Indigenous Students Rejoin Lewis and Clark Route for New Wildlife Survey

Ecologists with the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute are running a new wildlife survey along the historic route of the Lewis and Clark expedition, using motion-triggered trail cameras installed by partner institutions, and this time Indigenous students from tribal colleges are taking part, according to the Guardian.

The project retraces ground first surveyed starting in 1804, when President Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and the Corps of Discovery west of the Mississippi. Jefferson's stated goal was establishing American presence and trade routes ahead of European rivals, the Guardian reported, but as a naturalist he also ordered the expedition to document the region's plants and animals. Over roughly two years, Lewis and Clark kept journals describing bison, horned lizards, sage grouse, prairie dogs, wild licorice and catfish, observations that helped shape early understanding of North American biodiversity, per the Guardian.

Why Are Indigenous Students Involved This Time?

Dan Buresh, a recently retired environmental science professor at Sitting Bull College on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation near Fort Yates, North Dakota, told the Guardian he wanted his students included once he learned Smithsonian ecologists were resurveying the route. The outlet reported that, unlike the original expedition, this effort involves direct participation from tribal communities whose ancestors occupied the Great Plains and lands farther west for millennia before Lewis and Clark arrived.

That history carries weight for many Native Americans, Buresh said. "There are a lot of negative feelings about that history," he told the Guardian, noting that while European Americans often regard the original expedition as an achievement, many Native Americans remember it as an invasion that preceded forced removal and relocation.

What Method Are Researchers Using to Track Wildlife?

The survey relies on networks of motion-triggered trail cameras installed by partner institutions across the country, the Guardian reported. The cameras are part of the broader Snapshot USA effort, which supplied photographs cited in the reporting, including images collected with contributions from project coordinator Brigit Rooney and students identified by the Guardian as Precious Yellow Fat, Dan Buresh and Tamiera Garter.

Unlike Lewis and Clark's handwritten journal entries, the camera-trap method generates a continuous, automated photographic record of animals moving through a given landscape, rather than relying on firsthand observation by a small expedition crew. The Guardian's reporting did not specify a number of cameras deployed or a target completion date for the survey.

What Is the Scientific Goal of the Resurvey?

The Guardian frames the project as a two-century comparison point: ecologists and student researchers are documenting which species persist along the route today versus what Lewis and Clark recorded in their journals during the original 1804 expedition. The reporting did not include specific comparative findings, population counts, or species-loss figures from the current survey, and this article omits any such numbers because they were not supplied in the source material.

How Do Students Describe Their Role in the Project?

The Guardian's headline quotes a sentiment attributed to the students' framing of the work: "We can't protect what we cannot see." The phrase underscores the students' stated rationale for participating, that documenting current wildlife is a prerequisite for conservation decisions affecting tribal lands and the broader route region.

"There are a lot of negative feelings about that history." — Dan Buresh, retired environmental science professor, Sitting Bull College

Buresh's comment reflects the tension researchers and students are navigating: using a Smithsonian-led scientific framework modeled on an expedition that many Indigenous communities associate with displacement, while asserting a different kind of authorship over the data this time.

What Happens Next in the Survey?

The Guardian's account does not specify an end date for the camera-trap survey or when consolidated findings might be published. The reporting focuses on the current phase of data collection and the participation of Sitting Bull College students and Smithsonian-affiliated partners, including Snapshot USA, rather than on final results.

Readers interested in the original reporting, including the camera-trap photographs referenced by the Guardian, can find the full account at the Guardian's story on the Lewis and Clark Indigenous student survey.

Artiglio is A coming-soon iPhone chief of staff for briefings and drafts. Not on the App Store yet.