USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume I > Part 6
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The interested individuals alluded to by the president were no doubt the agents of the Hudson's Bay Company, which at that time was making every effort to monopolize the fur trade with the Indian tribes of the Northwest. The request for $2,500 was certainly a modest one, yet some members of Congress were inclined to oppose the appropriation, on the ground that the country it was proposed to explore was worthless. This may account for the statement of some historians that the appropriation was refused, but Foley, in his Jeffer- son Cyclopedia, says that Congress not only granted the president's request, but also doubled the amount asked for, appropriating $5,000 to fit out the expedition.
All this was done before the Louisiana Purchase was completed by the treaty of April 30, 1803. After that treaty was concluded there were no longer any reasons for secrecy. Under date of June 20, 1803, Mr. Jefferson wrote a long letter to "Meriwether Lewis, Captain of the First Regiment of Infantry of the United States of America," beginning: "Your situation as secretary of the President of the United States has made you acquainted with the objects of my confidential message of January 18, 1803, to the Legislature; you have seen the act they passed, which, though expressed in general terms, was meant to sanction those objects, and you are appointed to carry them into execution."
Then follows a long list of instructions as to the objects to be attained by the expedition, one of which was to learn as much as possible of the natives. On this subject the letter stated: "The commerce which may be carried on with the people inhabiting the line you will pursue renders a knowledge of those people important. You will therefore endeavor to make yourself acquainted, as far as a diligent pursuit of your journey will permit, with the names of the nations and their numbers; the extent and limit of their possessions; their rela- tions with other tribes or nations; their language, traditions and monuments ; their ordinary occupation in agriculture, fishing, hunting, war, arts, and the im- plements of these; their food, clothing and domestic accommodations; the dis- eases prevalent among them and the remedies they use ; moral and physical cir- cumstances which distinguish them from the tribes we know; peculiarities in their laws, customs and dispositions; the articles of commerce they may need or furnish, and to what extent."
Capt. Meriwether Lewis, the leader of this expedition, was born near Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1774, and therefore was not thirty years of age when he received this appointment. He entered the army in 1795, received his com- mission as captain in 1800, and from 1801 to 1803 was President Jefferson's private secretary. In 1807 he was appointed governor of Louisiana Territory, which office he held until his death, which occurred near Nashville, Tennessee, in 1809, while he was on his way to Washington.
Capt. William Clark, who was appointed as an associate of Captain Lewis, was also a Virginian ard a brother of Gen. George Rogers Clark, who distin- guished himself during the Revolution by the capture of the British posts in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. In 1784 he went with his family to Kentucky and
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settled where the city of Louisville now stands. Entering the army, he was com- missioned lieutenant in 1792 and served under Gen. Anthony Wayne in the cam- paigns against the Indians of Ohio and Indiana. He resigned from the army in 1796 on account of impaired health and settled in St. Louis, but his health improving, he again entered the army and was commissioned captain. In 1813 he was appointed governor of Missouri Territory and held the office until the state was admitted in 1821. The following year he was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs for the St. Louis district and remained in that position until his death in 1838. Ten years before his death he founded the city of Paducah, Kentucky.
Such was the character of the men chosen by the President to conduct the first official explorations in the new purchase of Louisiana. Although Mr. Jeffer- son's correspondence was nearly all with Captain Lewis, there were occasions when Clark became the real leader of the expedition and upon their return to St. Louis lie shared equally in the honors. On July 4, 1803, the President wrote a letter of general credit to Lewis, giving him authority to draw on the Govern- ment for expense money, but the delay in ratifying the treaty of April 30, 1803, also delayed the start of the expedition until the following spring.
On May 14, 1804, the little company left the mouth of the Missouri River and started up that stream on the long journey to the Pacific. The expedition consisted of fourteen regular soldiers, nine young Kentuckians, two French voyageurs or boatmen, a hunter, an Indian interpreter, and a negro servant belong- ing to Captain Clark. The equipment included a keel-boat fifty-five feet in length, two pirogues and two horses. The large boat was fitted with a swivel gun in the bow, a large square sail to be used when the wind was favorable, and twenty-two oars that could be depended on to propel the boat forward when there was no wind. The horses were to be led along the bank and were intended for hunting game or towing the keel boat over rapids.
On November 2, 1804, the expedition arrived at the Mandan Indian villages, near the present Village of Mandan, North Dakota. Here "Fort Mandan" was constructed and the men went into winter quarters until April 7, 1805, when the journey was resumed. At the Mandan villages Lewis and Clark employed Touisaint Chaboneau (this name is spelled in various ways, but in this chapter the same form is used as that given in the journals of the expedition) as guide and interpreter. He was accompanied by his wife, an Indian woman, a mem- ber of the Snake tribe who had been captured by the Gros Ventres in 1800 and sold to Chaboneau. She proved invaluable as a guide, especially after reaching the country inhabited by her tribe. On August 17, 1805, she was called upon to act as interpreter at a council with a band of Shoshone Indians and recognized in the chief, Cameahwait, her brother, from whom she had been separated for five years. Her Indian name was Sac-a-ja-wea (the bird woman). She died some years ago on the Wind River reservation in Wyoming, and a movement has recently been started in that state to erect a monument to her memory.
THE ROUTE THROUGH IDAHO
Late in August, 1805, Lewis and Clark entered the present state of Idaho through the Lemhi Pass and encamped on the Lemhi River. With a few men and an Indian guide, Captain Clark descended the Lemhi for some distance,
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when he came within sight of a range of mountains, beyond which the guide said his people had never ventured. Then he returned to the camp and on the 30th the entire party passed down the river to its junction with the Salmon River, where the Town of Salmon, the county seat of Lemhi County, now stands. To the larger stream was given the name of "Lewis River," in honor of Captain Lewis.
From personal observation and from information obtained from the Sho- shone Indians, they found the Salmon unnavigable and decided to look for an- other stream flowing toward the Columbia. They therefore turned northward, went through the Crow's Foot Pass, and struck the headwaters of the Bitter Root, to which they gave the name of "Clark's River." After following this stream for some distance and finding it apparently leading in the wrong direc- tion, they turned westward and on September 13, 1805, re-entered Idaho through the Lolo Pass, near the line between Clearwater and Idaho counties. That night they pitched their camp on a small stream to which they gave the name of Glade Creek. The next night their camp was on the middle fork of the Clear- water River, about two miles below the mouth of the White Sand Creek.
-Slow progress was made during the next three days, the camp of the 17th being near the foot of Bald Mountain, on the south side. Here Clark took a few of the men and went on in advance. On the night of the 18th Lewis' camp was just west of Sherman Peak, while Clark's was about six or seven miles farther to the southwest, on a small tributary of the Clearwater, which Clark named "Hungry Creek," indicating the condition of himself and his men.
In his journal of the 19th, Clark says: "Broke camp early and this day to our inexpressible joy discovered a large tract of prairie country lying to the southwest. Through that plain, the Indian informed us, the Columbia River, of which we were in search, ran; this plain appeared to be about sixty miles dis- tant, but our guide assured us that we should reach its borders tomorrow. The appearance of this country, our only hope for subsistence, greatly revived the spirits of the party, already reduced and much weakened for the want of food."
That night Clark made his camp on the north branch of Collins (Lolo) Creek, and Lewis stopped near Clark's camp of the 18th. On the 20th Clark descended the last range of mountains and reached the level country. While passing over the prairie, he saw three Indian boys, who concealed themselves in the grass at the sight of the white men. Clark routed them out, however, gave each one a piece of bright colored ribbon, and sent them to the Indian village. Soon afterward a man came out and informed Clark that the chief of that village was away on the war path and would not return for two or three weeks. A second village was about two miles farther on, and here Clark waited for Lewis to come up. This was the Village of Twisted Hair, one of the lesser chiefs of the Nez Perce tribe. Lewis and Clark called these Indians the Chopunnish. Twisted Hair made and gave to the explorers a rough map show- ing the direction of the river on which his village was located. From this rude chart Lewis and Clark learned that another river joined the one they were on a few miles farther west. On the 26th they came to the junction of the two streams, the southern one of which they called the Kooskooskee, and the north- ern one the Chopunnish. These rivers are now respectively known as the south and north-forks of the Clearwater River.
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At the forks of the river they established what they called their "Canoe Camp," as it was at this point they constructed their canoes for the descent of the Snake and Columbia rivers. On October 5, 1805, they had five canoes ready for the voyage. The next day they branded their horses and left them, with some of their other effects, with Twisted Hair until their return the following year. It may be worth while to note that they found their property all in good condition upon their eastward march in 1806. On the 7th they left the forks of the Clearwater and on the 10th entered the Snake River where the City of Lewiston is now situated. When they reached the Snake they believed it to be the same river they had seen in the latter part of August (the Salmon) and gave it the name of the "Lewis River." The voyage down the Snake and the Columbia was uneventful and on November 15, 1805, they arrived at the coast. On the south side of the Columbia, near the mouth, they erected a log building, which they called "Fort Clatsop," after the Indian tribe they found there, and in this fort they passed the winter.
On the return trip, they reached the forks of the Clearwater in May, 1806, obtained their horses and some supplies from their friend Twisted Hair, and followed practically their route of the previous year across the state. They reached St. Louis about noon on September 23, 1806, having explored the Mis- souri River to its source, crossed the divide and followed the Columbia to the Pacific.
In the spring of 1899, while grading for the Northern Pacific Railroad near the mouth of the Potlatch River, workmen unearthed two or three Indian graves. Lester S. Handshaker, one of the civil engineers, examined the graves, in which he found arrow heads, beads, brass and copper trinkets, a flintlock musket and bayonet, a sword and some other utensils. Wrapped in a piece of buffalo skin was a Lewis and Clark medal, bearing on one side a medallion portrait of President Jefferson and around the rim the words: "Th. Jefferson, President of the United States, A. D. 1801," and on the other side two right hands joined, above the hands an ax and a pipe of peace crossed, and the words "Peace and Friendship." This medal is now in the department of anthropology in the American Museum of History, New York.
CAPTAIN BONNEVILLE
Capt. Benjamin L. E. Bonneville, identified with the Northwest as one of its earliest and most intelligent explorers, was born in France in 1796. His father, a printer, during the American Revolution, published and circulated a number of pamphlets that awakened deep sympathy for the colonists in the minds of the French people by reason of the many oppressive measures used against them by the British Government. He was also a member of a republican club in Paris that was organized by Thomas Paine. After the French Revolution, hav- ing printed something that was displeasing to Napoleon, he was thrown in prison and his wife and son were soon after brought to America by Thomas Paine, who secured for the boy an appointment to the West Point Academy as soon as he was old enough to enter that institution.
After a time the father was released from prison, but was forbidden to leave France. Notwithstanding this order, he managed to make his escape and
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joined his family in America. Young Bonneville graduated at West Point in 1819 and entered the army as a lieutenant. When Lafayette visited this country in 1824 having made inquiries about the Bonneville family, the lieutenant was assigned as part of his escort. When Lafayette returned to France young Bon- neville went with him for a visit and shortly after his return to the United States was commissioned captain in the Seventh New York Infantry.
During the next few years he read much concerning the great and almost unknown West and in 1831 asked for leave of absence that he might visit that section and was given leave extending to October, 1833, and he was instructed by Maj .- Gen. Alexander Macomb, his superior officer in charge, to provide him- self with the best maps of the country he could obtain, suitable instruments for scientific investigation, and to make report as to the number of Indians in each tribe he visited, their manner of making war, etc.
Although Bonneville's object in asking for a leave of absence was to engage in the fur trade, General Macomb's order made him more of an explorer than a fur trader. On May 1, 1832, he left Fort Osage on the Missouri River, with IIO men and twenty wagons laden with provisions, ammunition and goods for the Indian trade. His destination was Pierre's Hole, now known as Teton Basin in the extreme eastern part of Idaho, where the fur traders frequenting that section had arranged for their annual rendezvous. In the latter part of July, having reached the Rocky Mountains he crossed by the South Pass and entered the Green River Valley in Wyoming. His wagons being the first to go through that pass.
After attending the rendezvous in Pierre's Hole, he returned to the Green River country, where he built Fort Bonneville. Trappers called this fort "Bonneville's Folly" and "Fort Nonsense." It was not long until it became apparent that they had good reason for so designating the fort. The hostility of the Indians compelled him to evacuate the fort almost as soon as it was finished and he crossed the waters of the Salmon River, in what is now Lemhi Valley, Idaho, and established his winter quarters, soon becoming friendly with the Indians living in the valley, and ate his Christmas dinner in the wigwam of Kowsoter as the guest of that chief. In January, 1833, he left the Lemhi Valley for the Snake River, where the climate was milder and there was not so much danger from roving bands of predatory Indians.
Although Bonneville's leave of absence expired in October, 1833, he re- mained in the West and spent the winter of that year on the Port Neuf River until Christmas, when with three companions he started down the Snake River with the intention of descending the Columbia to the coast. The hardships of the winter trip forced him to turn back and he arrived at the camp on the Port Neuf in May. In the meantime he had appointed a meeting of his men in the Bear River Valley and soon after his return to the camp he started for the ren- dezvous. On the way he passed the mineral springs near the present Town of Soda Springs, to which he gave the name of "Beer Springs."
Bonneville had not given up all hope of visiting the Columbia Valley, and in the summer of 1834, with twenty-three men, he again made the attempt. On this occasion he encountered prairie and forest fires, but finally reached the Columbia only to find the Hudson's Bay Company so well established that he could not obtain supplies or induce the Indians to trade with him. Turning his
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face eastward, he again crossed the plains of Southern Idaho and spent the winter of 1834-35 in the Bear River Valley, where game was plentiful.
Captain Bonneville passed nearly three years among the mountains of the West. Most of that time he was on the move, making maps and notes, trying to carry out the instructions given him by General Macomb. When he returned to Washington to make a report, he was informed by General Macomb that, as he had greatly exceeded his leave of absence, he was supposed to be dead, and his name had been dropped from the rolls of the army. He appealed to President Jackson, who ordered him to be reinstated with his original rank of captain, but the war department refused to accept and publish his report. Bonneville then began the work of rewriting his report, intending to publish it himself. While thus engaged he formed the acquaintance of Washington Irving, to whom he submitted his manuscript and gave Mr. Irving the privilege of publishing it in any form he might deem advisable. The result was Irving's volume giving an account of Bonneville's adventures. In February, 1855, Cap- tain Bonneville was made colonel of the Third United States Infantry. He remained in the army until September 9, 1861, when he was retired and he died at Fort Smith, Arkansas, June 12, 1878.
FATHER DE SMET
Early in the seventeenth century Catholic missionaries were among the Indian tribes inhabiting the country about the Great Lakes. As the traders and settlers pushed their way westward, these missionaries always formed part of the advance guard, far into the nineteenth century. Pierre Jean de Smet-was born in Belgium, January 31, 1801; came to America in boyhood; joined the Jesuit society at an early age; was appointed missionary to the tribes on the Missouri River and served there until frontier life impaired his health. When he was about thirty years old he returned to his native land, but in 1837 came back to the United States and resumed his labors. Soon afterward he was appointed missionary to the Flathead Indians and in the spring of 1840 left St. Louis with a party of trappers of the American Fur Company bound for the annual rendezvous on the Green River in Wyoming, where they arrived late in June.
On July 6, 1840, with an Indian called Ignace as guide, Father De Smet left the rendezvous for the Flathead country. He met the main body of the tribe at Pierre's Hole and shook hands with the leading men. after which Chief Big Face addressed him thus: "Black Robe, my heart was glad when I heard that you were coming among us. Never has my lodge seen a greater day. As soon as I received news of your coming I had my big kettle filled to give you a feast in the midst of my people. I have had my best three dogs killed for the feast. They were very fat. You are welcome."
It is not known how Father De Smet enjoyed the "feast," but he remained for some time among the Flatheads and Blackfeet and established missions in what is now Montana. In the spring of 1842 he passed through Northern Idaho, and at what is now Coeur d'Alene City he gathered a number of Indians about him and remained with them for three days as an honored guest and teacher. Two years later he converted and baptized a number of the Kootenai tribe.
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Father De Smet remained among the Indian tribes of the Northwest for several years. On horseback he traveled over Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and that part of the Dakotas west of the Missouri River, and it has been said "he knew every foot of the country." He was then taken from his labors among the red men and sent to St. Louis, where he wrote a number of interesting letters and reminiscences regarding his travels as a mis- sionary. These writings entitle him to a place among the great explorers of the Northwest.
JOHN C. FREMONT
After Lewis and Clark, the next explorer authorized by the United States to make investigations in the Rocky Mountain country and farther westward was Lieut. John C. Fremont. He was born at Savannah, Ga., in 1813, received an academic education, and in July, 1833, was commissioned second lieutenant in the topographical engineers. 'He was then employed for several years in rail- road survey work and in 1840 he was on the geological survey of the Northwest. He then went to St. Louis, and soon after married Jessie Benton, daughter of Thomas H. Benton, the noted statesman, then United States senator from Missouri.
Although Senator Benton was not altogether friendly to the marriage of his daughter with a young lieutenant, when the Government in 1842 decided to send an expedition to the Rocky Mountains, he secured the command for his son-in-law "over the heads of all his superior officers of the engineer corps." The main object of the expedition was to select sites for a line of military posts along the Oregon Trail from the Missouri River to the mouth of the Columbia for a twofold purpose. First, to encourage immigration to and settle- ment of the Pacific slope by protecting emigrant trains from Indian attacks; and second, to protect the American fur traders of the United States against the encroachments of the Hudson's Bay Company.
Fremont's expedition of 1842 extended no farther west than the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming, the highest peak of which bears his name. In the fall of that year he went to Washington, where he made a report of his explora- tions and was commissioned to lead another expedition to the West the follow- ing year.
On May 29, 1843, he left Kansas City with thirty-three men, several of whom had been with him the preceding year. Following the route of 1842, up the Kansas and Arkansas rivers, he arrived at St. Vrain's Fort on the South Platte River, not far from the present town of Greeley, Colo., early in July. Some three weeks were spent in exploring the country in that section, when he pursued his journey and on August 13, 1843, went through the South Pass into the Green River country and from there into what is now the State of Idaho. For a time he was encamped near the Soda Springs, (now) in Caribou County, and in his report gives a description of the springs and surrounding country, easily recognized by one familiar with it.
About five miles west of the springs he turned southward and followed the Bear River to the Great Salt Lake, where he remained until the 12th of September and then retraced his steps and on the 19th arrived at Fort Hall, to which place he had previously sent his guide, Kit Carson, to obtain a stock
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of supplies and on the 22d he left Fort Hall with his entire party for Oregon and passing down the Snake River, he made a detour to the south, moved along the foot of the Goose Creek Mountains, and crossed the Snake at Salmon Falls, in what is now Gooding County. After crossing the Snake, his course was northwest until he struck the Boise River near the site of the present City of Boise. He then followed the course of the Boise River, passing the site of Caldwell and other cities in the Boise Valley to its junction with the Snake, recrossed that river and thence through the Powder and Grande Ronde valleys to the Columbia. On October 25, 1843, he arrived at Walla Walla, descended the Columbia almost to its mouth, making notes and observations as he went along, and after a short visit at Vancouver, he directed his steps southward, reaching Sutter's Fort on the Sacramento River early in March, 1844, and from there back to St. Louis where he arrived on August 6, 1844, having been gone for over fourteen months.
Fremont afterward conducted two expeditions to the Pacific slope, but as neither of them touched Idaho they form no part of the state's hisory. Through his explorations he acquired the sobriquet of the "Pathfinder." The publication of his reports awakened a great interest in the Oregon country and his descrip- tion of the route from the Missouri River to the Columbia Valley was of much value to the large number of emigrants that crossed the plains after 1844.
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