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The Pike Expedition (July 15, 1806 – July 1, 1807) was a military party sent out by President Thomas Jefferson and authorized by the United States government to explore the south and west of the recent Louisiana Purchase.〔Berry, Trey; Pam Beasley; Jeanne Clements (eds.) (2006), ''The Forgotten Expedition, 1804-1805: The Louisiana Purchase Journals of Dunbar and Hunter'', Editors' Introduction, p. xi〕 Roughly contemporaneous with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, it was led by United States Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike, Jr. (He was promoted to captain while on the trip.) It was the first official American effort to explore the western Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains in present-day Colorado. Pike contacted several Native American tribes during his travels and informed them of the new US rule over the territory. The expedition documented the United States' discovery of Pikes Peak. After splitting up his men, Pike led the larger contingent to find the headwaters of the Red River. A smaller group returned safely to the US Army fort in St. Louis, Missouri before winter set in. Pike's company made several errors and ended up in Spanish territory in present-day Southern Colorado, where the Americans built a fort to survive the winter. Captured by the Spanish and taken into Mexico in February, their travels through present-day New Mexico, Mexico, and Texas provided Pike with important data about Spanish military strength and civilian populations. Although he and most of his men were released because the nations were not at war, some of his soldiers were held in Mexican prisons for years, despite US objections. In 1810, Pike published an account of his expeditions, which was so popular that it was translated into French, German, and Dutch for publication in Europe. ==Exploration== On June 24, 1806, General James Wilkinson, commander of the Western Department, ordered Lieutenant Zebulon Pike, then age 27, to lead an expedition to the western and southern areas of the Louisiana Purchase to map the terrain and contact the Native American peoples, and to find the headwaters of the Red River.〔Hart; Hulbert, p. 57〕 Pike left Fort Bellefontaine near St. Louis, Missouri on July 15 with a detachment of 20 soldiers and 50 Osage hostages, freed for return to their people. The expedition followed the Missouri River and the Osage River to the Osage Nation village at the present-day border of Kansas and Missouri. On August 15, Pike returned the hostages and parleyed with the natives.〔Hart; Hulbert, pp. 86–88〕 Striking northwest, the group made for the Pawnee territory on the Republican River in southern Nebraska. At the Pawnee village on September 29, Pike met with the Pawnee tribal council. He announced the new protectorship of the United States government over the territory.〔Hart; Hulbert, pp. 114–115〕 He instructed the Pawnee to remove a Spanish flag from their village and to fly the American flag instead. The expeditionary force turned south and struck out across the prairie for the Arkansas River. After reaching it on October 14, the party split in two. One group was led by Lieutenant James Biddle Wilkinson, son of the General.〔Terrell, John U. (1968). ''Zebulon Pike: The Life and Times of an Adventurer'', Weybright and Talley. p. 75〕 They traveled downstream along the length of the Arkansas to its mouth and back up the Mississippi, safely returning to St. Louis. Pike led the other, larger group upstream, to the west, toward the headwaters of the Arkansas. Upon traversing the Great Plains, Pike wrote, "This vast plains of the western hemisphere may become in time as celebrated as the sandy deserts of Africa; for I saw in my route, in various places, tracts of many leagues where the wind had thrown up the sand in all the fanciful form of the ocean's rolling wave, and on which not a speck of vegetable matter existed."〔Hollon, p. 111〕 When Stephen Long led an expedition to the area in 1820, he labeled the area on his map as the "Great American Desert." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pike expedition」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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