Venereal Disease and the Lewis and Clark Expedition Thomas P. Lowry With a foreword by Edwin C. Bearss University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London ©2004bytheBoardofRegentsoftheUniversity ofNebraska.Allrightsreserved.Manufacturedin theUnitedStatesofAmerica.SetintheEnschedé typefoundry’sTrinitébyTsengInformationSys- tems.Bookdesign:RichardEckersley.Printedby Thomson-Shore,Inc.(cid:4) LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Lowry,ThomasP.(ThomasPower),1932– VenerealdiseaseandtheLewisandClarkexpedi- tion/ThomasP.Lowry;withaforewordbyEd- winC.Bearss. p.cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. isbn0-8032-2959-3(cloth:alkalinepaper) 1.LewisandClarkExpedition(1804–1806) 2.Sex- uallytransmitteddiseases–UnitedStates–His- tory–19thcentury. 3.Medicine–UnitedStates– History–19thcentury. i.Title. f592.7.l89 2004 917.804'2—dc22 2004016157 Contents ListofIllustrations vii Foreword ix Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvii Introduction 1 1.VenerealDiseaseToday 5 2.WhatDidLewis andClarkKnowabout VenerealDisease? 15 3.TheFamousShoppingList 35 4.IndianMedicine 47 5.TheVoyagersSpeak 55 6.Aftermath 85 Notes 103 Bibliography 111 Index 115 Illustrations figures 1.Effectsofsecondarysyphilis 9 2.‘‘DeathDisguisedasaBeautiful Woman’’ 11 3.MeriwetherLewis’sfamous shoppinglist 36 4.AerialviewofKnifeRiver Hidatsavillage 60 map Tribeswithvenerealdisease, asdescribedbyLewisandClark 65 tables 1.SexuallyTransmittedDiseases andTheirCauses 4 2.Lewis’sMedicalShoppingList 38 Foreword Amid-October2002telephonecallfromlongtimefriend,historian, andauthorThomasP.Lowrywasexcitingandintriguing.Hein- formedmethatheandhiswife,Beverly–hisequalasaresearcher– hadfinishedamanuscripthighlightinganoften-ignoredbutlast- ingmedicalproblemthathauntedmembersof LewisandClark’s CorpsofDiscovery,andtheNativepeoplestheyencountered,nearly twocenturiesago. Tominquired,‘‘Wouldyoubeinterestedinreadingthemanu- scriptand,ifwarranted,writingtheforeword?’’Aftervoicingcon- cerns about time constraints and weighing them against a busy schedule,Ianswered,‘‘Yes.’’ MydecisiontodosowasreinforcedbymyinterestinLewisand Clark,whichpredatedmyinfatuationwiththeCivilWar.Thislater romancebeganinthewinterof1936–37,whenmyfather,aMarine CorpsveteranoftheGreatWarandaMontanarancher,readtome JohnThomason’sJebStuart. Somesixyearsbefore,SarahEvansMorse,mymaternalgrand- mother–awomen’srightscrusader,educator,andsocialworker– introducedmetotheCorpsof DiscoveryandtoLewisandClark. Thiswasonlynatural,becauseSarahEvanshadcometoMontana inthemid-1890s,freshoutofcollege,toteachintheIndianSchool atCrowAgency.By1908sheheldelectiveofficeassuperintendentof schoolsinYellowstoneCounty,andformanyyearsbeforeherdeath onJanuary10,1933,sheservedasexecutivesecretaryoftheMon- ix