The first trappers to penetrate the great hunting grounds beyond the Missouri River were the French, and the ease with which they conformed to Indian customs tended in no small degree to mitigate the perils and privations of the wilderness. Scarcely a region that is breathed upon by the western winds but what has been visited by these adventure loving characters, and a great proportion of the mountains, lakes and rivers still retain the pleasing and poetic names bestowed upon them in their rude geography.
The early Government exploring parties usually employed the French voyageurs and trappers as guides, scouts and interpreters, their knowledge of the country and their fluency in both the English and Indian tongues rendering their services indispensable.
A prominent specimen of this class is Basil Clement, an old ex-guide, scout and interpreter, hunter and trapper, who in 1906 lived in an old-fashioned double log cabin on the upper Missouri River in Dakota. Clement's wife was half Sioux, a descendant from the famous Lewis & Clarke expedition, which years ago explored the country in the vicinity of the Yellowstone. The knowledge of the geographical features of the interior wilderness beyond the Missouri which old Basil possessed amounted to an instinct and placed him in the foremost rank as a guide and scout in military expeditions.
In 1922, South Dakota historian Charles Edmund DeLand published the 130-page biographical sketch "Basil Clement, The Mountain Trappers" in Vol. of the South Dakota Historical Collections.
