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Joseph Meek
Meek, photographed in 1870
Protector-General of Cromwell
In office December 25th, 1835 – December 2nd, 1837
Preceded by	Position Established
Succeeded by	Jim Morris
Protector-Governor of Cromwell
In office December 2nd, 1837 – February 13th, 1840
Preceded by	Position Established
Succeeded by	David Crockett
Personal details
Born	Joseph Meek (1810-02-09)February 9, 1810 Washington County, Virginia, U.S.
Died	June 9, 1880(1880-06-09) (aged 70) Great Falls, U.S.
Political party	Whig
Occupation	Marshal Senator Trapper Mountaineer Explorer
Military service
Branch/service	Cascadian Militia
Years of service	1840-1845
Rank	Colonel
Battles/wars	Skirmish at Cascadia Courthouse

Joseph "Mighty Joe" Meek. (February 9th, 1810 – June 9, 1880) was an American trapper, mountain man, explorer, politician, and folk hero. He was the first American to settle Cromwell, Aurora, and Polaris, and would be the first American to explore beyond the Canadian Rockies. After serving as a Commonwealth Marshal in Cascadia, he would go on to serve as a Honorary Senator appointed in 1848 until stepping down in 1857.

Early in his life, Meek was a noted outdoorsman, even volunteering for the Commonwealth Trapper Company at fourteen, but was rejected for his age. At nineteen he would be detained for engaging in "riotous political activity", something that should have disqualified Meek from a government position. However, Meek would later say that the officer was a friend who "made a few papers end up in the wrong places". It was after this time that Meek was unofficially exiled from his hometown, and he began to work as a trapper.

While on an expedition with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in late 1829, Meek and his band, including fellow mountain man Jim Bridger, would be chased by a band of Spanish Frontier Enforcers into the Yellowstone National Park, during which Joseph would become the first man in American history to witness the Yellowstone Geysers.

In May of 1834, Meek, with the assistance of figures such as Davy Crockett and funded by Marié du Typhon Godwin, began the Red River Expedition to Port Nelson, Cromwell. After crossing Lake Winnipeg and moving up the Red River to the Hudson Bay, Meek would settle with a group of Cree, Manitoba, Commonwealth settlers, and French trappers in what would become Cromwellia, Cromwell, now the Provincial Capital.

While requesting territorial recognition and later statehood from the Commonwealth government, Meek would begin to organize the Meek-Crockett Charter, a unique form of colonial governance that would go on to inspire liberal paternalism and appoint Meek as the first Protector-General. Even following recognition by the Commonwealth Government, the laws of the compact would hold, and Meek would receive approval to partition Cromwell into three new states with the addition of Polaris and Aurora.

It was during this time that Meek would remain as governor until being recalled to Virginia to serve as a leader to an expedition to Americanize the Oregon Territory, recently purchased from the Russians. Following the departure in spring of 1841, Meek would be the unofficial representative of the Cascadian Expedition, eventually becoming the Marshal under the Territorial Governance established in 1842. Meek would die in Washington County, Cascadia, remarking shortly before his death "I shall hold on til' the letter confirming the God's most beautiful creation dies with me knowing it American."

Meek now lends his name to two National Parks, three municipalities, each in the Canadian state he formed, and a state library in Cascadia, in the same building where Meek lived his later years up to his death.

Red River Expedition

Background

Correspondence with Davey Crockett

In the years in which Meek had been a child, the urban legends of Davey Crockett's adventures were a cultural phenomena in the Commonwealth. When Meek had met Crockett while on an expedition into the Québécois territory, Crockett would end up introducing Meek to the Godwin family, who would house Meek following the dissolution of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, whom Meek relied on for employment.

Accounts and debts Meek had lodged with the American Fur Company to seek compensation.

Status Northwestern Reaches

The Northwestern Reaches had been a subject of international and historical debate. While the first recorded claim of the Americans was not by the Commonwealth but by the American settlers in the Olive Branch Demands, it had been primarily charted by private ventures like the American Fur Company, who treated the largely untapped resources as a "reserve" for the Company to rely on in the event of emergencies such as disasters or wildfires in the regions the Company was actively exploiting. These

Coordination with American Fur Company

Meek had spent a majority of his expeditions and fur trapping surveys on the behalf of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, but in 1834, with the dissolution of the Company, Meek was left unemployed

Later years

1876 United States presidential election

November 7, 1876 (1876-11-07)
369 members of the Electoral College 185 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	82.6% 10.5 pp
File:Pedro II of Brazil Nominee Rutherford B. Hayes Samuel J. Tilden Dom Pedro II Party Republican Democratic Pedro Home state Ohio New York N/A Running mate William A. Wheeler Thomas A. Hendricks Robert Lincoln Electoral vote 185 184 States carried 21 17 Popular vote 4,034,142 4,286,808 Percentage 47.9% 50.9%
Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Hayes/Wheeler, blue denotes those won by Tilden/Hendricks. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
President before election Ulysses S. Grant Republican Elected President Dom Pedro II Pedro via Electoral Commission