Pike commanded two expeditions in the Louisiana Purchase. In 1805, he was sent to find the headwaters of the Mississippi River in northern Minnesota. In 1806, he was sent to the Southwest, and, after exploring Kansas and Colorado, was captured by the Spanish in New Mexico and sent to Mexico. He met in his travels the Sioux, the Ojibway, the Osage, and the Pawnee Indians. His assistant, Lieutenant James Wilkinson, explored the Arkansas River in northwestern Oklahoma.

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