Rene Boucher, sieur de La Perriere:
On 6 june 1727 the
First Sioux Trading Company is formed in Montreal, with the company including;
Beauharnois, Longueuil, Lacorne, d'Aigremont, St.George, Dupre, Youville,
Dillay-Dumay, Marin, Petit, Garreau, Campeau, de May, Richard, Jean Bte.Boucher
de Montbrun & Francois Boucher de Montbrun. Between May & June the
following were hired for the "poste des Sioux": Estienne Blot, Francois Poulin
de Francheville, Francois Lefebrve, Louis Lapron, Claude Marin, & Charles
Boissel. On 16 june, the trading expedition sets out from Montreal with Rene
Boucher, sieur de La Perriere (Commander), Pierre Boucher de Boucherville
(Rene's nephew) [Consolidated
Docket] , La Jemeraye, Maurice Menard (interpreter), Jesuit Rev.Michael
Guignas & Jesuit Rev.Nicolas de Gonner. The company had received a 3 year
trade monopoly with the Sioux. They arrive on the west shore of Lake Pepin (on
the Upper Mississippi) on 4 sep.1727 and begin construction on Fort Beauharnois.
This first Ft.Beauharnois was a 100sf enclosure of 12' logs with 3 log
buildings. A chapel of St.Michael the Archangel was built and the Fort was
located near today's Frontenac, Minnesota.
The information of the Sioux
gathered from this venture was that the Nation was divided into the Prairie
Scioux & the River Scioux, with the River (Eastern) Sioux joining the
Prairie (Western) Sioux, hunting buffalo & attacking tribes on the Missouri
in the spring of the year. In the spring of 1728 the Fort was flooded &
Rev.Guignas, with 11 Frenchmen leave the Fort for the east but are taken
prisoner and do not reach their destination until 1730.
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