It is possible, according to recorded history, that the first Black to visit the West was a gentleman known by the name of Stephen or Estevanico or Esteban Dorantes, born in Morocco. Dorantes arrived in the New World in 1527 as part of an exploration venture to Florida. Later, while looking for the "Seven Cities of Gold", known as Cibola, that the Spanish were determined to locate in the American Southwest, Dorantes' travels took him into present-day Arizona and New Mexico. Dorantes, of course, didn't find Cibola because it didn't exist but his adventures lit the exploration fires that were smoldering under Coronado and de Soto.
JEAN BAPTISTE POINTE DU SABLE
Next to come along, westward, was du Sable. He, at least, made it as far west as present-day Illinois which, back in his day, was West. Even though du Sable was Paris born he became well known for his skill as an American fur trapper. For many years he lived at the mouth of the Chicago River. There, he built himself a business as well as a log cabin. Then in 1788 he married a Potawatomi woman named Catherine and fathered a son and a daughter. About the time that du Sable was hoping to become a chief of a neighboring Indian tribe another African American was just about to embark on a strenuous journey west thanks to President Thomas Jefferson.
YORK
York stood over six feet tall and weighed more than two hundred pounds. He was a slave, owned by William Clark, and he was a member of the Corps of Discovery that set out in 1804 to explore the vast land acquired by the Louisiana Purchase. The Indians westward had seen white men before but a creature such as York was something new to them. While the Corps wintered near a Mandan village Le Borgne, a Minnetaree chief, came to visit. He'd been told tales of a black white man but didn't believe them. When York presented himself, Le Borgne was amazed, even to the point of spitting on his own finger and rubbing York's skin to wash the black paint off. Le Borgne was further dumbfounded by York's short curly hair.
The Minnetaree Chief wasn't the only Indian that was enthralled by York's appearance. Numerous Arikara women vied for York's "favors." According to Meriwether Lewis' diary York's color "seemed to procure him additional advantages from the [Indian women], who desired to preserve them some memorial of this wonderful stranger." York, obligingly, sired several mixed-blood offspring during the expedition.
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