fun with it."

Gunderson is a frequent visitor to classrooms where, in no time, she fills the air with delicious smells. For more information, visit her Web site: www.HistoryCooks.com/.

In the Works

Portland writer and filmmaker Ron Craig is developing a PBS documentary on the African American slave, York, who was a member of the Corps of Discovery. His children's book about York will be published this year by National Geographic Society. Additionally, he was instrumental in having Portland's NW York Street be officially named for the only black Corps member who, along with Sacagawea, was allowed to vote with their white counterparts.

Ron Craig frequently speaks at schools, telling students about the participation of York in the historic journey (filmworksnw@attbi.com).

More Books

A Charbonneau Family Portrait: Biographical Sketches of Sacagawea, Jean Baptiste, and Toussaint Charbonneau by Irving W.A. Anderson (Fort Clatsop Historical Association, 1992)

The Expeditions of Lewis & Clark and Zebulon Pike: North American Journeys edited by Washington state educators Richard D. Scheuerman and Arthur Ellis. A collection of primary source materials and study guides, the book aligns with education standards (Demco, 2001).

Going Along With Lewis & Clark by Barbara Fifer (Montana Magazine, 2000)

In Search of York: The Slave Who Went to the Pacific With Lewis and Clark by Robert B. Betts (Colorado Associated University Press, 2001)

The Incredible Journey of Lewis & Clark by Rhoda Blumberg (Turtleback Books,1995). This book for young readers highlights the contributions of Native people to the expedition.

The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online is a Web version of Gary E. Moulton's 1983 Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition published in 13 volumes by University of Nebraska Press (http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/)

Lewis and Clark Among the Indians by James P. Ronda (University of Nebraska Press, 1984, 2002)

Lewis and Clark: Pioneering Naturalists by Paul Russell Cutright (University of Nebraska Press, 1989)

Lewis and Clark Trail Maps, volumes I and II, by Martin Plamondon II of Vancouver, Washington, show—for the first time in 200 years—the courses of the Missouri, Snake, and Columbia rivers as they were when the Corps of Discovery traveled their waterways, and as they are now. Excerpts from the expedition diaries are included (Washington State University Press, 2000, 2001).

Or Perish in the Attempt: Wilderness Medicine in the Lewis & Clark Expedition by David J. Peck (Farcountry Press, 2001)

Web Sites

A Bethel School District 52 Curriculum Project The Lewis and Clark Expedition Bicentennial
www.bethel.k12.or.us/lewisandclark/
This Oregon school district invites teachers and students in grades K-12 to participate in short- and long-term projects, WebQuests, and classroom-to-classroom activities in reading, science, history, and more.

Discovering Lewis & Clark
www.lewis-clark.org/
This Web site includes general background on the Corps of Discovery, including a 19-part synopsis of the expedition by historian Harry Fritz with illustrations from the Lewis and Clark journals, photographs, maps, and audio-video presentations.

Jefferson's West
Monticello: The Home of Thomas Jefferson
www.monticello.org/jefferson/lewisandclark/
A Lewis and Clark study resource for teachers and students includes background essays, classroom activities, timelines, maps, and links to books and other resources. A link to Discovery Paths: Native Nations provides video clips of oral histories from tribal experts and more.

Lewis & Clark College
www.thejourneycontinues.org/
Throughout the bicentennial, the college is offering conferences, lectures, symposia, exhibits, publications, and special events for teachers and others. A summer institute for teachers will involve working with primary source documents to create grade-appropriate curricular materials. The college's collection of Lewis and Clark historical books and other materials is the most comprehensive in the world. This site also features "200 Years Ago This Week," summaries of the Lewis and Clark journals.

Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation
www.lewisandclark.org/
The Foundation's curriculum guide, An American Legacy: The Lewis and Clark Expedition, includes ideas and source materials linked to national standards in language arts, social studies, geography, human behavior, life skills, Native American cultures, visual arts, music, and natural science. Included are many other resources and links to state chapters where teachers can get in touch with Foundation members who are willing to help schools interpret the expedition stories.

National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial
www.lewisandclark200.org/
This site has up-to-the-minute information about bicentennial activities around the nation. It includes links to individual state bicentennial offices and the Council of Tribal Advisors, which works to clarify tribal roles and promote cultural sensitivity and the stewardship of sacred and historic resources.

National Geographic Society
Lewis & Clark Online Base Camp
www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/index.html
This site offers fun, interactive learning adventures for kids and classroom resources for teachers.

National Lewis and Clark Education Center
University of Montana
www.lewisandclarkeducationcenter.com/
At this site, teachers and students will find ecological and spatial information collected along the Lewis and Clark trail by NASA remote-sensing technology. As they explore regions of the trail, they will find a variety of resources available from satellite imagery, historical lithographs, maps, journal entries, and collected data.

National Park Service
Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
www.nps.gov/lecl/
This site's Education link features books, curricula, and other useful Web sites. It also provides information about the Corps of Discovery II, a traveling interpretive center that will exhibit along the Lewis and Clark trail during the next three years. The exhibit includes a Tent of Many Voices where experts and entertainers will make presentations and perform. Representatives from Native American tribes will be featured at each stop and may also be available for local school visits.

Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Lewis & Clark's Expedition: Curriculum Ideas & Education Resources
www.nwrel.org/teachlewisand clark/
Teachers will get lots of good ideas from this site that features the completed project, "Teach Lewis and Clark: Updating the Journals Nearly 200 Years Later," in which teachers and students studied their communities to find out what had changed since the journey of the Corps of Discovery. Also featured are newspaper articles from The Legacy Grows: Lewis & Clark Special from The Oregonian and guidelines for communicating the multiple stories surrounding the Lewis and Clark expedition, particularly those of Native people.

Oregon Public Education Network
www.open.k12.or.us/oregon/lcb/
This portal includes video and audio recordings from a 15-week statewide videoconference for Oregon teachers. Historians, archaeologists, musicians, and Native American tribal experts share their knowledge and wisdom with teachers who want to draw on community resources to develop rich classroom learning experiences based on the Lewis and Clark stories.

Public Broadcasting System
www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/
This site is a companion to the documentary "Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery" by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan. Teachers and kids will find stories about the world of Lewis, Clark, and the rest of the Corps of Discovery, Indian tribes, maps and journals, interviews with historians, and classroom resources.

Rediscovery Project
Technology Innovation Challenge Grant, U.S. Department of Education
http://rediscovery.ed.uidaho.edu/
This is a national project in which teachers along the Lewis and Clark trail are using technology to enhance their instruction of history, science, math, reading, and more. Watch this site for news about University of Idaho online courses on how teachers and students can use computer technology to document 200 years of change in their local communities. For a free compact disc providing background narratives, graphics, and artwork on the Corps of Discovery, e-mail: shelleyh@uidaho.edu.

www.lewisandclark200.gov/
A partnership of 32 federal agencies
This is an easy-to-use portal to online information about Lewis and Clark historical places, events, education resources, and more.

—Larry McClure,
Denise Jarrett Weeks

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