Expedition Members / Jean Baptiste Charbonneau

Jean Baptiste Charbonneau

By Kristopher K. Townsend

Jean Baptiste Charbonneau was the son of the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s most popular member, Sacagawea, and the too often maligned French Canadian Toussaint Charbonneau. His storied life can be roughly divided into periods. His first 24 years were his education when he traveled with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, lived in a Hidatsa village, and was schooled in St. Louis and Württemberg, Germany. The second period (seventeen years) was in the Rocky Mountains as trapper, guide, and hunter. He lived his last twenty years in California where he served as an alcalde, miner, and hotel clerk in the California gold fields.

Because we have no journal or memoir, what can be learned of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau must come from the writings of others. Fortunately, he appears in many primary sources from the first half of the 19th century—a period of rapid western expansion in the United States. Unfortunately, some early historians have sometimes misinterpreted those primary sources, and their mistakes have often been quoted as fact by subsequent biographers. From the primary sources, the following timeline emerges.

Timeline

  • 11 Feb 1805: Birth at Fort Mandan
  • May-June 1806: Long Camp illness
  • July 1806: At Pompeys Pillar
  • 1809: St. Louis Baptism
  • 1812: Probable death of mother
  • 1813: William Clark becomes guardian
  • 1823: Meets Duke Paul
  • 1829: Return from Europe
  • 1830: Robidoux Fur Brigade
  • 1832: With Jim Bridger
  • 1834: With Tom Fitzpatrick
  • 1839: On the South Platte
  • 1842: “Helena” Island host
  • 1843: Muleskinner for William Drummond Steward
  • 1843: Settles father’s affairs in St. Louis
  • 1844: Bent’s Fort hunter
  • 1845: Meets James Abert
  • 1846–47: Mormon Battalion guide
  • 1847: Alcalde at Mission San Luis Rey
  • 1849: Likely arrival at Buckner’s Bar
  • 1852: Placer County assistant surveyor
  • 1860: Miner living at Secret Ravine
  • 1861: Clerk at Orleans Hotel
  • 1866: Dies traveling to Montana

The Life of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau

Notes

Notes
1 “Sacagawea Golden Dollar Coin,” United States Mint, accessed 22 May 2023, www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-medal-programs/circulating-coins/sacagawea-golden-dollar.

Discover More

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.