This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis and Clark
Regular price $35.50Join The Explorers Club on Monday, June 15th, to hear an innovative and richly illustrated account of the Lewis and Clark expedition — from award-winning author Craig Fehrman, as part of the release of his groundbreaking book This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis and Clark.
Exploration is often about navigating people as much as rugged landscapes, a lesson Lewis and Clark had to learn again and again during their famous expedition. One of the best examples — and certainly the most exciting — centered on the captains’ tense encounter with the Lakota.
In this lecture, which will showcase new documents, old maps, historic paintings, and material objects from Native culture, Craig Fehrman will zoom in on this four-day meeting and reconstruct it from both the American and Lakota points of view. Both sides were well armed, and both sides wanted something from the other, starting with the explorer’s most important currency, information.
Fehrman will draw on oral history, the captains’ million-word journals, and his own incisive analysis to show how and why this encounter spiraled into a dangerous, high-stakes problem for both parties — and how, in the end, a leader named Black Buffalo was the person to solve it.
In-person tickets are $20 for Members, and $35 for the General Public.
Check-in will begin at 6:00 pm, with a beer and wine reception from 6:00 – 7:00 pm