INTERPRETERS WITH LEWIS AND CLARK: The Story of Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau

INTERPRETERS WITH LEWIS AND CLARK The Story of Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau

W. Dale Nelson

University of North Texas Press, Denton, 2003. Illustrations, map, notes, bibliography, index, ix + 174 pp. $24.95 cloth.

W. Dale Nelson, a long-time journalist for the Associated Press, links the varied lives of three Charbonneaus-Toussaint, Sacagawea, and Jean Baptiste-together into one narrative about their activities during the first two-thirds of the nineteenth century. The title is a bit misleading; those looking for new information regarding Sacagawea may be disappointed. Those seeking to know more about her hus band and her son, however, will be rewarded since Nelson focuses most of the book upon the lives of the French Canadian fur trader Toussaint and his son Jean Baptiste.

Meriwether Lewis once opined that Toussaint Charbonneau was a man of no particular merit. True, Toussaint could be a scoundrel. On at least one occasion an Indian woman who caught him with her daughter beat him with a canoe-carving tool. On another William Clark reprimanded him for striking Sacagawea. Nevertheless, the author successfully brings out the human elements of the man. Toussaint was illiterate, could not swim a stroke, nor could he operate a boat. Despite his faults, he did possess some merit. He spoke or understood several Indian languages, proved useful as an interpreter in the negotiations for horses with the Shoshones and Nez Perces, and filled the stomachs of his comrades with his famous buffalo sausage.

The first part of the Charbonneau family's story retraces familiar steps for Lewis and Clark aficionados. What they may not know, however, is that after the expedition returned Clark secured Toussaint ajob as an interpreter at the Mandan villages, offered him land arid livestock, arid, following Sacagawea's death in 1812, adopted his children, Jean Baptiste and Lisette. On the upper Missouri, Toussaint crossed paths with explorers, missionaries, artists, and such notables as Manuel Lisa, the overland Astorians, Stephen Long, Henry Leavenworth, and Henry Atkinson. He also witnessed the terrible smallpox epidemic of 1837 and lost one of his wives to the disease.

In addition to helping readers appreciate the elder Charbonneau, Nelson also provides an account of the activities of Toussaint's son, Jean Baptiste. Born at the Mandan villages in February 1805, Baptiste traveled to the Pacific and back, was baptized in 1809, attended St. Louis boarding schools, and traveled with a German nobleman to Europe, where he learned several languages. After returning to the United States, he entered the fur trade. In the 18408 he joined Stephen W. Kearny and the Mormon Battalion on their march from Leavenworth, Kansas, to the San Luis Rey mission. His California years were filled with experiences in various occupations- justice of the peace, gold miner, and hotel clerk. He died in Oregon on his way to the Montana goldfields in May 1866.

Interpreters with Lewis and Clark is well written and enjoyable. Nelson utilizes appropriate primary and secondary sources to support his claims. Moreover, he provides a fresh view of Toussaint's and Baptiste's post-expedition careers. he also does an admirablejob of sorting through the facts and fictions surrounding Sacagawea's postexpedition life in the epilogue.

Jay H. Buckley

Brigham Young University, Prove, Utah

Copyright Montana Historical Society Spring 2004
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved