Home |  PublicationsEncyclopedia |  St. Denis, Louis Juchereau de

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

ST. DENIS, LOUIS JUCHEREAU DE (1674–1744).

St. Denis, born near Quebec on September 17, 1674, may have been one of the earliest Frenchmen to travel in what is now Oklahoma. From 1701 until 1707 St. Denis explored the Red River area from his home base of Fort St. John in Louisiana on the Mississippi River. He later took charge of Fort Biloxi. In 1713, on the directive of the Louisiana governor, St. Denis traveled west and stayed for a short time at Natchitoches. From there he followed the Red River, making contact with other Caddoan groups and eventually encountering the Hasinai people. St. Denis traveled as far west as the Spanish settlements on the Rio Grande before the Spanish arrested him for illegal entry. While under house arrest by Commander Diego Ramón, St. Denis met his future wife, Manuela Sánchez, Ramón's daughter.

After impressing the Spanish at Mexico City, St. Denis became an officer for the Ramón expedition to establish Spanish missions in East Texas. The conclusion of the War of Spanish Succession ended the brief amiable relations between Spain and France and broke the accord between St. Denis and New Spain. Louis Juchereau de St. Denis and his wife lived out their lives at the French outpost Natchitoches. He died on June 11, 1744. Although St. Denis may not have penetrated the Oklahoma borders, his relationships with American Indian nations, France, and Spain, as well as the trade he conducted, had an impact on the future of early-eighteenth-century native Oklahoma populations.

Larry O'Dell

Bibliography

Ross Phares, Cavalier in the Wilderness: The Story of the Explorer and Trader Louis Juchereau de St. Denis (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University, 1952).

Robert S. Weddle, The French Thorn: Rival Explorers in the Spanish Sea, 1682–1762 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1991).


Browse By Topic

European Exploration

Explore

People
Explorers

Citation

The following (as per The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition) is the preferred citation for articles:
Larry O'Dell, “St. Denis, Louis Juchereau de,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=ST003.

Published January 15, 2010

Copyright and Terms of Use

No part of this site may be construed as in the public domain.

Copyright to all articles and other content in the online and print versions of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History is held by the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS). This includes individual articles (copyright to OHS by author assignment) and corporately (as a complete body of work), including web design, graphics, searching functions, and listing/browsing methods. Copyright to all of these materials is protected under United States and International law.

Users agree not to download, copy, modify, sell, lease, rent, reprint, or otherwise distribute these materials, or to link to these materials on another web site, without authorization of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Individual users must determine if their use of the Materials falls under United States copyright law's "Fair Use" guidelines and does not infringe on the proprietary rights of the Oklahoma Historical Society as the legal copyright holder of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and part or in whole.