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.