" ( Barth, 21) The reason Jefferson told Lewis to treat them as people and not savages is because Jefferson felt that the men would be showing the Indians that Americans will treat the native Indians better than the British, Spanish and French. Lewis also gave the Natives trading rights. All this was to hope that the Indians will trade with the Americans and not the British or Spanish. By exploring the west it also brought more land and more hunting territory. .
Throughout the expedition it was not always easy for the members of this expedition. They had to deal with many different challenges that they faced either on a personal level or as a group. One hardship was on August 11, 1806, Lewis was shot in the buttock by one of his own men. (Barth, 37) This was very dangerous because he performed the surgery to get the bullet out by himself, which could have led to infection. Also another reason why it was so hard because as he was shot he could stop and rest for a few days, he and the other men kept on walk to reach the goals of the mission. Another problem was communication. There was a language barrier that separated some members of the mission to the leaders of the mission. Sacagawea who followed her husband on the mission was valuable to Lewis and Clark. She spoke the same language as the Shoshoni and was able to conduct trade with them. " When not using sign language, Sacagawea spoke Minitari with Charbonneau ( her husband), who rendered it in French to be translated into English by George Drouillard." ( Barth, 67) On June 29, 1805 Clark and his party were traveling across the Great Falls of the Missouri River when all of a sudden there was a down pour that made the river very strong and powerful. They made it across safely but they lost the compass in the current of the water, which made it hard for them to find the direction in which way they were going. On September 19, 1805 the some of the men started to get this blisters that could have been small pox.
