Yazoo Mingo

Historically, the Yazoo Mingo's trek had a significant effect on the later voyage of President Jefferson's captains. Moncacht-Apé's story was retold to the world by Monsieur Antoine Simon Le Page du Pratz, a French planter and developer of the Mississippi delta. Du Pratz was a graduate of Cours de Mathematiques in Paris and an architect and hydraulic engineer. He sought information on the flora, fauna, geology and the people of the lower Mississippi drainage area. His work, Histoire de la Louisiane, published in Paris in 1758, was a record of his observations in the Louisiana territory during his habitation there from 1718–1734. Among other things, du Pratz' work chronicled the indigenous peoples of the area including their foods, customs, manners and handicrafts. Du Pratz had an absolute faith in Moncacht-Apé and the credibility of his information. DuPratz composed a map of the entire Louisiana Territory which included input from Moncacht-Apé in regard to the upper Missouri River and that source of the Columbia River that lies closest to the nascent Missouri. Although the Missouri's great arch was flattened in the map, the river was pointed in the right direction and was correct in its juxtaposition with the beginning of the Clark Fork of the Columbia River. The du Pratz map and the Moncacht-Apé saga served to bolster the school of thought that favored a passage to the Pacific Ocean via the Missouri River and the Northwest rather than the group that believed a river to the Southwest would take them to a great inland salt sea with an outlet somewhere in northern California. The latter theory was probably based on Indian talk of a great salt lake in present day Utah near a source of the Platte River. Theorists believed that the lake must have an outlet to the ocean because of its salinity. Needless to say, Lewis and Clark would have experienced great disappointment had they sought the southern route. The present day area of Salt Lake City is a beautiful place but far from an easy passage to the Pacific Ocean.

Because of du Pratz and additional information and research the Corps of Discovery opted for the Missouri to Columbia route. Two main differences distinguish the route taken by Moncacht-Apé from that taken by the Lewis and Clark expedition. One was the portage from the Missouri to the Columbia. The du Pratz map shows Moncacht-Apé leaving the Missouri at its headwaters near Three Forks and the present day city of Butte Montana. From there the Yazoo Mingo in a portage of about sixty miles, crossed the Continental Divide and linked up with the Clark Fork of the Columbia River. Moncacht-Apé’s portage was part of the Buffalo Trail known to trans-mountain Natives and was by far the most expeditious route over the northern Rocky Mountains and in fact tracks the present day Interstate 90 freeway. Lewis and Clark proceeded south from Three Forks up the Jefferson River and commenced an arduous climb over the Continental Divide into present day Idaho only to trek north again to a point where they battled mountainous terrain directly west to the Snake River and then on to the Columbia. The reason that Lewis and Clark departed from the Yazoo Mingo's route at Three Forks was their need for many horses to transport the gear and personnel of the expedition to a point where the Columbia would be navigable by large enough boats to transport their massive impedimentia to the Pacific Ocean. Sacagawea, the only woman in the Corps of Discovery, was sister to a chief of the Shoshone Nation and it was necessary to link up with that nation, famous for their fine breed of horses and use Sacagawea's good offices in the acquisition of the necessary stock. The second difference between the two journeys was the terminus. The Corps of Discovery went no further than the mouth of the Columbia River. The Yazoo Mingo proceeded up into Puget Sound and on up the Inside Passage to Southeast Alaska.