What Happened to George Drouillard, the Lewis and Clark Expedition's Go-To Man

If Lewis and Clark had a go-to man, it was George Drouillard.

Joining the Corps

One of the few civilians in the Corps of Discovery, Drouillard was the son of a Shawnee mother and a French-Canadian father who had been an interpreter for General George Rogers Clark. When he met the expedition at Fort Massac in November 1803, he spoke French, English and two Native languages, and knew the sign language of the Plains Indians.

Meriwether Lewis, who often spelled his name "Drewyer", was impressed at once by his confidence, skill and knowledge, and offered him $25 a month as the Corps' chief interpreter. Drouillard accepted only on trial, wanting to be sure the mission and its leaders were worth his time. He travelled with the Corps as far as Camp River Dubois, and signed on formally on January 1, 1804.

Indispensable

The expedition's journals show how much more he was: a superb hunter, a dedicated scout and a trusted adviser. The captains leaned again and again on his knowledge, background and common sense, and whenever either of them left the main party, he usually took Drouillard along.

After the expedition

• He lived for a while in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, bought land with his own land warrant and those he bought from John Collins and Joseph Whitehouse, and later sold it all for $1,300.
• He went back to the Rocky Mountains and gave William Clark more information for the maps Clark was still drawing.
• In 1807, working for Manuel Lisa's fur company, he was ordered to bring back a deserter, dead or alive. He brought the man back dead, was tried for murder, and was acquitted.
• In 1810, in the Three Forks region of the Missouri River, he and others of a Lisa party were attacked by Blackfeet men. A memorial plaque near the Jefferson River, a few miles west of Three Forks, Montana, marks roughly where he is thought to have died.

Sources

• National Park Service, Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, "What happened to Drouillard." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/what-happened-to-drouillard.htm
• A photograph of the memorial plaque, under a Creative Commons licence, is not reproduced here.