Interior Least Tern and Omaha Village

by Danny Lowe

Title

Interior Least Tern and Omaha Village

Artist

Danny Lowe

Medium

Drawing - Pen And Ink On Paper

Description

Lewis and Clark were sent by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the interior of North America after he had bought what has been called the Louisiana Purchase. This acquisition was made in 1803 from France. The transaction was approved by Congress and signed into law by Jefferson. Outside of a few fur traders and the Native Americans, the contents of what was bought was largely unknown. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led what has been called the Corps of Discovery which took place in 1804-1806. They both kept journals of what they encountered including the animal and plant life they found. A site on the internet indicated that the interior least tern was first observed on April 13, 1804, and again on August 5, 1804. Unless I overlooked something, I consulted my Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition by Reuben Thwaites and looked at those two dates and never found any reference to the "interior least tern". However, I did find a reference to a "plover" in the entry for August 15, 1804. I wonder if Thwaites left it out of his version of the journals. I don't know if Lewis would have referred to it as a plover? The plover was observed near the Wahar village. The Wahar were what came to be known as the Omahas. They first lived in earth-covered lodges much as the Mandans and Hidatsas lived in and then adopted the teepee type tent as they moved onto the plains with the horse-cultures of the plains Indians. The one bird is holding in her beak a western silver minnow that is found in the Missouri River basin.

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August 29th, 2021

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