"The essays in Dark Storm Moving West trace three phases of exploration in western North America: naval and fur trade ventures on the Pacific coast; traders' progress along interior rivers and lakes; and the transcontinental Lewis and Clark expedition, which used maps based on fur trade surveys. Author Barbara Belyea poses challenging questions about the fur trade's rapid expansion as well as Native/non-Native definitions of space and communication of traditions. In this book Belyea introduces Peter Fidler as an important documentary source by frequent reference to Fidler's journals, maps, and reports, most of which are still unpublished."--BOOK JACKET.