Chapter 1 WESTWARD EXPANSION When President Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803 the United States doubled in size American territory now spread all the way to the Pacific Ocean Most of it was a vast wilderness never seen by Europeans although it was already inhabited by many thousands of Native peoples President Jefferson quickly put together an exploration group led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the new lands and the expansion in the American West began 4
WESTWARD EXPANSION 1 A fifteen-year-old Shoshone girl named Sacajawea accompanied Lewis and Clark on their journey She helped the explorers by translating and negotiating trade with the Native Americans they met along the way 2 As a souvenir of the trip Lewis sent President Jefferson a live prairie dog 3 Between 1850 and 1890 the West grew from about 1 percent of total U S population to over 20 percent 4 We may think of horses as a natural part of the western plains but there were no horses anywhere in North or South America until 1519 when eleven stallions and five mares were brought to what is now Mexico by Spanish explorers 5
5 Despite the fact that they had never seen horses before within a few centuries native western tribes like the Comanche became some of the best horse riders on the world 6 Some of the first people to move west were fur trappers They were looking for beavers because beaver hats were the most popular style in eastern cities Beaver pelts were so valuable that they were used in place of money in the early days of western exploration 7 Many of the fur trappers were French and when they met up to trade with Native Americans they called the meeting a rendezvous which is a word we use now to mean any kind of meeting I think I need a new hat Gulp 6
WESTWARD EXPANSION 8 Buffalo once covered the plains of the American West and many native tribes got almost everything they needed from these animals Skilled native hunters could bring down a full-grown buffalo with a single arrow shot while riding at a full gallop 9 We know that horses and donkeys were used in the Old West but for a while camels also roamed in the arid Southwest They were brought here from Egypt but were soon abandoned Camels continued to roam wild in the deserts of West Texas for many years Giddy up 7
