>From those books, there were 41,000 Francophones in what would become the United States, written out of both Canadian and U.S. History. Most of the oldest towns in the West started with a French trader marrying into a Native family, and residing adjacent to the Native village. The new Metis family would double and triple and become a community years and years before the actual founding of the town. The Bourgeois Frontier: French Towns, French Traders, and American Expansion. The true legacy of the French in the American West is the role they played in western expansion, in negotiating the course of the American Empire… French/Métis settlements are found in many western and mid-western states, including Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Montana, Washington state, Oregon, and Idaho. Missouri. -----Original Message----- From: Paul L LeBlanc <pleblan@aim.com> To: ncouture <ncouture@aol.com>; acadian <acadian@rootsweb.com>; metisgen <metisgen@rootsweb.com>; metis <metis@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sun, May 28, 2017 9:42 am Subject: Re: (B I G) L O U I S I A N A For those of us who may have forgotten. As Lewis & Clark went west, I believe there was a resident Canadian/Metis trader in each village. How can this be a "Discovery"? They even "kidnapped" a pregnant wife. ===================================== Thank you Bourgeois Frontier, French Towns, French Traders & American Expansion, Jay Gitlin Which towns? Fouders listed? Any mention of Ayers in any of them -----Original Message----- From: Coûture <ncouture@aol.com> New Old Books: Bourgeois Frontier, French Towns, French Traders & American Expansion, Jay Gitlin A Wilderness So Immense, The Louisana Purchase and the Destiny of America, Jon Kukla The Nation's Crucible, The Lousiana Purchase and the Creation of America, Peter Kastor Many Tender Ties, Women in Fur Trade Society 1670-1870, Sylvia Van Kirk Caesars of the Wilderness, The History of the HBC, Peter Newman ****Songs Upon the Rivers, The Buried History of the French Speaking Canadiens and Metis from the Great Lakes and Mississippi across to the Pacific, Foxcurran, Bouchard, & Malette