- Jean Baptiste Charbonneau
Jean Baptiste Charbonneau (
February 11 ,1805 –May 16 ,1866 ) traveled across North America as an infant with his motherSacagawea as part of theLewis and Clark Expedition , which journeyed from North Dakota to Oregon and back again during 1805 and 1806. He was the son of Sacagawea and herFrench Canadian husband, trapper and interpreterToussaint Charbonneau . Expedition co-leader William Clark nicknamed the boy Pomp or Pompy.Charbonneau's image can be found on the
Sacagawea dollar coin. He is the only child ever depicted onUnited States currency . Pompeys Pillar on theYellowstone River inMontana and the community ofCharbonneau, Oregon cite book |last = McArthur | irst= Lewis A. |authorlink= Lewis A. McArthur |coauthor=Lewis L. McArthur |title=Oregon Geographic Names |origyear= 1928 |edition= Seventh Edition |year= 2003 |publisher=Oregon Historical Society Press |location= Portland,Oregon |id= ISBN 0-87595-277-1 |pages= 190] are named for him.Childhood
Charbonneau was born at
Fort Mandan inNorth Dakota , the encampment at which the Lewis and Clark Expedition wintered in 1804-1805. His father,French Canadian trapperToussaint Charbonneau , had been hired by the expedition as an interpreter. Captains Lewis and Clark agreed to bring along his then-pregnant Native American wifeSacagawea when they learned she was of theShoshone people, as they knew they would need to negotiate with the Shoshone for horses and guides at the headwaters of theMissouri River . Meriwether Lewis noted the boy's birth in his journal:Charbonneau traveled from North Dakota to the
Pacific Ocean and back as an infant, carried along in the expedition's boats or upon his mother's back. His presence is often credited with reassuring the native tribes the expedition encountered, as it is said they believed that no war party would travel with a woman and child.Years after the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Charbonneau family moved to St. Louis at Clark's invitation. Clark paid for young Jean Baptiste to attend school there at St. Louis Academy, now known as
St. Louis University High School , and continued to oversee his care and schooling when Sacagawea returned up the Missouri River with the elder Charbonneau.Adult life
At the age of 18, Charbonneau met Prince
Paul Wilhelm von Württemberg , nephew of King Fredrick I. The prince, traveling in America on anatural history expedition, invited Charbonneau to return toEurope with him. He lived in Europe for six years and learned to speak German, Spanish and French. He traveled all over the European continent and also visitedAfrica .PDF| [http://www.idahohistory.net/Reference%20Series/0428.pdf Idaho State Historical Society Reference Series: Jean Baptiste Charbonneau] |23.6 KB ]In 1829, Charbonneau returned to North America, and began trapping for the
American Fur Company inIdaho andUtah . He worked atFort Saint Vrain and other trading posts, served as an army scout, and became one of the memorable breed of mountain men who explored and led others through theRocky Mountains . He is known to have traveled withJim Bridger , Jim Beckwourth, Joe Meek, [United States National Park Service: [http://www.nps.gov/archive/jeff/LewisClark2/CorpsOfDiscovery/TheOthers/Civilians/JeanBaptiste.htm The Lewis and Clark Journey of Discovery: Jean Baptiste Charbonneau] ]John C. Frémont ,William H. Emory , and James Abert, [ [http://libtextcenter.unl.edu/examples/servlet/transform/tamino/Library/lewisandclarkjournals?&_xmlsrc=http://libtextcenter.unl.edu/lewisandclark/files/xml/1805-02-11.xml&_xslsrc=http://libtextcenter.unl.edu/lewisandclark/LCstyles.xsl#noten09021101 Journals of Lewis and Clark: background information] ] and his fluency in numerous European and Native American languages made him well qualified as a guide and interpreter.Charbonneau and
Antoine Leroux were selected byPhilip St. George Cooke to guide theMormon Battalion fromNew Mexico to the city ofSan Diego inCalifornia in 1846. North of the U.S./Mexico border inNew Mexico , a memorial site stands on theGeronimo Trail Road near theGuadalupe Canyon area, where Charbonneau had the Mormon Battalion cross what seemed to be an impossible mountain range by packing down supplies and lowering wagons by rope; one wagon was lost as the rope snapped and the wagon plummeted to the canyon bottom.Fact|date=March 2008After the Battalion reached California, Charbonneau accepted an appointment there as
alcalde of Mission San Luis Rey. He was eventually forced to resign from that post after his repeated attempts to improve the condition of the local Native American tribes caused political trouble for him.Charbonneau then got caught up in the
California Gold Rush sweeping the state, and joined thousands of other "49ers" inPlacer County , but it is unknown how successful he was at prospecting. By 1861 he was serving as a clerk at the Orleans Hotel inAuburn, California .Death
In May 1866, while en route from California to the new
gold field s aroundVirginia City, Montana , Charbonneau died ofpneumonia nearDanner, Oregon , at age 61.A burial site (generally believed to be the correct one), along with the remains of an early
stagecoach stop, are listed on theNational Register of Historic Places as theJean Baptiste Charbonneau Memorial and Inskip Station Ruins . Because Danner is aghost town , the address of the site is often listed as being in the Jordan Valley vicinity. The marker reads:
Oregon History
Jean Baptiste Charbonneau
1805-1866
This site marks the final resting place of the youngest member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Born to Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau at Fort Mandan (North Dakota) on February 11, 1805, Baptiste and his mother symbolized the peaceful nature of the "Corps of Discovery." Educated by Captain William Clark at St. Louis, Baptiste at 18 traveled to Europe where he spent six years becoming fluent in English, German, French and Spanish. Returning to American in 1829, he ranged the far west for nearly four decades as mountain man, guide, interpreter, magistrate, and forty-niner. In 1866, he left the California gold fields for a new strike in Montana, contracted pneumonia enroute, reached "Inskips Ranche," here, and died on May 16.Another site and memorial stands in
Fort Washakie, Wyoming , but whether the body interred there could be his is disputed.cite book |last= Horne |first= Esther |coauthors= Sally McBeth |date= 1999 |title= Essie's Story: The Life and Legacy of a Shoshone Teacher |location=Lincoln |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |id= 080327324X |pages= 151]ee also
*
Santa Ysabel Asistencia Further reading
*Colby, Susan (2005). " Sacagawea's Child: The Life and Times of Jean-Baptiste (Pomp) Charbonneau". Spokane: Arthur H. Clarke.
*Kartunnen, Frances (1994). "Between Worlds: Interpreters, Guides, and Survivors". Rutgers:Rutgers University Press .
*Moulton, Gary, ed (2003). "The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery". Lincoln:University of Nebraska Press .References
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