25 – George Drouillard, Toussaint Charbonneau and Sacagawea

The Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-6 covered some 8 000 miles (13 000 km), exploring territory from St Louis, Missouri to the Pacific Coast.  Its mission was to make scientific observations, record information about flora, fauna, and peoples, find a route across the western half of the continent and make diplomatic overtures to the Native Americans they encountered.  If they were to introduce themselves as representatives of President Thomas Jefferson and present their gifts of beads, ribbons, flags, and medals, they were going to need interpreters.

Clark began by recruiting some good hunters and guides, accustomed to the woods and with good physical endurance. Thus, many of the men hired were Metis. The most skilled of these was George Drouillard, an excellent hunter with many linguistic skills.¹

The world snatched at my heroine, Sacajawea . . . The beauty of that faithful Indian woman with her baby on her back, leading those stalwart mountaineers and explorers through the strange land, appealed to the world.  ²

[W]e also took our leave of T. Chabono, his Snake Indian wife and their Son Child who had accompanied us on our rout to the pacific Ocean in the Capacity of interpreter and interpretes. ³

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Preparations

In the winter of 1803-4, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were busy organising their forthcoming expedition to explore the land to the west of the Mississippi, some of which President Thomas Jefferson had just acquired from France through the Louisiana Purchase.  The Corps of Discovery, a specialised unit of the U.S. Army, was to focus on scientific investigation but they knew that they would be encountering indigenous people.  The President was explicit in requiring that they ensure that such meetings were friendly and that they introduce themselves as representatives of the new rulers of the Plains Indians.

Clark was responsible for recruitment.  In addition to a nucleus of military officers, he hired a group of civilians to work as hunters, guides, and interpreters. It turned out that he had a good pool of candidates for these positions in the area around Camp Dubois (in present-day Illinois) where the expedition spent the winter:  French-Canadian, or Metis (of mixed Canadian and Indian descent) hunters and traders who lived in the area and were familiar with the Plains Indians.  They served as engagés – boatmen – or interpreters and proved to be vital intermediaries between Lewis and Clark and the Indians. 

Drouillard and the Plains Indians’ Sign Language

George Drouillard signed up in late 1803.  He was the child of a Frenchman settled in Canada and a Shawnee Nation woman.  He spoke English, French and Shawnee and was proficient in the sign language common among the Plains Indians. 

“The means I had of communicating with these people was by way of Drewyer [Drouillard] who understood perfectly the common language of jesticulation or signs which seems to be universally understood by all the Nations we have seen.  It is true that the language is imperfect and liable to error but is much less so than expected.  The strong parts of ideas are seldom mistaken.” (Lewis, August 14^th, 1805)

When I first saw references to the use of signs I assumed that the Plains Indians had some agreed gestures that allowed them to exchange general considerations like greetings, assent, dissent, numbers, and the like.  The August 11, 1805 account of Lewis trying to approach a warrior on horseback seemed to support my assumptions about the sorts of communication involved:

“I mad him the signal of friendship known to the Indians of the Rocky mountains and those of the Missouri, which is by holding the mantle or robe in your hands at two corners and then throwing up in the air higher than the head bringing it to the earth as if in the act of spreading it, thus repeating three times. this signal of the robe has arrisen from a custom among all those nations of spreading a robe or skin for ther gests to set on when they are visited.”

However, Indian Sign Language is much more than a collection of broad signs.  William Tomkins’s 1931 Indian Sign Language lists some 750 gestures, complete with illustrations covering both timeless and contemporary ideas like:

Indian Sign Language also shows how to ask questions, show the passage of time, indicate singular or plural and gender.⁴  In other words, the Plains Indians living to the east of the Rocky Mountains had a lingua franca and Drouillard was hired to interpret Lewis and Clark into Indian Sign Language and Native Americans into English.  In hindsight, given the existence of such a ready means of communication, one modern historian has suggested that,

“[a]lthough reluctant to second-guess one of the best-managed expeditions in history, I suggest that Lewis and Clark should have made sure that they and the corps’ three non-commissioned officers were conversant in Plains Indian sign language.” ⁵

While it would have been useful for Lewis and Clark to be able to engage in direct communication in both formal meetings and chance encounters, we should also bear in mind that Indian Sign Language had its limitations: apart from the obvious fact that it could not be used in the dark, there were also variations that caused confusion and “even the best sign talker would have been challenged to convey some of the abstract concepts about nationhood and political hegemony in the captains’ standard speech to tribal leaders.”⁶  The Indian Sign Language would not have been useful west of the Great Plains, either.

The Journals indicate when communication problems arose, without going into much detail. For instance, on September 25, 1804, Lewis and Clark hoped to address some chiefs and warriors: “Capt Lewis proceeded to deliver a Speech which we oblige to Curtail for want of a good interpeter.”  They also make it clear that their intermediaries helped with food supplies and transportation as well as communication. Their familiarity with the region, its people, and their languages made for the success of many of their meetings, like the one described on October 24, 1805 “gave this Great Chief a Medal and Some other articles, of which he was much pleased, Peter Crusat [Cruzatte] played on the violin and the men danced which delighted the nativs, who Shew every civility towards us. we Smoked with those people untill late at night, when every one retired to rest.”

Charbonneau

Several other interpreters joined the expedition after Drouillard.  Cruzatte, along with François Labiche enlisted in May 1804; both of them were part Omaha.  In October 1804, we have Joseph Gravelines, described as “well-versed in the language of this [Arikari] nation.” A Frenchman, René Jusseaume, who had made his life with an Indian woman, was taken on as a temporary interpreter for Mandan in October 1804, when the expedition was at its winter quarters in Fort Mandan, in present-day North Dakota. Entries after November of that year refer to “our Minetaree interpreter”: Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian trapper who joined the expedition along with one of his two wives, Sacagawea.

Sacagawea

There is much uncertainty about Sacagawea’s life story.  According to one version, she was born in an isolated nomadic Shoshone Indian group in what is now Idaho and was captured by Hidatsa (or Minetaree) warriors as a child and had to adjust to their sedentary farming lifestyle in present-day North Dakota.  The Hidatsa had contact with white traders and they set some store by their women’s role in diplomacy.  It may well have been out of self-interest that the Hidatsa leaders decided to give Sacagawea to Charbonneau, who already had a Shoshone wife, Otter Woman.  “She may have been simply an expendable woman, but she was also a reasonable choice to expedite interactions with Europeans and to maintain access to their trade goods. For Sacagawea, it offered an opportunity to increase her social status and influence” ⁷

It is important to bear in mind that any consideration of Sacagawea’s role in the expedition, from November 1804 until they returned to the area around Fort Mandan in August 1806 necessarily involves speculation.  She is not often named in the Journals – there are references to “the wife of Charbonneau”, “our Indian woman” or “the squaw”, but it is only when they are approaching Shoshone territory that she becomes a real – if fleeting – presence.  Although she is not mentioned often in the expedition journals, by the late nineteenth century those entries where she does appear were used to portray her as devoted to America’s western heroes. Eva Emery Dye’s 1902 The Conquest; The True Story of Lewis and Clark, includes an imaginative celebration of the strong woman deemed to be key to the expedition’s success. Sacagawea became the embodiment of all that was possible for the American women who were fighting for the right to vote, and her name subsequently came to be caught up in a celebration of American nationhood and Manifest Destiny before it was reclaimed by Native Americans.

The woman portrayed in Emery Dye’s book and in the three commemorative statues that were erected in Oregon, Montana, and Wyoming is larger than life.  Sacagawea left no written record but her story caught the imagination of white American women and was later reclaimed by Native American oral tradition as Americans began to rethink the story of their westward expansion.  The fact is, however, that we still know very little about her. There is disagreement about her fate after her time with Lewis and Clark, with conflicting accounts of her whereabouts and when she died.  There has been a great deal of Euro-American and Native American investment in a woman whose biography is elusive.

Gros Ventres, Hidatsa and Shoshone languages

Given the number of claims made on Sacagawea, it is best to concentrate on the few facts we have, set in the context of what we know about where and how she lived.   There were no women among the civilians in the Discovery Corps until Jusseaume and Charbonneau and their wives joined the group at Fort Mandan.  A journal entry for November 4, 1804, states: “a french man by Name Chabonah [Charbonneau], who Speaks the Big Belley language visit us, he wished to hire & informed us his 2 Squars were Snake [Shoshone] Indians, we engau him to go on with us and take one of his wives to interpet the Snake language”.  Charbonneau spoke the language of the Gros Ventres or Aaniiih nation (the French name appears to be the result of a misinterpretation of Indian Sign Language).  He also spoke Minitaree, or Hidatsa, which is the language he used with Sacagawea.

This is the first reference to Sacagawea in the journals.  By then, the expedition had understood how much they needed their intermediaries.  There was a manifest need for speakers of a range of Indian languages, and a strong sense that negotiations with the Shoshone (or Snake) Indians to obtain horses to cross the Rocky Mountains would be key to the success of the Corps’ mission.  That may be why the rules were bent and Charbonneau’s pregnant young wife was taken on, albeit without pay. 

On February 11, 1805, Lewis reported “one of the wives of Charbono [Charbonneau] was delivered of a fine boy” and she is mentioned again as one of those setting out from Fort Mandan on April 7: “… George Drewyer [Drouillaird] who acts as a hunter & interpreter, Shabonah and his Indian Squar to act as an Interpreter & interpretress for the snake Indians … & Shabonahs [Charbonneau’s] infant.”

Forager

Sacagawea’s foraging skills proved useful before the expedition reached Shoshone territory.  Hunting and fishing were male pursuits among many Indian nations but she “knew the Shoshone women’s skills of collecting roots and berries.  Many of the edibles she located and prepared were unknown to the men she fed and they would never have struck upon them on their own.”⁸ There was a growing sense of appreciation as the group benefitted from her ability to ferret out food for the hungry explorers: on April 9, 1805 “when we halted for dinner the squaw busied herself in serching for the wild artichokes which the mice collect and deposit in large hoards. this operation she performed by penetrating the earth with a sharp stick about some small collections of drift wood.”

Messenger of peace

Lewis, Clark, Drouillard, Charbonneau, Sacagawea, and baby Jean Baptiste shared Charbonneau’s tent.  Clark’s journal entries show concern for the young woman and her baby, whom he nicknamed Pompey.  While we cannot know how these people got along, the journal entries that mention Sacagawea indicate sympathy and concern when she is unwell, admiration for her fortitude, and appreciation of her calm under pressure.  Both Lewis and Clark recorded that Clark had occasion to reprimand Charbonneau for hitting her on August 14, 1805. The expedition leaders’ regard for the young woman may have been enhanced by their feeling that Native Americans watching the party as it made its way through their territory felt that the presence of an Indian woman with a child strapped to her back revealed their good intentions.  In October 1805, Clark underlined that side of things: “The wife of Shabono [Charbonneau] our interpetr we find reconsiles all the Indians, as to our friendly intentions a woman with a party of men is a token of peace”

Thus the woman who was taken on because she would be able to help Lewis and Clark negotiate with the Shoshone Indians played a greater role than expected because of her familiarity with the territory they were crossing and its peoples, and her foraging skills.  In what might be read nowadays as an ironic tribute, in May 1805, Lewis reported he had found a “stream we called Sah-ca-gar we-ah … after our interpreter the Snake woman.”   Later, on the return journey, he carved his name and the date on an outcrop of rock near modern-day Billings, Montana, which he named Pompey’s Tower (Today it is known as Pompey’s Pillar National Monument).  His affection for the boy led to his offering to raise him.  Seen in this light, It is easy to understand how Eva Emery Dye and others were tempted to romanticise Sacagawea’s modest but crucial contribution to the Corps of Discovery long after the expedition’s “discovery” of the western part of the continent.

Interpretess

Sacagawea’s key moment as “interpretess” came in early August 1805 when she realised – by recognising a landmark – that they were finally in Shoshone territory. On August 17^th, Clark wrote: “The Interpeter & Squar who were before me at Some distance danced for the joyful Sight, and She made signs to me that they were her nation .  . . The Great Chief of this nation proved to be the brother of the Woman with us and is a man of Influence.”  The chief was Cameahwait, and Sacagawea was delighted to be reunited with him.  “That evening, serious discussion began, with a translation chain—from the captains to Francois Labiche to Charbonneau to Sacagawea to Cameahwait and back. The ‘interpretess’ was now at work, beginning her most significant contribution to the expedition.” ⁹

The account of the meeting in the journals makes it clear that the speech given to the Shoshone was the standard Lewis and Clark presentation. “[W]e called them together and through the medium of Labuish [Labiche], Charbono and Sah-cah-gar-weah, we communicated to them fully the objects which had brought us into this distant part of the country …” They were informed of the purpose of the expedition, the strength of the United States government, and its good intentions.  The importance of trade was stressed as was the need for the explorers to push west to find new trade routes and “that it was mutually advantageous to them as well as to ourselves that they should render us such aids as they had it in their power to furnish in order to haisten our voyage and of course our return home …”

This meeting is a good example of the linguistic complexities faced by the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  It involved interpreting English into French, French into Hidatsa, and Hidatsa into Shoshone (and back again), by a team of Metis men and a Shoshone woman. The much-required horses were indeed obtained and the expedition was able to move on to the west coast of the continent and reached the Pacific coast in November 1805.

The account of the return journey includes a few references to Sacagawea, mainly to do with her foraging.  Lewis and Clark took their leave of Charbonneau, Sacagawea, and Jean Baptiste in August 1806, after the Corps of Discovery had returned to Mandan Territory.  Their stories were intertwined for both the near and distant future, however.   Charbonneau took up the offer of land made to those who had served the expedition but sold it back to Clark and returned to trading. He and Sacagawea headed back up the Missouri River but she was poorly.  John Luttig, a clerk at Fort Manuel, a trading post far up the river reported in December 1812 that Charbonneau’s wife had died.  He did not give her name, which is how her rediscovery in the late nineteenth century gave rise to speculation, romanticisation, and legend beyond the scope of this piece. 

There is an interesting post-script to the story of Drouillard, Charbonneau, and Sacagawea.  Clark did take responsibility for young Jean Baptiste’s education at St Louis Academy.  The young man later moved west and was working in a trading post near what is now Kansas City in October 1823 when he met Duke Friedrich Paul Wilhelm of Württemberg, who was on a tour being led by his father. He ended up agreeing to travel to Europe with the Duke and stayed in Württemberg for six years.  By the time he returned to the United States, he was proficient in German as well English, French, and more than one Native American language.  He appears to have followed in his parents’ footsteps, working as a guide and interpreter for traders and visitors, but that’s another story.  ¹⁰

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This post is for Zoë Hewetson – with thanks for having suggested a piece Sacagawea some time back.

1. Barkwell, L.J. “The Metis Men of the Lewis and Clark Expedition 1804-1806.” Winnipeg: Louis Riel Institute, Saskatoon: Gabriel Dumont Institute, Virtual Museum of Metis History and Culture, 2011, p. 2
2. Eva Emery Dye, quoted in Taber, R.W. “Sacagawea and the Suffragettes: An Interpretation of a Myth” in The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Jan., 1967, Vol. 58, No. 1, pp. 7-13, p. 8.
3. August 17, 1806. All quotes from the Journals are from The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Journals of Lewis and Clark, by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. NB: Editor’s Note: Misspellings, inventive punctuation and lack of punctuation along with variable capitalization, and not entirely clear abbreviations have been left as is.
4. Tomkins, W. Indian Sign Language, Dover Publications, Inc., Garden City, NY, 1969, pp. 8-11, 40, 41, 59.
5. Hunt, R.R. “Eye Talk, Ear Talk: Sign Language, Translation Chains, and Trade Jargon on the Lewis & Clark Trail”, We Proceeded On, August 2006, Volume 32, No. 3, the quarterly journal of the Lewis and Clark Foundation. Quoted on the Discovering Lewis and Clark website,http://www.lewis-clark.org/article/1744
6. Ibid.
7. Jager, R.K. Malinche, Pocahontas, and Sacagawea, Indian Women as Cultural Intermediaries and National Symbols. U of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK, 2015, p. 47.
8. Kartunnen, F. Between Worlds: Interpreters, Guides and Survivors. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ, 1994, p. 28
9. http://www.lewis-clark.org/article/2668
10. Kartunnen, op. cit. p. 38