The Northwest Company manager, or bourgeois, at Fort Assiniboine was Charles Chaboillez, to whom Lewis and Clark sent a cautiously cordial letter via free trader Hugh McCracken on 31 October 1804. Chaboillez replied in due time, expressing “a great anxiety to Serve us,” Clark noted, “in any thing in his power.”
Related Pages
October 31, 1804
Black Cat speaks
Clark visits Posecopsahe (Black Cat), the main chief at Ruptáre, one of the five Knife River Villages. Posecopsahe wishes for peace and returns two beaver traps recently stolen from two French traders.
December 16, 1804
A letter from Chaboillez
Fort Mandan, ND Traders Hugh Heney and François-Antoine Larocque bring a letter from the manager of Fort Assiniboine of the North West Company accompanied by Budge of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Information is exchanged and the three traders spend the night
March 7, 1805
Charbonneau's windfall
Fort Mandan, ND Toussaint Charbonneau returns with trade goods from the North West Company. An Indian child is given Rush’s Thunderbolts, a strong laxative.
Clark’s Fort Mandan Maps
by Joseph A. Mussulman
While wintering over at Fort Mandan, Clark made a series of maps based on Indian information and previous traders such as John Evans and François Larocque.
Via the shorter route, Pryor would have arrived at the Knife River villages by about 6 August 1806. A trip to see Hugh Heney at Fort Assiniboine would take another two weeks.
