Distinctly Montana Magazine

W W W. D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA NA . C O M 83 F R E N C H B R E D Montana artist E. S. Paxson's oil painting of the Sieur de la Verendrye is displayed prominently in the House antechamber of the Montana State Capitol. The invention of the astrolabe can be traced back at least as far as 150 B.C. in Greece. SMITHSONIAN PHOTO "European" is defined more by genetics than geography. Spanish explorers and fur traders (they of the hard, stale loaf ) arrived early and wandered widely. By the time they may have made the long trek to Montana, odds were they had been born in Spanish terri- tory in the New World, but were still considered Europeans. ere is anecdotal evidence that the Flathead, Shoshone, Crow, and Blackfeet had horses as early as the 1600s, but whether they arrived with the Spanish, by trading with southwestern tribes, or some other means is not clear. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were born in Colonial America, but are frequently called the first Europeans to explore Montana with their famous "Corps of Discovery," 1804 to 1806. Which leaves the French. Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Verendrye, of Trois Rivieres, New France, is often credited with entering the southeast corner of Montana in the 1730s on an expedition from present-day North Dakota. However, it is his sons' explorations which give the most credibility to a French claim to be first. Generously setting aside its justifiable pride in its association with two of America's best-known explorers, in 1886 the Great Falls Tribune reported the expedition of broth- ers Louis-Gaultier and Francois Verendrye. e editor wrote, "We trust that we shall be pardoned for leaving Lewis and Clarke among the Mandans, in a cold, cheerless country, with winter coming on, while we take a retrospective glance…at some hardy pioneers who antedated Lewis and Clarke..." (note: the State of Montana didn't correct its spelling of Clark's name of- ficially until 1905). I F IT HADN'T BEEN FOR A BROKEN ASTROLABE, WE MIGHT ALL BE SPEAKING FRENCH TODAY. Obviously the original settlement of Montana must be credited to the First People—the tribes who settled here or passed through thousands of years ago. When it comes to crediting the earliest exploration of present-day Montana by Europeans, your vote may depend on whether any of your ancestors ate pease bread, buttery croissants, or a long loaf that was hard enough to drive nails. by LYNDEL MEIKLE

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