Emily was born at Deer Creek which is near to today Glenrock in Wyoming. When she was about five her mother, Bear Robe, died on the Wyoming plains, so her father, Henri Chatillon, took Emily to the family of Joseph Bissonett, his friend, to care for her, while he was occupied making a living as a guide and hunter out of St. Louis, onto the Wyoming plains. They raised her at their trading post near Ft. Laramie, Wyoming Territory. Emily was BORN AT DEER CREEK, a tributary of the North Platte River near PRESENT DAY GLENROCK, Wyoming. Emilie looked forward to her father's visits to the Platte, they were her happiest times. Her high regard for him never wavered in her memories, which she related to her children and grandchildren. She saw her future husband, Louis Benjamin Lessert, when helping to serve an evening meal at the Bissonette's trading post on La Bonte Creek. It was later known that her father, Henri, had brought 23 year old Ben to meet and hopefully marry her. They were married in a civil ceremony Jan 1 1858; she was 16. She was baptized by Father Hendricks in St. Louis, Missouri on 31 Dec 1858. They were married in St. Louis January 3, 1859 in the Carondelet Church by Father Hendricks. They had six children from 1859 to 1869, and celebrated 46 years of marriage to 1905. When speaking she minced the three tongues of Lakota, French and English causing Chatillon to sound like Chouteau to some. Her husband was often addressed as 'Claymore' because of his father's name Clement pronouced in French sounds like "Claymore'. Both Louis and his father were called 'Claymore', as a result Emily also was frequently called Emily Claymore. All her friends at Pine Ridge knew her by that name. She died in Merriman, Nebraska and was buried in Pine Ridge, South Dakota.