French-Indian Families in America's West

About the Book

In the 1800's five related French families settled in St Louis, Missouri. Three men from these families: Lessert, Chatillon and Roy, entered into the fur trade with another Frenchman by the name of Chouteau. Lessert and Chatillon went into Sioux country and married into the Oglala Sioux tribe. This is a story of their experiences.

About the Author

Irma R. Miller was born in 1918 and grew up near the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Her family and her roots were deeply important to her. As a child, she listened closely as her mother and her aunt as they told an oral history of the family. Irma moved to Missouri in 1940 where she married and had two children. Later, when she entered the "empty nest" time in her life, she began an intense investigation of her genealogy, focusing on the connection between French fur traders in the 1800's and the people of the great Lakota Nation. And realizing that the story she was uncovering was too important to keep within the family, she wrote and published the results of her research in this book titled French-Indian Families in America's West.