David "Chalk" Courchane

Jean "Baptiste" Dorion, the son of Pierre Dorion and Marie L’Aguivoise (Aioe), was born 1813 and died about 1850, probably in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. 

His father was an Astorian and came out West with his wife and family and working for Manuel Lisa on the Missouri River in Montana.   Old Pierre brought his family into the Old Oregon country in 1813 with Wilson P. Hunt of the Pacific Fur Company.  He was killed in 1814 while on an expedition with John Reed on the Boise River in Idaho.

Jean Baptiste is usually called Baptiste and worked out of Fort Nez Perces (Walla Walla) where he was discharged in 1837, but he was re-employed in 1840.  He married a Cayuse woman named Josephte  (Josephine) Walla Walla on February 3, 1845.

In 1835 he  was a guide for John K. Townsend, and in 1842 acted as interpreter to Dr. Elijah  White when he visited the Cayuse  and Nez Perce Indians.  He was on Tom McKay’s Trapping Party in 1834-1835 and on the Snake Country Brigades in 1835-1836.   In 1842 and 1843 he was an interpreter. See his service record below:

Hudson’s Bay Company Service Record

 NAME: DORION, JEAN- PARISH: Native ENTERED SERVICE: 1830 DATES: b.ca.1814

BAPTISTE d.ca. 1850

Appointments & Service

Outfit Year*: Position: Post: District: HBCA Reference:

*An Outfit year ran from 1 June to 31 May

1830-1837 Apprentice Fort Vancouver Columbia B.223/g/2-3; B.239/g/70-76

1837 Discharged from Fort Vancouver B.223/g/4/fo.33; B.239/g/77/fo.40

1838-1840 No Record

1840-1842 Middleman Fort Nez Perces Columbia B.239/g/80-81

1842-1843 Interpreter B.223/g/7/fo.42; B.239/g/82/fo.66

Parents: Pierre Dorion (killed in 1814), and Marie Dorion

Wife: Josephine Walla Walla (Cayuse), married 1845

Children:

Marie Denise (married Francois Laframboise) baptized about 1848

Pierre  (c.1836-1854

Genevieve (died age 12)  (1842-1852)

David (b.ca. 1844)

Philomene (1845-1845)

Joseph  (1846-1847)

Marianne (1849-)

And possible Paul Dorion may have been a son

Sources:  Harriet Duncan Munnick and Mikell Delores Warner, Catholic Church Records of the Pacific Northwest: St.Paul, Oregon 1839- 1898 ; Annotations (A), p.# 26.

Wife: Josephine Walla Walla (Cayuse), married 1845 Munnick and Warner; (A), p.#26

Children: Denise (married Francois Laframboise) Munnick and Warner, (A), p.#26 ; .“Lives Lived West of the Divide” Vol. 1, Bruce M. Watson

He was involved in the Cayuse War 1847-1855 and enlisted in the Oregon Provisional government’s army and was in Tom McKay’s company.  He took part in the battle of Spring Hollow. 

An account of the Dorion family in Oregon Historical Society Quarterly:

“Astorians Who Became Permanent Settlers” by J. Neilson Barry , Ore. Hist. Quart., Vol. 30, 278

Pierre Dorionne of Senlis, France, emigrated to Quebec  prior to 1688, and had numerous descendants in Canada, some of whom became quite prominent. One of this family, named Pierre Dorion, as it was then spelled, was born on the St. Lawrence before 1750, and went to the region of St. Louis, (now Missouri) prior to 1780. After the conquests of General George Rogers Clark he took the oath of allegiance and wrote a letter to General Clark, May 31, 1780, requesting permission to move to the east side of the Missouri. He brought suit at Cahokia, October 26, 1780, for money due him from Ch. Ducharme. He subsequently became the first white settler in what is now South Dakota, and was very highly recommended to Lewis and Clark, who engaged him as an interpreter and subsequently commissioned him to accompany some Indian Chiefs to Washington, D. C. He married an Indian woman, and had several sons, one of whom was also named Pierre Dorion.

(From “Lewis & Clark : A Canadian Perspective”, by A. Gottfred)Pierre Dorion  “As they were going up the Missouri River to the Mandan villages, the expedition met Pierre Dorion and his son. They were travelling down to St. Louis on a raft loaded with furs and buffalo tallow. Dorion had twenty years of experience with the Sioux, so Lewis & Clark asked him to accompany the expedition. He served as an interpreter at the Mandan villages, and apparently did not go with the expedition any further. His son, Pierre Dorion Jr., was killed by Indians about 1813 (L&C 1:21, 21n, 204; Henry 2:886n-887n). “

Continuing in “Astorians Who Became Permanent Settlers”

 This son married an Iowa Indian woman, named Marie, which may indicate that she was baptized, and possibly married by some missionary priest, but the records have not yet been published. Pierre Dorion, Jr., accompanied Manuel Lisa up the Missouri and in 1811 engaged to accompany the overland expedition of the Pacific Fur Company to Astoria.  At that time he had two sons, one three and the other a baby, who may have been Jean Baptiste Dorion. There is much written in regard to Pierre Dorion J r. and his heroic wife, Marie L'Aguivoise Dorion, and there are several mentions of the two children.

After an arduous journey they reached Astoria in 1812, and the elder son seems to have died shortly afterwards. Pierre Dorion and his wife with the one child accompanied John Reed to the Snake River country, 1813. Reed seems to have built his first house on the Malheur River, where Vale, Oregon, now is. There another baby boy was born to the Dorions, and one of the two children was Jean Baptiste Dorion. Much has been written of the heroism and terrible sufferings of Marie L'Aguivoise Dorion and those two children, one four years old, and the other only four months. After the Reed massacre they made their way to the Blue Mountains, and subsequently climbed over the summit, but all food had been consumed and Madame Dorion was compelled to leave the two children in the forest while she feebly crawled on her hands and knees to a camp of Nez Perce hunters, who went back and found the children. They were then taken to the Columbia River, and learning that the brigade with the Astorians had just passed, the Indians took the little family in a canoe and overtook the Astorians. Franchere wrote of how they heard the voice of a little child calling in French for them to stop. This may have been Baptiste.

Madame Dorion was taken to Fort Okanogan, and subsequently lived at Fort Nez Perces, (Old Fort Walla Walla: Wallula, Wash.) One of the two children died. There is absolutely no possibility of Paur Dorion mentioned by Francis Parkman being a son of Marie L'Aguivoise, since his mother was "Holy Rainbow" a Yankton Indian.

Baptiste Dorion was guide for J. K. Townsend in 1835, and in 1842 acted as interpreter for Dr. Elijah White when he visited the Cayuse and Nez Perce Indians. There are numerous mentions of  Baptiste who seems to have been considered as a leader among the half-breeds. Usually the writers also refer to his parents, which definitely identifies him, and also his mother who has been confused with the Yankton woman, "Holy Rainbow" of  Dakota.

In the Roman Catholic mission records at St. Paul's and St. Louis, Oregon, are numerous entries in regard to the Dorions. When the marriage of Marie L'Aguivoise Dorion to John Toupin was validated, July 19,1841, by Rev. F. N. Blanchet, afterwards Archbishop, his mother affirmed that Jean Baptiste Dorion was her son by an earlier alliance. He was baptized February 3, 1845, by Father Sanos,

S. J., who wrote that his parents were Pierre Dorion and Marie Aioe, which, like Aguivoise, was another of the one hundred and six methods of spelling the apparently simple name Iowa.  Baptiste's eldest son was named Pierre Dorion, who was born in 1836, baptized July 25, 1841, and died in 1854. Three other children also died, Genevieve, Phileminie and Joseph, but David lived until recent years but can not now be located although he is well remembered.

In 1848 during the cayuse war, Baptiste was commissioned as second lieutenant of the Oregon Rifles, under Captain Thomas McKay, (Astorian), and took part in the battle of Well Springs. He was murdered by a white man in 1848.

5. Marie L'Aguivoise7 was a member of the Iowa Indian tribe, whose apparently simple name was spelled in over one hundred different ways. She was probably born about 1792 near the mouth of the Platte River, and about 1807 married Pierre Dorion J r. (See data under Baptiste Dorion). Her eldest son was probably born about 1808 and her second son in 1810. In 1811 she accompanied her husband on the overland expedition of the Pacific Fur Company to Astoria. During the journey, at the present site of North Powder, Oregon, her third child was born, Dec 28, 1811, but died Jan. 7, 1812, near where Duncan, Oregon, now is. This was the first child with Caucasian blood born on the Oregon Trail and the first buried.

After arriving at Astoria, 1812, the eldest son seems to have died. In 1813 she accompanied the Reed expedition to the Snake River country, and her fourth child, a son, was born at Reed's first

post, which was probably where Vale, Oregon, now is. Reed then moved to the mouth of Boise River (now Idaho) and built his second post in the angle on the south side, where subsequently Donald McKenzie started a post, 1819, and later Thomas McKay built Snake Fort in the old corral, about 1835.

In January, 1814, Reed and two of his men were murdered at this post and Pierre Dorion and three men were murdered at an outpost. There are very graphic descriptions of Madame Dorion's sufferings and heroism. She made her way through the snow to the Blue Mountains, and in the spring of 1814 succeeded in crossing them, and was rescued in a starving condition by Nez Perce Indians, who took her and her two little children to the Columbia River where they met the Astorians who were on their way to Montreal.

She was taken to Fort Okanogan, which was subsequently in charge of Alexander Ross and of Ross Cox, who obtained more complete particulars of the Reed massacre than Franchere. Probably about 1818 she married her second husband, a Monsieur Venier, and a daughter, Marguerite; was born about 1819. Whenever the records of the North-West Company shall be found there may be some mention of this man, who seems to have died soon after the marriage. She must have been a very attractive woman, since she married for the third time, about 1824, to John Toupin, interpreter at Fort Nez Perces, and quite a prominent character. A son. Francois Toupin, was born about 1825 and a daughter, Marianne, about 1827. Since her husband was with John Work in the Snake country 1830-1, she was probably with him, and was one of the women ·'Who availed themselves of the hot springs to wash their clothes."

On April 14, 1838, while riding with her daughter, Marguerite Venier and Mrs. Panbrun, near Fort Nez Perces, she met Rev. Jason Lee, who wrote in his journal that she had a grown daughter. Her husband took a land claim in the Willamette Valley, 1841, and she used to visit the Methodist mission, and "Could speak pretty good English and was quite polite in her address." On July 25, 1841, her marriage was validated by Rev, F. N. Blanchet, later Archbishop, who used the spelling, L'Aguivoise, for her tribal name, and recorded that she was "Born of poor infidels of the territory of Saint Louis, United States." At that time she formally asserted that her two eldest children, Jean Baptiste Dorion and Marguerite Venier, were born from previous matrimonial alliances.

She gave to Dr. Elijah White several pairs of moccasins which were "Very neatly executed after the most approved fashion of her tribe." and "He was much impressed by her noble and commanding bearing." She is still remembered by a neighbor, Mrs. Isabel Bertrand, who was daughter of Alexis Aubichon. She was called Madame Iowa, and was "kind and patient." She was "spare built" and about five feet five or six inches in height, and weighed about one hundred and sixty pounds. Although she lived for about ten years only two miles from Salem, Oregon, yet there seems to be no mention of her by early settlers, except in the references cited and in the land and Church records. She died September 3, 1850, one record is 1851, but her grave is unknown.

 J. K. Townsend, Jo"ntey, Philadelphia, 1839, footnote, p. 244, (1836).; Gustavus Hines. Rocky Mo"ntaills and other titles, 165, 414;. A. J. Allen, Ten Years in Oregon.(Dr. E. White), Ithaca, ~.V., 1848. 178;. Samuel Parker. Jo"rnal, Ithaca, N.V., 1836,363;. F. F. Victor, Early [lIdian ;Wars, 1894, 44, 52, 210, 507. F. F. Victor, River of West, 327; H. H. Bancroft, History of O,-egon, Vol. I, 268, 276, 75, 702, 734. W. H. Gray, A History of Oregon, 1870, 312, 313. Barry, Ore. Hist. Quart., Vol. 30, 278; Astorians Who Became Permanent Settlers 227; 228 Docu'I1unts; Ore. Hist. Quarl., Vol. 30, p. 278. Lee and Frost, Ten Years in Orenon. N.Y., 1844, 30, 35. John \W'ork, "Journal 1830-1," (T.C. Elliott), Ore. Hist. Quart, Vol. 14, 305; also Vol. 13, 369. And Astorians Who Became Permanent Settlers 229

Another article on  Marie Dorion:

Wayne Jewett, "Marie Dorion and The Astoria Expedition"

“Her name is hardly known today, but just six years after Sacagawea made her trek, a 21-year-old Iowa Indian woman named Marie Dorion went with the expedition that made the second such crossing to the same destination--the mouth of the Columbia River. The stories of Sacagawea's trials, courage and endurance during her 1805-06 journey are well known. But Marie Dorion's nearly forgotten trials were even more difficult.

Marie Dorion was the only woman on the 1811-12 overland expedition financed by John Jacob Astor, to establish a fur trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River. That second American crossing of the continent was the result of Astor's competition with the British Hudson's Bay Company. Astor, after having made a fortune on the fur resources about the Great Lakes, planned to establish a trading post on the coast of Oregon, to control the fur trade with the Orient.

It was Astor's plan to trade Western furs in the Orient, receiving cargoes to exchange in England for manufactured goods needed in America. The overland expedition was to identify locations where fur trading posts could be established that also would serve as way stations to expedite communications between Astor's Eastern headquarters and the Western trading posts, a forerunner of the pony express. ...

The site selected for the trading post, Astoria, was on Point George on the southern shore of the Columbia. It was not far from the location of Lewis and Clark's 1805-06 Fort Clatsop winter camp. ... The overland expedition was led by an inexperienced St. Louis merchant named Wilson Price Hunt. He was believed to be about 29 years old in 1811. Although he had become a successful merchant since coming to St. Louis in 1804, he had no experience that would qualify him for the task ahead. Hunt's party left St. Louis on October 21, 1810, six weeks after Tonquin sailed from New York. After traveling 450 miles up the Missouri River in three boats, they camped a month later 150 miles above Fort Osage, which had been established two years earlier at a site recommended by Lewis and Clark. They were to winter there at the mouth of the Nodaway River to avoid the expense of staying in St. Louis and to remove his crew from the temptations of that city.

After camp was established, Hunt went back to St. Louis, as he still needed to hire additional men, one being a Sioux interpreter. For that position he obtained the services of Pierre Dorion Junior. Dorion's mother was a Yankton Sioux and his father, Pierre Dorion Senior was an Indian trader from Quebec, whom Lewis and Clark had engaged as an interpreter to the Yankton Sioux. The elder Dorion remained with the Yanktons to promote Lewis and Clark's Indian policy, which was to end intertribal wars, encourage some chiefs to go as ambassadors to Washington, and for the tribes to accept trade with Americans, rather than with their usual partners, the Spanish and French. When Lewis and Clark continued up the Missouri River, Pierre Dorion Senior was to gather a delegation of Sioux chiefs and escort them to Washington. ...

Dorion's wife, Marie, and their two sons ages 2 and 4 were with him in St. Louis and all four left with Hunt in the spring. It is believed that Dorion had taken the young Iowa Indian woman for a wife about 1806, after abandoning a Yankton woman named Holy Rainbow. En route up the Missouri River Dorion learned that Lisa intended to have him arrested at the frontier town of St. Charles, in western Missouri. That news prompted Dorion and family to leave the boat.

After Hunt had departed from St. Charles, Dorion rejoined him, but without his family. All were not contented in the Dorion family. Pierre and Marie had quarreled; he had beat her, causing her to flee into the woods. Not wanting to delay, Hunt shoved off without her. The next morning, though, Marie and the children voluntarily rejoined them.

The party continued upriver to Fort Osage, where they stayed three days. Again the Dorions quarreled. Marie wanted to stay with new-found friends, so Pierre had to physically place her in one of the boats. Marie's desire to not undertake the journey may have been influenced by the fact that she was then about three months pregnant. There is no record that she ever again rebelled and the couple remained together until Pierre's violent death.

Nine days after the Tonquin party established Astoria, Hunt's party left their winter camp on April 21, 1811. At that time, the expedition was composed of 60 persons, five of whom were partners of Astor's Pacific Fur Company. ...

On May 26, 1811, Hunt met up with three veteran hunters, who were on the way to St. Louis--Edward Robinson, John Hoback and Jacob Reznor. They had been with Henry the previous year and had spent a few months at Fort Henry. Although they were headed back to Kentucky, Hunt persuaded them to join him and go all the way to the Pacific Ocean. They in turn persuaded Hunt to change his route. Instead of following Lewis and Clark's path to the Forks, through Lemhi Pass, and north to the Lolo Trail, they told him he should take a southern route to avoid the Blackfeet. Those three were about Hunt's only experienced mountain men, although one of the partners, Ramsey Crooks, had been trading up the Missouri. ... Hunt's new plan called for him to leave his boats there and go overland, but his departure was delayed until July 18, because of the difficulty of bargaining for horses. When at last his party left, he had only 82 horses, most of which were used as pack animals. The partners, plus Pierre Dorion and the two children, rode, but Marie walked until after additional horses were obtained from the Cheyenne and Crow Indians.

Lewis and Clark had wintered with the Mandans, just upriver from the Arikaras (in present-day central North Dakota). They started out early in the year, when the ice melted, reaching their goal in early November. Hunt wintered in Missouri, did not reach the Arikaras until June, 1811, and did not get underway overland until the middle of July. Thus he was forced to spend the following winter trying to get through the mountains, not reaching Astoria until February, 1812.  ...

... [A]long the headwaters of the Snake River, Hunt made a nearly fatal error of judgment. He abandoned his horses and constructed 15 dugout canoes. Since the Snake was a contributory of the Columbia River, Hunt assumed that the remaining 1,000 miles could be made by water. They soon found out differently. At Fort Henry, the party divided. Some men, including the three new hunters, were dispatched on trapping expeditions, to make their separate way to Oregon.

After leaving Fort Henry on October 18, 1811, the rest of the Hunt party soon encountered a series of rapids, where portages had to be made along high bluffs. While attempting to run one set of rapids on October 28, about 340 miles below Henry's Fort, a canoe wrecked and one man drowned. After some of the men scouted the river ahead, they were forced to recognize the futility of trying to travel by water. The river was declared unnavigable.

Now without horses, it became necessary to cache a large part of their supplies and continue on foot. To increase the chance of obtaining game to supplement their meager supply of food, the party again split, with half traveling on each side of the river. One party of 18 men, under Ramsey Crooks, walked along the south bank of the barren, rocky Snake River. Another 18 led by Hunt, including the Dorion family, stayed on the north side. A third small group, giving up, left to retrace their steps.

Upon encountering a small Indian band on November 17, Hunt succeeded in buying a horse to use as a pack horse. Two days later, he obtained a second horse for his personal use. At the next Indian camp that they stumbled on, an Indian claimed that Hunt's second horse had been stolen from him. Hunt was forced to give it up, but he was able to buy two others.

Pierre Dorion was also able to buy a horse for his family, so that Marie and the two children were again able to ride. They had been walking since leaving the canoes. Since the children were presumably ages 2 and 4, Marie must have carried the younger one on her back most of the time, even though she was by then eight months pregnant.

Near the end of November, Hunt's party was forced to start killing their few horses for food. Dorion resisted all efforts to kill his horse, even though it was almost starved. ... Twice in November and December they had to stay in Shoshone Indian camps for a short time because of the heavy snow and their lack of food. One time, they came upon a Shoshone camp that had a small herd of horses. The temptation was too great. They scared the Indians away and seized five mounts.

Marie Dorion's third child was born on December 30, 1811, but the baby died about eight days later. Apparently, Hunt's concern for Marie's welfare was not comparable to the concern Sacagawea had received from Lewis and Clark, for Marie gave birth to the child alone and caught up with the party the next day. It was another five weeks before Hunt's party struggled into Astoria on February 15, 1812. ... Altogether, only 45 of the original 60 men reached Astoria, compared to Lewis and Clark, who had only one death (it was due to appendicitis) on their entire expedition.

[When Britain and America went to war again in 1812, Americans at Astor's fort in Astoria] made plans to return to the East overland, carrying dispatches. ...  Their route took them much farther south than Hunt's westward expedition and was extremely difficult, causing them to go many miles out of the way. In the process they discovered a pass through the Rockies in what would become Wyoming. At an elevation of only 7,550 feet, South Pass was later to become the preferred route for the Oregon Trail. The Bonneville Expedition took the first wagon through South Pass on 24 July 1832. A large portion of Hunt's route along the Snake River became part of the Oregon Trail.

In July 1813 the Dorion family left Astoria on a beaver trapping trip. The party, led by John Reed, established their base of operations for the winter up the Snake River, at the mouth of the Boise River in present-day southwest Idaho, beyond the area now called Hell's Canyon. There, the party was divided into smaller units with Pierre Dorion, Giles Le Clerc, and the Kentucky hunter Jacob Reznor assigned to trap along the Boise River.

Marie and the children remained at the base camp. In January 1814 she learned from friendly Indians that a band of Bannocks were burning other camps, so she set out on a horse with her two children to warn her husband. Three days later she discovered their hut and found Le Clerc wounded. They had been ambushed that morning, while on their trapping line, and Pierre and Reznor were killed.

Marie got Le Clerc on the horse with her children and set out for the base camp, but he died two days later. At the base camp she found Reed and all the men in camp killed and mutilated. Leaving immediately, Marie headed back, seeking refuge with friendlier Indians along the Columbia River.

After nine days of struggling through snow, Marie was forced to halt and build a crude hut. Living on horse meat and melted snow, the three of them stayed there for 53 days. In mid-March, Marie and the children set out on foot. She was wandering partially snow blind, when rescued by Walla Walla Indians and taken to their village. There she was found in April by members of the Astoria group who were on their way back to St. Louis. They took her to Fort Okanogan, a Canadian fur station owned by the North West Company, located in the northeastern part of present-day Washington.

Marie lived at Fort Okanogan for several years, with a French-Canadian trapper named Venier. Their daughter, Marguerite, was born about 1819. Marie later lived with Jean Baptiste Toupin, who was a French-Canadian interpreter at Fort Nez Perce (later called Fort Walla Walla), another North West Company trading post, at the juncture of the Columbia and the Walla Walla rivers. It had been constructed in 1820 and lasted until it was burned by Indians in 1855. By Toupin, Marie Dorion had two more children: Francois (born about 1825) and Marianne (born about 1827).

In 1841 the Toupins settled on a farm in the Willamette Valley near Salem, Oregon and on July 19 of that year, they were formally married in a Roman Catholic ceremony. Marie died in 1850 and was buried at the parish church of St. Louis, 12 miles northeast of Salem. The officiating priest recorded her age as about 100, which was in error by about 40 years.

Marie Dorion's story became well known in her lifetime through the published recollections of Astoria pioneers and through Washington Irving's book Astoria. Since then, her name has been largely forgotten. ... “

Source: Article from Wild West Magazine at http://historynet.com/we/blmariedorion/

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