The
Indian Who Became Mayor of Mission
San Luis Rey
By Ed Keenan, Author of Nature and the Southwest
Imagine, a lowly Indian being appointed by the governor
of California to be the Mayor (Alcalde) of the San Luis
Rey Mission, “King of The Missions”, with all its vast
territorial holdings.
This
once prosperous San Luis Rey Mission was founded in
1878, near the mouth of the San Luis Rey River, about
two miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. It is located
in what is now Oceanside, California, in northern San
Diego County. The first Pepper Tree (schinus molle)
brought to the U.S. from South America was planted here
in the enclosed mission churchyard. One specimen may
still be standing in the west enclosure. Numerous other
very old pepper trees can be seen around the area. In
fact all other such pepper trees in southern California
came later.
At one
time, the Mission San Luis Rey had an extensive chain of
outposts that spread over some 1,000 square miles. It
covered all of what, is now, northern San Diego and
Riverside counties. In 1818 the San Luis Rey Mission
owned the acreages of six mission ranches, Pala, Santa
Margarita, San Jacinto, Santa Ysabel, Temecula and San
Pedro. At the height of this prosperity; it was the
largest, richest and the most populous of all the
mission village establishments in California. San Luis
Rey was part of the chain of 21 California missions, on
the north-south coastal tail, called El Camino Real (The
Kings Highway). Its influence and authority extended
from the Pacific Ocean on the west to the boundary of
the San Juan Capistrano Mission on the north and east to
the outposts of the wild Colorado Desert.
The
San Luis Rey Mission, and its surrounding village,
developed the largest herd of livestock of any of the
missions. It grew to have more than 50,000 cattle and
sheep, and more than 1,300 goats, 300 pigs, and almost
2,000 horses. Because of its large size and prosperity,
the mission came to be known as the "King of the
Missions." The Indian name for the mission location was
Tacayme. In the early 1830's the mission had the
servitude of 2,800 indigenous Indians living on its
ranchos. Ancestors of those Indians still reside on the
Pala Reservation, where they were sent, in northern San
Diego County.
All
Catholic missions were established with three
cooperating entities: civil, religious, and military.
Although not a fort, or presidio, the barracks housed
the military arm of the mission system. Between five and
eleven Spanish soldiers were assigned to protect the San
Luis Rey Mission. They resided in the mission barracks.
Located in front of the Mission, the building had
several apartments and a tower.
The
fact that the Mission San Luis Rey retained that kind of
prominence and authority, imagine a lowly Indian being
appointed by the governor of California to be the
Alcalde of the San Luis Rey Mission village, including
all its extensive territorial holdings. On the 24th of
November, Governor Mason appointed an Indian named Pomp,
the Alcalde, “within the District of San Diego, at or
near San Luis Rey.” (Alcalde: A mayor or chief judicial
official of a Spanish town). That was comparable to a
U.S. territorial Marshall.
How
did this Indian with a curious name like Pomp or Pompy
gain such respect and prominence? For one thing, he was
a baptized Catholic from infancy or his appointment
could not have happened. But, it seems Pomp was destined
from birth to be on the leading edge of western
territorial history.
We
pick up his trail in Santa Fe (de Nuevo Mexico) during
the Mexican war in 1846. At that time Pomp was an
experienced fur trapper, a guide and a respected
expedition scout. The chronicles of early explorers in
1832 mention him as having been with Jim Bridger at Fort
Bridger near the Great Salt Lake Valley. In the late
1830’s he is mentioned as being with Benjamin L. E.
Bonneville, whose name is now preserved in the
Bonneville Dam and Bonneville Salt Flats. By the 1840’s
he is said to be with John C. Fremont and eventually he
is seen around present-day Pueblo, Colorado. Also, his
name often appears with the colorful history of
America’s explorers, fur trappers, scouts and mountain
men, such as Jedediah Smith and Kit Carson.
So,
there is little doubt that Pomp was born to be a true
adventurer. When Philip Saint George Cooke, the
commander of the Mormon battalion began his march toward
the Mexican war in the far west, Pomp joined him as a
guide. From Santa Fe they headed down the Rio Grande.
Commander Cooke quickly realized the unusual hunting
skill of Pomp and relied on him to bring wild game in
for his troops. Not only was he skilled at hunting deer
and beaver but, he could single-handedly bring down a
grizzly bear, which he did on more than one occasion.
Leaving the Rio Grand the battalion headed west toward
the distant ranchos of San Diego, California to meet up
with General Stephen W. Kearney. In a short time Colonel
Cooke’s battalion entered into an unknown wilderness,
unknown even to Pomp. Cooke soon recognized the unusual
skill and character of this stocky Indian and so he
began to rely on him heavily. When it came to finding a
route for the battalion wagons, Pomp had an uncanny
sense of direction. He had an explorers compass his
head. He knew almost instinctively how to discover the
gaps and passes through the rugged mountains.
Captain, now Lieutenant Colonel, Phillip Saint George
Cooke was one of the finest western frontier officers.
So, history records, that General Kearney had ordered
him to assume command of the Mormon Battalion, with the
assignment to march the battalion to California and join
his “Army of the West.” Additionally, his task was to
build a wagon road. Colonel Philip Cooke was to
establish a wagon road west through the forbidding
Colorado Desert. Finding his maps worthless, Cooke
relied heavily upon Pomp as an expert trailblazer. As it
turned out, Pomp directed a different route than that
indicated by the maps. This arduous trek took real
belief and faith in the Indian guide. Think about it;
the battalion became totally dependant on his scouting
capabilities. So, the lives of 350 men hung in the
balance.
In one
instance it is said that Pomp and Cooke’s battalion had
to lower the wagons by rope over a canyon precipice. One
wagon broke as the rope snapped and the wagon plummeted
to the bottom of Guadalupe Canyon. The canyon is on the
Mexican border of southwest New Mexico. Apparently,
there is an historical marker about this incident on the
Geronimo Trail Road, in southwest New Mexico.
Colonel Emory, while enroute to San Diego from Santa Fe
in October of 1846 wrote:
“I saw
some large objects on the hill on the west, which were
mistaken for large cedars, but dwindled by distance to a
shrub. He [Pomp] exclaimed, 'Indians! They are Apaches!'
His more practical [sharp] eye detected human figures in
my shrubbery.”
Finally, on a brisk day in early January of 1847, six
tattered and weary men rode out of the treacherous
Colorado Desert, up through the Carriso Gorge, with Pomp
in the lead. They rode into the oasis of Vallecito, in
the Anza-Borrego Desert, located in what is now eastern
San Diego County, California. The group had successfully
traversed a waterless country, sand dune-to-sand dune,
canyon-to-canyon, water hole-to-water hole. With gritty
determination, and the exceptional know-how of Pomp,
they had succeeded in finding the ancient route of the
Spaniards. The grueling trek, over some of the most
arduous terrain in North America, opened the southern
wagon route to California, just as Colonel Cooke had
been directed to do by General Kearney.
The
intrepid Indian guide had skillfully selected the
successful route of the battalion. He had hunted for
their provisions, found camps, scouted, and even fought
some of the indigenous Indians. He definitely made it
easier for Cooke to bring his half-starved group of 350
volunteers on the 1,200-mile journey, through incredibly
hostile desert territory, to San Diego. By his
single-handed accomplishments, he may have even saved
the lives of the entire Mormon Battalion.
It
could be argued, that in its own way, the significance
of that hazardous desert journey is comparable to the
Lewis and Clark expedition of 1805. Just as the Lewis
and Clark march through the northwest, to the Pacific
Ocean, opened up the west, so too, the risky desert
march toward the Pacific Ocean opened the southern wagon
route to California, facilitating the westward expansion
of the entire southwest. The route also became part of
the Southern Emigrant Trail, the most widely used route
into California for travelers of the 18th and 19th
centuries.
Not
far from Vallecitos, was the Indian village of San
Felipe. Pausing here, Cooke sent Pomp ahead to San
Diego, with dispatches to General Kearney and his “Army
of the West.” He had orders to return to the Mormon
Battalion as soon as possible. It is now January and the
war with Mexico is in full swing. After Pomp and five
men refreshed themselves among the marsh grasses and
mesquite of the Vallecito Springs, they hurried to San
Diego.
According to the Journal of San Diego History: “At dusk
on January 12, 1847, a swarthy, stockily-built man, clad
in buckskins emerged from the shadows of Mission Valley
and moved along the narrow trail to Fort Stockton, on
Presidio Hill. (Site of the Mission de Alcala) Having
informed the American authorities (General Kearny) that
the Mormon Battalion had arrived in San Diego, he faded
again into the night. This act marked the first
appearance in San Diego of a quite remarkable figure…”
General Kearny was stationed at the old Mission of San
Diego, which was established as the first military post
in the war with Mexico. About January 20, Pomp completed
his round trip to San Diego, bringing back dispatches
for Cooke.
Now
nearing the end of their journey, on the bright, clear
morning of January 25, 1847, the battalion arrived at
the Village of Temecula, nestled on the banks of
Temecula Creek. History records that by coincidence;
this was during the aftermath of the “Temecula Indian
Massacre,” a conflict between the Spaniards and a local
Indian tribe. Thirty-eight Pauma Indians had been slain
a few days before in an ambush in Negro Canyon (formerly
shown on the map as “N- word” Canyon.) The tattered
Mormon Battalion agreed to stand guard to prevent
further bloodshed while the Indian peoples gathered
their numerous dead and placed them in a common grave.
Leaving there, the battalion apparently headed southwest
from the village of Temecula, traveling over the coastal
foothills, they descended to the San Luis Rey River and
followed its course through the fertile valley westward
to the San Luis Rey Mission.
Two
days later Pomp with Cook’s Mormon Battalion camped in
the lush green fields, in front of the San Luis Rey
Mission. Pomp was able to walk up the chartreuse slopes
of wild mustard behind the mission, up to the top of the
rolling hills. For the second time in his life,
wide-eyed, he looked out over the Pacific Ocean; “the
big water toward the setting sun.”
Colonel Saint George Cooke recorded a special note of
importance about his successful expedition. “Order
Number 1, Headquarters Mormon Battalion, January 30,
1847: “History may be searched in vain for an equal
march of infantry...” That simple entry, along with
naming some of their exploits, was a clear
acknowledgement and testimony to his Indian guide. Pomp
had played a pivotal role on this remarkable journey.
Surely
that answers the question propounded at the outset of
this tale: “How did this Indian with a curious name like
Pomp or Pompy gain such respect and prominence, so as to
be appointed by the governor to be the Alcalde, (Mayor)
of the San Luis Rey Mission village?” As it turns out,
Pomp couldn’t deal with the politics and mistreatment of
the local Indians so resigned within a year, to the
satisfaction of all parties.
Well,
that may answer the question as to why he became so
highly respected, but it doesn’t answer the questions
of, where he come from and what was his background? Who
really was this Indian called Pomp?
Earlier, we picked up his trail when he met up with
Colonel Cooke and his Mormon Battalion. By doing a
little backtracking, we find this intrepid explorer’s
earliest recorded tracks.
The
first mention of him in history is at his birth.
Recorded in a well-known journal at Fort Mandan, (ND)
was written: “February 11, 1805, . . . the weather was
fair and could wind N. W. About five o’clock this
evening one of the [women,] was delivered of a fine boy
. . . It is worthy of remark that this was the first
child this woman had born, and as common in such cases
her labour was tedious and the pain violent.” In an
effort to help her deliver the child, “a small mixture
of water and crushed rings of a rattlesnake rattlers
were given to help induce birth…”
Although skeptical of this treatment, the journal
indicates that she gave birth shortly after consuming
the rattlesnake potion: “Whether this medicine was truly
the cause or not I shall not undertake to determine,
but... she had not taken it more than ten minutes before
she brought forth.” “The temperature was 8 degrees below
zero at sunrise and it was 2 degrees below at 4:00 p.m.”
Strapped to his mother’s back in a papoose, eight months
later Pomp would see the Pacific Ocean for the first
time. But, who was his mother? None other than the
famous Sacagawea, the only woman member of the Lewis and
Clark expedition! Yes! That Shoshone Indian interpreter
and horse trader for the Corps of Discovery expedition,
was the mother of Pomp! It was Captain William Clark
that gave the boy his nickname, Pomp / Pompy. According
to some, it means first-born in the Shoshone language.
His real name was Jean Baptise Charbonneau.
His
father was a French Canadian fur trader by the glorious
name Toussaint Charbonneau. He acquired Sacagawea as a
wife in a gambling deal. She had been kidnapped from her
tribe. (Some say her name is pronounced Sah-cah-JAH-we.)
Nevertheless, without the aid of her speaking the
Shoshone language and being an interpreter, the Lewis
and Clark expedition could likely have failed, thereby
altering America’s course of destiny.
Few
stories have ever inspired such a spirit of adventure as
the epic journey of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Volumes have been written about the US Corps of
Discovery, as the expedition was officially termed by
the US Government. John (Pomp) Baptise Charbonneau’s
contribution to the first expedition across western
America to the Pacific added a very poignant,
mother-and-child, softness to the rigors of such a harsh
environment.
But,
after such an unusual and adventurous two-year
beginning, Pomp had a unique upbringing. He was
eventually adopted by Capt. William Clark who had a
special fondness for the boy. Pomp was given formal
schooling in St. Louis and even traveled to Europe for
six years where he polished his education among royalty.
He spoke, or understood, at least four languages,
Shoshone, English, French, some Spanish and German, as
well as tribal Indian tongues. He was even known to
quote Shakespeare around evening campfires. Combined
with his formal education and upbringing, along with his
natural Indian instincts, there is little reason to
wonder that this unusual half-breed was destined to be a
man of distinction.
It is
said, “You can take the boy out of the country, but you
can’t take the country out of the boy.” So it was with
Jean (Pomp) Baptise Charbonneau. Regardless of his
higher education and worldly opportunities, he was
driven to be a mountain man, explorer and scout. History
shows that he had a dominant wilderness streak in him
that would not allow his spirit to be domesticated.
In
1839 he is said to have given the following answer to
the question: “Why do you chose to live in the
wilderness?” His articulate response reveals an educated
mind and an uncommon depth of thinking ability. Consider
also, how it gives insight to the core of his spirit:
“For
reasons found in the nature of my race…Neither periods
of burning eloquence [in literature], nor the mighty and
beautiful creations of imagination, can unbosom the
treasures and realities as they live in their own native
magnificence, and in the secret untrodden vale. As soon
as you thrust the ploughshare under the earth, it teems
with worms and useless weeds. It increases population to
an untamed extent; creates the necessity of penal
enactments, builds the jail and erects the gallows…The
legends of the [Indian’s] tribe tell him nothing about
quadrants and baselines and angles. Their braves,
however, have for ages watched from the cliffs, the
green forests…No, I must range the hills, I must always
be able to out-travel my horse. I must always be able to
strip my own wardrobe from the backs of deer and
buffalo, and to feed upon their rich loins; I must
always be able to punish my enemies with my own hands,
or I am no longer an Indian. And if I am anything else,
I am a mere imitation of an ape…I shall live and die in
the wilderness.”
When
all his accomplishments are brought together and
understood, the story of Pomp is truly a fascinating
one. Little wonder that he and his mother, Sacagawea,
are both immortalized on a U.S. dollar coin. The
Sacagawea dollar coin issued by the United States Mint
in 2003 depicts her and her son, Jean Baptiste (Pomp) in
a papoose, on her back. He is the only child ever
depicted on United States currency.
In
addition, William Clark named an imposing tower of rock,
Pompey’s Tower (for Pompy). The large stone outcropping
overlooks the Yellowstone River in central Montana. The
original name for it was “Pompys Tower,” Clark's
inscription and signature with the date July 25, 1806 is
on it. It is the only remaining physical evidence found
along the route that was followed by the expedition.
Thousands of tourists a year go to observe the rock
outcropping and to read the inscription.
Yes,
as members of the first expedition, Sacagawea and Pomp
(Jean Baptiste) were certainly deserving of recognition.
After all, he and his mother were instrumental in
opening up the first white-man’s route to the vast
wealth and boundless territory of the northwest and the
eventual acquisition of Oregon Country.
However, the enormous contribution by Pomp to the second
expedition west is equally as important in a similar
way. Pomp’s stupendous accomplishments on the difficult
march with Cooke, from Santa Fe to the Pacific coast,
resulted in the acquisition of the entire southwest, and
his feats were a major contribution toward winning the
Mexican-American War. He is personally responsible for
the scouting and founding of a wagon road through the
formidable Colorado Desert to California—a wagon road
that eventually became the critical Emigrant Trail and
route of railways, byways and highways used today. It is
an inspiring saga just as incredible as the first, a
fascinating journey of similar importance as the Lewis
and Clark expedition.
Given
the fact that Pomp’s presence is embedded in our western
history from north to south, it is astonishing to find
that the name and exploits of this prominent Indian
pioneer barely grace the annals of the desert southwest
and especially of San Diego County’s history. It seems
his name deserves more than just honorable mention.
Pomp’s
name, Jean Baptise Charbenneau, doesn’t even appear on
the plaque of governors at the San Luis Rey Mission.
But, General Kearny’s name is plastered all over the
City of San Diego commemorating his service to the
country and to San Diego. Colonel Cooke’s name is
likewise remembered as a courageous frontier officer of
the west. The Mormon Battalion has commemorative
historical markers planted all over the southwest.
So,
maybe Palomar Mountain, the most prominent peak in San
Diego County, should have been named Mt. Pompey or
Charbonneau, like Pompey’s Tower in Montana. After all,
Palomar Mountain casts its imposing evening shadow
across Pomp’s historical desert trail. On second
thought, maybe Mt. Charbonneau is a bit too stuffy. How
about “Mt. Pompy” or, “Pomp Mountain?” That has a drawl
that sounds more like the southwest.
Yes,
imagine. The son of Sacagawea— of Lewis and Clark fame—
it was this Indian that became Mayor (Alcalde) of the
prominent, San Luis Rey Mission, “King of The Missions,”
with all its territory here in San Diego.
Ed Keenan © 5-08; Photos of San Luis Rey Mission
courtesy of the California Welcome Center, Oceanside.
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