Sentence:  By fall , 443 survivors of this arduous journey were clustered about Fort Snelling , but most of them were sent on to Galena and St. Louis , with a few going as far as Vevay , Indiana , a notable Swiss center in the <WSD>United</WSD> States . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  North American republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean; achieved independence in 1776