For those who study history with the genealogist's eye, this is an invaluable work. The charts, other families mentioned, detailed records that others find tedious, and fur trade information make it indispensable. If you just want a school kid's glossed-over history with anglo overtones, skip this one. This is the real story of who opened trade to the west.
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For anyone interested in the early history of the American West this book is an invaluable resource. The Chouteaus and other families in St Louis continuously intermarried and did business with each other. This book supplies what has been lacking in the literature of the fur trade, a solid and careful recounting of the story of their lives and business dealings, backed up with page by page notes, citing sources completely...
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Shirley Christian's work on the legacy of the Chouteau family should be considered the definitive on this subject area. After reading numerous books on the fur trade, it was enlightening and a treat to learn so much of the importance of this intriguing ancestry. From the days of establishing St. Louis in 1764 by Pierre Laclede Liguest (Chouteau) and his fourteen year old son Auguste Chouteau, up to circa 1850's, Christian...
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OK-I'm going on the wild assumption that you're checking out this book because of your interest in Lewis and Clark. Be warned, the subject matter in Christian's book is somewhat tangentially related, although you will be given little entertaining factoids such as that one of the scientific specimens sent back to Jefferson from St Louis at the start of the Expedition was a large hairball from the stomach of a buffalo.I live...
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