J.M.: You started to talk a minute ago about correspondences between the Corps of Discovery and a modern military unit. Do you see any more similarities between the Core of Discovery and any particular type of modern military unit?

S.A.: The United States Army has always been an exploring army. We have sent our men out to the poles, to uncharted places, beginning with Lewis and Clark and continuing on through the whole discovery of the North American Continent. John C. Fermont was leading military men. All of the other explorations were done by the United States Army. And it is very much a part and parcel of the legacy of Lewis and Clark.

And other correspondences, sure, there are all kinds of them. Think about when the Teton Sioux were threatening the Corps of Discovery and the Sioux are up on the bank, way outnumbering the thirty-man Corps of Discovery. And the Sioux had their bows notched. Whenever they strung those bows you knew they were... that's business, and they had their arrows out and they could have.... What did the captains do? They had their men in that keel boat lined up, the keel boat was built so that it could be a ship of war, and they pulled up the lockers for breast works. The men are behind those breast works with their rifles aimed up at those Sioux on the bank ready to fire the instant that Clark gave the order.

Now had that happened, had fire been exchanged, The Corps of Discovery, it seems to me, would have been wiped out, they were so badly outnumbered. But I guarantee you there would have been thirty dead Sioux Indians. And, it was a characteristic of the North American Indians they liked battle, and they liked counting coups, and they liked scalping dead enemies, and they did other things that are kind of appalling to us today. They didn't like to take casualties and they knew these guys meant exactly what it looked like they meant: You guys let those arrows loose and we"re going to fire.

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