By Mary van Tamelen

Bill Schustik offered a history lesson through music at the March 2 Morning Forum.

Morning Forum members and guests last week were carried on an enchanted musical journey of American history and folklore, gathering facts and trivia from 200 years ago, led by Bill Schustik.

Schustik, dubbed “America’s only living chanteyman,” is a troubadour, which he defined as someone who “gathers stories from one neighborhood and carries them to the next.” He travels with, and plays, an array of musical instruments to accompany songs from the past.

The particular past explored through song on March 2 was the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804. In a rich baritone voice, Schustik sang an invocation to the spirits, a song that Lewis and Clark might have known - “Oh, Shenandoah.”

As they began their great travels into the unknown, looking for the Northwest Passage, more riches, different Indians or even the lost tribes of Israel, the two explorers represented a young, revolutionary country. Schustik sang many of the campaign songs of the 1800s, as well as the national anthem of the time, “Hail Columbia.”

The Lewis and Clark expedition consisted of the dark and brooding Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, a kindly humanitarian. Schustik sang some of the campfire songs they must have shared when Lewis called for the fiddle. Songs such as “Roll of the Drum,” “Billy Boy,” “Yankee Doodle” and “Bonny Laddie” were popular 200 years ago.

On Nov. 24, 1805, in sight of the Pacific Ocean, the Lewis and Clark expedition held a vote among their party about where to spend the winter. What was interesting about this vote was that each member of the party - even the slaves and the woman - had an equal voice. This was well before emancipation or women’s right to vote.

Schustik delivered a poignant rendition of a 1790 song from England addressing the slavery question, “Despondent Negro.”

At the same time these explorers were expanding the role of women and slaves, they were also heralding another major change: the beginning of the end of the Indian culture. Lewis and Clark, on Jefferson’s orders, told every Indian tribe they encountered: “We, the white men, are gun men.” The song “The Rifles of Kentucky” (”the rifle, in our hands, will prove no trifle”) reflected this.

Morning Forum is a members-only lecture series held at the United Methodist Church of Los Altos. To get on a waiting list for membership, write to: Morning Forum, P.O. Box 274, Los Altos 94023-0274.