When and where did Lewis and Clark hire the French fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau and his Shoshone wife Sacagawea to act as an interpreters on the journey ahead?

Answer 1

Lewis and Clark traveled up the Missouri River to what later became known as Ft. Mandan. Here they spent their first winter and built a fort (it later became known as Ft. Mandan because of the Mandan Indians there). At this location there was a Frenchman (fur trapper/trader) with is Shoshone wife (he had two Indian wives but Sacagawea was the Shoshone wife that was beneficial to Lewis and Clark) Sacagawea had been captured by the Hidatsas Indians several years earlier and Tousaint Charbonneau took her for his wife -- Indian style (who knows what that was). But it was Sacagawea that was of interest to Lewis and Clark for her knowledge of the territory and the language of the Shoshones (the Snake Indians) whom they knew they would encounter. That winter, Sacagawea had a little baby, Jean-Baptiste Charboneau (nicknamed Pomp), so the party did not depart Ft. Mandan until the baby was old enough to travel with the party (probably 1-3 months old). Sacagawea carried this little baby on her back all the way to the Pacific Ocean and back to St. Louis. I think it was Clark who like this baby very much and offered to educate him in a white man's school when he was old enough to leave his mother. Clark did as he promised and provided a very good education. Baptiste had the opportunity during this time to travel to Europe and was even introduced to several royalty personalities. He learned to speak German, giving his language repertoire of French (from his father) English from Lewis and Clark and the school, and he learned German while in Europe. When he returned, for some reason he became disaffected with the white man's world and returned to the Indians. He did continue he white man's contact by serving in several scouting ventures as the white men pushed on further west. (Note: I just wrote this by memory as I remember reading about it. There may be some slight mistakes in what I have said but most of it is right.) By the way, Sacagawea's sister died soon after giving birth to a baby boy named Bazil, and thus this baby boy also was considered Sacagawea's son but only by adoption. This boy was slightly older that Baptiste. Bazil later married and had a daughter named Maggie, who married a White man named Shadrack Large, who lived in Southern Wyoming. Their son, Charlie, married my grandmother's half-sister. One of Charlie Larges sisters married one of my grandmother's half-brothers. The living decendants mostly live on the Wind River Indian Reservation at present.