Lewis and Clark ... and the Indians: a bicentennial's delicate balance

But don't confuse participation with acceptance.

"Lewis and Clark are not our heroes; they never will be our heroes," says Ms. Mossett. "They represent the opening of the West to American settlement - and that meant dissettlement of native Americans and the destruction of their cultures and families. But one thing we do have to celebrate is that we survived Lewis and Clark."

In Montana, for example, where Lewis and Clark spent more time than any other state, mention of the explorers is met by ambivalence, if not resentment, on many native American reservations.

Tribal officials say that although Columbus's arrival 500 years ago launched the conquest of native peoples and their homelands, Lewis and Clark are credited with bringing that conquest to their own backyards. Some believe their way of life began to disintegrate with the brokering of the Louisiana Purchase and expansion of America in the 19th century.

Walter Fleming, chairman of the department of Native American Studies at Montana State University in Bozeman and a member of the Kickapoo tribe, teaches an alternative perspective of Lewis and Clark.

Professor Fleming's courses routinely question traditional history. Was Lewis and Clark's Shoshone guide Sacagawea really a liberated woman, or was she a slave? Did the explorers really regard native Americans as their equals?

Fleming says that even the changing of "celebration" to "commemoration" is insulting - because for Indian people, it means the same thing. "When native Americans complain, we're told to just get over it, which is like telling a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust to just forget what happened 60 years ago," he says. "The story of Lewis and Clark is a lightning rod for us."

But tribal advisers on the national council say they don't see Indian participation as a sign of approval. Instead, partnership gives them an opportunity to discuss issues facing native Americans today, such as the loss of ancient languages, desecration of sacred sites, and a lack of infrastructure on reservations.

"Another benefit is that we could finally reclaim our role in this history that so many Americans learned in third grade," says Bobbie Conner, vice chair of the national council and a member of the Umatilla tribe. "This group of people traveling through the wilderness, well, those were our homelands. We were already there, watching them come and watching them go. Many times we could have ended the expedition, but we didn't."

All along the route, native Americans provided the explorers with food and water, shelter, information about the route ahead, and even an emotional lift.

"The Lewis and Clark expedition is one of the great American stories of heroism, bravery, and human endurance," says Robert Miller, an associate professor at Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland and a member of the Eastern Shawnee tribe. "But the complete history must include the fact that without the assistance of Indian people, the expedition would not have succeeded."

• Todd Wilkinson contributed to this report from Bozeman, Mont.

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