Voting Station

Jean Baptiste Charbonneau

Please vote to return to collections.

Explorer

The Resume

    (February 11, 1805-May 16, 1885)
    Born in Fort Mandan (present-day Washburn), North Dakota
    Part-Shoshone/Mandan, Part-French Candadian
    Son of Sacagawea and her husband, Toissant Charbonneau
    Accompanied his parents, who served as guides and interpreters for the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806)
    Later became the surrogate ward to William Clark
    Attended the prestigious St. Louis Academy
    In his later years, served as a guide, fur trader/trapper, and military scout
    Appointed Mayor of Mission San Luis Rey de Francia by Col. John D. Stevenson (Nov. 1847)
    Likeness appears with that of his mother on the United States Bronze 'Dollar Coin' (designed in 2000)

Why he might be annoying:

    William Clark nicknamed him 'Pomp' and 'Little Pomp' and 'Little Pomp.'
    He liked quoting Shakespeare in random situations, as an adult.
    He had an active public life of his own, but for some reason even portraits of him are pretty scarce.
    Meriwether Lewis attested to helping deliver him at birth with a remedy tea made out of a crushed rattlesnake rattle.
    His parents dumped him in the hands of William Clark when he was six years old, dropping in sporadically for another two years before falling off the radar.
    He found celebrity as a quasi-attraction at William Clark's Indian Museum, in which he would frequently tell visitors he was 'born in a canoe.'
    He fathered a child during his travels in Europe (he returned hastily to the United States).
    He spent a decade as a gold prospector mining in the hills of California.
    When he failed to attain wealth in the gold rush, he found work as a New Orleans hotel manager.
    He died en route to further pursue wealth after some newly discovered gold fields in Montana.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was a talented violinist.
    He was fluent in English, French, Spanish, German, Latin, Shoshone, and Greek.
    He fell dangerously ill, as an infant, for several days during the expedition.
    His cute doings frequently figure into William Clark's journal notes of their travels, granting them a somewhat more human quality.
    He was, obviously, the youngest member of the Lewis & Clark Expedition (historians have also pointed out that his presence with Sacagawea symbolized the group's peaceful intentions).
    William Clark basically fell in love with him over the course of the expedition, and made several pleas begging them to let him adopt him as his own.
    While, by all accounts, his father was a womanizing lech who neglected to visit his own son, his mother died a mere two years after leaving him (so at least she had an excuse).
    He served as a guide for the Mormon Contingent during the Mexican-American War.
    During his time as a trapper in Missouri, he came into contact with a German prince who brought him back to Europe to lead hunting parties for the Royal family.
    He is the namesake for Pompeys Pillar on the Yellowstone River in Montana.
    He is only the second child to be featured on American currency (and, as of 2016, is the only mixed-race American to be on currency).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 10 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 52 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying