1. Warmup – “Sweet Betsy from Pike”
Select three (3) of the following questions to answer for the song. 1. What is the mood of the song’s melody? 2. Where is Sweet Betsy going? 3. What reasons or motives might she have for making this journey? 4. What hardships did she face along the way? 5. Why would Sweet Betsy—and pioneers like those in the painting at the beginning of the lesson—be willing to risk such hardships? 6. What kind of legacies do you think such pioneers might have left behind? Sweet Betsy from Pike Song

2. Life in the West: Explorers, Missionaries, Women
Chapter 16 Notes

3. The Explorers Lewis and Clark
Reasons they went West:
Official Reason: sent by President Jefferson to befriend the Indian tribes in the West.
Secret Purpose: to find the “Northwest Passage,” a water route across the U.S.
They made it to the Pacific in Oregon but no water route.
8,000 mile journey; took 2 years and 4 months to explore and return ( ).
Lewis and Clark relied on the help of several Indian tribes to survive (Sacagawea, Shoshone, Nez Percé, etc.).

4. Hardships:
Rowing upstream in rivers, rapids, waterfalls
Mosquitoes, cactus, bears, wild animals
Lack of food, starvation
Snow, cold weather
A long way to travel! See map on p. 214…

5. The Explorers Lewis and Clark
Legacies
Mapped a route to the Pacific coast.
Established good relationships with western Indians.
Learned information about the West and its people.
Inspired other explorers to go west to learn more about the land; Fremont who described the “land of plenty,” which encouraged families, not only explorers, to go west.
Check your knowledge:
The Lewis and Clark expedition failed to discover what?

6. Missionaries on the Oregon Trail
Reasons they went West:
Invited by the Nez Percé Indians to teach the “Black Book”.
To convert Indians and others to Christianity.
Expand the religious institutions of the country to the West.
Hardships:
Journeying along the Oregon Trail.
Unfamiliar with the Indian customs and the territory.
Legacies:
Relatively few Indians converted to Christianity.
Many Indians in the West dies due to diseases.
Opening the West to white settlement.
Proved that women could travel “The Trail.”

7. Oregon Trail Facts
Between 1840 and 1869, 350,000 people traveled west under covered wagons.
In spring they gathered in Independence, Missouri, formed a wagon train and headed west.
Journey lasted 4-6 months over 2,000 miles!

8. Pioneer Women on “The Trail”
Reasons they went West:
Accompanying their family/husbands
Seeking homesteads, or land
Hardships:
Surviving on “The Trail” – disease, dangerous terrain, cold weather, buffalo stampede, fire
Cooking, taking care of children, washing, etc. – all domestic duties while on the trail.

9. Pioneer Women on “The Trail”
Legacies:
Helped shape the future of women in the U.S. – freedom and equality (women granted right to vote in Wyoming in 1869)
Earned a new status for themselves and women in the U.S.
African American women moved west and escaped slavery.
Built schools, churches, libraries, charitable groups, etc.