N3840

Lewis & Clark Expedition - Bicentennial

Fred's Anecdotal Note

Jean Baptiste Charbonneau

"Little Pomp"

On Jan. 6, l806 Clark led a party to find a whale that had washed up on the beach a few miles south of the salt camp. Included in the party was Sacajawea and her young son. Lewis wrote why she was included. "The Indian woman was very importunate to be permitted to go, and was therefore indulged; she observed that she had traveled a long way with us to see the great waters, and that now that monstrous fish was also to be seen, she thought it very hard she could not be permitted to see either." The cachet shows mother and toddler at ocean's edge with the beached whale in the distance. On Jan. 10th the party retumed to Fort Clatsop with 300 pounds of blubber and several gallons of whale oil. It was a welcomed change to the Corps' regular diet. Lewis showed his appreciation with a bit of humor as he wrote, "Small as the store is we prize it highly, and thank the hand of Providence for directing the whale to us, and think him much more kind to us than he was to Jonah, having sent

this monster to be swallowed by us in stead of swallowing of us as Jonah's did."

Back on Feb. 11, 18O5 at Fort Mandan Lewis had delivered a baby boy to a young Indian maiden. He wrote, "This was the first child which this woman has boarn and as is common in such cases her labour was tedius and the pain violent:" The healthy boy was named Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. Little did Lewis know that the baby's father, Toussaint, would be hired in March as an interpreter for the Corps and that the baby, affectionately nicknamed "Little Pomp" by Clark, would be carried to the Pacifrc and back by his mother --  Sacajawea. As Jean Baptiste, half white and half Indian, romped on that Oregon beach in January of 1806, he symbolized perfectly the young multi-cultured nation that had taken its first steps to the Pacific and was now ready to grow and excel with vigor and enthusiasm.