Auguste Pierre Chouteau (9 May 1786 – 25 December 1838) was a member of the Chouteau fur-trading family who established

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory in European and colonial contexts, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically a trading post allows people from one geogr ...

s in what is now the

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Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

. Chouteau was born in St. Louis, then part of Spanish colonial

Upper Louisiana The Illinois Country ( ; ; ), also referred to as Upper Louisiana ( ; ), was a vast region of New France claimed in the 1600s that later fell under Spanish and British control before becoming what is now part of the Midwestern United States. Whi ...

. His father was Jean Pierre Chouteau, one of the first settlers in St. Louis. His mother was Pelagie Kiersereau (1767-1793) One of his brothers was Pierre Chouteau Jr. (who founded Fort Pierre in South Dakota). A half-brother (born after his father married Brigitte Saucier) was François Chouteau, who established a trading post and was one of the first settlers of

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

. Auguste Chouteau was among the first young men from Missouri to be appointed to

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

. After graduating in 1806, he resigned the Army in 1807. He entered the family

fur trading The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

business, but he later served as captain of the territorial militia during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

. After the war, Chouteau was arrested in 1817 by the Spanish during a trading expedition on the upper

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in Colorado, specifically ...

, as they considered that area under their control and excluded others from its lucrative trading. He was imprisoned in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , literal translation, lit. "Holy Faith") is the capital city, capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Santa Fe County. With over 89,000 residents, Santa Fe is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, fourt ...

. After being released, Chouteau continued the family trade among the Osage. He established his home in present-day Salina, Oklahoma, part of the western extent of their territory. In 1832,

Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He wrote the short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy ...

visited the post and described it in ''Tour of the Prairies''. Chouteau had children by at least four women who were at least partly Osage, fathering at least seven children by these women. He also married Sophie Labbadie, a cousin of French descent, whom he kept in St. Louis while he kept the other women on the frontier. He had at least nine children with his wife Sophie Chouteau. The two other women he was most closely associated with were Rosalie Lambert, who he had two children by, and her sister Masina Lambert, with whom he had three children. The Lamberts' mother was Osage and their father was Metis. Rosalie was born in 1809, was living with Chouteau by 1825, and she continued to live with him until his death at Fort Gibson,

Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...

, in 1838.Shirley Christian, ''Before Lewis and Clark: The Story of the Chouteaus, the French Dynasty That Ruled America's Frontier'' (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004) p. 306

Legacy and honors

* Chouteau, Oklahoma, is named for him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chouteau, August Pierre Military personnel from St. Louis 1786 births 1838 deaths People from Salina, Oklahoma United States Military Academy alumni People from New Spain