Le Sueur, Pierre-Charles, << luh SOOR, pyair shahrl >> (1657?-1704), was a French explorer and trader. He helped open the upper Mississippi River Valley to French development.
Le Sueur was born in Artois, a region of northern France. In his youth, he moved to Canada as a servant of Jesuit missionaries. He was soon drawn to the fur trade and became a successful trader among the Sioux Indians. In 1695, he arranged for a peace agreement between the Sioux and Chippewa Indian tribes. In 1700, Le Sueur traveled up the Mississippi River from its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico. He established several posts in what is now the Minnesota-Wisconsin region. He worked to expand trade with Indians in the region and to develop copper and lead mines there. In 1702, he was appointed a French colonial judge in what is now Alabama.
