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Relatives Try To Determine How Meriwether Lewis Died

By 1806, the American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had solved the greatest question about their young nation: What lies beyond the wilderness?

Three years later, Lewis's death. at age 35. gave rise to a new mystery: one that hasn't been solved in 200 years: Did he die by his own hand, as many textbooks claim, or was he, in fact, murdered?

The collateral descendants of Lewis, who had no children, brought their case to Washington last month.

For 13 years, the group of nearly 200 relatives has been asking the government's permission to exhume Uncle Meriwether's body, which is buried on federal land.
Read entire article at The Chronicle of Higher Education