Describe La Salle's dream of a successful commercial enterprise in the New World. What are the significant components? What were the weaknesses? Why did his scheme fail, or did it?
Why do you think La Salle had so much trouble with leadership?
How reliable do you find the sources who recount La Salle's journeys? Should we believe them? Why or Why not?
Why does La Salle matter today? What can we learn from his life? Does our view of him differ from that of his contemporaries?
Compare the Native view of the land, as reported by La Salle's chroniclers to that of the French/Europeans.
What type of social interaction did La Salle's passage down the Mississippi interrupt? What forces were affecting Native cultures at the time of La Salle's passage?
If you had been stranded in Texas with La Salle's group, what strategy for survivial would you have recommended?