Marie Dorion and The Astoria Expedition

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Because of Crooks’ poor health, Hunt was forced to leave him with an American hunter named John Day and four Canadians to rest on the north side of the Snake River. They stayed there three weeks before continuing, arriving at Astoria on May 11, 1812. Crooks and Day had been picked up by David Stuart, one of the partners, who was leading a small canoe party up the Columbia River. Altogether, only 45 of the original 60 men reached Astoria, compared to Lewis and Clark, who had only one death (it was due to appendicitis) on their entire expedition.

In July 1813 the Dorion family left Astoria on a beaver trapping trip. The party, led by John Reed, established their base of operations for the winter up the Snake River, at the mouth of the Boise River in present-day southwest Idaho, beyond the area now called Hell’s Canyon. There, the party was divided into smaller units with Pierre Dorion, Giles Le Clerc, and the Kentucky hunter Jacob Reznor assigned to trap along the Boise River.

Marie and the children remained at the base camp. In January 1814 she learned from friendly Indians that a band of Bannocks were burning other camps, so she set out on a horse with her two children to warn her husband. Three days later she discovered their hut and found Le Clerc wounded. They had been ambushed that morning, while on their trapping line, and Pierre and Reznor were killed. Marie got Le Clerc on the horse with her children and set out for the base camp, but he died two days later. At the base camp she found Reed and all the men in camp killed and mutilated. Leaving immediately, Marie headed back, seeking refuge with friendlier Indians along the Columbia River.

After nine days of struggling through snow, Marie was forced to halt and build a crude hut. Living on horse meat and melted snow, the three of them stayed there for 53 days. In mid-March, Marie and the children set out on foot. She was wandering partially snow blind, when rescued by Walla Walla Indians and taken to their village. There she was found in April by members of the Astoria group who were on their way back to St. Louis. They took her to Fort Okanogan, a Canadian fur station owned by the North West Company, located in the northeastern part of present-day Washington.

Marie lived at Fort Okanogan for several years, with a French-Canadian trapper named Venier. Their daughter, Marguerite, was born about 1819. Marie later lived with Jean Baptiste Toupin, who was a French-Canadian interpreter at Fort Nez Perce (later called Fort Walla Walla), another North West Company trading post, at the juncture of the Columbia and the Walla Walla rivers. It had been constructed in 1820 and lasted until it was burned by Indians in 1855. By Toupin, Marie Dorion had two more children: Francois (born about 1825) and Marianne (born about 1827).

In 1841 the Toupins settled on a farm in the Willamette Valley near Salem, Oregon and on July 19 of that year, they were formally married in a Roman Catholic ceremony. Marie died in 1850 and was buried at the parish church of St. Louis, 12 miles northeast of Salem. The officiating priest recorded her age as about 100, which was in error by about 40 years.

Marie Dorion’s story became well known in her lifetime through the published recollections of Astoria pioneers and through Washington Irving’s book Astoria. Since then, her name has been largely forgotten.

Astor’s entire endeavor to control the northwest fur trade came to an end soon after the beginning of the War of 1812. When a supply ship failed to arrive and news that a British warship HMS Raccoon was approaching, the partners were forced to sell Fort Astoria to the North West Company of Montreal. It was renamed Fort George. Astoria’s legacy was that it was the first permanent American settlement in the Pacific Northwest, and it became a strong argument in the United States’ claim for that land. The immediate result of Astor’s presence was that the North West Company had hastened to take control over the area. Representatives of that company arrived in the area just four months after Tonquin.

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Tags: Adventurers & Trail Blazers, Expeditions, People, The Wild West, Wild West, Women's History

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