Lucien Fontenelle (1800 - 1840) was a prominent fur trader in the Nebraska area in the early-19th century who was born to François and Marie-Louise Fontenelle on the family plantation south of New Orleans. His parents were killed by a hurricane while he was away attending school in New Orleans. He left New Orleans in 1816 after having been raised for a time by an aunt, and began working in the lower-Missouri fur trade in 1819.
He later became involved in the
Missouri Fur Company
The Missouri Fur Company (also known as the St. Louis Missouri Fur Company or the Manuel Lisa Trading Company) was one of the earliest fur trading companies in St. Louis, Missouri. Dissolved and reorganized several times, it operated under various ...
. He married Bright Sun, also known as Me-um-bane, a daughter of the Omaha Chief
Big Elk
Big Elk, also known as ''Ontopanga'' (1765/75–1846/1848), was a principal chief of the Omaha tribe for many years on the upper Missouri River. He is notable for his oration delivered at the funeral of Black Buffalo in 1813.
Big Elk led his p ...
. Among their children was
Logan Fontenelle
Logan Fontenelle (May 6, 1825 – July 16, 1855), also known as ''Shon-ga-ska'' (White Horse), was a trader of Omaha and French ancestry, who served for years as an interpreter to the US Indian agent at the Bellevue Agency in Nebraska. He was e ...
.
Early in his career Fontenelle was involved in fur trading into the Rocky Mountains.
However starting in the late 1820s he was in command at
Fontenelle's Post
Fontenelle's Post, first known as Pilcher's Post, and the site of the later city of Bellevue, Nebraska, Bellevue, was built in 1822 in the Nebraska Territory by Joshua Pilcher, then president of the Missouri Fur Company. Located on the west side o ...
in what would become
Bellevue, Nebraska
Bellevue ( French for "beautiful view"; previously named Belleview) is a suburban city in Sarpy County, Nebraska, United States. It is part of the Omaha–Council Bluffs metropolitan area, and had a population of 64,176 as of the 2020 Census, m ...
, along the Missouri River. In 1831 he led a trading expedition to the
Cache Valley
Cache Valley is a valley of northern Utah and southeast Idaho, United States, that includes the Logan metropolitan area. The valley was used by 19th century mountain men and was the site of the 1863 Bear River Massacre. The name, Cache Valley i ...
of Utah and Idaho with
Andrew Drips. On their return to St. Louis they were joined by some
Nez Perces people seeking to get Christian missionaries to come to their people.
[Alvin M. Josephy, ''The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest, Abridge Edition'' (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1971), p. 85-86]
References
Nebraska Studies article on Fontenelle*Trottman, Alan C. "Lucien Fontenelle" in
Le Roy Hafen, ''Trappers of the Far West'' Glendale, California: Arthur H. Clark, 1983.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fontenelle, Lucien
American fur traders
1800 births
1840 deaths