American Indians oppose Lewis and Clark re-enactors

From staff and wire reports

A project by a team of history buffs to retrace Lewis and Clark's expedition has proved historically accurate in at least one respect: The adventurers have encountered hostile American Indians.

A group of about 25 Indians told the expedition members to turn their boats around and go home last week as they made their way up the Missouri River near Chamberlain.

The Indians condemned the re-enactors for celebrating a journey that marked the beginning of the end for traditional Indian culture.

The confrontation was laced with threatening language, according to the man who portrays Capt. Meriwether Lewis.

"They crossed the line with threats of physical violence and damage to our boats," Scott Mandrell, a teacher from Illinois, said this week as police watched over the re-enactors' camp from a bay nearby.

The Indians were led by Alex White Plume of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, who said they wanted to make the point that the re-enactment is glorifying the westward expansion that resulted in broken treaties, genocide and the loss of Indian lands.

The modern-day explorers began their re-enactment celebrating the journey's bicentennial with events early in 2003 and will continue into 2006 with breaks in between. The group was in Cape Girardeau from Nov. 21 to 23 last year.

Just as Meriwether Lewis and William Clark did 200 years ago, the 33-man, modern-day crew wears 1800s-era garb, cooks under an open fire, and has fished for some of their food. They paddle part of the way, but fire up the engines of their replica 55-foot keelboat and two smaller boats when the current gets too strong.

Camped along the shore here Wednesday, four days after the encounter and about 50 miles upriver, Norman Bowers said he was surprised by the Indians' reaction -- especially after the group received a warm reception during the first 900 miles of its trip.

The Indians said they will continue peaceful protests during the re-enactment, and expedition members said they will not alter their northwesterly course.

Forty tribal governments belong to an advisory group for the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, and they have endorsed the re-enactment journey as a means of spreading the Indian perspective on exploration of the West, said Sammye Meadows, cultural awareness coordinator for the council.

The journey will end for the season on Nov. 4 near Bismarck, N.D., then resume next year.