Tabeau was an experienced trader who worked under Régis Loisel in 1802–1804. The Lewis and Clark Expedition met him on 9 October 1804 at the Arikara villages. His narrative, found in Tabeau’s Narrative of Loisel’s Expedition to the Upper Missouri, was ‘resurrected’ by Annie Heloise Abel in 1939. It contains valuable historical and ethnographical information.
Related Pages
This Arikara leader rode upriver with the expedition in the weeks that followed to negotiate a peace settlement with the Mandan. In the spring of 1805 he went down river with the barge to St. Louis. After a series of delays, he went to Washington, DC, to meet with President Jefferson.
October 9, 1804
Tabeau and Too Né
Arikara village Sawa-haini, SD The Arikara council is delayed by weather. The captains meet several key people including Pierre-Antoine Tabeau and Chief Too Né. York fascinates the Arikara who apparently have never seen a black man before.
February 28, 1805
Arikara and Sioux news
Fort Mandan, ND Traders arrive with news of the Arikaras and Sioux and two plant specimens. About six miles from the fort, several men cut down cottonwood trees to make dugout canoes.
March 5, 1805
Echinacea specimens
Fort Mandan, ND Work making charcoal, dugout canoes, leather rope, and clothes continues. One French man passes by with letters for trader Pierre-Antoine Tabeau who is with the Arikaras.
April 7, 1805
Leaving Fort Mandan
The permanent party leaves Fort Mandan bound for the Pacific Ocean. They make it only as far as Mitutanka, one of the Knife River Villages. In the barge, the return party heads towards St. Louis.
September 21, 1806
St. Charles hospitality
St. Charles, MO The boatmen paddle or row the forty-eight miles from La Charrette to St. Charles. They are greeted by the latter’s citizens with great cheer and hospitality. Lewis starts a letter to Thomas Jefferson.
