They were Freemasons pebble, and you should look at who they were reporting to also!...

L.C.
Weeeell, let's see. President Thomas Jefferson was the driving force that genned up the expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase and he chose Meriwether Lewis to head it up.
The background of this association began in 1749 when Peter Jefferson, Thomas' father, started the Loyal Land Company of Virginia and his main partner was a close neighbor and friend, Thomas Meriwether, Lewis' Grandfather; along with several other important people,large landowners, and other families of high influence. ( that last sentence is from the new book I just got about the Lewis and Clark expedition.)
The Loyal Land Company of Virginia received 800,000 acres of land the same year it was formed and Peter Jefferson had a burning desire to explore "the west" and plans were made in 1753 to do that. BUT, the French and Indian War put the stop to that plan. Peter Jefferson never got to accomplish his dream of exploration. He died and his 14 year old son, Thomas inherited his huge estate. I would think that maybe Thomas had the wish to fulfill his Daddy's great plan and eventually he was in the position to do just that.
As you can see, the Jeffersons and Lewis families were well acquainted long before the famous L&C Expedition was actually realized. Oh, and it was no surprise that Thomas Jefferson would become a SURVEYOR as well as an architect because a land surveyor held great influence and power back in that time period.
One thing is for certain......Lewis would make his FULL report to Thomas Jefferson and there is no guarantee that the SAME report would make it's way into the Congressional Records.
After Jefferson became President, he began to formulate a doctrine concerning the Native Americans, that became known as Progressive Social Evolutionary Theory, which included "civilizing" the Indians and moving them off of their lands EAST of the Mississippi River and onto lands WEST of the Mississippi. This is part of why he pushed for and got the Louisiana Purchase. To expand our country AND have a "parking place" for all displaced Indians of the eastern part of the country. Later, a man by the name of John Wesley Powell became a great believer and supporter of that doctrine and was able to extensively utilize it's principles to further "filter" what information released to the world and what was kept secret in the country's soon to be vast archives.....or rather the SECRET archives. In 1879, Powell became the first director of the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of Ethnology, which he helped to create. He also held directorships in other government bureaus. NOW, I wonder if that doctrine he subscribed to, and it's ideology of white European superiority had any influence on his not "seeing" those Egyptian symbols and caves when he became the first person to explore the FULL length of the Grand Canyon. He seemed to also miss the ancient Indian ruins there that still exist today. Those of the Annistazi (sp) YEP, he's THAT John Wesley Powell. Remember how the Smithsonian claimed that the original discoverer of the Egyptian cave was not in their employ when he found that cave and it's contents? Then, along comes one of the big power studs of the Smithsonian to see for himself and to provide the "expert" opinion that it did not exist. Amazing how that worked out, isn't it?
And I have hardly begun to read the book and it's already providing some "truth to history".