Henri de Tonti
✓ Source-basedstableItalian-born French military officer, explorer, and fur trader
Henri de Tonti was an Italian-born French military officer and explorer who assisted René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle during the French colonization of the Americas from 1678 to 1686. Tonti was one of the first explorers to navigate and sail the upper Great Lakes.
Photos 4
A painting of Henri de Tonti being stabbed during peace negotiations in the Iroquois Village on January 2, 1680, by George Catlin
18th-century illustration of Fort Pimiteoui (present-day Peoria), residence and workplace of the governor
The partially reconstructed trading post in Arkansas (Poste de Arkansea) near GillettIn their orbit 1
Historical Figures born in the 1640s 6
About this person
Henri de Tonti was an Italian-born French military officer and explorer who assisted René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle during the French colonization of the Americas from 1678 to 1686. Tonti was one of the first explorers to navigate and sail the upper Great Lakes. He also sailed the Illinois and the Mississippi, to its mouth and thereupon claimed the length of the Mississippi for Louis XIV of France. He is credited with founding the settlement that would become Peoria, Illinois. Tonti established the first permanent European settlement in the lower Mississippi valley, known as Poste de Arkansea, making him "The Father of Arkansas".
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