For Mary, Many Days WHITE CLOUD — All Roads Lead Back to La Prairie

Mary (Many Days) Robidoux nee WHITE CLOUD, was the first generation of one of the main families of what is referred to as the Métis people, the offspring of European men who married Native American women. 

Métis people would play a major role in the 19th century fur trade in Missouri and Kansas.

Joseph Robidoux IV statue at Robidoux Row, St Joseph, MO

Mary (Many Days) Robidoux was the daughter of Joseph Robidoux IV (1783–1868), founder of St. Joseph, Missouri — a prominant Fur Trader, and an Otoe-Ioway Woman whose name is unknown.

Mary (Many Days) Robidoux 1805–1884 (5th cousin 5x removed)

BIRTH ABT. 1805 • Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie, Iowa, USA

DEATH 29 JUNE 1884 • Horton, Brown, Kansas, USA

Mary was the 4x great granddaughter of Andre Robidou dit L'Espagnol one of the pioneers of La Prairie

According to Tanis C. Thorne’s book, “The Many Hands of My Relations: French and Indians on the Lower Missouri,” University of Missouri Press, 1996…

“Here in 1805 Joseph Robidoux fathered a child, Mary, by an Indian woman. This daughter would marry Chief White Cloud of the Ioway, producing a chiefly line among that tribe. ... The kinship networks established between St. Louis independent traders and ranking native families in the years between 1800-1825 consolidated authority among the clan leaders linked to trader interests.”

Joseph Robidoux’s French-Ioway daughter, Mary (Many Days), married Ioway Chief Francis (Mahaska II) (The Younger) White Cloud (1811–1856) (image above).

They had at least four children:

James (The gro wo nung) White Cloud Ioway Chief (1847–1940) (6th cousin 4x removed)

BIRTH ABT 1847 • Kansas, USA

DEATH 1940 • Iowa Reservation, Brown Co., Kansas

Jefferson White Cloud Ioway Chief (1846–1893) (6th cousin 4x removed)

BIRTH 1846 • Iowa Point, Doniphan, Kansas, USA

DEATH 9 FEBRUARY 1893 • Ioway Indian Reservation, Brown, Kansas, USA

Two daughters, Sarah and Elizabeth White Cloud, both of which married Joseph Tesson.

Following the death Chief Francis White Cloud Mary married a second time to Francis X. Dupuis. 

From “History of Nebraska,” Page 23 (FX Dupuis)

Francois Xavier (Frank) Dupuis (1810–1897) (3rd cousin 4x removed)

BIRTH 05 DEC 1810 • La Prairie, Quebec, Canada

DEATH 17 NOV 1897 • Reserve, Brown, Kansas, USA

He was one of the earliest trappers in Richardson County, Nebraska.

He is descended from Pinsonneau, Dupuis, and Bourassa pioneers in La Prairie.