Jean Baptiste Charbonneau got his start as an explorer while he was just an infant. He was born at Fort Mandan, the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s winter encampment, in 1805. His mother was Sacajawea, a Northern Shoshone woman. His father was Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian trapper.
Young Jean Baptiste traveled with the Lewis and Clark Expedition across the West, up the Missouri River and down the Columbia River. Some historians say it was his presence as a baby which helped assure native tribes that Lewis and Clark came in peace. As a child he became fluent in French, English and Shoshone.
Following the expedition, Jean Baptiste lived for a time with William Clark in St. Louis, Missouri, where Clark paid for the young man’s schooling. Then at age 18, Jean Baptiste met Duke Friedrich Paul Wilhelm of Wurtttemberg. The German duke invited young Charbonneau to join him in Europe. Jean Baptiste spent six years abroad, traveling widely and learning German and Spanish.
Read more about the fascinating life of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau in the Blanche Schroer papers at UW’s American Heritage Center