Vol. VII, No. 3 - Summer 1998

The American Federal Interpreter
and How the West Was Won

lthough Federalist governance was not born until 1789, interpreting as a profession was taking root before then. The first recorded U.S. interpreter was Joseph Nicholas, who orally translated the 1785 Treaty with the Cherokees. Five years later, in the 1790 Treaty with the Creek Nation, the U.S. Congress enacted the first legislation which provided for legislatively mandated interpreters:

And further to assist the said nation in so desirable a pursuit, and at the same time to establish a certain mode of communication, the United States will send such and so many persons to reside in said nation as they may judge proper, and not exceeding four in number who shall qualify themselves to act as interpreters (Prucha, 1994: 83).

What kind of people were these linguistic conduits? What habits and peculiarities, other than their interpreting skills, make them similar to us? Although little information exists on the persons who stood in our boots then, we know that interpreters wrote and were written about in the last century.

From James E. Compton’s manuscript “U.S. Government Interpreter for the Shoshone,” Colonel W.H. Emory’s “Notes of a Military Reconnaissance Interpreter,” and “Life in the Far West: Early Days of Fighting and Interpreting,” by a man known only as “George” (Kartunnen, 1994), we can glean that they not only used language but guns as well—and probably had a taste or two from the peace pipe during tribal council meetings.

It is important to point out that in the origins of interpretation in this country interpreters wore many hats. As Prucha (1994) notes, “Key figures at the treaty councils and always the witnesses signing Indian treaties were interpreters.” His observation is corroborated by Yasuhide Kawashima’s “Forest Diplomats: The Role of Interpreters in Indian-White Relations on the Early American Frontier,” an informative and incisive work on the importance of and the contributions of interpreters before the Indian was herded into reservations and his hunting way of life destroyed. Kawashima writes:

Indian interpreters continued to play a crucial role in interracial communications throughout the Westering experience.... Such figures as Corghan, Montour, Weiser, McKee, Robert Rogers and Abraham Bosomworth...were not merely interpreters in the traditional sense of the term. The word ‘interpreter’ in the first half of the eighteenth century meant more than ‘translator’[...], it was considered a title of special honor (p. 12).

Sacawajea and Charbonneau: Team Interpreters

How did Touissant Charbonneau, her interpreter husband, convince the leaders of the expedition to land them the plum two-year assignment? By his wits, much as we who live in contemporary capitalist and market-driven economies do. When Charbonneau first heard of the expedition, he hustled down from his fur trading activities to Fort Mandan. But someone else was already in place: René Jessaumé had been been chosen as the interpreter for the long trek to the Pacific Ocean, and was assisting during the preparatory phase of the coming expedition. Jessaumé was an able craftsman and had helped in building the fort. But Charbonneau was a canny character. He went to great lengths to market not only his linguistic ability, but that of his fourteen year old wife, Sacawajea, explaining how the younger of his two wives would assist the expeditionary force. “She’s a Shoshone, you know. You’re going to need horses,” he told them. They replied, “But she doesn’t speak English, whereas Jessaumé does.” “No matter, she lived in the Rocky Mountains and knows the terrain,” he insisted. So, by using the bargaining skills he acquired as a fur trader on the frontier, he succeeded in replacing Jessaumé (Hebard, 1957).

One other interpreter accompanied the explorers: Lieutenant George Drouillard, who spoke French and would become part of the interpreting relay team at $25 a month. He is one of a handful of interpreters to have had a river named in their honor. Capt. Meriwether Lewis recalled in his diaries (Bergan, 1989): “The means I had of communicating with [the Indian tribes] was by way of Drouillard, who understood perfectly the common language of gesticulation or signs which seems to be universally understood by all the Nations we have yet seen.” Drouillard appears no less than 360 times in the explorer’s diaries. Obviously, he was no mere appendage to the trip but an integral player in that perilous journey.

The Lewis and Clark oddyssey began in 1804 and ended in 1806. The 40 plus members set out to explore what was to the white man an unkown wilderness. Stephen Ambrose (1996) graphically describes the obstacles the explorers of the Discovery Trail encountered. Our colleagues’ diet back then was essentially limited to parched corn and jerky. But on special occasions a tasty broiled beaver or goose would be their meal. It was “Janey,” as Sacawajea was called by the men, who “showed them how to find caches of unfamiliar but edible roots that gophers store near piles of driftwood” (Brown 1988:41). Here we see how the interpreter’s knowledge of alien customs—be they culinary or medicinal—assured them survival in a treacherous world.

For their linguistic expertise Charbonneau and Sacawajea would be paid $500.33 plus horses and a log house. But their marriage did not survive the tempests of time. Bird Woman’s death remains a mystery. Some claim she died in 1814 and others assert it was well after she interpreted at several councils from 1850 through the 1870’s. Regardless, she is the first historically recognized female federal interpreter. Her sons Baptiste and Bazil would likewise become interpreters at Indian councils and on treaty-signing occasions.

As for her husband, he lived to a ripe old age and added wives to his matrimonial column.

Drouillard continued to scout, interpret and hunt. In 1808 he was tried for the murder of a deserter from Fort Lisa whom he wounded mortally while trying to capture him. A St. Louis jury acquitted Drouillard, but two years later, despite his knowledge of Indian ways, he met his end at the hands of a band of Blackfoot braves.

Interpreters During the Treaty Making Period

And perhaps the California campaign under Capt. John Frémont availed itself of Kit Carson. Charles Burdett (1902: 8) notes that Mr. Carson at one point during his first years on the frontier held the “...pleasant and profitable position of Spanish interpreter to a trader named Tramell, with whom he...made the long journey to El Paso and Chihuahua.” Was the position profitable in fact? One might use as a reference the federal interpreter to the Embassy in China in 1864, at the height of the Opium War and the recruitment of Chinese laborers for the railroad, for instance, who earned $5,000 dollars a year; that’s roughly more than one hundred thousand in 1998 dollars.

But works such as Connor and Faulk’s “North America Divided: The Mexican War 1846-1848” and Griswold del Castillo’s “The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: A Legacy of Conflict,” and others too numerous to mention, which go into great detail on the political intrigues that plagued both Mexico and the United States as well as the bloody battles of the war and the occupation of Mexico City by U.S. forces, are almost totally silent on the translation process during this important period in the history of both nations.

The one notable exception seems to have been a Mr. Ferguson, who sat at the negotiating table in Paris in 1898 when Spain relinquished her title to Cuba and ceded the Philippines and Puerto Rico to the United States. “Making Peace with Spain: The Diary of Whitelaw Reid, September-December 1998” (Morgan, 1965) contains the photograph of our federal colleague. Everyone present—save for our not-so-obscure colleague—is identified by full name beneath the photograph. And this may be consistent with those who believe that we should be heard but not seen or recognized, although this attitude of mere mouthpiece status is a great disservice to our profession. It ignores a central fact of these negotiations: interpreters are the link that enables the parties to communicate. This is one reason the public at large ignores and remains blissfully ignorant of our profession. But, query: in a superpower confrontation where atomic conflict could annihilate the species, who do you think would get the blame if the planet were wrecked? You guessed it: we would. What role did our Mr. Ferguson play that autumn in the French capital? To quote Reid:

When we encountered the Spaniards, [...]Abarzuza asked to have it first read in English before the translator put it into Spanish. It seemed to me he wanted to break its force a little in reaching Montero. Ferguson read it first in English and then made a rather fluent translation (p. 130).

The moment the protocols were approved, Montero Ríos made a little statement to the effect that they had been greatly surprised and pained at the nature of the proposal submitted by the American Commissioners at the last session. While they found themselves unable to accept the American proposition, they had prepared a paper setting forth a counter proposition. Secretary Day handed it to the translator. The Spaniards seemed rather to expect that we would immediately ask an adjournment in order to have that translated. Two or three of the American Commissioners suggested that even if the translation, which could be made at sight, had to be a little rough, it would be better to have the document read at once. Montero Ríos assented with a shrug of the shoulders, and Mr. Ferguson began at once the translation. Ferguson achieved a remarkable feat in performing an on-site translation that was interrupted several times by Spanish ploys to distract the American Commissioners from assessing the counter-offer (p. 116).

Interpreting during the Indian War

But despite their presence and critical role in the Old West, interpreters were as likely to be maligned and misjudged as to be recognized. In “The Indian Sign Language,” W.P. Clark asserts:

The lack of honest and efficient interpreters has been one of the causes of all of our troubles with the Indians, one of the greatest obstacles to a thorough understanding of their abilities, laws, customs, habits and moral and immoral qualities of character....[They] have cost billions of money, made corruption and theft not only possible but easy, stained soil of every state with innocent blood, and led the race to the threshold of extermination (p. 223).

Many other examples exist of the creditworthy performance of those who wore the interpreter’s mantle. In fact, some treaties record our predecessors’ very own words as to their sworn obligation to uphold standards of accuracy and truthfulness (Wells, 1983): “The proceedings at the within treaty were faithfully interpreted by us, John Gibson and William Wells; that is, for the Delawares, John Gibson, and for the rest of the tribes, William Wells.”

While many interpreters went to the nation’s capital to perform at formal treaty functions, many more roamed the Plains plying their craft. Paul L. Hendren’s “Fort Laramie in 1876: Chronicles of a Frontier Post at War” tells of an ultimatum delivered by official interpreter Samuel D. Hinsman to the fierce Sioux. Imagine the scenario: Hinsman addresses 150 Indians after being instructed to interpret “in the stern language of the Agreement of August 15th,” terms and conditions which basically banished the fearless Sioux from their nomadic ways.

General George Armstrong Custer relied on Osage interpreters—whose names are unknown—and others such as Raphael Romero, Fred Gerard, Mitch Boyer, Isaiah Dorman and William Comstock. “Congenial employment, (often) leading to a terrible death,” Custer is reputed to have said in reference to the latter. One account of the time has Comstock guiding “...several starving Army garrisons on a two-week march through blinding blizzards.” His reward? “He was removed from the payroll on the same day he found a safe haven for them.” In 1868, General Custer relied on his Osage interpreters and Romero to pierce the Indian flank at the battle of Washita. In its wake, he found orphaned children and widows. He didn’t know what to do with his Indian captives, so he had his interpreter help him to communicate with the sister of Black Kettle, the dead tribe chief. Custer (1952:362) tells the story:

Placing the hand of the young girl in mine, [Black Kettle’s sister] proceeded in the Indian tongue to the delivery of what I in my ignorance of the language presumed was a form of administering a benediction, as her manner and gestures corresponded with this idea.

Never dreaming of her purpose, but remembering how sensitive and suspicious the Indian nature was, and that any seeming act of inattention or disrespect on my part might be misunderstood, I stood a passive participant in the strange ceremony then being enacted... By this time my curiosity got the better of my silence and turning to Romero, who stood near me...I quietly inquired: ‘What is this woman doing, Romero?’ With a broad grin on his swarthy face he replied: ‘Why, she’s marrying you to that young squaw!’

Three interpreters accompanied the army in June of 1876 at the Battle of Little Big Horn: Isaiah Dorman, who was black, Mitch Boyer and Fred Gerard. The first two would perish with Custer and over five hundred of his troops; Gerard survived and testified before a commission which investigated the battles on other Indian fronts.

Five interpreters assisted in the lengthy Army campaign against the legendary Apache chief Geronimo. One of them, Severiano, “was apparently trusted and dependable,” and “excitably nervous, with a lively imagination, rather poetic temperament and consequently considerable rhetorical ability.” (Thrapp, 1979). Another was “Talking Tom” Horn—portrayed by Steve McQueen in the movie “Tom Horn.” Others included Mickey Free, Sam Bowman, George Wratten, who accompanied Gatewood to arrange the final surrender, and Concepción. Horn was let go after the Army decided it couldn’t afford an interpreter to assist them in defeating the Indians, but he was recalled when the Army realized they would not be able to trap the Apache warrior without an interpreter. Yet at this juncture history is contradictory. One version has Wratten accompanying Gatewood into the Sierra Madre mountains to persuade Geronimo to surrender. Another has Geronimo insisting that Tom Horn interpret the terms of his surrender. Regardless of who interpreted in the end, the fact remains that an interpreter was the vital link in assuring that the feared Geronimo turn himself in to U.S. authorities.

The interpreters who preceded us in those troubled times on American soil toiled and died in service to the Army and the government. The price was steep, perhaps excessively so. Let us hope the current crop of federal interpreters do not endure the fate of Drouillard, Dorman and Horn.

References

Brown, Marion Marsh. (1988). Sacawajea: Indian interpreter to Lewis and Clark. Chicago: Regensteiner Publishing Enterprises, Inc.

Burdett, Charles. (1902). The life of Kit Carson: The great western hunter and guide. New York: Grosset & Dunlap.

Clark, W.P. (1952). The Indian sign language. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Connor, Seymour V. and Faulk, Odie B. (1971). North America divided: The Mexican War 1846-1848. New York: Oxford University Press.

Custer, George Armstrong. (1952). My life on the Plains. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

De Smet, P. J. (1863). Western missions and missionaries: A series of letters. New York: James B. Kirker.

Griswold del Castillo, Richard. (1990). The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: A legacy of conflict. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Hebard, Grace Raymond. (1957). Sacawajea: A guide and interpreter of the Lewis and Clark expedition, with an account of the travels of Touissant Charbonneau and of Jean Baptiste, the expedition papoose. Glendale: The Arthur H. Clark Co.

Hendren, Paul L. (1988). Fort Laramie in 1876: Chronicles of a frontier post at war. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Kartunnen, Frances. (1994). Between worlds: Interpreters, guides and survivors. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

Kawashima, Yasuhide. (1989). Forest diplomats: The role of interpreters in Indian-white relations in the early American frontier. The American Indian Quarterly. Winter 1989. 13.1:1-14.

Morgan, Wayne H. (Ed.). (1965). Making peace with Spain: The diary of Whitelaw Reid, September-December 1898. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Prucha, Francis Paul. (1994). American Indian treaties: The history of a political anomaly. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Thrapp, Dan. L. (Ed.). (1979). Dateline Fort Bowie: Charles Fletcher Lurmmis Reports on the Apache war. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Wells, Samuel J. (1983). Rums, skins and powder: A Choctaw interpreter and the Treaty of Mount Dexter. Chronicles of Oklahoma. Winter 1983-1984. No. 4.

Xavier F. Keogh, director of The Juridical IT, Inc., is a New York City free-lance interpreter, writer and translator. He is at work on a science fiction book, “Adventures in Space Interpretation.”