Pierre Cruzatte: Lewis and Clark's Waterman and Fiddler

Reenactors aboard a replica of the expedition's keelboat. Cruzatte was likely expert in keelboats as well as smaller pirogues and canoes. NPS.

Pierre Cruzatte joined the Lewis and Clark Expedition at St. Charles. He had only one working eye, but brought many skills the expedition needed.

"Our principal waterman"

• Experience: William Clark called him "our principal waterman." Cruzatte had traveled widely on the Missouri and Platte rivers for fur-trading companies that dealt with Indigenous towns.
• Reading the river: Lewis and Clark relied on his grasp of currents to find the safest routes for their boats — and probably on his skill with keelboats, which carried the expedition on larger rivers, as well as pirogues and canoes.
• May 14, 1805: when one of the boats nearly capsized, Cruzatte's quick thinking saved the expedition's valuable scientific instruments and field notes.

Interpreter

The son of a French father and an Omaha mother, Cruzatte spoke English, French, Omaha and the sign language used across North America by Indigenous communities and non-Native traders. With François Labiche and George Drouillard, he sometimes served as an interpreter.

The fiddle

Cruzatte was a talented fiddler who entertained his companions after long days of travel.

• April 1806: some Yakama visitors came to camp, as the journals put it, "as they wished to hear the fiddle," and Cruzatte and other musicians "played & danced a little to please them."
• A risk worth taking: keeping a violin safe on such a journey wasn't easy — music must have mattered a great deal to him. The music from that small wooden instrument helped build friendships between the travelers and the many peoples who hosted them.

Sources

Based on "Pierre Cruzatte," part of Pivotal Places: Stories from the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, National Park Service, quoting the expedition journals; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The article's photograph from Flickr is replaced by an NPS photograph.