Moncacht-apé

Moncacht-Apé was a Native American explorer of the Yazoo tribe in the present-day Mississippi area; in the early 1700s he may have made the first recorded round trip transcontinental journey across North America.

Some years after his purported journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific, Moncacht-Apé related his adventures and itinerary to Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz, a French explorer and ethnographer in the colony of Louisiana. Le Page published his memoir in the 1750s, including material from Moncacht-Apé's account. He said that native people on the West Coast had told him of their ancients coming to North America by a land bridge.

A partial English translation of Le Page's book was published in 1763. As it included material about the peoples and the geography of greater Louisiana, it was taken as a guide by later European and American pioneers, including Lewis and Clark, during the continuing exploration of North America.

Some historians have disputed the fact of Moncacht-Apé's transcontinental journey. Le Page's is the only first-hand account of Moncacht-Apé's story, and its veracity is difficult to confirm.

In 1718, Le Page left France as part of an expedition of 800 men on three ships, arriving in the Louisiana colony later that year. There he learned the language of the Natchez, a local tribe in the area of the Mississippi River and the Natchez Bluffs. He befriended native leaders. For most of his time in La Louisiane, where he remained until 1734, Le Page lived at a trading post at Natchez, Mississippi, explored the local territory, and observed its native peoples. More than fifteen years after his return to France, he published a memoir of his time in America as Histoire de la Louisiane.

In his memoir, published in Paris in installments beginning in 1753, Le Page describes his attempts to uncover the history of tribes in Louisiana that, unlike the Natchez, believed that they came from far away in the northwest. Le Page inquired among the tribes for "some wise old man who could enlighten me further on this point." He was introduced to Moncacht-Apé, a member of the neighboring Yazoo tribe.

...
Wikipedia