Editing Lewis and Clark Expedition (section)

== York ==
{{main|York (explorer)}}
An enslaved Black man known only as York took part in the expedition as personal servant to William Clark, his enslaver. York did much to help the expedition succeed. He proved popular with the Native Americans, who had never seen a Black man. He also helped with hunting and the heavy labor of pulling boats upstream. Despite his contributions to the Corps of Discovery, Clark refused to release York from bondage upon returning east.<ref name="smithmag">{{cite web |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/york-explored-west-lewis-and-clark-his-freedom-wouldnt-come-until-decades-later-180968427/ |title=York Explored the West With Lewis and Clark, But His Freedom Wouldn't Come Until Decades Later |last=Parks |first=Shoshi |publisher=Smithsonian Magazine |date=March 8, 2018 |accessdate=September 24, 2023 |archive-date=May 20, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200520143613/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/york-explored-west-lewis-and-clark-his-freedom-wouldnt-come-until-decades-later-180968427/ |url-status=live }}</ref> While all the other explorers enjoyed rewards of double pay and hundreds of acres of land, York received nothing.<ref name="nps1">{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/york.htm |title=York |publisher=U.S. National Park Service |date=September 11, 2018 |accessdate=September 24, 2023 |archive-date=August 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230805161125/https://www.nps.gov/articles/york.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> After the end of the expedition, Clark allowed York only a brief visit to Kentucky to see his wife before forcing him to return to Missouri.<ref name="nps1" /> It is unlikely that he ever saw his wife again: "ten years after the expedition's end, York was still enslaved, working as a wagoner for the Clark family".<ref name="nps1" /><ref name="smithmag"/> The last years of York's life are disputed. In the 1830s, a Black man who said he had first come with Lewis and Clark was living as a chief with Native Americans they met on the expedition, in modern Wyoming.<ref name="nps1" />