Explorers of the American West: Mapping the World Through Primary Documents(Mapping the World through Primary Documents)

With original primary source documents, this anthology brings readers into the vast unknown 19th-century American West—through the eyes of the explorers who saw it for the first time. This volume brings together book excerpts, maps, and illustrations from 12 explorers from the 19th century, highlighting their lives and contributions. Arranged chronologically, the 10 chapters focus on individual explorers, with biographies and background information about and document excerpts from each person. The chapters offer analyses of each document's relevance to the historical period, geographic knowledge, and cultural perspective. This guide shares the important contributions from explorers like Lewis and Clark, Zebulon Pike, Jedediah Smith, James P. Beckwourth, John C. Fremont, Susan Magoffin, and John Wesley Powell. It also nurtures readers' historical literacy by modeling historians' methods of analyzing primary sources. Readers will see new and familiar events from different perspectives, including that of a woman traveling along the Santa Fe Trail, one of the most famous African American mountain men, and a Civil War veteran, among many others.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Selected Chronology Chapter 1: Lewis and Clark Expedition, October 1803–September 1806 Biography of Meriwether Lewis Biography of William Clark 1. Jefferson's Instructions to Lewis, 1803 2. Clark's Servant York, October 1804 and January 1805 3. The Grizzly Bear, April–May 1805 4. Sacagawea, November 1804, February 1805, and August 1805 5. Lewis Encounters the Great Falls and a Grizzly Bear, June 1805 6. Horse Trading with Shoshones, August 1805 7. Crossing the Bitterroot Mountains, September 1805 and June 1806 8. The Nez Perce, September–October 1805 9. "Ocian in View," November 1805 10. Lewis's Woodpecker, May 1806 11. Clark's Speech He Prepared for the Crow Indians, July 1806 Chapter 2: Zebulon Pike's Expeditions, 1805–1807, and Pike's "Dissertation of Louisiana," 1808 Biography of Zebulon Montgomery Pike 12. Wilkinson's Instructions to Pike, June 1806 13. Osage Encampment, September 1806 14. Pawnee Village, September 1806 15. Prairie Dogs, October 1806 16. Buffalo Encounter, November 1806 17. Confrontation with a Pawnee War Party, November 1806 18. Pikes Peak, November 1806 19. Landscape of the Louisiana Territory, 1806–1807 20. A Colorado Winter, January 1807 21. Detained by the Spanish, February 1807 22. New Mexican Towns of Ojo Caliente and San Juan, March 1807 Chapter 3: David Thompson's Travels, 1797–1812 Biography of David Thompson 23. The Beaver, 1797 24. Mandan Villages, Winter 1797–1798 25. The Upper Missouri River, February 1798 26. Trading Guns for Furs, September 1809 27. Enforcing the Moral Code, March 1810 28. Kalispel War Preparations, June 1811 29. Where the Columbia Meets the Pacific, July 1811 30. Heading Home to Montreal, July 1811 31. The Rattlesnake, August 1811 32. Native Spirituality, 1812 Chapter 4: Travels of Wilson Price Hunt, 1811–1812, and Robert Stuart, 1812–1813 Biography of Wilson Price Hunt Biography of Robert Stuart 33. The Crow Indians, August–September 1811 34. Traveling the Snake River, October 1811 35. Role of American Indian Guides and Assistance in Exploration, December 1811 36. The Cayuse Indians, January 1812 37. The Columbia River, January–February 1812 38. Astoria's Flora and Fauna, June 1812 39. Salmon Fishing, August 1812 40. The Snake River, August 1812 41. Harvesting an Elk, September 1812 42. The Discovery of the South Pass, October 1812 Chapter 5: Stephen H. Long's Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, 1819–1820 Biography of Stephen H. Long 43. Duties for the 1820 Expedition, March 1819 44. The Platte River, June 1820 45. Hoop Game, June 1820 46. Pawnee Village, June 1820 47. Bison, June 1820 48. A Desert Mirage, July 1820 49. Snake Indian War Party, August 1820 50. Big Elk's Speech, October 1820 51. Uninhabitable Region, 1820 52. Vocabulary of Indian Languages, 1823 Chapter 6: Jedediah Smith's Southwest Expedition, 1826–1827, and Second Expedition, 1827–1828 Biography of Jedediah Smith 53. The Ute Nation, August 1826 54. Mojave/Mohave Nation, October 1826 55. Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, November 1826 56. The Vaqueros, December 1826 57. The Mission Indians, January 1827 58. Observations of a Precarious Life, April 1827 59. California Indians, February 1827, May 1827, and March 1828 60. Crossing the Great Basin, June 1827 61. Salt Lake Valley, June 1827 62. San Francisco Bay, December 1828 Chapter 7: Susan Shelby Magoffin on the Santa Fe Trail, 1846–1847 Biography of Susan Shelby Magoffin 63. Among the Wildflowers, June 1846 64. Mosquitoes, June 1846 65. Prairie Rainstorms, Late June and Early July, 1846 66. Bent's Fort, July 1846 67. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains, August 1846 68. The Raton Pass, August 1846 69. Culture Shock, August 1846 70. General Stephen Kearny, September 1846 71. New Foods, November 1846 72. Escaping the Mexican War, June 1847 Chapter 8: James P. Beckwourth's Travels, 1820s–1850s Biography of James P. Beckwourth 73. Dangerous Encounters with Indians, June 1828 74. Crow Culture, 1829–1831 75. Indian Warfare, Early 1830s 76. Inaugural Address as Chief of the Crow Nation, Summer 1834 77. Constructing a Fort, Summer 1839 78. Smallpox among the Pawnees, 1840s 79. Beckwourth Pass, Spring 1850 80. Eyes of an American Capitalist, Early 1850s 81. California Gold Rush, Early 1850s 82. The Fate of the Plains Indians, Early 1850s Chapter 9: John C. Frémont's First and Second Expeditions, June 1842–July 1844 Biography of John C. Frémont 83. Exploration Party, May–June 1842 84. Life on the Trail, June 1842 85. Buffalo Encounters, June 1842 and July 1842 86. Wolves, July 1842 87. Arapaho Village and a Buffalo Hunt, July 1842 88. Great Salt Lake, September 1843 89. Trading for Fish, October 1843 90. Advice from the Washoe, January 1844 91. Crossing the Sierra Nevada, February 1844 92. Colorado Landscape, July 1844 Chapter 10: John Wesley Powell's Travels, 1875–1881 Biography of John Wesley Powell 93. Overview of the Colorado River, 1875 94. Geology of the Grand Canyon, 1875 95. "A Wild Music" in the Canyons, 1875 96. "The Most Sublime Spectacle on the Earth," 1875 97. Desert Natives, 1875 98. Assessment of Water Resources in Utah Territory, 1879 99. Classifying the Arid Region, 1879 100. Organizing the Arid Region, 1879 101. "Savage" versus "Civilized," 1881 102. Origin of the Echo, 1881 Selected Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Jay H. Buckley, PhD, is associate professor of history at Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. Jeffery D. Nokes, PhD, is associate professor of history at Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.

Review :
Top Community College Resource, November 2016 Altogether, Explorers of the American West is a user-friendly collection of documentation that shares the experience of the explorer or traveler in the westward expansion in the 19th-century United States. The primary sources are engaging and bring the reader in to the experience. Sourcing information is well organized and clear. This collection of written documentation and analysis will be extremely useful for scholars, researchers, and historians seeking primary source information on United States westward exploration. Highly recommended. Although excerpts and full-text transcripts of many of these documents can be found online, the inclusion of all of them in a single volume with accompanying analysis and imagery make this resource particularly useful for students of the American West, the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, and the exploration of North America. Summing Up: Recommended. High school through undergraduate students; general readers.