http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010117/ts/clinton_monuments_dc_2.html [pics/links] Wednesday January 17 1:25 PM ET Clinton Names Monuments on Lewis And Clark Trail By Patricia Wilson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton on Wednesday honored three members of the pioneering Lewis and Clark expedition and protected some of the Montana landscape they traversed almost 200 years ago. Presiding over his last ceremony in the White House East Room, where Meriwether Lewis lived as private secretary to Thomas Jefferson and planned the exploration of the American west, Clinton paid tribute to ``pathfinders of our past,'' designating the Upper Missouri River Breaks area in central Montana and Pompeys Pillar, east of Billings, as national monuments. The areas were explored by Lewis and Jim Clark as they led their expedition into and beyond the vast territory west of the Mississippi River that Jefferson bought from France in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. ``It is fitting that we meet once more in this room at the dawn of a new century and a new age of discovery,'' Clinton said. ``For it was here that Jefferson and Lewis first unfurled an unfinished map of the great continent.'' Clinton awarded a posthumous promotion to Clark, and give the titles of honorary Army sergeant to Indian guide Sacagawea and to Clark's black slave, named York, presenting framed documents to their descendants. In addition, he designated six other national monuments: the Carrizo Plain in central California, the Sonoran desert in Arizona, the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks in New Mexico, the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho where Japanese-Americans were confined during World War II, and the Coral Reef National Monument and Buck Island Reef National Monument in the U.S. Virgin Islands. White House officials said even more monument designations, which put an area off limits to developers, were possible before Clinton leaves office on Saturday. Clinton has been scrambling to provide federal protection for wilderness areas before he leaves office, hoping to cement an environmental legacy. With Wednesday's declarations, he will have protected more than 5.6 million acres in new or expanded national monuments, an aide said. Amid calls by some Republicans to roll back the measures, representatives of President-elect George W. Bush have vowed to review all of Clinton's late-term executive actions. A president's authority to reverse a monument declaration has not been established, although Congress has done so on rare occasions, White House spokesman Elliot Diringer said. Clinton said he did not intend to extend monument protection to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an action sought by some environmental groups because protections in existing law and prior presidential orders were adequate. He said those like Bush who believe a small part of ANWR should be opened to oil exploration and drilling, were ``in error.'' The Missouri Breaks is a 149-mile free-flowing stretch of the Missouri River. Its plateaus, cliffs and coulees provide habitat for antelope, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs and elk. Pompeys Pillar is a huge sandstone formation that has served as a landmark for thousands of years. The White House said Clark would receive a promotion to Army captain, upon the recommendation of the Defense Department and authorization of Congress, to make up for the War Department's denial of Lewis' original request that Clark be given equivalent rank. Sacagawea was being honored for her guiding and interpreting skills that made her ``invaluable'' to the expedition. York was ``as much responsible for the success of the exploration as any other member of the Corps of Discovery,'' but remained virtually unknown, the White House said. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
