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Elk hunting results in an accidental shooting of Corps of Discovery leader. By Bill Speiden Date published: 8/26/2006
Part 88 of a series JOSEPH DICKSON and Forest Hancock were coming up the Missouri River as the Corps was descending it. These trappers brought the first news from the eastern United States Lewis and Clark had heard in nearly two years. The trappers had been robbed of their furs by the Sioux, but were doggedly going on. They were replenished with shot and powder from Corps supplies. Dickson and Hancock continued upriver toward where Lewis and Clark told them good beaver-trapping areas awaited. They soon decided to come back and communicate with the Corps to gain more upriver knowledge and possibly gain a recruit.Capt. Lewis is shot: Lewis took a break to secure some meat for his men. He and Pvt. Pierre Cruzatte (the Corps' one-eyed, nearsighted fiddle player) went elk hunting. Cruzatte, mistaking buckskin-clad Lewis for an elk, shot him in his backside. Until the pain abated, Lewis had to lie on his stomach in the bottom of a canoe for several days. From the Journals, week of Aug. 7, 1806: AUG. 7: "Set out early resolving to reach the Yellowstone river today AUG. 8: "Not finding Capt. Clark I knew not what calculation to make with rispect to his halting and therefore determined to proceed as tho' he was not before me the men with me have not had leasure to make cloaths [clothes] and most of them are therefore extreemly bare " --Capt. Lewis
Date published: 8/26/2006
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