- Marie Aioe Dorion
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"Madame" Marie Aioe Dorion Venier Toupin (ca. 1786–September 5, 1850) was the only female member of the Astor Expedition, also known as the Wilson Price Hunt Expedition.[1] Marie Dorion was a member of the Iowa tribe of Native Americans. She was married to Métis expedition member Pierre Dorion. She was also known as Laguivoise and Wihmunkewakan.[2]
Contents
Astor Expedition and Oregon
Accompanying Dorion and her husband Pierre on the Astor Expedition were their two young boys, who were probably two and four years old.[3] She gave birth to another child near North Powder, Oregon who died several days later.[3] After reaching Fort Astoria, Dorion and her family returned with a trapping party to the Snake River area.[3] The party was attacked by Native Americans and all but Dorion and her children were killed.[3] Though she tried to save a French member of the party by putting him on a horse and moving him away from the scene, he died the next day.[3] After the attack, Dorion and her children survived 50 days of winter living in the Blue Mountains.[3]
Dorion would marry two more times and have three more children.[3] Her second husband was Louis Venier. With her third husband, Jean Toupin, she settled near Saint Louis, Oregon on the French Prairie.[3] It was in Saint Louis that she began to be known as "Madame".[3]
Death and legacy
After Dorion Venier Toupin died on September 5, 1850, she was buried inside the original log Roman Catholic Church in Saint Louis.[3] When the church burned down in 1880 and the current church built, the location of Dorion's grave was forgotten and remains unknown to this day.[3] It was only when the church register was translated from French into English many years after the original church burned down that it was learned that Dorion had been buried there.[3] There is no record of why she received this honor instead of being buried in the nearby cemetery, but church burial requires special dispensation and may have indicated that Dorion was especially devout.[3]
Among the places memorializing Dorion are Madame Dorion Memorial Park in the foothills of the Blue Mountains near Milton-Freewater, Oregon, and the Dorion Complex residence hall at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande.[3] There is a plaque noting the place near North Powder where she likely gave birth.[3] Hers is also one of the 158 names of people important to Oregon's history that are painted in the House and Senate chamber of the Oregon State Capitol.[4] Her name is in the Senate chamber.
Author Jane Kirkpatrick wrote the Tender Ties trilogy of historical novels based on Dorion's life.[5]
See also
References
- ^ "Marie Dorian". Oregon.com. http://web.oregon.com/history/hm/marie_dorian.cfm. Retrieved 2011-04-01.
- ^ "Metis: 1812–1914". RootsWeb. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mnrrvn/Metis-1812-1814.html. Retrieved 2011-03-31.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Lynn, Capi (April 5, 2005). "'She should be as famous as Sacagawea'". Statesman-Journal. http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050405/NEWS/504050337. Retrieved October 24, 2008.
- ^ Cogswell, Philip Jr. (1977). Capitol Names: Individuals Woven Into Oregon's History. Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society.
- ^ "Jane Kirkpatrick". WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.. http://www.randomhouse.com/waterbrook/catalog/results2.pperl?authorid=15809. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
Categories:- Iowa tribe
- People from Marion County, Oregon
- Burials in Oregon
- Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest
- Year of birth uncertain
- 1850 deaths
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