The Chouteau Family and the Osage Trade:

A Generational Study

TANIS CHAPMAN THORNE

With the publication of Jennifer Brown's writing that the key to understanding the A.~eri­ Strangers in Blood and Sylvia Van Kirk's "Many can fur trade is through an investigation of Tender Ties," a social history of mixed- blood how the "traditional French bi-cultural approach families in the fur trade is fast acquiring form worked in North America. 113 and discipline. This trend in scholarship has From the time of its founding in 1764 to been accelerated by the redefinition of the fur the mid-19th century, the city of St. Louis, trade as, in John Elgin Foster's words, "a set Missouri, was the entrep1lt of the fur trade of of politico-economic alliances, linking various the American West, and no family rose to greater Indian bands and the traders of different trading wealth and prominence than the Chouteaus. The systems. 111 Marriages between traders and Indian foundation for the family's wealth w~s in its women, it has been argued, cemRnted trade trade with the Osage, a numerous, Siouian­ alliances by facilitating political harmony and speaking tribe, which occupied lands along the economic cooperation. 2 lower Missouri River in the late 18th century. I would like to discuss the significance of The Osage's military prowess, their proximity kinship ties in the American fur trade, specifi­ to St. Louis, and their predisposition to hunt cally the trade between the Creoles of St. Louis and to engage in the fur trade made this tribe and the Osage Indians. Such a study is a much-coveted trading partner by St. Louis 4 necessary because of the neglect that French fur residcnts. traders have suffered in the historical The Chouteau half brothers, Rene Auguste literature. The eminent American historian (1749-1829) and (Jean) Pierre (1758-1849), were Howard Lamar called for such a study in 1977, trading with the Osage as early as 1777. In

The author is a doctoral candidate in U.S. history working on her dissertation, "People of the River: Mixed-Blood Families on the Central Plains," at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she has also earned masters' degrees in folklore (1975) and U.S. history (1979). She received a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has been managing editor of Comitatus published by the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA, a member of the editoriaJ board of the UCIA Historical Journal, the author of publications including "Almanacs of the San Francisco Bay Regicn, 1850-1861," and a recipient of the University of California Chancellor's Fellowship.

109 1794, the Chouteau brothers obtained a monopoly precursor to trade. Perrin du Lac, for example, over the Osage trade from the Spanish government, described a trade expedition of 1802 in which which they enjoyed until 1802 when Manuel Lisa he was feted in turn by Kansas headmen and, persuaded the Spanish authorities to turn the "according to their customs," was offered their monopoly over to him and his associates.5 daughters. "I accepted those of a great chief," Undaunted, Pierre convinced a major portion of he wrote, "whom I was afraid of displeasing by the tribe to move southwest into Oklahoma away a refusal 119 from Lisa's jurisdiction. Later, the Americans The standard works on St. Louis and its established an Osage factory and permitted only founding families are silent on the Indian a few licensed traders to enter Indian country. branches of the Chouteau family . 10 The descen-· After the demise of the factory system in 1822, dants of the family in St. Louis have been the Chouteau family rapidly resumed its trade extremely anxious to represent themselves, like dominance under the leadership of a second and Natty Bumppo in the Leatherstocking Tales, as a third generation. How the Chouteaus maintained people with "no cross." Few historians disputed their suprem~cy as preferred trading partners to their self-deception until the 1920s and 1930s the Osage, in view of the heavy competition for when Nettie Beauregard, archivist and librarian this valuable ally, has not been explained of the Missouri Historical Society, compiled and satisfactorily by historians, yet ample testi­ analyzed materials on the Indian Chouteaus. mony attests to the dominance, if not monopoly, The existing records generally corroborate her enjoyed by the Chouteaus. One government agent conclusion that the mixed-blood Chouteaus living spoke before the United States Senate in 1833 in Oklahoma were descendants of Pierre Chouteau, about "the unlimited influence the Chouteaus Sr. 's sons, August Pierre and Paul Liquest, but seem to possess over the Osage Nation. 116 The some evidence supports John Joseph Mathew's authority on Indian relations in the Sm1thwest, minority opinion that August and/or Pierre, Sr., Grant Foreman, wrote: "Other traders came from had children by Osage women as well. 11 For time to time, one after another to share the example, on 2 August 1792, a license was granted field; but the Chouteaus, firmly entrenched in "mestiso" Antonio Chouteau to employ five the confidence of the Indians and the ways of persons in trade on the Missouri River.12 Other the business, outlasted them all. 117 evidence includes the St. Louis Catholic Church While it would be imprudent to underestimate records of 1803, which reveal the burial of an the political and economic power wielded by this infant son, Francois, and the baptism of anothe~ important St. Louis family, the key to the Antoine, born of one Paul Chouteau and an Osage Chouteaus' success, I believe, was the social Indian woman. 13 When Reverend Charles de la relationship that developed among the Chouteaus, Croix made the first visit of a clergyman to their employees, and the Osage. That the the Osage country in 1822, he baptized numerous Chouteaus would have entered into marital mixed-bloods, including Antoine Chouteau born alliances with the women of the tribes with whom in 1817, Susanne born in 1813 at the "appartement they traded would be no departure from estab·· a Paul P. Chouteau," and James born in 1815 of lished practice in St. Louis, where their "many Francois Chouteau. 14 Thus, we have the identi­ intermarriages produced a tight core of social ties of at least three Chouteaus--Antonio, and business eminence," as one historian has Francois, and Paul, all born before 1800--who 8 written. Moreover, the Indians of the lower are not found in the genealogical records of Missouri River saw marriage alliances as a legitimate Chouteau children and who were llO associated either by blood or by residence with dealings with Noel Mongrain, whose mother was the Osage. Apparently some mixed-blood the aunt of Chief White Hair and who married Chouteaus were flourishing before the second the daughter of White Hair, Marie Pahushan. generation established itself in the Osage Joseph Lambert, like Noel Mongrain, had lived country. in the Osage country and had an Osage wife and The precise dates of birth and parentage of children; one offspring of Lambert and four of the above-mentioned persons would be impossible Mongrain were baptized in St. Louis between 18 to determine, but from the existing evidence it 1801 and 1803. is possible to construct some tentative hypoth­ With the changeover to American rule in eses about the Choute~us' relationship to their 1803 and Pierre Chouteau's appointment as mixed- blood kin and to mixed-bloods in general commissioner of Indian affairs, Pierre hired in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Noel as government interpreter and Joseph as These hypotheses bring into question the popular blacksmith to the Osage; positions which they conception cf mixed-bloods as "marginal" held for many years. Pierre always personall y 15 people. First, mixed-bloods enjoyed some paid the salaries of these men, and he was freedom of movement between Indian country and pressed in 1806 to answer charges that he hired St. Louis and its environs. Second, they were his debtors or old employees to fill government socially accepted in the Creole communities posts. The loyalty of rhese employees, it was where the economies were based on the fur trade. suspected, was first to Pierre Chouteau and not 19 Third, many mixed-bloods were exposed to Creole to the United States. Although they occupied culture--its customs, religion, and languBge-- well- paying positions as public servants, Noel and were partially or completely acculturated. 16 and Pierre saw no reason to curtail their Fourth, the Chouteau family maintained a close trading activities. In late 1804 Pierre asked relationship with men of Indian-kin connections, for a license to trade with the White Hair and engaging them as interpreters and agents and Grand Piste bands, and in 1805 he dispatched thereby consciously manipulating kinship ties Noel to interpret for his four traders at for economic and political advantage. Chouteau's Arkansas post. After Pierre was Such an assessment finds support in appointed agent for the Osage in 1807, he Washington Irving's description of early 19th­ continued to promote his own interests with the century St. Louis: "The old French houses cooperation of Noel Mongrain. The Osage treaty engaged in the Indian trade had gathered around of 1808, for example, gave sizable land grants 2 them a train of dependents, mongrel Indians, to them both. 0 mongrel Frenchmen, who had intermarried with Whether Pierre Chouteau had intended the Indians. These they employed in their various site for his 1808 land claim to become an out­ expeditions by 1 an d an d water. 11 17 Furt h er post for trading and trapping expedit ions is evidence for the hypotheses can be found by not clear, but such an outpost, called Cote Sans documenting the long and intimate association Dessein, was established in the same year under of the Chouteaus ,vith the mixed-blood Mongrain the direction of the Roy brothers. This settle­ and Lambert families. The Chouteaus' acquain­ ment of French- Canadians and Osage mixed- bloods tance with these families can be traced to the was located at the mouth of the Osage River and 1790s. As commander of Fort Carondolet, the was part of a Spanish land grant made in 1800 Spanish trading post in western Missouri, Pierre to Baptiste Duchoquette. It was in a key Chouteau, Sr., probably had occasion to have location for travel and trade up the Missouri

111 and to the Osage villages. The area was also at once .... 1123 A few days later, A. P. wrote rich in beaver, deer, and bear, and most of the again saying he agreed that it would be impossi­ inhabitants lived by hunting and trapping. ble to stop Baptiste's "talk ... , but while we Duchoquette sold the grant to Pierre Chouteau have him, let us get out of h im what we can." in 1816. Historian Ovid Bell was convinced When Mongrain died ten years later, Papin was Duchoq.iette had been a "straw man" in securing genuinely bereaved. 24 the grant, and that it was Pierre Chouteau who Other hi.storians have adequately described promoted the post "for his gain. 112 1 the careers of A. P. and Liquest Chouteau in the From 1802 to 1822, then, Chouteau family Osage trade. 25 While one must be careful not to influence with the Osage did not necessarily oversimplify or to denigrate the importance of wane. Pierre Chouteau-- through his agency other factors contributing to the successful appointments, his friendship with the Mongrains consolidation of the trade after the demise of and Lamberts, his legal and illegal trading the factory system, it is not inappropriate to operations, his kin connections with Osage point out the significance of kinship ties in Indians, and his involvement in Cotes Sans the trade operations of the second-generation Dessein-- maintained a watchful eye over the Chouteaus. Trusted relatives-- half brothers, Osage trade. Thus, when the second-generation first cousins, nephews--were put in charge of Chouteaus entered the trade between 1810 and strategically placed posts, and mixed- bloods 1820, they possessed many advantages over other were effectively used as a labor force: to prospectivP Osage traders: their fathers' accompany bands on seasonal hunts, to run political and economic power; their introduction messages, and to transport goods by wagon and at an early age to the bicultural society of kcelboat. 26 Although they had white wives in traders, trappers, and interpreters from the St. Louis, the Chouteaus' adoption of the Osage country; and their familiarity with Osage "custom of the country" in taking Indian wives customs and language. also helped, for it gained them the trust of The sons of Pierre Chouteau, Sr., August the Indians and mixed-bloods. Pierre (1786-1838) and Paul Liquest (1792- 1851), A. P. may have had as many as seven chil-· formed a partnership to trade with the Osage dren by five Osage women before 1825; at least after Liquest's partner, a mixed-blood adopted two of these women were sisters, the daughters by the Osage, was killed by Cherokee in 1821. of Joseph Lamhert. 27 Paul Liquest fathered six The partners lost no time in exploiting the children by at least three different Osage women 28 loyalties of the Mongrains and Lamberts. August between 1824 and 1832. Cousins Pierre (hereafter A. P.) persuaded two Osage bands to Mellicour Papin and A. A. Chouteau also had come with him to the Three Forks of the Arkansas mixed-blood children; one of Papin's wives was where he directed trade operations. The Lamberts Noel Mongrain's daughter Sophie. In the late and other mixed-blood families willingly accom­ 1830s, Papin was living with her in the Nion-cho 22 panied this migration. Pierre Mellicour Papin (Neosho) village where her brothers were . 29 (1793-1849), the younger Chouteau's first cousin, important headmen. Among the Osage, polygamy was transferred from western Missouri to the was a standard practice, and they approved of Neosho River post, La Saline; here A. P. wrote early marriages for females. The traders appear to him in January 1824 to "send for Baptiste to have readily adapted to these customs. A. P. Noel [Mongrain] and have him bring the may have fathered children by young women barely 30 Indians[.] Pay their credit and make the trade 13 years of age.

112 Although the Catholic and Protestant mis­ penniless. 33 Pierre Mellicour's son by the sionaries who became active in the Osage country Osage woman Mitchage fared even better. Two after 1820 generally had very harmonious rela­ years after he was born in 1847, P. M. Papin, tionships with the traders and agents, they were Jr., was willed all of his father's lands in less than sanguine when they observed what they Bates County, Missouri, and $3000 in trust for considered to be immoral sexual practices. In his maintenance and education. 33 letters to authorities in Washington, D.C., one One of Paul Liquest's children received a missionary openly criticized "the too common land allotment in Missouri according to the illicit and adulterous intercourse among the terms of the treaty of 1825, but Liquest did not Indian women" practiced by traders and agents. recognize his mixed-blood children in his will. The missionary thus precipitated a feud with the He did acknowledge his illegitimate white son, Chouteaus, which ended with the "obnoxious" Edward (1813-59). Although he was a "natural" 31 clergyman being ejected from Indian country. son, Edward received a good education at St. Though they may have lost the battle, the Mary's College before he entered the Osage missionaries had not lost the war. They had a country where he became a successful and well­ strong influence on the mixed- bloods with whom liked trader. His generous character is they established their missions, and more described by Joseph LaBarge, Jr. , the Missouri monogamous marital arrangements seem to have River steamboat captain, who relates how Edward 32 prevailed. The sexual alliances of A. P. came to his aid with food and blankets at Chouteau may not have been as promiscuous as personal risk to himself. Edward married they certainly appear, for much evidence Rosalie Captaine (1809-88), member of a promi­ supports the view that Rosalie Lambert main­ nent mixed-blood family who had connections with tained a fairly stable relationship with A. P. the Beaver band. When he retired, Edward over fifteen years. Rosalie, her brother returned to St. Louis and married a white woman. Antoine, and Rosalie's and her sister Masina's As he had been remembered by his father, Edward four children were given land allotments at in turn gave his three surviving children by A. P. 's La Saline post by Article 5 of the Osage Rosalie an annuity for life in his will. 35 Two Treaty of 1825. This accounts for six of the of these children, Sophie and Louis, later eight mixed- blood allottees for whom A. P. became followed the family tradition and became official guardian in 1835. With all good inten­ traders. 36 tions, according to historians Janet Lecompte Paul Liquest's mixed-blood progeny were and Grant Foreman, A. P. sold these lands and raised in a social and cultural environment invested in 32 Negro slaves, which were to be his distinct from that of the full-blood Osage. The legacy to his mixed-blood heirs . Unfortunately, mixed-blood Osage, who comprised a "half-breed when A. P. died deeply in debt in 1838, some of band" numbering 250 in the enrollment of 1870, the Negroes were seized by creditors and others tended to reside close to the missions, posts, ran away. AgentMonteford Stokes, who knew the and agencies, and were exposed to many "civi­ family, successfully petitioned the government lizing" influences. Liquest's children, along to recover the losses of A. P. 's "widow" and with their cousins, were among those who built heirs. Curiously, the United States government log cabins for dwellings , received some educa­ recognized the legitimacy of A. P. 's Osage family tion at the missions, owned farms and ranches, while A. P. 's white wife and six children in St . and who were given special recognition by the Louis, whom he had abandoned earlier, were l eft government in treaty negotiations. They

113 typically intermarried with other mixed-bloods of economic security and a great deal of or whites rather than Indians. Two third­ prestige, power, and personal freedom. generation Chouteaus, Gesso (A. P . 's son) and In a sense, the second generation behaved Peter (Liquest's son) were among the 19 Osage conservatively. In accompanying the French who applied to become citizens in 1870. 37 A. Creoles in their exodus from St. Louis and away P. 's other mixed-blood children spent most of from the Americans who were transforming the their lives in southeastern Oklahoma near the city, they were preserving for a time a pattern emigrant Cherokee rather than the Osage, and of social relations and a way of life known by they appear to have been adopted by the Cherokee their fathers. This was a way of life in which 38 tribe after his death. respect for and accommodation to Indian ways In conclusion, I would like to stress that were taken for granted and in which inter­ the kinship among the Chouteaus, their employees, marriage with Indians was a means of economic and the Osage created a web of loyalty and mobility and not the cause for social ostracism. familiarity that provided the Chouteau family The experience of the third-generation with an entrepreneurial edge in the fur trade. Chouteaus bears out this latter interpretation. The extremely successful first generation main­ This was not a generation suffering from social tained strong economic and social ties with the anomie due to the neglect of irresponsible Osage, but they resided in St. Louis and identi­ parents, but a generation firmly attached to the fied with the society there. Mixed-blood Creole culture and the Catholic Church . Recent 1: I children by the first generation Chouteaus may American historians have faulted the mixed­ I , have received some assistance in becoming traders bloods for their acculturation to white ways in I: or interpreters, but they were not publicly an attempt to explain the schism between the I' acknowledged. The second generation Chouteaus full- and mixed-blood Osage that developed in appear to have departed from patterns set by the mid-19th century. 38 Such an assessment,

' 'I their fathers by breaking social ties with St. which casts the mixed-bloods as traitors to the Louis, leaving their white families behind, Indian cause, does not take into consideration forming unions with Indian women, and becoming that mixed-bloods were subject to very different permanent residents in the Indian country. The historical forces than full-bloods. Third­ paternity of mixed-blood children was acknow­ generation mixed-bloods were imbued with a ledged, and some of the children were even culture distinct from either Indians or whites, included in wills. and they defined their prerogatives and social One could argue that the decision to abandon responsibilities in ways that were consistent St. Louis and adopt the "customs of the country" with that culture . was not voluntary. Like many other traders, the NOTES second generation had a fondness for drink, a }_. "The Indian Trader in the Hudson's Bay Fur penchant for indebtedness, and a tendency towards Trade Tradition," National Museum Ef Man Series, vol. 2, no . 28, p . 573 . See also profligacy common to the privileged sons of Wallis Smith, "Fur Trade and Frontier: Study wealthy parents. Physical deformity and illegit­ of Inter-Cultural Alliance," Anthropologica 15 (1973), 21-35 . imacy also numbered among their defects. Al­ 2. For articles on this subject, see John Elgin though joining the Indians may have been an Foster, "Origins of the Mixed Blood on the Canadian West," and Sylvia Van Kirk, "The escape, it was also a sound occupational choice. Custom of the Country: An Examination of Fur Because of the Chouteau connections, the fur­ Trade Marriage Practices," in Essays on Western History, Lewis Thomas, ed . , (Univer­ trading profession promised a reasonable measure sity of Alberta , 1976), and Harry Anderson,

114 "Fur Traders as Fathers: Origins of the 1971), 34. Mixed-Blooded Community Among the Rosebud 10. Frederic Billon, Annals of St. Louis (St. Sioux," South Dakota History 3 (Summer 1973). Louis, 1886); Paul Beckwith-;-cr~ of St. 3. The Trader on the American Frontier: Myth's Louis (St. Louis, 1893); Scharf, Hist;;=-yof Victim (Texas A& M University Press, 1977), St. Louis ... ; and Beatrice Turner, The 37. Chou~Family (St. Louis, 1934). -- 4. The Osage (Big and Little) produced 60 11. Beauregard to Mr. William Lucas, letter of percent of the packets of skins shipped to 30 Nov. 1931, Oklahoma Chouteaus' File, New Orleans from the lower Missouri River Chouteau Collection, Missouri Historical tribes in 1777. From then until 1804, the Society (hereafter Ch. Col, MHS). Dr. percentage of St. Louis's merchants' capital Emmett Starr worked on the genealogy of the investment in the Osage trade remained Osage Chouteaus in the l920s and "found so relatively constant at between 50 and 55 many descendants [at the Pawhuska agency percent. These figures are extrapolated in Oklahoma] C.E. Chouteau to N. Beauregard, from the Spanish documents printed in Louis 22 Feb. 1928, in idem. Houck, The Spanish Regime in Missouri, 2 12. "Trudeau to Carondolet, St. Louis, Nov. 1, vols., (Chicago: R.R. Donnelley and Sons & 1792" in Nasatir, Before Lewis and Clark Co., 1909), 1:53, 87, 93, 101, 139 (1772-77), (hereafter BLC), 1:162; Mathews, The Osages, 209 (1794), and 626 (1800) and Abraham 285, 297; John Rydjord, Kansas Place Names Nasatir, ed., Before Lewis and Clark: (Norman, 1972), 119-20. ------Documents Illustrating the History of the 13. Oscar Collet, Index to St. Louis Cathedral Missouri, 1785-1804, 2 vols. (St. Louis, and Carondolet ChurchR~or"a"s7 vols. (St. 1952), 2:534-44 ("Trudeau to Governor ... Louis, 1918), v~(Baptisms, 1765- 1839) 1798") and 758-60 ("Chouteau to Gallatin ... and 3 (Burials, 1770-1840), Typescript in 1804"--original in the Pierre Chouteau Missouri Historical Society. Paul Liquest, Letterbook, Chouteau Collection, Missouri legitimate son , of Pierre, Sr., was born in Historical Society). 1792 and could not be the parent here. 5. Houck, Spanish Regime in Missouri, 1:139; Paul and perhaps Antonio may not have been Ray Allen Billington, Western Expansion, 4th the issue of trade marriages, but rather ed., (New York, 1974), 370; John Joseph the children of either August, Sr., or Mathews, The Osages: Children of the Middle Laclede by Indian slave women emancipated Waters (Norman, Okla., 1961), 295-97 ;--­ by the Spanish government. In the "Declar­ Nasatir, Before Lewis and Clark, 2:641- 68, ations Received by Pedro Piernas Concerning 677-80, 687-90. -- - -- Indian Slaves at St. Louis, July 12, 1770," 6. U.S. Senate Documents, 23d Congress, 1st two slave women with three sons are listed session, no. 512, vol. 4, p. 228, quoted in belonging to the Laclede-Chouteau family; Grant Foreman, Pioneer Days in the Early the names of the boys were Paul, Louis, and Southwest, Rev. ed., (Norman-:-Okla.~6), [ms. torn]. Quoted in Lawrence Kinnaird, 19; Louis Burns, "The Fur Trading Ventures ed., Spain in the Mississippi Valley, 1765- of August Pierre Chouteau and Pierre "Cadet" 1794:~s~t~s of Materials from t~ Chouteau," (MA, Teachers' College of Emporia, Spanish Archives in the Bancroft Library, Kansas State, 1950) and Stella Drumm, 3 volumes, published in the Annual Report "Chouteau's Trading Posts," Dictionary of of the American Historical Association for American History (New York, 1940) 1:369. the Year 1945, vols. 2-4 (Washington: 7. Tulsa Daily World (18 Aug. 1935), sec. 4, Government Printing Office, 1949), vol. 2, p. lO;~also John Thomas Scharf, History pt. 1, p. 177. of~ Louis City and County (Philadelphia, 14. These baptisms were performed at the trad­ 1883), 1:288. ing post of Paul Liquest Chouteau in Bates 8. Janet Lecompte, "Jean Pierre Chouteau," in County, Missouri, and Liquest stood as Leroy Hafen, ed., Mountain Men and Fur Trade godfather to Antoine, not as father as has of the Far West, 10 vols. (Glendale--:--Calif., been stated erroneously. ("Paul P. 1965- 1972) .~ p. 91. Chouteau is probably a misreading of Paul 9. "Extract from the Travels of Perrin du Lac, L. Chouteau.) Curiously, Paul Loise, U.S. 1802" in Nasatir, Before Lewis and Clark, interpreter to the Osage, born in 1775, is 2:708. In a "Memorial by [Manuel] Lisa and also called Paul Chouteau; Foreman, "Our Others ... 1801" in idem, 655, Lisa wrote of Indian Ambassadors to Europe," Collections the common practice of tr~ders acquiring ~ the Missouri Historical Society II Indian wives and children. See Richard (1928), 125; Clarence E. Carter, Oglesby, Manuel -Lisa and the Opening of the ~orial Papers of the United States Missouri Fur Trade ofthe Far West (Norman: (Washington, 1934) ,14:243~ge baptisms University of Oklahoma, 1963), 152-53, for of the 19th century are recorded in at the story of Lisa's marriage to Mitain, least four different registers (for daughter of an Omaha chief. See also William Catholics, that is); the original La Croix Unra,_,, The Kansas Indians (Norman, Okla., baptisms, according to Gilbert Garraghan,

115 Jesuits of the Middle United States, 2 vols. and some at Florissant, where they have (New Yor~ 1938~93- 94n., are in the been instructed in the true religion." See Registre des Baptemes, St. Ferdinand's also, Van Quickenborne to Madame Xavier, Church, Florissant, MO., [available on 1827, quoted in Garraghan, Saint Ferdinand microfilm from the University of Missouri, de Florissant (Chicago, 1923f:209; St. Lou is ] ; for convenience, see the Tixier's Travels on the Osage Prairies transcription of mixed-blood baptisms, [1839], John FrancisMcDermott, ed., 1822- 42, titled "Register Baptismalis (Norman, Okla., 1973), 233; the Missionary Nationis Osagiae," (hereafter BNO), Indians Herald 28:120, and the information about Papers, MRS; the Osage Register (hereafter the residency patterns of the mixed- blood OR) recording the Osage Baptisms, Marriages, Kaw in the letter to the Secretary of the and Burials, 1820- 85, is in the archives Interior, Senate Executive Document 58, of the Passionate Monastery, St. Paul, Kans. 36th Congress 2d session. [available on microfilm from the Kansas 17. Astoria or Anecdotes of an Enterprise State Historical Society, Topeka]. Beyond the Rocky Mountains (New York, 1883), Francois Gesseau Chouteau, son of Pierre, 106. Sr., by his second wife, was born in St. 18. Carondolet reported to Don Luis de las Louis in 1797 and possibly could have been Casas in December, 1795 that Don Renato the father of James. There were female Chouteau had "begun a little colony in the Chouteaus who were not baptized. OR, vol. neighborhood of the fort, which is devoted 2 (Burials, 1847- 76) lists the burial in to agriculture. Intercourse with these 1851 of Margarite Chouteau, 38 years old, colonists will end in rendering the habits lawful wife of Joseph Swiss. Baptiste of those savages more gentle .... " Houck, Mongrain, son of Noel was married to the Spanish Regime, 2:100-02. Jean Baptiste daughter of "Chouteau" in 1832, Washington Mongrain, half- Pawnee, received a license Irving, Western Journals, ed. John Francis to trade the same day as Antonio Chouteau; McDermott (Norman, Okla., 1944), 98; see the next day the Chouteaus lent Mongrain also Janet Lecompte, "August Pierre money, payable in peltries the following Chouteau," in Hafen, ed., Mountain Men, spring. He was apparently killed by Loups 9:67n. near the Arkansas, and his death was quick­ 15. John C. Ewers, the Great Plains historian, ly avenged by his Osage relatives. Nasatir, made this argument in 1962 in an article, BLC, 1:162, 173; 3 Aug. 1792, Ch. Col. MRS. "Mothers "Of Mixed- Bloods: the Marginal Collet, Index to~- Louis Cathedral ..:....:...:.. Woman in the History of the Upper Missouri," Records, lists Jean Baptiste Mongrain, in Probing the American West, K. Ross 28 July 1773, son of Nicolas and an Indian Toole, et al., eds., (Santa Fe, 1962). woman; a son by an Indian woman was bap­ 16. The evidence for the first three hypotheses tized in 1794. A son by a Joseph Mongrain comes from church records primarily: and Antoinet Marechal [metisse of the baptismal records from the parishes of St. nation of Grand Osages] was baptized in Charles, Florissant, Carondolet, and St. Florissant in 1793. Noel Mongrain, parents Louis, enrollment rosters from schools not named, was baptized in St. Louis in established by missionaries, memoirs and 1787. His children by Elizabeth (an Osage) correspondence of clergymen, etc. Archival were baptized in St. Louis 30 Aug. 1801 - centers in St. Louis, notably the Chancery, 8 Feb. 1802; a sixth child, Louis, 3 years, the Provincial Archives, the Vatican by Marie, an Indian, was baptized in April, Library, St. Louis University, and the 1817. Joseph Mongrain and Pierre M. Papin National Archives of the Religious of the testified in 1820 that Noel and Marie had Sacred Heart, have been tapped. Research nine children baptized in St. Louis. is in progress by the author, and support However, as Garraghan, JMUS 2:493-94 has for these hypotheses will be forthcoming in observed, this list does not square with her dissertation, "People of the River: the St. Louis records. Noel, it appears, Mixed-Blood Families on the Lower Missouri." had at least two wives. Marie Pahushan he See especially, Ch. 1: M~tis Prelude. For may not have married until after 1802. evidence supporting the hypotheses which Noel still owned a town lot in St. Louis has already been published, see, for in 1823, Missouri Republican, 13 Aug. 1823. example, Reverend Van Quickenborne's letter A daughter, Therese, was baptized in St. of 1827 to Father Dzierozynski, quoted in Louis in 1803 to Joseph Lambert and an William White Graves, History of Neosho Osage woman. La Croix baptized Rosalie County (St. Paul, Kans., 1949) 1:79- 87, and Oct. 1809, Antoine Aug. 1811, Pierre 1818, Garraghan, Jesuits of the Middle United Helene 1819, and Paul 1822, BNO, MRS. In States 1:186, in which he says descendants 1830, Van Quickenborne baptized Joseph, son of Frenchmen who came to the Osage country of Joseph Lambert, metis Osage, and Juniapi, in 1775 "have lived for a few years, some an Osage, idem. In 1824, Antoine, Robert, at St. Charles, some at Cote Sans Dessein and Ellen, attended the Union Mission

116 school. Irving, Western Journals, 112. connections with the Osage. History of 19. Pierre Chouteau, Sr., Letterbook, 8 Nov. Vernon ~ounty, ~, (St. Louis, 1887), 164; 1804, 7 Nov. 1804, July 1806, and 2 Oct. Tixier's Travels, 113, 119, 139, 153; 1809, Ch. Col.,; "Disbursements by R. Irving, Western Journals, 16, 97, 98, 108, Graham, 2 July 1822, and 1 April - 30 June 112; Charles Latrobe, The Rambler in North 1822, Graham Col. MHS; Carter, Territorial America (London, 1835) ,252, 144- 45;Union Papers, 14:57, 108; and Charles Foster Mission Journal, 1 Nov. 1823 and 6 Dec. Burns, "Auguste and Pierre Chouteau, Fur 1824; Graves, Neosho County, 1:163; and Trading Magnates," (MA, Washington Univer­ Lowrie J. Daly-;--sT. and Garrick Bailey, sity, St. Louis, 1932), 45 for totals of eds., "The Osages and Father John Schoen­ peltries sold between 1804 and 1808. maker, S.J." by Father Paul Mary Ponziglione 20. Letter of Pike to Wilkenson, 28 Aug. 1806, (unpublished manuscript), 28, 59, Vatican in Jackson, ed. Journals of ... Pike, 2: Library, St. Louis University Library, St. 142-43; Carter, Territorial Pape~l4: Louis. 243-44, 290, 292-93; Wayne Morris, "A. P. 26. The oldest child, August Clermont, would Chouteau, Merchant Prince at the Three have to have been born in 1813, if it is Forks of the Arkansas, Chronicles Qi_ the nine-year-old, Augustus Chouteau who Oklahoma 48:2 (Summer 1970), 157n; Letter entered the Harmony Mission school on the of P. Chouteau to Thomas Jefferson, Marais des Cynges River in Feb. 1824. 10 Dec. 1808, P. C., Sr., Letterbook, Harmony enrollments quoted in Doris Denton, Ch. Col., MHS. "Harmony Mission 1821-1837," (MA, Univer­ 21. Ovid Bell, Cote Sans Dessein: A History sity of Kansas, 1929), 34. If August is (Fulton, Mo., 1930), 9-29, 33. Thomas the child of Rosalia Lambert's sister M. Marshall, ed., The Life and Papers Qi_ Masina, (who was living at La Saline during Frederick Bates, 2 vols., (St. Louis: the Irvj_ng-Latrobe-Portales·-Ellsworth visit Missouri Historical Society, 1926), 1:241. of 1832, and identified as the sister of 22. Foreman, Indians and Pioneers, 53-54n, Mr. Chouteau's concubine according to Last Trek of the Indians (New York, 1946), Irving, Western Journals, 108) as has been 267, and "ThreeForks of the Arkansas," alleged by Rosalie Lambert herself, then Chronicles of Oklahoma 2:1 (Mar. 1924), 43; this presents a problem because there are Kinnaird, Spain in the Mississippi Valley, no records of Joseph Lambert's daughter, vol. 3, pt. 2, pp. 224-25. Foreman has who would have been old enough to be August argued that A. P. was Revoir's partner in Clermont's mother; Therese was born in 1817, but Lecompte has challenged this in 1803. His parentage thus remains a mystery. her article, "A. P. C.," 73n; Morris, A. P. Letter of R. A. Snavely to the Missouri Chouteau," 160. Regarding the migration, Historical Society, n.d. [circa 1936-37], see Mathews, The Osages, 497, Joseph B. Oklahoma Chouteaus' File, MHS, and Lecompt~ Thoburn, "History of the First White Settle­ "A. P. C.," 67n. It is interesting to ment in Oklahoma," in the Chouteau Family speculate about whether the mountain man, File, Grant Foreman Collection, Oklahoma "August Clermont," whose biography was State Historical Society Archives, written by Harvey Carter in Hafen, ed., (published in the History of Oklahoma I, Mountain Men 2:95-97, was A. P.'s son. An 1916, 125); and the Reverend F. Vaille's August Clermont w~s a parishoner of the Union Mission Journal, 1820-26, Oklahoma St. Charles, Borremeo Church, ca. 1816. State Historical Society, Library. "Claremont" was the name of the Osage chief 23. A. P. Chouteau at the Ver-di-gris to P. M. killed in 1816 by the Cherokee, along with Papin, 3 Jan. 1824, Ch. Col., MHS. Rivard. It may be that Clermont-Claymore 24. A. P. C. to P. M. Papin, 12 Jan. 1824,and was a prominent Osage-French lineage to P. M. Papin and M. Giraud to Pierre which the Chouteaus were somehow related. Chouteau, Jr., 20 Nov. 1834, Ch. Col., MHS. The only baptismal record of A. P. 's Osage It is possible that the Baptiste Noel children was that of Jesse, alias Gesseau, mentioned in this correspondence is the five years old, baptized by Quickenborne son on Noel, Jean Baptiste ca. 1790, who at Harmony Mission in 1827, BNO, MHS. The rose to a position of influence among the other source of identificati~of A. P. 's Osage; Courtambert and Ti.xier, visiting the children is the text of the treaty of 1825, Osage in 1835 and 1839, respectively, des­ art. 5; see Charles Kappler, ed., Indian cribe Jean Baptiste as chief of the Nion-cho Affairs, Laws and Treaties (Washington, village, Tixier's Travels, 123-24. 1904), 2:218. The mixed-blood allottees 25. Lecompte, "A. P. C.," 73n. gives a list of names were August Clermont, James, Paul, employees for 1823, quoted from the Ayer Henry, Rosalie, Antoine, and two females Col., Newberry Library, Chicago, which named Amelia, whose mothers were She-me­ includes Charles Mongin [Mongrain), Julien hunga (B11ffalo Woman) and Mi-hun- ga, Peras, Antoine Deshetres, Frances Chardon, respectively. Surnames are not provided and Francis Tayan, all who had kin for the La Saline allottees, and one

117 assumes that Rosalie and Antoine were the 14 June 1821, Anderson Family Papers, Lambert siblings. Curiously, in the Osage Microfilm Division, Roll 1, Kansas State Register of 1856, two individuals use the Historical Society. For other reports of name Lambert and Chouteau interchangeably. amicable relations see the Union Mission Also, in the OR is evidence that Rosalie's Journal and Daly and Bailey, Schoenmaker sister was not the mother of August manuscript, already cited. For agent re­ Clermont, for in 1848, a child was born to actions, see Monteford Stokes letter to her and ("Little") August Chouteau. See Commissioner of Indian Affairs Crawford, n.29. 19 Mar. 1839, quoted in Foreman, Pioneer 27. Louis Alexander Chouteau, two years; John Days, 209, 257-58; and the Journal of Francis, ten days; Pelagia, three years Augustin Kennerly, 1832-34, in the Thomas (mother Chimihanga); and Alexander Liqueste, Anderson Moore Collection, MHS, entry for one year (mother Wahchaimitchacai), all 27 Feb. 1833, 49. For the "obnoxious" fathered by Liquest were baptized in 1827; Reverend Fixley's correspondence, see the Pierre Chouteau, 14 years, was baptized in Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1842 and his mother was Wahussamitchsake, Record Group 75, in the National Archives, NO, MHS; James, 19 years, was baptized in Letters Rec'd, Microfilm Series 234, Roll 1851, and his mother was Mixeinewin, OR. 631, Osage Agency, 1824-41, letters of 23 28. A. A. Chouteuu was the son of August June 1824, 27 Apr. 1826, 20 Aug. 1828 Chouteau, Sr.; in 1827, A. A.'s two-and­ (quoted) and Hamtramck's rebuttal, 27 Nov. one-half-year-old son was baptized, BNO; 1828, which is accompanied by several he was known as "Little August Chouteau" supporting documents signed by A. P., amont the Osage and was often a godparent; Liquest, Baµtiste, Mongrain, Pawhuska, and he died in 1849, OR. See Letter of A. A. other chiefs. Graves, Neosho Country, 1: to August Choutea-;:;-:- Sr., 3 Apr. 1816, Ch. 37-40, 56-63; Missionary Herald (1821),

'I Col., MHS for evidence of his profligacy. 17:74, and (1822), 18:214. Van ! ! The two mixed-blood children of Papin, for Quickenborne's impressions of 1827 are whom there are baptismal records, are recorded in Garraghan JMUS, 1:192. Edward, two years, baptized in 1840 and 31. This impression is given in the Osage whose mother was Sophie Mongrain; (Sophie, Register, which records the baptisms of herself, 25 years, was baptized in 1843) Osages after 1847. The Protestants set up BNO, and Peter Mellicour Papin, illegiti­ the Union and Harmony missions in the early ! i mate son of P. S. Papin and Mitchage, 1820s near Chouteau posts where many mixed­ 11 11 baptized in 1847, OR. Papin was living bloods congregated. The treaty of 1825 set I; wit h Sophie on the Neosho River when up mixed- blood allotments near Harmony 'I Tixier visited in 1839, Tixier's Travels, Mission, and many allottees were educated ·I I 116- 23, 151, 159, 220-25, 260. there. The Catholics began making regular '1 I 29. Baptiste and his younger brother, Joseph visits after 1822, considered setting up Noel Mongrain, each had two wives at the a rival mission near Harmony (Garraghan, Nion- cho village in 1839, Tixier's Travels, JMUS, 1:186), but finally established a 124, 182-83; John Mathews, trader at Fort mission and school in the late 1840s near Gibson, married the two Osage daughters of Flatrock Creek in eastern Kansas. Many interpreter Bill Williams, Mathews, The mixed-bloods subsequently settled near this Osages, ix; translation of Louis Cortambert's mission. Voyage au Pays des Osages (ca. 1835) in 32. The basis for much of this information is the Indians' Papers, 1835-36, MHS, 3; Stokes letter to Crawford, 19 Mar. 1839, Graves, Neosho County, 1:37; "Polygamy was Indian Office, Osage reserve file S 1458, prevalent among the Indians and the white which Grant Foreman, Pioneer Days, 257-61 men among them practice it without ceremony quotes in full. See also, Foreman, or restriction." To have been the mother "Monteford Stokes in the Indian Territory," of two of A. P. 's children, James and Henry, North Carolina Historical Review 16:4 (Oct. before the treaty of 1825, Rosalie, born in 1939), p. 395; Lecompte, "A. P. C.," pp. 1809, would have had to have been a child 80-90. Snavely to Beauregard, previously brode. Foremari asserts that the "Mi-hunga' cited in n.17, is another important mentioned in the 1825 treaty was the same document. Washington Irving and his party Mohongo taken by Paul Loise to France in in 1832-33 hired Antoine Lambert to be 1827; she was then 18 years old, Carolyn their guide, and his arrogance was attrib­ Foreman, Indians Abroad, 133-44, and Ms., uted to his being the brother of a Grant Foreman Col., Chouteau Family File, concubine of a great white trader. Estates OSHS. I disagree, as "Hongo" was a clan Envelope, 1838-053, MHS, contains copies of or society among the Osage; Mo-hongo was papers in the St. Louis Court House regard­ probably a common name for females ing the estate of A. P. Chouteau; this affiliated with that clan. includes an affidavit by Pierre Chouteau, 30. Letter of McFarland to Dr. John Anderson, Jr., his brother, saying he knew of no

118 living heirs except those by A. P. 's white were tutored by Mr. B. H. Smith, Foreman, wife in St. Louis. By an act of Congress, Pioneer Days, 92. Gesso was not an says Foreman, the Indian heirs of A. P. allottee~l825, but he lived to marry received compensation for the loss of the Mary Guilbert in the 1840s and Jathered slaves. children by her; he was living near the 33. McDermott, ed., Tixier's Travels, 119n. Osage mission in 1867, having received a McDermott is incorrect in thinking Edward land allotment in the 1865 treaty along was P. S.'s heir. with his cousin Peter. Parsons, "The 34. Ibih, 86, 113, 148. There was also an Removal of the Osages," 274, and Graves, Edward Rene Chouteau, son of August, Sr., Neosho County, 929. who was educated at St. Louis University: 37. In May 1853, Joseph (7 years?) and Antoine Garraghan, St. Louis Catholic Historical (9 years?), sons of August Chouteau and Review I (1919), 96n. Edward Liquest stood Rosalie Lambert were baptized along with as godfather at a baptism in 1827 in the two Negro children "belonging to the Osage country, but was enrolled at St. Chouteau family in the Cherokee Nation," Mary's College, Perry County, between 1827 vol. 2, "Cherokee Nation," OR; the ages of and 1830; he and LaBarge ran away together. these boys are almost indecipherable, but In 1833, he was at Cyprian Chouteau's Kaw they clearly are too young to have been post where he aided his old schoolmate sired by A. P. Chouteau, who died in 1838. LaBarge. Hiram Chittenden, Early Steamboat Rosalie and the children were adopted into Navigation on the Missouri River, 2 vols., the Cherokee tribe, Chouteau Family File, (Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, Inc., 1962) Foreman Col. MS, OSHS Archives. In 1847, 1:19, 34. His children by Rosalie Captaine, a daughter born in 1842, was baptized, who was baptized in 1822, were: Louis Rosalie and Louis Rafe [Ross--a prominent Farramond 1838, Marie Louise 1839 (both mixed-blood Cherokee family ] were the baptized 1841), Sophie 1842, baptized 1843, Parents, OR; in 1851, a daughter of Paul and P. L. Chouteau, baptized 1850, d. 1852, Chouteau and Nancy Rafe was baptized, OR. BNO and OR. A newspaper clipping, "The James Chouteau shows up on the Cherokee Osage Chouteaus" dating from 1904 in the tribe records in the Indian Archives of the Oklahoma Chouteaus envelope, Ch. Col., MRS, OSHS, vols. 46, 47, and 55 (1876-79). See provides much information, some inaccurate, also the letter to Grant Foreman from Mrs. regarding the family. Edward married Julia A.E. Robertson of Hutbert [ ? ] , Oklahoma, Christy 8 Aug. 1849 according to Collet's 9 Dec. 1941 , Chouteau Family File, Foreman Index .Q_f ~- Louis Marriages, 1804-76. Col., OSHS. Edward's will, dated 9 Sept. 1853, is in 38. Valer y Tracy, "Indian in Transition: the the Peugnet Collection, MRS. Neosho Agency, 1850-1861," Chronicles of 35. The clipping, "The Osage Chouteaus" cited Oklahoma 48:2 (Summer 1970), p. 173; - above, includes the information that Sophie Garrick Bailey, "Osage Role: An Analysis," operated a store near Pawhuska; she was Indian Historian 5:1 (Spring 1972), and married to Che-she-hunka, then Little Bear, Craig Miner, The Corporation and the Indian and had four children by the latter. Louis (Columbia, Mo-.-,-1976). was married to Susan Bly in the 1850s according to the OR; he was a fur trader with the Osage andwas killed by a drunken outlaw in 1871, Indian-Pioneer History, 32; 49-50, Oklahoma Historical Society Archives. For an excellent study including much information on the mixed-blood Osage between 1868 and 1872, see David Parsons, "The Removal of the Osages from Kansas" (Ph.D., University of Oklahoma, Norman, 1940); regarding claim jumpers on Lewis P. 's land, 267. 36. Liquest's son Alexander (an allottee in the treaty of 1825) was killed during a card game, Indian-Pioneer History, 10:197, OSHS Archives. Pelagia married Gabriel Stratton in 1842 and Peter married Elizabeth Brant, OR for 1840s and 1850s; Indian-Pioneer Collections, 53:96; 61:292; and 77:207, OSHS Archives; Parsons, "The Removal of the Osages from Kansas," 248, 255, 266-74. Daly and Bailey, eds., Schoenmaker ms., 58, 60-62. The Chouteau children at La Saline

119 RENDEZVOUS

Selected Papers of the

Fourth North American Fur Trade Conference, 1981 I I

Thomas C. Buckley, Editor









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