Jean Baptiste Charbonneau
Jean Baptiste Charbonneau ( born February 11, 1805 Fort Mandan [ now North Dakota ], † May 16 1866 in Danner, Oregon) was the son of French-Canadian interpreter Toussaint Charbonneau, and of the tribe of the Northern Shoshone Indian Sacajawea belonging, the the Lewis and Clark expedition served as a guide. He was born during the expedition at Fort Mandan.
A picture of him and his mother can be found on the American one- dollar coin. He is the only child that has ever been mapped to an American cash. William Clark, one of the expedition's leader, called him "Pomp " or " Pompy ". " Pompey's Pillar ", a prominent rock on the Yellowstone River in Montana, is named after him.
Some years after the end of the expedition, the family moved to Clark's invitation to St. Louis. Clark paid for the young Jean -Baptiste Charbonneau, the school fees for the St. Louis Academy, now St. Louis University High School is called. The council also continued for the care and education of the boy again went up as his parents to Missouri and adopted him and his childhood probably dead sister Lizette in 1813.
As Charbonneau was 18 years old, he met Prince Paul Wilhelm of Württemberg, a nephew of King Friederich I of Württemberg. The prince, who participated in a natural history expedition to America, Charbonneau invited to travel with him to Europe. He then lived there for six years and learned four European languages. He traveled all over Europe and even visited Africa.
1829 Charbonneau returned back to North America where he lived as a trapper in the Rocky Mountains and as a scout for the army. In 1846 he led the Mormon Battalion from New Mexico to San Diego in California. There he took over the post of head of administration of the mission San Luis Rey. After some time, however, he was forced to resign because he had tried to improve the situation of the local Indian tribes.
Charbonneau was then carried away by the gold rush in California and joined thousands of other " 49ers " in Placer County. Still, his dreams of sudden wealth indulging, he died at the age of 61 years ( probably due to bronchitis) in Danner (Oregon ), on the way from California to the new gold fields that had been discovered around Virginia City (Montana).
In the near Jordanville (Oregon ) there is a tomb for Charbonneau, of which it is assumed that it is the right one. Another tomb with monument is located in Fort Washakie (Wyoming ), but it is disputed whether the body is in its.