Lewis & Clark Trail Alliance

The Lewis and Clark Trail Foundation embraces and supports the following tribal legacy goals:

1. The protection of sacred sites, in collaboration with tribes along the trail, will be an integral part of our preservation programs.
2. The unprecedented tribal participation and valuable cultural resources shared during the 2003-2006 national Bicentennial commemoration will be well cared for and archived for future generations.
3. The meaningful dialogue and legacies created with the tribal nations during the Bicentennial will continue for the next 100 years.

The Lewis & Clark Trail~Tribal Legacy Project website contains a large digital archive with tribal perspectives on their shared history.

Tribal Legacy Project

We partner with Honoring Tribal Legacies, a digital collection of teaching resources for use in classrooms everywhere:

Who were the Native Nations encountered during the Lewis and Clark Expedition?
What is their history before, during, and after the expedition?
What did the journalists write about them?

Find out at our educational website Discover Lewis & Clark!

Circle of Tribal Advisors

When the Lewis and Clark Expedition moved west of the Mississippi River they traveled through lands that were populated by a variety of people. The Corps of Discovery made diplomatic contact with and recorded information about more than 50 different tribal nations. The Corp’s journals tell of the diversity and complexity of native customs and languages…and of the tribes' generosity, assistance and hospitality that allowed the Corps to survive.

The 2003-2006 national Bicentennial commemoration provided an unprecedented national stage for modern-day tribal governments to educate the public about the impact that westward expansion had on tribal lands and cultures, as well as the critical importance of Native American sacred site protection.

A Circle of Tribal Advisors (COTA) was created to facilitate this collaboration. Forty-one representatives of modern-day tribal governments worked to shape Bicentennial event guidelines to ensure that meaningful tribal involvement, histories and perspectives were included in national, state and local events.

Reflections on tribal involvement and inter-cultural collaboration from 2003–2006 is documented in the book Enough Good People which can be downloaded in PDF format here: