| Moncacht-apé
While the name Moncacht-apé may not be as familiar as those of Lewis and Clark, there are some who believe that this Yazoo Indian may have been the first to cross the North American continent, several decades before the Lewis and Clark expedition. He may have been one of many adventurers from Native American (rather than thinking “first” or “only”). Without written accounts, no one knows. French historian, Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz, published an account of Moncacht-apé’s journey in 1758 in the multi-volume history of colonial Louisiana titled, Histoire de la Louisiane. During his 16 years in Louisiana, Le Page learned the Natchez language and recorded interviews with his native subjects, including Moncacht-apé , in their own words. He devoted three chapters of his history to the narrative of Moncacht-apé’s sojourn up the Missouri to its headwaters, then northward to “the Beautiful River,” and finally west to the Pacific. Unlike Lewis and Clark’s expedition, which was inspired, at least in part, by an imperialist desire for territorial expansion, Monchact-ape’s stated motive for his journey was simply to discover the origins of his people. His encounters with native elders on the Pacific coast ultimately confirmed Le Page’s theory of a land bridge migration from Asia to North America, at least for some Native Americans. Le Page’s report of this early transcontinental journey was published seven years prior to the Seven Years’ War, which resulted in the French loss of the Louisiana Territory. As a result, Moncacht-apé’s story did not inspire repeat expeditions by the French aimed at augmenting their territory; however, it is known that Thomas Jefferson kept a copy of Le Page’s history in his library, and that Meriweather Lewis carried the 1774 English edition with him all the way to Oregon and back. If nothing else, Moncacht-apé’s journey may have provided Lewis and Clark with the seed of hope that such a trip was indeed possible. Why Moncacht-apé's name, and his story, remains virtually unknown, is a question that needs to be asked despite the difficulty of arriving at an answer. Did Lewis and Clark suppress information about his journey? Have American historians neglected information that doesn’t fit with the grand narrative of Manifest Destiny and Frederick Jackson Turner’s theories of westward expansion? Questions like these clearly merit some discussion in our classrooms. Click
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