Collection is open for research.
Most materials donated to the archives prior to August 2004. Addition of what is thought to be the earliest autobiographical manuscript made by Sam Pambrun in December 2005. The accession number of the second donation is 2005-018.
Andrew Dominique Pambrun was born February 14 of 1821 or 1822 in Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan River. He was the oldest child of Pierre Chrysologue Pambrun, a long-time employee of the Hudson's Bay Company and Chief Trader at Fort Walla Walla from 1832-1841, and his wife Catherine Humpherville, the daughter of a fur trader and a native woman. He was educated at a school at Fort Vancouver and the Red River School, an academy at the Red River Colony, in present day Manitoba.
Andrew Pambrun married Mary Cook, a woman of Cree-English descent, and taught school in Red River and Minneapolis / St. Paul for several years. Pambrun and his wife eventually had twelve children. After his father's death in 1842, Pambrun returned west. After an unsuccessful stint as a California gold miner, he took a position as trader with the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Walla Walla.
Able to speak Shahaptian, the language spoken by the Nez Perce, Walla Walla, and Yakima tribes, Pambrun served as aide to Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens from 1855 to 1858 where he translated at treaty negotiations in 1855. He also participated in the wars following the signing of the treaties.
After 1858, Pambrun returned to the Walla Walla Valley, where he died in 1895.
The majority of the collection consists of autobiographical manuscripts attributed to Andrew Dominique Pambrun – one 278 page complete manuscript and one 58 page fragment. An edited version of these manuscripts has been published as "Sixty Years on the Frontier in the Pacific Northwest" (Fairfield, Washington: Ye Galleon Press, 1978). Other materials in the collection include a genealogical scrapbook about the Pambrun family presumably assembled by Harriet Munnick, a transcript of a talk delivered by Harry L. Drake in 1962 entitled "Pierre Chrysologue Pambrun: Walla Walla County's First Citizen", assorted photocopies of deeds and contracts signed by Andrew Pambrun, and miscellaneous clippings about the Pambrun family.