Book Review: A Fur Trader on the Upper Missouri
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A Fur Trader on the UpperMissouri:The Journal and Description of Jean-Baptiste Truteau, 1794-1796
edited by Raymond J. DeMallie, Douglas R. Parks, and Robert Vézina
University of Nebraska Press, 2017
There's a certain quality of genius to the choice of cover illustration for this big, expensive new volume from the University of Nebraska Press, A Fur Trader on the Upper Missouri: The Journal and Description of Jean-Baptiste Truteau, 1794-1796. It's a deceptively simple painting of our hero, the French Canadian fur trapper Jean-Baptiste Truteau. He's a handsome young man in the picture, which was painted by John Woodhouse Audubon, the son of John James Audubon; he's leaning on an ostentatiously long firearm, and he's draped in the bright weaving, feathers, and furs mentioned in the work's title: James de Berty Trudeau, wearing clothing given to him by the Osages upon his departure. His posture is confident, almost cocky, and his expression is watchfully serene, with perhaps just a hint of humor. He stands on a cattail verge with the rising sun dispelling the morning mists behind him. The painting is a study in contrasts: the young man is white, but he's dressed like one of the Arikaras or Cheyennes or Pawnees who inhabited the Upper Missouri of the day; his face has the set of a certain refinement, like the look of a young scholar, but he's brandishing a gun as tall as he is. The sky behind him is equal parts ominous clouds and brightening blue.
The painting is both vivid and quietly multifaceted, and in this it's an excellent choice to advertise the book, which is the first scholarly edition of Truteau's complete writings ever published, writings described by Douglas Parks in his introductory essay to this volume as “the first substantive description of Indian life at the very beginning of what was to become a new era on the plains.” The text here, translated by Mildred Mott Wedel, Raymond J. DeMallie, and Robert Vézina, is accompanied by facing-page printings in the original French, there's an extensive bibliography and lengthy, comprehensive notes, and Parks opens the whole endeavor with a long essay that clearly locates Truteau in his time as something of an oddity among his rough-and-ready fellow voyageurs in the trapping trade, a well-educated man who mingled freely with the power structures of the province:
Because of his education, Truteau's name frequently appears in contemporary civic and religious documents, indicating prominence in the city. In 1804, for example, he was listed as a member of the first grand jury impaneled in St. Louis, but he was fined five dollars for absence. Between 1804 and 1813, when there was no priest in St. Louis, Truteau recorded interments in the Catholic church register. His name also appear as a signatory on various public documents: on an 1805 memorial defending James Wilkinson that was sent to President Jefferson; on an1806 petition sent to Jefferson expressing confidence in secretary Joseph Browne and suggesting his appointment as governor if the present one were transferred; and on a request, dated 1819, in which Catholic property holders and inhabitants sought free use of a presbytery lot upon which to build a brick school or college.
Given his education, it's not surprising to encounter a great deal of descriptive precision in Truteau's accounts. What does surprise is the powerful eloquence of the author (seen both in the original and in this clear and forceful translation). Time and again in the book, he broadens his descriptions a dramatically crucial amount by trying to universalize the infamous “noble savages” into whose villages and homes he's invited. It leaves a cumulative impression that's as powerful as it is inescapable, an impression that deep down in his soul, Jean-Baptiste Truteau was something of an anthropologist:
Indians know how to honor and respect a man who has shown his worth and ability in war, and his generosity toward other nations whenever he has gone among them; who has proved a good many times his impartiality and benevolence by his generosity and the gifts made to people of his nation; a man who in council, as in all other affairs pertaining to the interests of his nation, has shown good judgment, moderation in his words, and uprightness in counsel (la droiture dans ses conseils). Such a man, even though he is not chief by descent, is elevated by unanimous consent of the nation to the rank of chief. He has precedence in all the assemblies and feasts of the village. His word is heard and his views followed in preference even to those who count a long line of ancestors who were always chiefs, if they do not have the same qualities as he. This preeminence does not give him, however, any absolute authority over his people, nor any greater privilege than any other in their customs and manners; and very far from taking pride in his talents and wishing to distinguish himself from others by scorning them, his lodge is always filled with people who smoke, drink and eat as much as he has on hand.
Truteau died in 1827 (Parks theorizes that drink was the culprit), leaving behind an collection of papers that has only now received the kind of oversized, gorgeous, and authoritative bilingual edition it's always deserved. Readers on the period owe the University of Nebraska Press a whopping big vote of thanks.