Jean Baptiste Charbonneau

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Jean Baptiste Charbonneau (February 11, 1805 – May 16, 1866) traveled across North America as an infant with his mother Sacagawea as part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which journeyed from North Dakota to Oregon and back again during 1805 and 1806. He was the son of Sacagawea and her French Canadian husband, trapper and interpreter Toussaint 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 on United States currency. Pompeys Pillar on the Yellowstone River in Montana and the community of Charbonneau, Oregon^[1] are named for him.

Contents 1 Childhood 2 Adult life 3 Death 4 See also 5 Further reading 6 References

[edit] Childhood

Charbonneau was born at Fort Mandan in North Dakota, the encampment at which the Lewis and Clark Expedition wintered in 1804-1805. His father, French Canadian trapper Toussaint Charbonneau, had been hired by the expedition as an interpreter. Captains Lewis and Clark agreed to bring along his then-pregnant Native American wife Sacagawea when they learned she was of the Shoshone people, as they knew they would need to negotiate with the Shoshone for horses and guides at the headwaters of the Missouri River. Meriwether Lewis noted the boy's birth in his journal:

The party that were ordered last evening set out early this morning. the weather was fair and could wind N. W. about five oclock this evening one of the wives of Charbono was delivered of a fine boy. it is worthy of remark that this was the first child which this woman had boarn and as is common in such cases her labour was tedious and the pain violent; Mr. Jessome informed me that he had freequently adminstered a small portion of the rattle of the rattle-snake, which he assured me had never failed to produce the desired effect, that of hastening the birth of the child; having the rattle of a snake by me I gave it to him and he administered two rings of it to the woman broken in small pieces with the fingers and added to a small quantity of water. Whether this medicine was truly the cause or not I shall not undertake to determine, but I was informed that she had not taken it more than ten minutes before she brought forth perhaps this remedy may be worthy of future experiments, but I must confess that I want faith as to it's efficacy.— ^[2]

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.

[edit] 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 a natural history expedition, invited Charbonneau to return to Europe 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 visited Africa.^[3]

In 1829, Charbonneau returned to North America, and began trapping for the American Fur Company in Idaho and Utah.^[3] He worked at Fort 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 the Rocky Mountains. He is known to have traveled with Jim Bridger, Jim Beckwourth, Joe Meek,^[4] John C. Frémont, William H. Emory, and James Abert,^[5] 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 by Philip St. George Cooke to guide the Mormon Battalion from New Mexico to the city of San Diego in California in 1846. North of the U.S./Mexico border in New Mexico, a memorial site stands on the Geronimo Trail Road near the Guadalupe 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.^{[citation needed]}

After 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" in Placer County, but it is unknown how successful he was at prospecting. By 1861 he was serving as a clerk at the Orleans Hotel in Auburn, California.

[edit] Death

In May 1866, while en route from California to the new gold fields around Virginia City, Montana, Charbonneau died of pneumonia near Danner, 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 the National Register of Historic Places as the Jean Baptiste Charbonneau Memorial and Inskip Station Ruins. Because Danner is a ghost town, the address of the site is often listed as being in the Jordan Valley vicinity.

Another site and memorial stands in Fort Washakie, Wyoming, but whether the body interred there could be his is disputed.^[6]

[edit] See also

• Santa Ysabel Asistencia

[edit] 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.

[edit] References