Fiddler on the expedition: A one-man show.

Byline: Fred Crafts The Register-Guard

The first time Daniel Slosberg heard about Pierre Cruzatte, he was dismayed.

"Who is he?" Slosberg, an elementary school teacher at the time, wanted to know. Informed that Cruzatte was a fiddler on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Slosberg, himself a fiddler, asked, "Who are they?"

Clearly, Slosberg, now 46, was a little weak on this aspect of American history. Curious about why a fiddler would be one of the first Euro-Americans in the far West, he set out to learn all he could. He has learned so much that he now travels around the nation in a one-man show about this mysterious musical man.

A superb boatman and hunter, Cruzatte was one of the strong-bodied crewmen hired by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark for their history-making continental traverse (1803-06). In him, they got not only an ox but an artistic soul.

Cruzatte played the fiddle beautifully, and he often ripped off merry tunes for the men resting around the campfire at night.

``He was half-French and half-Indian (Omaha),'' Slosberg said by phone from his home in Los Angeles. "He had only one eye, and he's best known for accidentally shooting Capt. Lewis about a month before they got back home."

That incident was almost comical. Several of the party were out hunting when Cruzatte mistook the buckskin-clad Lewis for an animal and accidentally plugged him (in the buttocks). Unable to sit, Lewis made his triumphant return to civilization face down in a canoe.

"That makes for a good story," Slosberg said.

Slosberg has worked it into his 45-minute program, in which he not only talks about Cruzatte but also plays many of the tunes the fiddler probably played. Last year, Slosberg, decked out in frontier regalia, presented the program nearly 300 times.

He will bring it to Eugene on Tuesday as the Oregon Humanities Center's free Robert Clark Lecture.

The show has become a full-time job for Slosberg.

Not bad for a man who back in 1997 knew zip about Lewis, Clark or Cruzatte.

An expert riverman, hunter and translator, Cruzatte entered Slosberg's life through a colleague at Crossroads Elementary School in Santa Monica, Calif., who had just watched the premiere of Ken Burns' PBS documentary on the Corps of Discovery.

"She knew I played the fiddle (with the Aman Folk Ensemble and the Turtle Creek Contra Dance Band) and asked if I knew Lewis and Clark had a fiddle player. I asked her who Lewis and Clark were," he recalls.

"I had this image of a bunch of American guys gritting their teeth and heading across the country. I wondered, `What was this French guy doing with them?' ''

An Internet search led Slosberg to Steven Ambrose's exhaustive book "Undaunted Courage," and this inspired Slosberg to develop a program on Cruzatte.

"I want people to learn about how important music, song and dance was on this expedition," he said. "They had a good time, during parts of it, anyway."

Another reason Slosberg focused on Cruzatte was to give attention to somebody other than Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea. "He represents all the little-known members of the journey."

Because little is known about Cruzatte, Slosberg has formed a mental image of him by piecing together scraps of information.

"This may be my stereotype of the French fiddling boatman, but I have a feeling that he was a kind of high-spirited, happy-go-lucky guy who must have just been an incredible worker," he said.

Because Cruzatte was said to have lost an eye, Slosberg portrays him wearing an eye patch, along with a beard, fur hat, linen shirt, colorful sash and leather pants.

"One biography says he was short and wiry," Slosberg said. "The ideal height for these voyageurs (boatmen) was 5-feet-4 inches tall, so they would fit into these canoes. I'm 5-4, too, so it works out just right."

The expedition's journals are annoyingly vague on details such as what instruments were used and what tunes were played or sung. Much of Slosberg's show is educated guesswork.

The tunes he uses are about 200 years old, mainly French-Canadian fiddle tunes such as ``La bastringue,'' ``V'la bon vent'' and ``J'entend la moulin'' or period classics such as "Fisher's Hornpipe," "Soldier's Joy," "Haste to the Wedding," "Red River Jig," "Yankee Doodle" and "Shake That Little Foot."

The journals indicate that the expedition transported two fiddles (one belonging to Corpsman George Gibson), a tambourine, a founden horn and a jaw harp. They also used bones, spoons, pots and pans as percussion instruments.

"Music served as kind of a recreational release for members of the expedition. They mention music, song and dance about 30 times in the journals. Usually that's holidays, major river crossings and things. They probably had music a lot more often than that," Slosberg said.

"Frequently, when they would meet a new Indian nation, Cruzatte would get out his fiddle and the men would sing and dance for the Indians. They make it clear in the journal that the Indians thought this strange music was pretty cool."

Fred Crafts can be reached at 338-2575 or [e-mail].

PREVIEW

Pierre Cruzatte

What: Daniel Slosberg's one-man living history about a fiddler with the Lewis and Clark Expedition; sponsored by the Oregon Humanities Center

When: 8 p.m. Monday

Where: Gerlinger Hall's alumni lounge at the University of Oregon, 1468 University St.

How much: Free

Information: 346-3934

CAPTION(S):

During his show, Daniel Slosberg plays fiddle tunes that were popular 200 years ago and that he believes were probably played by Pierre Cruzatte during the Lewis and Clark expedition. Craig Ferre Photography Daniel Slosberg plays the bones as part of his show about Pierre Cruzatte, who brought music along on the Lewis and Clark expedition.