Charlotte Small

Charlotte Small was a Cree-Métis woman born at a North West Company fur trading post in present-day Saskatchewan. In 1799, at age thirteen, she married mapmaker and explorer David Thompson in the custom of the country (later solemnized in church), forming an enduring fifty-seven-year partnership.

Traveling with Thompson and their children by canoe, horse, and foot across uncharted wilderness, Small logged more than 42,000 kilometers—three times farther than Lewis and Clark. Her mastery of Cree, English, and French, knowledge of edible plants, and winter survival expertise were vital to Thompson's celebrated mapping of the Canadian West.