Toussaint Charbonneau

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Toussaint Charbonneau (born March 20, 1767 in Boucherville , Québec , Canada , † August 12, 1843 in Fort Mandan ; see note) was a French-Canadian explorer, trader and member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition . He gained greater fame as the husband of the native Indian Sacajawea .

Early years

Charbonneau was born in Boucherville, Québec , Canada , near Montréal . The community had strong connections to expeditions and the fur trade. Charbonneau's paternal grandmother was a sister of Jacques DeNoyon (1668-1745), who had explored the area around Kaministiquia ( Thunder Bay , Ontario ) before 1700 . In the years before, the Jesuit priest Jacques Marquette and later Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye (1685–1749) were members of this congregation, as was Timothy Demonbreun (Jacques-Timothée Boucher, Sieur de Montbrun; 1747–1826), the George Rogers had led Clark in his conquest of Cahokia , Kaskaskia and Vincennes .

Charbonneau worked as a fur hunter for the North West Company for a while . It was included in the records of an expedition in which he participated. The scribe John McDowell wrote in his diary on May 30, 1795: “ Tousst. Charbonneau was injured with an awl by an old Saulteaux woman when he raped her daughter - a well-deserved fate given his brutality. He could only walk with difficulty. "

Probably during his time with the North West Company, he first encountered Mandan and Hidatsa settlements on the upper reaches of the Missouri River in what is now North Dakota . According to his own report from around 1797, he settled with these tribes - the area remained his home until the end of his life. He became a freelance agent and worked for his own account and for various companies that were active in this area, as a trapper, unskilled worker and as an interpreter for the language of the Hidatsa.

Soon after his settlement, Charbonneau bought two captured Shoshone women from the Hidatsa : Sacajawea and "Otter Woman". These two young women had been captured by the Hidatsa on one of their annual raids and hunting trips to the west. Charbonneau ultimately regarded these women as his wives - whether they were related to one another by Native American customs or by common law or not at all is unknown.

Sacajawea became pregnant with their first child in 1804. In the same year, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark came to the area, built Fort Mandan and recruited more participants for their expedition. Charbonneau was discussed about the position of interpreter for the Hidatsa language. Lewis and Clark weren't particularly impressed with him, however. Charbonneau didn't speak English. There were some expedition members who could translate from French, but another problem was that his knowledge of the Hidatsa language was also poor. After thirty years with the Hidatsa, he said he still did not speak their language. However, when it turned out that his wives came from the Shoshone people, Lewis and Clark were eager to get translators for this language as well. So Charbonneau was hired on November 4th. The following week, he and Sacajawea moved to Fort Mandan. Their son Jean Baptiste was born on February 11, 1805 during winter camp.

On the expedition

In the spring, as the expedition was preparing to leave, Charbonneau had doubts about his role in the group. The records of March 12, 1805 state that he left the expedition because he was dissatisfied with the fact that he should stand guard and work like everyone else. However, he returned on March 17th, apologizing and saying he would like to rejoin the group. So he was hired again a day later.

At 37, Charbonneau was the oldest participant in the expedition. His achievements on the trip varied: Lewis called him "a man with no particular merits". Many historians portray Charbonneau in a rather unfavorable light, not least because of the rape already described. His positive contributions to the expedition are overshadowed by the incident with the "white pirogue " (a simple boat), which makes his wife Sacajawea appear in a favorable light.

The incident was preceded by a similar event, which can be found in the Journal of April 15, 1805, just a few days after the expedition left. A sudden wind made Charbonneau's boat lurch and he panicked. George Drouillard grabbed the tiller and straightened the boat before major disaster struck. The episode reveals that Charbonneau probably couldn't swim - a distinct disadvantage on a long trip down rivers.

A similar incident occurred about a month later. In the records of May 14, 1805 it is noted that the pirogue steered by Charbonneau was again hit by a gust . Again he lost control. Pierre Cruzatte , who was in the same boat with him, threatened to shoot him if he didn't pull himself together, but he was unsuccessful. The boat almost capsized and equipment and records fell into the water. Sacagawea saved most of the things from the river. Meriwether Lewis was furious: he wrote that Charbonneau was “ probably the most fearful boater in the world. "

Charbonneau also made some important contributions to the success of the expedition. It was useful when the expedition came across French trappers from Canada, and it served as a cook: his recipe for Boudin Blanc (a sausage made from bison meat ) was highly praised by some expedition participants. In addition, his negotiating skills came in handy when they bought urgently needed horses from the Shoshone.

William Clark was particularly fond of little Jean Baptiste, whom he called "Pomp". That affection extended to the entire Charbonneau family, including Toussaint. Although he was reprimanded for the performance of his duties (October 27, 1805) and he resolved a marital dispute in which Charbonneau beat his wife (August 14, 1805), Clark offered to join Charbonneau's family after the expedition to St. Louis to set up a home and to provide for the education of Jean Baptiste.

After the expedition

Charbonneau initially turned down Clark's offer to settle in St. Louis - he preferred to live with the Mandan and Hidatsa. He received $ 500.33 in payment for the nineteen months he had been on the expedition and stayed in the Upper Missouri area for a period. In 1809, however, the family moved to St. Louis and Charbonneau took up farming for a short time to support his family. This life doesn't seem to have appealed to him, so after a few months he gave up and left the city with Sacajawea. He entrusted the care of Jean Baptiste to William Clark, to whom he had sold his 1.3 km² of land for 100 dollars.

He then took up employment with Manuel Lisa 's Missouri Fur Company and was stationed at Fort Manuel . Sacagawea died in the fort while he was taking part in an expedition of the Society in 1812. The following year Charboneau formally transferred custody of his son Jean Baptiste to William Clark.

Between 1811 and 1833 Charbonneau also worked as a translator for the Upper Missouri Authority's Indian bureau, earning $ 300 to $ 400 a year. It is believed that he owed this position to the patronage of William Clarks, who had been governor of the Missouri Territory since 1813 . With Clark's death, Charbonneau's government employment came to an abrupt end.

Received documents indicate that Charbonneau was largely unpopular in the Missouri Territory. The reason for this may be in part due to his casual attitude towards his jobs. He worked for both Lisa's Missouri Fur Company and Johann Jakob Astor's American Fur Company - both companies were bitter rivals. He is also said to have abandoned another employer, James Kipp , on a Fell expedition in 1834. Perhaps for these reasons, Charbonneau made most of his living guiding people who came from outside the area - among them the Swiss painter Karl Bodmer and Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied . It was on these occasions that he was able to make full use of his experiences from the Lewis and Clark expedition.

It is known that Charbonneau had a total of five wives. All were local girls, sixteen and under when they married. He may have had more wives, but none of them is known. His last wife, an Assiniboine girl , was fourteen years old when she married him in 1837 - he was over seventy at the time.

He is said to have died in Fort Mandan.

Sources and Notes

1. ↑ Time and place information on Charbonneau's birth and death come from information in the “Program de recherche en demographie historique” at the Université de Montréal and are not necessarily reliable. Other research dates his birth to 1758, which would have made him 46 years old at the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.