Robidoux Chronicles: Ethnohistory of the French-American Fur TradePrésentation de l'éditeur : "Robidoux Chronicles treats with comprehensive documentary detail the factual history of the Robidoux lineage in North America from the first progenitor who arrived in Quebec in about 1665- through the famous six brothers who distinguished themselves as Mountain Men- up until even recent times on reservations in the US. Many members of the Robidoux family were intimately connected to the entire history of the North American fur trade. The six brothers- born in St. Louis before the coming of Lewis & Clark- were important fur-traders during the classical Rendezvous era of the North American fur trade. They became key players in the organization & articulation of the Overland Trail- only to die soon afterward in relative obscurity upon the plains of Kansas & Nebraska. By the 1950's- the story of the Robidoux had been almost entirely forgotten. Subsequent historians had lost all but a scant & fragmentary knowledge of the true role & exploits of the Robidoux & their French-Indian compatriots upon the frontiers of the old west. Antoine Robidoux was the first to establish permanent trading settlements west of the Rockies in the Inter-Montane corridor & his brother Michel was one of the first expeditions to traverse the length of the Grand Canyon. The eldest brother Joseph became one of the earliest established traders on the upper Missouri & founded St. Joseph, Missouri, which was later to be the primary starting point of the Overland Trail. His younger brother Louis became one of the earliest ranch owners in California, becoming Don of the Jurupa- that encompassed the areas known today as Riverside, San Bernardino, San Jacinto & San Timoteo. An entire inter-tribal French-Indian ethnocultural orientation had developed upon the plains- prairies & mountains of the Trans-Mississippi west a good fifty years before the coming of the Iron Horse & the Pony Express- & has been carried on today in proximity to the reservations of Kansas & Oklahoma- South Dakota & Wyoming." |
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American Fur Company Antoine Robidoux appears Auguste Chouteau Baptiste Benjamin Harding blacksmith Blacksnake Hills born brothers Cabanné California camp chief Chouteau Jr Chouteau-Papin Collection City Clamorgan coureurs des bois Creek dated deed dollars early emigrants expedition father field fifty finally find fine fire first five Fort Laramie Fort Robidoux Francois Robidoux French fur trade Green River half-breed horses hundred Indian Iowa Ioway Isadore Joseph Robidoux July June Jurupa Kansas known land Laramie later letter Louis Robidoux marriage married Mary Métis Mexican Mexico Michel Robidoux miles Mississippi Missouri Historical Society Missouri River mountains mules Nebraska North ofJoseph Otoe outfit party Pawnee Pierre Chouteau Platte Prairie probably profit ranch recorded reservation Robidou Roubideaux San Bernardino Santa Fe Scott’s Bluff Sioux Spanish squaw Taos trading post trail trappers tribes Uintah wagons White Cloud wife William wrote