The 19th century American West was a place to dream about and migrate to, but speculation ended soon after visitors crossed the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. What lay before them was a vast landscape of brawny rivers, arid plains, jagged mountains and other extreme natural conditions. This formidable environment forced people to quickly adapt, or fail. One man who made extraordinary adjustments to these challenges was Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, the son of frontier couple Sacagawea (Shoshone) and Toussaint Charbonneau (Metis). He also became the adopted son of William Clark, co-leader of...