Lewis' modern-day relatives have spent years seeking permission from a reluctant federal government to remove his body from its Tennessee grave, examine it and answer the question once and for all.
Now they're pushing even harder — hiring a publicist, launching a Web site and opening new lines of dialogue with the National Park Service, the agency that would permit the exhumation.
"What we want is the truth," said Howell Lewis Bowen, 73, Lewis' great-great-great-great nephew. "We've had one roadblock after another. It's very frustrating — every time we take a step forward, we have to take two steps back."
Some historians have criticized the effort, and how much evidence is in Lewis' grave is a matter of debate.
Several archeologists have signed on to help the family, including James Starrs, a professor of law and forensic sciences at George Washington University who has worked with the family since the mid-1990s, and anthropologists at Middle Tennessee State University.
Larry McKee, senior archeologist with the archeology and preservation firm TRC, said there's a chance that the true story of Lewis' death might still be etched on his bones...
Click here to read more from The Tennessean.
RELATED LINKS:
- Meriwether Lewis: How Did He Die? - Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription)
- By His Own Hand?: The Mysterious Death of Meriwether Lewis by John D. W. Guice, James J. Holmberg, and Jay H. Buckley
- The Death of Meriwether Lewis: A Historic Crime Scene Investigation by Kira Gale and James E Starrs
- Meriwether Lewis National Monument - Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
- Jefferson's Secret Message to Congress Regarding the Lewis & Clark Expedition (1803) - OurDocuments.gov
- Natchez Trace Parkway - National Park Service
2 comments:
Gordon,
You are right. This is definitely a matter of great importance for posterity. We also have a website for our book, The Death of Meriwether Lewis: A Historic Crime Scene Investigation.
www.deathofmeriwetherlewis.com
I will be following you on twitter.
Thanks for your post!
You're welcome. It's a fascinating story. I'm glad my local paper saw fit to publish information on this. And thanks for the link to your web site. I'm always on the lookout for "links to our past."
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