Interpreting Toussaint Charbonneau

What is the truth?

Useless rogue, or valued interpreter? Loving husband and father, or wife beating drunkard?  Agent of the new American government or spy for the British?

After 25 years of research Jack Smith presents insights into this complex man, with an engaging first person conversation with this amazing historical character.

Through his presentation Smith and Toussaint explore the people and biases which were apart of the early days of the fledgling United States.  Through their eyes audiences receive a new insight into Lewis and Clark, Thomas Jefferson, Sacagawea and the native Americans that were the cast of characters in the birth of this great nation.

Ask most people who was this man “Toussaint Charbonneau “ and they probably will scratch their heads and admit that they haven’t an idea. Some may finally be able to draw from their memory that he was a some sort of trapper that was married to Sacagawea. Even most historians would say that he was a minor character in either the Lewis and Clark Expedition or the early history of the American West. “A man of little value”, according to Meriwether Lewis. And yet if one looks deeper into the history of this country a completely different picture emerges. One of a man who played a key roll in the early western exploration or the United States.

Through the writings of other individuals, we can begin to develop an intricate tapestry of knowledge about a man that tried to bridge two very different worlds. The world of the European American and the native peoples who called this land home for generations prior to the coming of the white man.

We find a man that spoke for the government of this country to the Indian nations for more than 30 years, a man who became a life-long associate of William Clark, a man who was so important to this nation that in the eyes of the British he was deserving to have a bounty on his head as an American agent, a man who very well may have been a spy.

Why then did Meriwether Lewis see him as a man of “no value”? Could it be that Lewis carried biases that clouded his perspective of the man?

25 years of searching for the real Toussaint Charbonneau.

Interpreter and historian Jack Smith has devoted more than 25 years of his life seeking the truth about this historical enigma.

Like most serious historians Smith started with the journals of Lewis and Clark’s Expedition. But early on he began to realize that these documents presented varied rendition of the man, and that most damning was the journals of Meriwether Lewis. So why wasn’t there a journal of Toussaint Charbonneau and could there have been reasons for Lewis’ dislike of this man? Finally there came 2 realizations. First, that Lewis did harbor his own demons toward both Frenchmen and Indians. And secondly ...that Toussaint’s side of the story was never set to journal...because Toussaint Charbonneau could not write.

So began the laborious task of seeking the writings of others “about” this man Charbonneau. More than 20 years later, Jack Smith has developed a profile of Toussaint and given it a life of it’s own in his one-man presentations. Through his characterization of Charbonneau he has allowed thousands of people to discover that this wily Frenchman was far more than just “Sacagawea’s husband”.

Audiences are allowed to meet a flesh and blood Charbonneau and to see the world as he saw it. The presentation is complete with all the “tools of the trade” to allow hands-on experiences for the viewers. Presentation can be tailored to specific lengths from one hour to several days.

For complete information, including presentation fees and scheduling , please email medriver@3rivers.net

PO Box 2
509 Montana St
Valier, Montana USA  59486