All things change, but the stage remains the same

Needless to mention, the Lewis & Clark Centennial was a big thing in 1905 but things have changed a lot since those times. Indeed, 2005, passed by without any signifigant celebrations, with most of the recognition being cultural and educational, and most of that was on the innertubes. The American people, whats left of the natives included, watched CNN and Fox News for entertainment, while discovering that the real News was not to be found on the main stream media. There is still information on the tubes, but I  seriously doubt that it will be there for long. Senator Joe Lieberweinerman is pushing for the Internet Kill Switch as we speak, like...in order to keep "We The Sheeple" safe it is going to be necessary to control all of this information that folks are getting from non corporate sources. The information will still be there, but available on a "need to know" basis, which will be fine for Obama's Blackberry or most large corporations, defence industies etc, but for the rest of us; we might as well go back to using short wave radio. So, realising that I am drifting off subject, I would like to share some interesting stuff I ran across this morning. Believe it or not this is not political...zzzZZZ er not contemporary politics anyway.

National Bicentennial Exhibition

This is the pipe tomahawk of Meriweather Lewis. An artifact unique to the American frontier, this highly decorated one was reserved for diplomatic gifts and high status individuals. Lewis still had this with him when he died. Click image to enlarge, it's almost like touching it

Girandoni military model repeating air rifle invented by Bartholomäus Girandoni, Vienna, Model of 1780

This interesting gun belonged to Meriweather Lewis, and was also important in the history of the settlement of the Northwest. It was known that he possesed an air rifle, but it is only in recent years that the identity of the gun was discovered. The Shoshone Indians were well aware that the long rifles had to be reloaded between shots, so were in awe of the rifle that didn't run out of shots. Lewis demonstrated the rifle in front of the Indians as he met them going across the country.

sources:

http://www.lewisandclarkexhibit.org/index_flash.html
http://www.beemans.net/lewis-assault-rifle.htm
http://www.shoshoneindian.com/chief_washakie.htm