"The great expedition to the Pacific
secured our brother's career in politics
but made a monster of his boy York.
He and Lewis returned as national heroes
and York was so full of himself you'd have thought
he led the trek"
-"Brotherly Love"
Jonathan and Edmund Clark
Had the Mandan and Hidatsa ever seen an African-American before?
Apparently not. When Clark’s slave York made his appearance among the tribes of the Upper Missouri, he was a constant source of amazement to those who saw him. Standing perhaps six foot tall, he was an imposing physical specimen who immediately became the favorite member of the Corps among the Mandan and Hidatsa. In one of the more famous Charlie Russell paintings, York stands in the midst of an earth lodge while puzzled Mandan touch him and try to rub the paint off. Sadly, upon York’s return to St. Louis, he again lived the life of a slave, even being beaten by William Clark for asking for at least the freedom to live with his wife and children.
Source: State Historical Society of North Dakota
In this collection, the majority of the historical trek is retold through the eyes of the "others" in the traveling party. These include York, Sacagewea and York's slave and Nez Perce wives. Walker gives each of these marginalized characters a voice and a unique viewpoint of the journey.
The historical event is seamlessly worked and weaved into the narrative. Each character brings to life a different perspective of the journey.
Character Perspectives in the Narrative
York's Nez Perce wife show's the Native American perspective of York. They thought that he was the bravest among the war party because his skin was the darkest. She also relates that the Native Americans did not feel that Lewis and Clark's expedition was very important to their way of life, as it did not even receive a mention in the winter count.
Sacagewea gives her heart-wrenching story of being stolen as a girl and forced to become the wife of a white man.
York's slave wife relates the uncertainties and flimsiness of slave marriages, as she is eventually sold down south, away from York.
York learns and grows alongside the Native Americans he meets along the trek. Though he is not a boy when he embarks, the poems relate York's bildungsroman. He learns how to respect the land, hunt for wild game and become one with the spiritual world. At the end of the narrative, York leaves Clark because the journey has made him much older and wiser. York relates this in the poem "Irreconcilable Differences":
But he soon know
that he can not whip this man
into a boy again
when he stare me down
an see somebody new in my eyes
