Lewis and Clark poll expedition members to choose winter camp location

Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark asked every member of the Corps of Discovery to vote on where the group should spend the winter of 1805.

The expedition had reached the Pacific Ocean but faced a dilemma regarding their winter headquarters near the Columbia River. The captains needed to decide whether to stay on the Washington side or cross the treacherous waters to the Oregon side to access food sources like elk and deer.

The group included a diverse range of people, including soldiers, Kentucky woodsmen, Métis boatmen of French and Indian parentage, a Métis interpreter, an enslaved African man named York, and a Shoshone teenager named Sacagawea. While the captains favored the Oregon side for its resources and salt-making opportunities, they chose to poll the entire membership to reach a decision. Every member cast a vote except for Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, the 9-month-old son of Toussaint Charbonneau and Sacagawea.

The majority of the party voted to cross the river to the Oregon side. Sacagawea specifically favored a location where she could gather wapato root, a staple food for local Indigenous people. Although the expedition members came from different cultures, the captains valued the perspectives of everyone in the group. While the expedition eventually returned in 1806 and Clark initially refused York's request for freedom, the vote in the wilderness represented an early instance of inclusive decision-making.