Neither Thompson nor Lewis and Clark were originators of the name. They gave us only the English translation of a name already long in use. “This river,” say Lewis and Clark, in their journal for the day of their arrival at the mouth of the now noted stream, “had been known to the French as the Roche Jaune, or, as we have called it, the Yellow Stone.” The French name was, in fact, already firmly established among the traders and trappers of the North-west Fur Company, when Lewis and Clark met them among the Mandans. Even by the members of the expedition it seems to have been more generally used than the new English form; and the spellings, “Rejone,” “Rejhone,” “Rochejone,” “Rochejohn,” and “Rochejhone,” are among their various attempts to render orthographically the French pronunciation.
Probably the name would have been adopted unchanged, as so many other French names in our geography have been, except for the recent cession of Louisiana to the United States. The policy which led the government promptly to explore, and take formal possession of, its extensive acquisition, led it also, as part of the process of rapid Americanization, to give English names to all of the more prominent geographical features. In the case of the name here under consideration, this was no easy matter. The French form had already obtained wide currency, and it was reluctantly set aside for its less familiar translation. As late as 1817, it still appeared in newly English-printed books, [B] while among the traders and trappers of the mountains, it survived to a much later period.
[B] Bradbury’s “Travels in the Interior of America.” See [Appendix E].
By whom the name Roche Jaune, or its equivalent form Pierre Jaune, was first used, it would be extremely interesting to know; but it is impossible to determine at this late day. Like their successor, “Yellow Stone,” these names were not originals, but only translations. The Indian tribes along the Yellowstone and upper Missouri rivers had names for the tributary stream signifying “yellow rock,” [C] and the French had doubtless adopted them long before any of their number saw the stream itself.
[C] The name “Elk River” was also used among the Crow Indians.
The first explorations of the country comprised within the present limits of the State of Montana are matters of great historic uncertainty. By one account it appears that, between the years 1738 and 1753, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, the Sieur de la Verendrye, and his sons, particularly the Chevalier de la Verendrye, conducted parties of explorers westward, from Lake Superior to the Assinnaboine River, thence south to the Mandan country, and thence to the very sources of the Missouri. Even the date, January 12, 1743, is given for their first ascent of the Rocky Mountains. But such is the dearth of satisfactory evidence relating to these explorations, that positive inferences concerning them are impossible. The most that can be said is, that if De la Verendrye visited these regions, as is generally believed, to him doubtless belongs the honor of having adopted from original sources the name of the Yellowstone River.
The goal of De la Verendrye’s explorations was the Pacific Ocean; but the French and Indian war which robbed France of her dominion in America, prevented his ever reaching it. Following him, at the distance of nearly half a century, came the traders and trappers of the North-west Fur Company. As already noted, they were among the Mandans as early as 1797, and the name Roche Jaune was in common use among them in 1804. They appear to have been wholly ignorant of the work of De la Verendrye, and it is quite certain that, prior to 1805, none of them had reached the Yellowstone River. Lewis and Clark particularly record the fact, while yet some distance below the junction of this river with the Missouri, that they had already passed the utmost limit of previous adventure by white men. Whatever, therefore, was at this time known of the Yellowstone could have come to these traders only from Indian sources. [D]
[D] An interesting reference to the name “Yellowstone,” in an entirely different quarter, occurs on Pike’s map of the “Internal Provinces of Spain,” published in 1810. It is a corrupt Spanish translation in the form of “Rio de Piedro Amaretto del Missouri,” (intended of course to be Rio de la Piedra Amarilla del Missouri) river of the Yellow Stone of the Missouri. No clue has been discovered of the source from which Pike received this name; but the fact of its existence need occasion no surprise. The Spanish had long traded as far north as the Shoshone country, and had mingled with the French traders along the lower Missouri. Lewis and Clark found articles of their manufacture among the Shoshones in 1805. There is also limited evidence of early intercourse between them and the Crow nation. That the name of so important a stream as the Yellowstone should have become known to these traders is therefore not at all remarkable. There is, however, no reason to suppose that the Spanish translation antedates the French. It certainly plays no part in the descent of the name from the original to the English form, and it is of interest in this connection mainly as showing that, even at this early day, the name had found its way to the provinces of the south.