Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1906-04-02
ANOTHER STORY OF SACAWEA
CONTINUED from Page ~

| evidently mistaken.
We are told by Charles Larpenteur,
in his Forty Years in the Fur Trade"
that he met Touissant Chabonneau on
the Missouri above Fort Clark, I'M
1888, while voyaging down The Mis-
souri, in a Mackinaw boat He was
with Robert Christy, of St. Louis, and
was passing through dangerous sec
ton of the Indian country, having
been shot at the day before by band
of Assinneboine Sioux In speaking
of the days voyage, he says:
eve kept On in a pleasant manner
until about II o'clock, when we dis
covered a large number of Indians on
the river, running back and forth
gathering on a small hill near the
bank, their manner appearing hostile
to us. We knew not what to do.
1T was thought best by some to
land on the opposite shore, but not
feeling like footing it l was for stay
ing with the boat
AllSl d IllIlc IuSy all
agreed to follow my example, so I
placed a supply of tobacco on the
bow of the boat in full sight, to pro-
duce as good effect as possible, and
on we went.
when they saw us coming :hey in
creased in numbers and our fears
rosa in prCDortioD hut loon IN ua
must. When our fears were at the
highest pitch we perceived an indi
vidual with pants and red flannel
shirt on, looking like a white man.
''To our surprise and joy we found
that it was old Mr.. Charbonneau, who
had been forty years on the Missouri
among the Indians And ne used to
say that when he first came on the
river it was so small he could straddle
it. Imagine our joy to find ourselves
befrended instead of butchered, as
we had thought we we're surely going
to be. The tobacco was presented to
such Indians as the old gentlemen de-
sired, and we resumed our paddles"
This was the last white man that
was known to have seen Chabonneau,
and it is presumed that he died
among the Indians on the Missouri
river soon after.
And again, on the 14th of July, she
was praised by him for plotting them
down through Bozeman's pass, to
Pompey's pillar on the Yellowstone.
There, on that natural monument,
Captain Clark carved his name, in
commemoration of their safe passage
over the high summit of the Rocky
Mountains
When the explorers returned to the
Mandan villages, the modest and
faithful Bird-Woman, with her less
useful husband severel their connec-
ton with the expedition and resumed
their wild life in the upper Missouri
country
Twice afterward, history gives us
a brief glimpse of Sacawea, with
her volatile French husband.
Once through General Clark, when
he offered to educate their young half
breed son; and later by Breckenridge,
who voyaged up the Missouri with
Manuel Lisa in a keel boat, in 1911.
In speaking of them, Breckenridge
says:
1--WE had on board Frenchman
named Charbonneau with his wife, an
Indian woman of the Snake nation,
r both of whom had accompanied Lewis
and Clark to the Pacific, and were of
, great service. to them.
f ''The woman, a good creature of a
mild and gentle disposition, is greatly
attached tothe whites, whose manners
, and dress she tries to initiate. She
r has become sickly and longs to re-
. visit her native country
We find in the writings of Warren
Ferris, an ex-employe of the American
Fur company, mention of having seen
the lhalf-breed son of Sacawea in 1880.
In speaking of their adventures,
p while crossing the parched plains of
! Idaho with Robidoux, from Snake
J. river to the Maladi, the narrative runs
as follows:
eve spent the night and the follow
q ing morning in the charitable office
= of carrying water to our enfeebled
i companions who had fingered behind,
. and their poor beasts that had been
: left by the way, and we succeeded in
r getting them all to our camp on the
!, Maladi except the person and animals
of Charbonneau, one of our men, who
could be nowhere found, and was sup.
v posed to have wandered from the trail
and persisted.
eve trapped the Maladi to its
source, crossed to the head Of the
Gordiaz, and down 1t to Cacheh valley,
: where we found Dripps and Fonten,
ellie, together with our lost companion
III 1o.& <,,r +xos1