PORTLAND, Ore. -- The names Lewis and Clark have been branded into history, along with Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman who helped guide their expedition across the uncharted American continent.
How about York? Remember him? If not, you're not alone. Practically nobody does, compared with his owner, Capt. William Clark. York was Clark's property, a slave. He could be bought and sold, whipped and beaten.A group of historians says York has not been given the attention he deserves for his role in the Corps of Discovery's journey across America.
On Saturday, these scholars held a conference in Portland to rectify that as the bicentennial of the 1803-06 journey nears.
"This man was one of the most famous African-Americans in the early part of the nation's history and yet hardly anybody knows him," said James Holmberg, curator of special collections at the Filson Club Historical Society in Louisville, Ky.
York is believed to be the first African-American to cross the American continent. Yet there are no coins or stamps with his image. There is one known statue of York, standing on a bluff at the University of Portland, where he overlooks the long Columbia River valley that stretches to the Pacific.
Holmberg says York was a valuable member of the expedition, helping smooth relations with Indian tribes, hunting and sharing the burdens of travel with men who otherwise may not have shared so much as a drink of water with York because of his color.
Holmberg is the editor of a collection of letters that Clark wrote his elder brother, Jonathan. The cache, found in 1988 in the attic of a Louisville home owned by Jonathan Clark's descendants, provided the first detailed look at York.
York had been William Clark's slave since both were boys. But York became like any other member of the expedition, said Ron Craig, who's producing a documentary about York.
"He's carrying guns, he's talking with native tribes, he's interacting with white people," said Craig. "We're talking 1804 or 1805, and that's incredible for that era."
Native Americans were impressed by York's color.
Clark documented his fears that York was playing up his role too much. York told some tribes that he was a wild animal before Clark captured him, and that he liked to eat little children.
By the time the Corps of Discovery reached their westward journey's end near the mouth of the Columbia River in 1805, Clark documents a vote among expedition members to decide whether to camp on the south or north shore.
"And they're actually asking York," said Craig.
Said Holmberg: "Not only is he by now pretty much an equal in the expedition, he is superior not only to the 'red man' but the 'white man,' in the eyes of the tribes."
It must have been a "heady experience . . . for him to go from a subservient position in a slave society to a superior position as a figure of idolatry among the tribes," Holmberg said.
Darrell Millner, a Portland State University history professor who is speaking at the Saturday conference, said the story of York has not been so much ignored as shaped to fit each generation's racial biases.
During Jim Crow segregation of the early 20th century, said Millner, York was viewed as a subservient "Sambo."
In more modern times, York is viewed as a "superhero" by some -- but historians say he is still relatively unknown.
Sacagawea -- who accompanied Lewis and Clark with her French trapper husband and their child -- received similar treatment. But she was turned into a hero early in the 20th century by the women's suffrage movement. This year, the U.S. Mint is issuing coins bearing her likeness.
And York?
Recent scholarship shows that when the expedition returned to St. Louis in 1806, York remained a slave after what amounted to three years of freedom.
Clark even threatened to sell York, noting he was merely a valuable piece of property.
"Which is a pretty sad commentary on two men who grew up together, and spent so much of their lives together," Holmberg said.
It took nearly a decade after the expedition before York could convince Clark to grant his freedom so he could stay in Kentucky near his wife, and presumably his family -- although there is no official record of any children.