Auguste Chouteau
Historical Figure

Auguste Chouteau

Jean Pierre Auguste Chouteau was a prominent fur trader and civic leader who co-founded the city of St. Louis in 1764 as a fourteen-year-old accompanying Pierre Laclède's trading expedition. He became one of the wealthiest and most influential figures in the Mississippi and Missouri river valleys, establishing extensive trade networks with the Osage and other nations. Chouteau served as a key intermediary and U.S. treaty commissioner during the early territorial period, leveraging his decades of relationships with Indigenous leaders. His fluency in multiple Native languages and deep understanding of tribal diplomacy made him indispensable to the American government's treaty-making efforts in the region.

Portrait: Portrait of Auguste Chouteau, c. 1815-1850. Missouri History Museum.

24 treaties 26 total items 24 mapped locations

Related Locations

Pin color = Planning (1801–1804) Westward (1804–1805) Fort Clatsop (1805–1806) Return (1806) Post (1806–1812)
Master expedition route

Treaties (24)

Treaty with the Foxes, 1815
09/14
Treaty with the Grand Pawnee, 1818
06/18
Treaty with the Iowa, 1815
09/16
Treaty with the Kickapoo, 1815
09/02
Treaty with the Makah, 1815
07/20
Treaty with the Noisy Pawnee, 1818
06/19
Treaty with the Osage, 1815
09/12
Treaty with the Osage, 1825
06/02
Treaty with the Oto, 1817
06/24
Treaty with the Ottawa, etc., 1816
08/24
Treaty with the Pawnee Marhar, 1818
06/22
Treaty with the Pawnee Republic, 1818
06/20
Treaty with the Piankashaw, 1815
07/18
Treaty with the Ponca, 1817
06/25
Treaty with the Potawatomi, 1815
07/18
Treaty with the Quapaw, 1818
08/24
Treaty with the Sauk, 1815
09/13
Treaty with the Sauk, 1816
05/13
Treaty with the Sioux Of St. Peter’s River, 1815
07/19
Treaty with The Sioux of the Lakes, 1815
07/19
Treaty with the Sioux, 1816
06/01
Treaty with the Teton, 1815
07/19
Treaty with the Winnebago, 1816
06/03
Treaty with the Yankton Sioux, 1815
07/19

Translations (2)

Auguste Chouteau to Thomas Jefferson, November 20, 1804
Auguste Chouteau: Dinner Invitation to General William Clark

Other Key Figures

William Clark 1304 Meriwether Lewis 1032 Robert Heacock 788 George Drouillard 405 Patrick Gass 326 Mandan 277 John Ordway 214 Shoshone 188 George Shannon 179 John Collins 167 Clatsop 142 Nathaniel Pryor 141
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Cross-Narrator Analyses

AI-assisted scholarly analyses that cite or discuss Auguste Chouteau — showing 6 of the most recent matches.

September 24, 1806

Letters, Tailors, and a Trunk of Damaged Papers: The Captains Re-enter St. Louis Society

On their second full day back in St. Louis, Clark records a brisk return to civilian correspondence and commerce, while Ordway's published…
September 12, 1806

News from the States: The Encounter with McClellan’s Keel Boat

On the lower Missouri, the returning Corps meets Robert McClellan's trading party and receives the first substantial news from home in over…
September 6, 1806

First Whiskey Since July 1805: An Encounter with Chouteau’s Trading Boat

On a Missouri River sandbar, the Corps meets a St. Louis trading vessel bound for the Yanktons. Three narrators record the same…
Figure: Ninian Edwards

Ninian Edwards in the Lewis & Clark Journals: A Figure at the Margins of the Record

Though Ninian Edwards loomed large in the territorial politics of the trans-Mississippi West during and after the Corps of Discovery's expedition, the…
Figure: Auguste Chouteau

Auguste Chouteau: St. Louis Patron of the Corps of Discovery

Co-founder of St. Louis and dean of its fur trade, Auguste Chouteau appears in the journals as host, supplier, and commercial presence…
May 20, 1804

Lewis Joins the Party at Petit Côte

On a rain-soaked Sunday in St. Charles, Lewis finally rejoined Clark and the Corps. The five journals diverge sharply in scope —…

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