[3] Her first husband Pierre Dorion Jr. was hired by the Pacific Fur Company to join Wilson Price Hunt and a group on an overland expedition to Fort Astoria.

[5] As the months became colder, some of the party stayed to build a cabin on the Snake River while the rest, including Giles Le Clarc and the Dorion family, continued to travel to a better trapping area.

[7] Attempting to reach another safe fur trading station in the Pacific Northwest, one of Dorion's two horses collapsed in the Blue Mountains.

[7] She additionally smoked the horseflesh, collected frozen berries, and later gathered the inner flesh of trees to prevent her family starving.

[8] After Dorion Venier Toupin died on September 5, 1850, she was buried inside the original log Catholic church in Saint Louis.

[5] There is no record of why she received this honor instead of being buried in the nearby cemetery, but church burial requires special dispensation and may have indicated that Dorion was especially devout.

[5] Oregon author Jane Kirkpatrick wrote the Tender Ties trilogy of historical novels based on Dorion's life.

[12] On May 10, 2014, the Daughters of the American Revolution held a service at Saint Louis Catholic Church dedicating a historical marker in Dorion's honor.