J.M.: They functioned as a peace making and a peace keeping force.

S.A.: That's right. Absolutely. And that's also a part of the history of the United States Army. The U.S. Army today, very much so. But this has long since been true. The U.S. Army doesn't want to fight. It will if it has too, but it likes to make peace — with Indians, with Germans, with Japanese, with North Koreans, with North Vietnamese. And it doesn't always work, but that is a primary objective, always. And that certainly was the case with the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery. They went out, not to conquer these Indians.They didn't go out to rape, they didn't go out to pillage, they didn't go out to loot, they were under strict instructions from the commander-in-chief: Don't steal anything from any of these Indians.

And the captains were very firm on that — except once when they stole a canoe at Fort Clatsop, but that's a whole other story. But otherwise, they didn't steal from these Indians, they didn't rape their women. None of the men ever indulged themselves with any Indian woman until he had been invited to do so. And in most cases, until he had paid for it. So that the effect was to bring many of these Indians, not the Sioux but the Nez Pierce and the Clatsops, and the Chinooks, and other tribes, into the American orbit. And that's exactly what Jefferson wanted to have happen.

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