Three-year journey changes Josh Loftis' life

Twenty-year-old Josh Loftis said his three-year odyssey as the youngest member of the Lewis & Clark re-enactment journey has given him a whole new focus for his life.

The Belleville, Ill., youth wants to build a career in helping Americans "to start fresh in our relations with Native Americans and develop a better tomorrow for them." He wants to help young kids understand history from the Native Americans' viewpoint.

But, before that, he said he needs to restart his own life in present-day terms. "I want to write a book about the journey, go to college and get a girl friend."

Josh is back in St. Louis after three years of traveling nearly 10,000 miles by boat, horseback and walking. He sat down with Young Saint Louis.com last month to outline how the experience changed his life.

About returning, Josh said, "Everything goes so fast. I'm used to traveling three or four miles a day. Now, you expect to go that far in three or four minutes."

Before getting focused on the Lewis & Clark bi-centennial, he said he had planned to go to college and study for a career as a marine biologist.

But, he got interested in the Lewis & Clark re-enactment because of his grandfather, Bob Anderson of Marysville, Ohio. Mr. Anderson and Josh are direct descendants of George Shannon, a member of the original Lewis & Clark expedition of 1804-06.

He said his grandfather had appeared as a historic re-enactor in some of the preliminary events promoting the upcoming Lewis & Clark bi-centennial. Mr. Anderson took Josh along on one of those events.

"After that first event in 1999, I was hooked. I had to be part of the new Journey of Discovery crew," he said. Both his grandfather and Josh did the re-run tour.

Young Shannon, Captain Clark and Private Shields on Overlook Hill observing the confluence of the Milk and Missouri Rivers

Now back in St. Louis, Josh said, "I had my eyes opened wide to the impact of the original journey from the Native American viewpoint."

He said, to white Americans, the Lewis & Clark journey was "one of discovery." But, from the viewpoint of the Native Americans, "it was the beginning of the end of their way of life," he said.

"Now, I want to write a book about my experiences. Then, after college, I want to move to Washington State to help Native Americans regain some of their heritage," he said. Josh said the Chinooks were among "probably 50 tribes I met during the two years."

From that original 1999 re-enactment experience, Josh's life has been a hectic one.

For one thing, in order to join the re-discovery tour, he had to speed up his schooling at the First Baptist School in Belleville. He wanted to have graduated from high school by the start of the tour.

That meant he had "to cram" his four years of high school into three. But, he still had time to co-captain and MVP of his school's basketball team. He got his diploma in 2003.

That meant he could participate in the whole Lewis & Clark journey that started at Elizabeth, Penn., in 2003. That "Eastern Legacy" leg went down the Ohio River to Cairo, Ill., and up the Mississippi to St. Louis.

The "Western Legacy" leg started at St. Louis in 2004. That round-trip journey to the Pacific Ocean and back ended in St. Louis on Sept. 23, 2006.

During that nearly three years time, Josh said he was with the re-discovery crew for all but 13 days. He was away from the crew for a time in 2003 with the flu and again in 2005 when he was hospitalized with pneumonia. "And I took three personal days," he said.

But, his biggest physical problem came during a winter break. The original Lewis & Clark crew waited out the winter weather with stays at Fort Mandan, S.D., and Fort Clatsop in Oregon.

The modern explorers took winter breaks by returning to their homes. It was on one of those winter breaks that Josh broke his leg in a four-wheeler accident. "I had to have a metal rod and three screws in the leg," he said.

But, at the end of the winter break, he was able to join up with the crew and continue.

Josh said the whole trip was like being "on a three-year camping trip." But, he had some individual memories that stuck out in his mind.

"Riding over the Rocky Mountains on horseback was outstanding," he said.

"Then, I got to build a canoe out of a log with tools just like Lewis & Clark used," Josh said. It took six days to hollow the log into a canoe. But, he pointed out with some pride that his canoe was still in service when the crew returned to St. Louis.

Another vivid memory was a hunt when he killed a 3-year-old buffalo. He said, "I used the same type of Pennsylvania flint-lock long rifle that Lewis & Clark used."

But, the thing he remembered the most was the interaction with the many Native Americans along the way. He said, "The purpose of the trip was reconciliation with the Native Americans. The trip was a huge eye-opener for me about the Indian way of life."

He said he remembers the "thousands of kids" the re-enactors met. He said the crews' reception by the Indians was mostly friendly. "We only saw a few protestors," he said.

Josh said the huge dams along the Missouri River were the biggest change to the landscape between his journey and that of the original Journey of Discovery. "We had to put our boats on trucks and travel around the dams," he said.

Another contrast between the two journeys was in communication. "When Lewis & Clark were on their journey, there was no communication for two years. When they got back to St. Louis, many people thought they had been killed," he said.

But, Josh had his cell phone and could get e-mail messages. His crew took the winter breaks in the comfort of their homes but L&C crewmembers were holed up in a log fort.

Now he's back, Josh said he's got to make a new start with his own life.

One of the first orders of business is to write a book based on his three years of journals. "I want the book to be published by 2008," he said. He also needs to find a job and earn some money for college.

For his future, he's set his mind on moving to Washington State to work with the Chinook Indians. That group lost its accreditation as an official tribe in 2002. Josh said he'd like to help them get re-accredited by the U.S. government.