By Marion Tinling
ISBN: 0878424326
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Mountain Press Publishing Company
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Reviewed for Carbon County News by Gary Robson on 4/22/2002
Pull that gold-colored Sacagawea dollar out of your pocket or purse and look at the infant on her back. Known as "Pomp" to Captain William Clark, he is the baby that Sacagawea carried to the west coast and back with the Lewis & Clark expedition.
Sacagawea's Son is the story of Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau. I read it with my 9-year-old son for a school report, and found it great reading for adults as well. It tells the tale of how this boy, born of a Shoshoni mother and a French Canadian trapper father, was taken under Captain Clark's wing and educated well. His gift for languages (he spoke Hidatsa, Mandan, English, French, and German, with bits of other languages as well) took him to a palace in Europe for six years to live the life of a prince.
Jean-Baptiste is remembered by some as a mountain man who traveled with such men as Jim Bridger and Kit Carson, and frequented the mountain man rendezvous of the time. Others may recall him as one of the early prospectors in the California gold rush along the American River. The Mormons remember him as the guide who led the Mormon Battalion to California during the war with Mexico. We, here, may recall that he died in 1866 on his way to Montana, looking for another gold rush.
This book pulls it all together, providing references and details that make it both a useful historical text and a great story to read. Tinling spends very little time discussing the Lewis & Clark expedition, a subject covered in great detail by many other authors, but concentrates instead on what happened afterward.
All in all, Sacagawea's Son is a great reference work on Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau for adults and children alike.
Western History→Lewis and Clark
Western History→Biographies→Sacagawea
Western History→Mountain Man→Nonfiction
Children→Western