Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye (November 9, 1717 – November 15, 1761) was a French Canadian fur trader and explorer who extended these activities from the Great Lakes westward, an enterprise for which he and other members of his family were largely responsible. He, his brother, and two colleagues were the the first Europeans known to have crossed the northern Great Plains and see the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming. He was the youngest, but perhaps the most important son of Pierre La Vérendrye.
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Louis-Joseph (often called the "Chevalier," an honorific) Verendrye was born in Quebec. He joined the family business in 1735, leaving Montreal with his father and travelling west to Fort St. Charles on Lake of the Woods Ontario. He assisted in re-establishing Fort Maurepas in 1736 and building Fort La Reine in 1738. From Ft. La Reine, he and his father travelled to visit the Mandan Indians along the Missouri River in North Dakota later that same year. In 1739 and 1740, he went north from Fort La Reine and explored Lake Winnipeg, Lake Manitoba, Lake Winnipegosis and the Saskatchewan River as far as the area of the present day The Pas.[1]
In 1738 the elder La Vérendrye had visited the Mandan villages and left two men to learn the language. Next year they reported back that every summer the Horse People (Gens du Chevaux) visited the Mandans to trade. The Horse People said that they knew of White men to the west who lived in stone houses and prayed to the Master of Life while holding what looked like husks of corn (books).[2] The description by the Indians was of the Spanish colonies in Mexico and New Mexico. In 1740 La Vérendrye sent his son Pierre to the Mandans to contact the Horse People, but they did not arrive.
In 1742, the elder La Vérendrye was in financial difficulty. He sent two sons, Louis-Joseph and François, back to the Mandan villages with the objective of contacting the Horse People to lead them to the White men who lived near the great "Western Sea" (the Pacific Ocean). Vérendrye hoped to trade with the White men described by the Horse People and recoup his fortunes.[3] After waiting in vain for the Horse People to arrive at the Mandan villages, the La Vérendrye brothers, along with two other Frenchmen, decided to search for the Horse People and the Western Sea. They traveled southwest, probably as far as the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming. On January 1, 1743, they saw the Rocky Mountains. Their return journey to North Dakota took them through present day Fort Pierre, South Dakota where they buried a lead plaque. The plaque was unearthed in 1913 and is an important artifact of the exploration of the western prairies.
The report of the La Vérendrye brothers about their expedition is brief and confusing. Scholars have major disagreements concerning the route the brothers followed and the identification of the Indians they met. However, the report is important because it offers the first account of the northern Great Plains and their inhabitants. The La Vérendrye brothers were the second party of Europeans, after the Mallet brothers, known to have crossed the Great Plains from east to west and to reach the Rocky Mountains.[4]
On 29 April 1742, Louis-Joseph, Francois La Vérendrye, and two other Frenchmen left Fort La Reine. They reached the Mandan village on 19 May. There they waited for two months for the Horse People. When they didn't show up, they found two Mandan guides and, on July 23, departed and marched, apparently on foot, for twenty days west southwest seeing many animals but no people. Horses were not yet common on the northern Plains so their baggage and trade goods may have been hauled on travois by dogs. Louis-Joseph describes multi-colored soils, which implies he was in the Badlands along the Little Missouri River (North Dakota). On August 11, they reached their destination, "the mountain of the Horse People." Therein lies the first controversy: the mountain they reached. Some historians have identified it as White Butte, North Dakota, but White Butte is only 120 miles from the Mandan villages, a very short distance for the party to have traversed in 20 days. More likely the mountain was one of several small peaks in southeastern Montana, 250 to 300 miles from the Mandan villages, or the highly-distinctive Devil's Tower in Wyoming.[5]
The guides would go no further so they stopped and built a camp near the mountain of the Horse People and lit signal fires. On 14 September they met the Handsome People (Beaux Hommes, perhaps Crow or Blackfeet) and stayed with them for 21 days. On October 9, they then headed south southwest meeting the Little Foxes (Petits Renards, possibly a branch of the Cheyennes) on 11 October and then the 'Pioya' (Kiowa?) on October 15. On 19 October they reached the Horse People. These were in a state of desolation because all their villages had been destroyed by the Snake People (Gens du Serpent, either Shoshones or a general term for enemy). The Snake People had destroyed seventeen villages, killed the men and old women and taken the young women to be sold on the seacoast. The Horse People said that they had never been to the sea since the route was blocked by the Snake People. They suggested going to the Bow People (Gens de l'Arc)who were said to be the only tribe brave enough to fight the Snakes. After, apparently staying with the Horse People, for a number of days, they marched southwest meeting the Gens de la Belle-Riviere (identified by some scholars as the Belle Fourche River) on November 18 and reached the Bow People on 21 November. La Vérendrye commented that the "nations of these regions have a great many horses, asses, and mules -- apparently in contrast to the Mandans and other peoples they had met further north.[6] (Note the large number of different tribes met in the period 9 October to 21 November. Perhaps they had left the Badlands snd were in good hunting country.)
Given that the Frenchmen drifted south southwest for six weeks between October 9 and November 21, 1742, it is possible that they had reached the North Platte River in Wyoming. That possibility is increased if, as some authorities argue, the People of the Bow were Pawnee. The Pawnee had large farming villages along the Loup River in Central Nebraska at this time and expeditions for hunting and war by them into Wyoming were not unlikely.
Contradicting the theory that the Bow People were Pawnee, the French quickly learned a bit of their language, implying that it was Algonquian like Cree or Siouan like Mandan and therefore similar to languages they knew. The Pawnees spoke a Caddoan language. However, fortifying the opinion they were Pawnee was their familiarity with the Spanish in New Mexico with whom the Pawnee are known to have been in touch with from an early date. The Bow chief said he knew of the Spanish from captives and spoke a few words of Spanish. He called the Spanish "French at the sea coast" and said they had many slaves who were happy and did not run away. They had officers and priests and used horses to work the land. The Bow People were also familiar with the destruction of the Villasur expedition twenty years before. Villasur and his men had been killed by Pawnee.[7] However, other authorities identify the Bow People as Cheyenne.[8]
The Bows were gathered in large camps as they were preparing to fight the Snakes who were in the "great mountains near the sea". The Snakes were almost certainly either the Shoshoni or, less probably, their close relatives the Comanche.[9] Both tribes, by virtue of acquiring horses earlier than many other Indians, had emerged recently from the Rocky Mountains to become powers on the Great Plains.
The Vérendrye brothers traveled with the Bow Indians for an extended period. Their route cannot be calculated as they moved with the Indians, "sometimes south-southwest and sometimes northwest", gathering warriors from several different tribes as they went. Soon there were over 2,000 warriors and their families. On January 1, 1743 the French had their first sight of the Rocky Mountains. These may have been the Bighorn Mountains of north central Wyoming or the Laramie Mountains of southeastern Wyoming; a few authorities believe that they had gone no further west than the Black Hills.[10]
The Bows left the women and children in camp (possibly on the North Platte) and moved toward the enemy (possibly toward the Big Horns) on January 9. François stayed behind to guard the baggage while Louis-Joseph and the two other Frenchmen accompanied the warriors. On the 'twelfth day', (January 21?) they reached the mountains, it being unclear whether it was the same mountain range they had glimpsed on January 1. Louis-Joseph described the mountains as thickly-wooded and apparently very high. (This and the distances involved imply the Big Horns rather than the Black Hills.) Scouts returned and reported that they had found a Snake village which had been hastily abandoned. This caused consternation since many assumed that the Snakes had detected them and had left to attack their camp while the warriors were away. The chief tried to stop them but most headed back for the camp to protect their women and children. The entire war party broke up and retreated and Louis-Joseph had no choice but to follow. Louis-Joseph says that he reached the Bow village on February 9th, "the second day of our return journey". It is difficult to explain this discrepancy in time; possibly he meant "twentieth day" rather than "second day." There was no further sign of the Snake People.[11]
After having been in sight of the Rocky Mountains on two different occasions, Louis-Joseph regretted that he had not been able to climb them. He anticipated that from their summit he would be able to see the Western Sea.[12] Actually, he was still 1,000 miles away from the Pacific Ocean.
After the failure of the military expedition against the Snakes, the assembled tribes broke up into smaller groups "to obtain meat more easily." The La Vérendrye brothers remained with the Bow People until March 1, traveling east-southeast, quite possibly (if the Bow People were Pawnee) to the Pawnee villages on the Loup River. They then began their return journey to Fort La Reine. On 19 March they were back on the Missouri River at Pierre, South Dakota. At some point they had acquired horses. Here they stayed with the Gens de la Petite Cerise (Little Cherry People, possibly Chokecherry People), probably the Arikara who were known to have had villages at Pierre. They met a man who had been brought up among the Spanish who said that they were twenty days away by horseback from the Spanish colony in New Mexico, but the journey was dangerous because of the Snakes (probably meaning the Comanche who were known by this time to control the plains of Colorado and Kansas). At Pierre they buried a lead plate which was discovered in 1913 (see below). They left Pierre on 2 April and reached the Mandans on 18 May. Enroute they met 25 families of the "People of the Glued Arrow" or the "Sioux of the Prairies." Some writers have identified these Indians as Cheyenne, known to live near the Missouri River at this time, rather than Sioux.[13] Their journal says nothing about the Missouri River although they were traveling parallel to it. On the 27th they joined a party of about 100 Assiniboines who were going to Fort La Reine. They met a Sioux war party which quickly withdrew because of the many Assiniboines and the French guns. They reached Fort La Reine on 2 July 1743.[14]
As they had not found a route to the Pacific nor a source of furs, their journey was not followed up.
In 1851 the Vérendrye journals were found in the French archives by Pierre Margry. The second journal describes the journey of "the Chevalier de la Vérendrye and one of his brothers" who are otherwise unnamed. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography gives some evidence for Louis-Joseph as the Chevalier and François for the brother. This is followed here. Hubert Smith reverses the two brothers but offers no evidence. Burpee[15] has Pierre as the Chevalier, which is probably a bad guess. Other writers are careful to say Vérendrye's sons without being specific.
All the tribal names are guesses. Most writers think that the brothers reached the Big Horn Mountains, but no evidence excludes the Black Hills or the Laramie Mountains, especially as they sighted mountains on two occasions, 1 January and 21 January 1743, quite possibly two different mountain ranges. The location of the starting point, the Mandan village in North Dakota, is also disputed. The location of the village was said to be at one of the points where the Missouri flows south and somewhat west. The elder Verendrye gave its latitude as 48°12' which is about 10 miles north of any point on the Missouri River. If the reading was close to accurate it implies a northern location, possibly a site new New Town, as first suggested by Libby in 1916. Hubert Smith thought that the Mandans were not that far north at the time and tentatively suggested a site near Bismarck. We will probably never know, although the Bismark site with its extensive documentation of Mandan villages in that area is favored.
The lead plate is six by eight inches and similar to ones placed in the Ohio valley. The front has a die-stamped Latin inscription referring to Louis XV, Pierre La Verendrye [either father or son] and the year 1741. On the back is hastily scratched "Placed by Chevalier de Lave; [garbled] Louis la Londette, A Miotte; 30 March 1743". Londette and Miotte are probably the two other Frenchmen who are otherwise undocumented. The garbled part was first read as "t b St" for Toussaint, assumed to be the first name of Londette. Hubert Smith read "Lo Jost" for Louis-Joseph. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography has "tblt" for Tremblet or Trembey, part of François' name.
By late 1743, Louis-Joseph's father, Pierre La Vérendrye, was forced to resign as commandant of the poste de l’Ouest. The new commandant, Nicolas-Joseph de Noyelles de Fleurimont, retained the services of La Vérendrye’s sons during his tenure, which began in 1744. Louis-Joseph was post commander at three posts, the most important one being Fort Kaministiquia. The elder La Vérendrye again became western commandant in 1747, while Louis-Joseph returned to New France with Noyelles. He provided services to both Noyelles and Governor Beauharnois while expecting and intending to rejoin his father at the western posts. Before he made that return, his father returned east and died in 1749. Louis-Joseph spent the next several years settling his father's financial affairs, and subsequently entered into partnership with Luc de la Corne, in the fur trade. His brother François was an interpreter for the partnership.
In 1756, Louis-Joseph obtained a three-year appointment as commandant of the poste de l’Ouest. He carried out this enterprise through agents, as he was personally involved in military matters during the Seven Years' War. He was succeeded as western commander in 1758, by Charles-René Dejordy de Villebon. He died while returning to France, when the ship, Auguste sank at sea.