Abstract
THOUGH FAMOUS IN THE ANNALS OF AMERICAN JESUITS, the early years of Father James Bouchard, born and raised a Delaware named Watomika, are known only from his autobiography; which was his 1854 Christmas gift to Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, the apostle of the West. It is now held in the Belgian Jesuit archives in Brussels, De Smet's home province. By publishing this account, I hope to encourage others to carry on the investigation of the literary and ethnographic merits' of Bouchard's autobiography. The manuscript has three parts. The first section is about Watomika's family: his father, Kistalwa, son of Hopokan and grandson of Buckongahela; and his mother, Marie Elisabeth, who was born in Texas to French settlers.2 After her parents were killed by Comanches, members of the tribe separately adopted her and her brother Louis. As a teenager, she met and married Kistalwa, received the name Monotawan, and lived among the Delaware. Sections one and two contain information about how Kistalwa
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