Why did lewis and clark temporarily separate on their return trip? a. they were preparing to attack a hostile tribe. b. they were avoiding hostile tribes. c. they were trying to locate the source of the missouri river. d. they were trying to determine the quickest route to reach the yellowstone river. e. they had disagreed over the method to be used for mapping.

D. They were trying to determine the quickest route to reach the Yellowstone River.

Explanation:

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark formed a pair of explorers who led the first great exploratory expedition of the North American continent, leaving from the East and going towards the West until the coast of the Pacific Ocean, with later return.

On July 3, after crossing the Continental Divide, the explorers split into two groups for Lewis to explore the Marias River and for them to determine the fastest way to reach the Yellowstone River. They met some Blackfeet Indians. The meeting was cordial but at night the Indians tried to steal the guns. In the ensuing struggle, two Indians were killed, the only ones blamed for the expedition. Lewis's group was made up of four men: besides him were Drouillard and the Field brothers, who traveled 100 miles a day to camp again. Clark, meanwhile, had entered Crow territory. These Indians were reputed to be horse thieves. At night, half of Clark's horses had gone, but no Indians had been spotted. Lewis and Clark remained separated until the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers on August 11. Clark's group descended down river by boat. At the meeting, one of Clark's hunters, Pierre Cruzatte, who was blind in one eye, confused Lewis with a moose and shot him in the leg. After the meeting, the groups quickly returned home to the Missouri River and arrived in St. Louis on September 23, 1806.

president thomas jefferson commissioned the expedition shortly after the louisiana purchase in 1803 to explore and to map the newly acquired territory, to find a practical route across the western half of the continent, and to establish an american presence in this territory before britain and other european powers

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