When Lewis and Clark reached the lower Columbia River in 1805, they met Native communities who already knew a handful of English words.

But the list was not exactly classroom material.

William Clark recorded that people in the area could say words such as “musket,” “powder,” “shot,” “knife,” “file,” and, rather memorably, “son of a b*tch.”

The phrase almost certainly came from earlier contact with maritime fur traders and sailors who had been visiting the Pacific Northwest coast before the expedition arrived.

In other words, Lewis and Clark were not entering an untouched world. Coastal tribes, likely Chinookan-speaking peoples, were already part of active trade networks that connected them to Europeans and Americans arriving by sea.

Trade words made sense. So did the occasional colorful insult.

It’s one of those oddly human moments in the journals: across language barriers and vast distances, some of the first shared words were tools, weapons, and profanity.

History, apparently, has always had its priorities.

Source: William Clark’s journal, November 1805.