The fame of French scientist and geographer Joseph N. Nicollet rests upon his monumental map and report of the Upper Mississippi Valley. The map, published by the United States government in 1843, remained the foundation of Upper Mississippi cartography until the era of modern surveys. Nicollet's journals illuminate the 1836 trip to the source of the Mississippi and a journey up the St. Croix River in 1837. His day-by-day accounts include careful notes on geographical features, flora and fauna, and the aurora borealis. But above all, his keen observations on the customs and culture of the Ojibwe Indians provide the first systematic recording and a remarkably sympathetic depiction of the people of the area. Martha Bray's introduction and annotation to this translation by Andre Fertey provide a brief biography of one of the fathers of American science.

In 1838 and 1839 French scientist Joseph N. Nicollet led two U.S. government-sponsored expeditions into the land between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. His findings, published in 1843 in the first authentic map of the region, influenced the future of cartography in the United States for generations.

This book contains the translations of Nicollet's journals, letters, and notes written during those expeditions, which visited such familiar landmarks as Fort Pierre, the Coteau des Prairies, and Devil's Lake in the Dakotas and the Pipestone Quarry in Minnesota. Nicollet came into contact with many Dakota people in the region, and his detailed observations are a valuable record of their way of life.