On Nov. 11, 1803, Meriwether Lewis arrived at Fort Massac. Here, he recruited George Drouillard “in the public service as an Indian Interpretter [sic]." Drouillard would prove to be one of the most important members of the expedition.
Tall, with dark hair and eyes, Drouillard was about twenty-eight years old when he met Lewis in 1803. He was born to a French-Canadian father, Pierre Drouillard, and a Shawnee mother, Asoundechris.
Drouillard grew up in the Cape Girardeau area of Missouri, where he learned to trap and hunt from his father, who worked as a trapper and interpreter. At one time, Drouillard’s father worked for George Rogers Clark, William Clark’s older brother.
Drouillard spoke English, French, and Shawnee. He was also fluent in the sign language that was common among Indigenous communities and non-Native traders across North America.
Drouillard’s importance as an interpreter and mediator cannot be exaggerated. He provided a crucial link between the captains and their Mandan and Hidatsa hosts during the winter of 1804. He would translate from English to French for Toussaint Charbonneau, who would then interpret the message in Hidatsa.
Drouillard’s sign language skills were important in every community the expedition passed through-from Nez Perce and Shoshone people in the Rocky Mountains, to Chinookan-speaking people on the Lower Columbia River.
He was perhaps the most important diplomat in the expedition. Indigenous residents of the Missouri River were accustomed to French-speaking neighbors. Drouillard’s multicultural heritage would have seemed commonplace to them. He might have had an easier time relating to many different people across the continent.
Lewis and Clark realized this. Both came to rely on Drouillard to connect with their Indigenous hosts as they traversed across the continent-people whose kindness and generosity were essential to the travelers’ survival.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service