Terra cognita - Letters

Reading "Lewis and Clark's America" in the May/June issue brought deep melancholy. There was nothing stated that I did not already know, but the freshening of reality still shocks. It has long been incredible to me that a people who came to this paradise, ostensibly in search of a life away from the spiritual corruption of the Old World, immediately began pillaging and plundering. In the early 1800s, my home state of Ohio was 98 percent forested. By 1900, that number had shrunk to 10 percent. An apologist might declare that these people were ignorant of the consequences of their exploitation. But what, then, is the excuse today? We are saddled with an administration whose raison d'etre seems to be to show that it is empowered to do as it pleases environmentally. Just to prove it, it launches attacks on revered areas such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge--not because of any defensible practical needs, but simply because they are there.

Lloyd Reinbeau
Howard, Ohio

Shame on you for referring to the American West as "terra incognita" in "Lewis and Clark's America." Native peoples have been living for millennia in what we refer to as the American West, and they knew their land as well as the flora and fauna they shared with it. Do you think Sacagawea had no idea where she was going?

Catlin Murphy
Belchertown, Massachusetts

At best, Lewis and Clark brought back East knowledge that had already been obtained by other people long before their arrival. Or, as a Native comedian once said, "When the Europeans discovered the Pacific Ocean, all the Indians were standing around saying, `Thanks very much. We had no idea what that was.'"