Post by mrtbone on May 21, 2014 3:22:47 GMT -5
Hello everyone, I've recently found that my great great great grandmother was the child of a man named Louis Dace Letellier(b. 1827) and a Blackfoot Sioux woman. I've been trying to find information about the identities of my Native American ancestors and it seems that this board is very knowledgable. My G,G,G grandmas name was Louisa Letellier(b. 1853), her father, Louis Dace Letellier, was a french fur trader in the mid 1800's around S. Dakota. He wrote an autobiography that's kind of interesting. Strangely, in his book he never mentions his romance with his baby's mother until an interview in 1907 where he says:
"Interview With L. D. Letellier.
November 10th and 13th, 1907.
As to my daughter by an Indian woman, I will state that part of the years 1852 and 1853 I was at Fort Benton working for the fur company and early in the year of 1853 I had a daughter by a Black Foot Indian woman. Early in the spring of 1853 when the girl was a month or two old, the Black Foot woman, the child and I, with the agents of the fur company, with three flat boats came down from Fort Benton to Fort Union and I hired out as carpenter there for a year as stated in my original manuscript. We came down to Fort Berthold in March, 1854. They wanted to hire me for another year, but I had been at all the forts and seen all of that country I wanted to, and desired to leave the country, but did not wish to desert my child, then about fourteen months old. I knew the Indian friends of the Indian mother would not consent to me taking it away. A steamboat had come up the river to Berthold and was going farther up to Fort Benton and then return. I wanted to go down the river to St. Louis on it. I knew if I undertook to take the child on the boat at Berthold there would be trouble with the Indians, so I planned to go from Berthold to Pierre by rowboat and take the steamboat down the river from there. I told Capt. Kipp in command of the Fort Berthold what I wished to do and procured his assistance.
I bought a skiff for $20.00 from Capt. Kipp, got a good stock of provisions for the trip, hired a man whose name I cannot now recall to row the boat for me to Fort Pierre for $20.00 or $25.00, and at midnight left Berthold secretly with the child which I held in my arms while the other man rowed down the river all that night and the next day and into the next night without stopping, and thus eluded the Indians, and in due time reached Fort Pierre where I staid a few days until the steamboat came back down the river. I embarked at Pierre on this boat on my trip down instead of Berthold as given in my narrative, taking the child with me. The steamer on its trip down stopped at the mouth of Perry creek where Sioux City now is, and I found Jos. Lionnais and Eli Bedard living in a cabin close by with their halfblood Indian wives, daughters of Louis Menard. I had known these parties at Fort Pierre in 1852 and before, and arranged with them to take care of my little baby girl while I went to Canada, and left her there and went on down the river on the steamer to St. Louis and then to Canada and came back to Sioux City in the fall of 1854 and took charge of my child, and I had her cared for in Sioux City until spring of 1857, when I was married and brought my wife from Canada, and the girl was taken into my family and brought up and educated the same as my children subsequently born, and she became a most accomplished woman and married well.
Some one recently, in 1907, has furnished the Fort Pierre papers with mythical versions of this event, which was republished in a Sioux City paper, stating in substance, "that the girl was several years old when this kidnapping occurred and that she was being brought up by the Indian woman, who had married another Frenchman. That Letellier had come back up from Sioux City to get the girl and the husband was willing he should take the child, that they were afraid the mother would not consent, so Letellier, the husband, Felicia Fallas, and Louis LaPlant built a flat boat with material sawed with whip saws and that Letellier went off with their help secretly with the child down the river, presumably from Fort Pierre." This account is largely fiction in its details, as I have before stated, I took the girl when a baby when I first left the country and left Fort Berthold in a skiff, which I bought, and hired a man to row it, and no one else was taken into my counsels, except Capt. Kipp. This was over fifty-five years ago, and no doubt when I arrived at Fort Pierre with the child, the fact that I had taken her away secretly from the mother became known to my old acquaintances there and the story has since been told and retold until only the main feature remains. *
The discrepancies in that published story are: That the mother was a Black Foot and not a Ree. I got away in a skiff which I bought and not on a flat boat which I built—from Berthold instead of Pierre—I was not assisted by La Plant and the husband, Fallas. The child was a baby and not a partly grown girl and I took her when I first left the country in 1854 and not several years later. The child was well known by hundreds of persons in Sioux City from 1854. She married well and reared an intelligent family. I did not say anything about this in my general autobiography heretofore written, because I thought my daughter and my family might be sensitive to have it so published in print though they knew all about it."
So if you've made it this far, is there any advice you can give as to what I can do next? is this the end of the line or are there any avenues I can persue to possibly find out who Louisa's mother was? I searched ancestry.com for Felicia Fallas and found him on an indian census married to a woman named Elizabeth(b. ca. 1840) and they were living with several children and apparently Elizabeth's mother named Wasu or Hail(b.1804). Hope this isn't way too many words and I appreciate any help
Thanks
Richard Larson
"Interview With L. D. Letellier.
November 10th and 13th, 1907.
As to my daughter by an Indian woman, I will state that part of the years 1852 and 1853 I was at Fort Benton working for the fur company and early in the year of 1853 I had a daughter by a Black Foot Indian woman. Early in the spring of 1853 when the girl was a month or two old, the Black Foot woman, the child and I, with the agents of the fur company, with three flat boats came down from Fort Benton to Fort Union and I hired out as carpenter there for a year as stated in my original manuscript. We came down to Fort Berthold in March, 1854. They wanted to hire me for another year, but I had been at all the forts and seen all of that country I wanted to, and desired to leave the country, but did not wish to desert my child, then about fourteen months old. I knew the Indian friends of the Indian mother would not consent to me taking it away. A steamboat had come up the river to Berthold and was going farther up to Fort Benton and then return. I wanted to go down the river to St. Louis on it. I knew if I undertook to take the child on the boat at Berthold there would be trouble with the Indians, so I planned to go from Berthold to Pierre by rowboat and take the steamboat down the river from there. I told Capt. Kipp in command of the Fort Berthold what I wished to do and procured his assistance.
I bought a skiff for $20.00 from Capt. Kipp, got a good stock of provisions for the trip, hired a man whose name I cannot now recall to row the boat for me to Fort Pierre for $20.00 or $25.00, and at midnight left Berthold secretly with the child which I held in my arms while the other man rowed down the river all that night and the next day and into the next night without stopping, and thus eluded the Indians, and in due time reached Fort Pierre where I staid a few days until the steamboat came back down the river. I embarked at Pierre on this boat on my trip down instead of Berthold as given in my narrative, taking the child with me. The steamer on its trip down stopped at the mouth of Perry creek where Sioux City now is, and I found Jos. Lionnais and Eli Bedard living in a cabin close by with their halfblood Indian wives, daughters of Louis Menard. I had known these parties at Fort Pierre in 1852 and before, and arranged with them to take care of my little baby girl while I went to Canada, and left her there and went on down the river on the steamer to St. Louis and then to Canada and came back to Sioux City in the fall of 1854 and took charge of my child, and I had her cared for in Sioux City until spring of 1857, when I was married and brought my wife from Canada, and the girl was taken into my family and brought up and educated the same as my children subsequently born, and she became a most accomplished woman and married well.
Some one recently, in 1907, has furnished the Fort Pierre papers with mythical versions of this event, which was republished in a Sioux City paper, stating in substance, "that the girl was several years old when this kidnapping occurred and that she was being brought up by the Indian woman, who had married another Frenchman. That Letellier had come back up from Sioux City to get the girl and the husband was willing he should take the child, that they were afraid the mother would not consent, so Letellier, the husband, Felicia Fallas, and Louis LaPlant built a flat boat with material sawed with whip saws and that Letellier went off with their help secretly with the child down the river, presumably from Fort Pierre." This account is largely fiction in its details, as I have before stated, I took the girl when a baby when I first left the country and left Fort Berthold in a skiff, which I bought, and hired a man to row it, and no one else was taken into my counsels, except Capt. Kipp. This was over fifty-five years ago, and no doubt when I arrived at Fort Pierre with the child, the fact that I had taken her away secretly from the mother became known to my old acquaintances there and the story has since been told and retold until only the main feature remains. *
The discrepancies in that published story are: That the mother was a Black Foot and not a Ree. I got away in a skiff which I bought and not on a flat boat which I built—from Berthold instead of Pierre—I was not assisted by La Plant and the husband, Fallas. The child was a baby and not a partly grown girl and I took her when I first left the country in 1854 and not several years later. The child was well known by hundreds of persons in Sioux City from 1854. She married well and reared an intelligent family. I did not say anything about this in my general autobiography heretofore written, because I thought my daughter and my family might be sensitive to have it so published in print though they knew all about it."
So if you've made it this far, is there any advice you can give as to what I can do next? is this the end of the line or are there any avenues I can persue to possibly find out who Louisa's mother was? I searched ancestry.com for Felicia Fallas and found him on an indian census married to a woman named Elizabeth(b. ca. 1840) and they were living with several children and apparently Elizabeth's mother named Wasu or Hail(b.1804). Hope this isn't way too many words and I appreciate any help
Thanks
Richard Larson