David de Launay was a French-born resident of
St. Louis who led a group of
Osage people to France in 1827.
History
De Launay led a group of eleven
Osage men and one Native American woman,
Sacred Sun, to France in 1827. Whilst leaving St. Louis, their raft was wrecked, causing them to lose all their furs, and half of the Osage decided to return to their village. The others decided to go on, met up with de Launay, and traveled down the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...
to
and then on to New England. De Launay and his crew then sailed for
Le Havre, France arriving on July 27 1827. At first, they were greeted with great hospitality and met
King Charles X. After a while the local people lost interest and it was hard for de Launay to afford the food and shelter needed by the Osage. He ended up selling tickets to see the Osage in their hotel rooms, and forcing them to perform a show. Finally, de Launay ran out of money, could not feed nor support the Osage, and was jailed for not paying his bills.
This left the Osage to fend for themselves.
References
People from St. Louis
Native American history of Missouri
People from St. Louis County, Missouri
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