European and American Explorers
Chapters 5&6
 Motives:
God, Gold and Glory!,
Seven Cities of Cibola
 Coronado: searching for Cibola but
found pueblos, treated natives badly,
followed a Pawnee to Quivira (Wichita
village), Pawnee choked to death, chiefs
swore oath to Spain
 Do
Campo: with Friar Juan de Padilla
tried to set up a Catholic mission,
attacked by Kaw tribe and held captive a
year, took five years to get back due to
carrying wooden cross, “Trail of the
Cross” is better route than Coronado’s
 Onate: governor of Spanish colony on
Rio Grande near present-day Santa Fe,
searched for Quivira but found villages
 Spanish
saw expeditions as failures---No
gold, land useless
 Information about OK was gained from
the reports.
 Spain claimed all the land on western
side of Mississippi River
 Louisiana: 1682, La
Salle claimed
Mississippi River Valley for France, trade
with natives and Spanish in Santa Fe
 Du Tisne: negotiated with Osage and
Wichita tribes
 La Harpe: set up post on Red, negotiated
with the Wichitas
 Wichitas
and Osages became dependent
on trade goods from the French, became
commerical hunters and warriors
 Coureurs de bois: runners of the woods,
French traders
 Deer Creek Village: Wichitas were
laborers at a stockyard and meatprocessing plant
 Wichita-Osage
Conflict: the Wichita were
attacked by the Osage and moved to the
Red
 Twin Villages: one on either side of Red,
Wichitas were brokers between Southern
plains tribes and French, fortified,
Spanish unsuccessfully attacked
 France
lost to England in French and
Indian War
 In Treaty of Paris in 1763, France gave up
claim to land west of Mississippi to Spain
 There
for 150 years
 Thought it was useful land
 Treated natives as equals
 Place-names and surnames
 Natives lost traditions and skills, hunted
for trade, fought each other
 When
Napoleon Bonaparte was Emperor
of France, he invaded Spain
 In Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800, France
regained lands west of Mississippi in
North America from Spain
 Napoleon
needed money for his wars
and sold Louisiana to the United States
for $15 million in 1803.
 President Jefferson saw the new territory
as the foundation of a great American
empire.
 He knew the U.S. needed more
knowledge of the land and sent out
expeditions.
 Sparks
Expedition: 1806, Red River to
Twin Villages, but was turned back by
Spanish, boundaries not known
 Pike-Wilkinson Expedition: 1806,Pike
went to Rocky Mtns.; Wilkinson traveled
the Arkansas in canoes, brutal winter,
reported warfare, salt prairie, trappers
 Sibley Expedition: 1811, searched for
salt, found Great Salt Plains
 Long-Bell
Expedition: 1820, Bell went
down Arkansas River, very rough, had Say
(zoologist) with him to keep records; Long
thought he was on the Red but was actually
on the Canadian, James (botanist) with
him, “Great American Desert”
 Nuttall
Expedition: 1819, English botanist,
gathered most information on Oklahoma
 These
explorers were there for the
money not knowledge.
 Red River Traders: Anthony Glass
traded with the Wichita at Twin Villages
 Three Forks Traders: Where Arkansas,
Verdigris, and Grand Rivers connect;
Chouteau Brothers, Joseph Bogy,
Nathaniel Pryor, A.P. Chouteau
 Santa
Fe Traders: 1819 Adams-Onis
Treaty defined southern boundary of
Louisiana Purchase, 1821 Mexico
declares independence from Spain,
maybe now U.S. traders could trade in
Santa Fe; Thomas James, Hugh Glen,
Jacob Fowler, William Bucknell got to
Santa Fe first “Father of Santa Fe Trade”
 Knowledge
gained by explorers.
 Not an ideal place for farmers.
 Considered a place for resettling the
Native Americans.