USA > Montana > Yellowstone County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 10
USA > Montana > Park County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 10
USA > Montana > Dawson County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 10
USA > Montana > Rosebud County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 10
USA > Montana > Custer County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 10
USA > Montana > Sweet Grass County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 10
USA > Montana > Carbon County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 10
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The store and warehouse, or two stores, were built on each side of the gate, and on the side next to the interior of the fort the two buildings were connected by a gate similar to the main gate the space between the building and the stockade filled in with pickets, making a large strong room without any roof or cov- ering overhead. In each store, or stores, about five feet from the ground, was a hole eighteen inches square, with a strong shutter-fastening inside of the store, opening into the space or room between the gates. When the Indians wanted to trade, the inner gate was closed ; a man would stand at the outer gate until all the Indians that wanted to trade, or as many as the space between the gate would contain, had passed in; then he would lock the outer gate and go through the trading hole into the store. The Indians would then pass whatever articles each one had to trade through the hole to the trader, and he would throw out of the hole whatever the Indians wanted to the value in trade of the article received. When the party were done trading they were turned out and another party
admitted. In that way of trading the Indians were entirely at the mercy of the traders, for they were penned up in a room and could all be killed through loop-holes in the store without any danger to the traders. The articles brought by the Indians for trade were buffalo robes, elk, deer, antelope, bear. wolf, beaver, otter, fox, mink, martin, wild cat, skunk and badger skins.
The country was literally covered with buffalo, and the Indians killed them by making "surroundings." The Indians moved and camped with from one to four hundred lodges together-averaging about seven souls to the lodge; and when they needed meat the chief gave orders to make a "surround," when the whole camp, men, women and the largest of the children, on foot and on horseback. would go under direction of the soldiers and form a circle around as many buffalo as they wanted to kill-from three hundred to one thou- sand buffalo. They would then all start slowly for a common point, and as soon as the circle began to grow smaller, the slaughter would begin, and in a short time all inside of the circle would be killed. The buffalo do not, as a general rule, undertake to break through unless the circle is very small, but run round and round the circumference next to the Indians until they are all killed.
Fort Union burned down in 1831 and was rebuilt by Mckenzie in the same year. The new fort was two hundred ,and fifty feet square, with stone foundation, with similar buildings, but put up in a more workman- like manner, inside of the stockade. The fort stood until 1868, when it was pulled down by order of the commanding officer at Fort Buford (five miles below Union.)
In 1832 the first steamboat, named the "Yellow- stone," arrived at Fort Union. From that time, every spring, the goods were brought by steamboats. but the robes, peltries, etc., were shipped from the fort every spring by mackinaws to St. Louis.
As has been noted in preceding pages of this chapter the country of the Blackfeet had never been successfully invaded. The Mis- souri Fur company had made two attempts to open trade relations with these people, and each time had failed and been driven from the country. Ashley and Henry made two at- tempts and met the same fate as did the Mis- souri Fur company. This being practically a virgin territory, Mckenzie's desire was to in- form the Blackfeet of the friendly relationship that would be extended them if intercourse could be opened. The former expeditions into this country had utterly failed in this particu-
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HISTORY OF MONTANA.
lar. And on the other hand the Hudson's Bay company traders, who penetrated the country of the Blackfeet, used their influence to create feelings of hostility between the Indians and the American traders.
In the summer of 1830 Mckenzie was down the river. Upon his return to Fort Union in the fall he found there an old trapper by the name of Berger, who had for many years been employed by the Hudson's Bay company at their fort just north of the Blackfoot country .. Berger was well acquainted with the language and customs of these people and knew many of them personally. How he came to leave the Hudson's Bay company and come to Fort Un- ion no one knows; but he was there and he was the very man that Mckenzie desired for nego- tiation with the Blackfeet. Mckenzie ac- cordingly proposed to him to go on this peril- ous trip, and he consented. Chittenden's "American Fur Trade of the West" describes the advance into the Blackfoot country and the return to the fort :
Berger started out from Fort Union in the fall and traveled some four weeks before he saw any Indians. The party carried a flag unfurled so that the Indians might know at a distance that they were white men. They finally found a large village on the Marias river, some distance above the mouth. At the sight of it the little party was so terror stricken that they wanted to turn back, but Berger persisted in the purpose of his mission, and the men followed his lead, scarcely ex- pecting to be alive for another hour. When they were discovered a number of mounted Indians started for them at full speed. Berger halted 'his party and him- self advanced with the flag. The Indians paused, and Berger called out his name. They recognized it; there was a rush to shake hands; and then the little party was welcomed to the village, where, to their great joy. they were received in the most hospitable manner.
How long they remained is not known, but Berger finally succeeded in inducing a party of about forty, including several chiefs, to accompany him to Fort Union. The route was a long one, and on the way they began to complain of the distance. Berger was put to his wit's ends to prevent them turning back. Finally when within a day's march from the fort, tradition says. the Indians concluded to stop. Berger besought Them to go on one day more and told them if they did not reach the fort in that time he would give them his scalp and all his horses. This guaranty of good faith
induced them to keep on, and, sure enough, about three p. m. the next day they passed over a river bluff and beheld in the valley below the fort, just as Berger had told them. It was a great feat that Berger had ac- complished, and Mckenzie was highly gratified at its successful outcome.
The party reached Fort Union before the end of the year 1831. Mckenzie had a conference with the chiefs, and it goes without saying that that astute leader left no stone unturned to create a favorable im- pression. The Indians professed great satisfaction at the prospect of having a trading post near their village, and as an earnest of his purpose to establish one there the following summer. Mckenzie sent a trader and a few men to trade with them during the winter. He completed this stroke of good fortune during the fol- lowing summer by bringing about a treaty of peace and friendship between the Blackfeet and Assiniboines, which promised protection to the trade throughout this region. The treaty was consummated on the 29th day of November, 1831.
In accordance with the agreement entered into with the Blackfeet, Mckenzie dispatched an expedition up the river in the fall of 1831, which arrived at the confluence of the Marias and Missouri sometime in October. James Kipp had charge of the expedition. He selected the site for the fort between the two rivers, near the mouth of the Marias, where it was constructed with as much speed as possible. It was called Fort Piegan. During the first ten days after the post was opened for trading purposes the Indians bartered off two thousand four hundred beaver skins.
During the winter the fort was attacked by the Blood Indians and besieged for several days. The attack was without any apparent provocation, and it has been said that the Brit- ish traders, alarmed at the Americans' success, were instrumental in inducing the Bloods to make an attack. Rather than injuring the post, the attack proved a boon, for after their with- drawal Kipp treated the Indians to alcohol, and so elated were they over this bountiful treat- ment that they brought all their furs to the American post.
Before the opening of spring a fine lot of furs had been collected, and Kipp, upon the opening of navigation, made preparations to
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HISTORY OF MONTANA.
take his furs to Fort Union. The Indians de- sired that the post should be kept open during the summer months, but his men refused to stay, and the post was abandoned. Soon after the abandoning of the fort it was burned by the Indians.
During the summer after Kipp's arrival at Fort Union, David S. Mitchell was sent to take charge of Fort Piegan; but on arrival at the Marias, finding that the fort had been burned, he moved up the Marias six miles, and on the north bank selected a site in what is now known as Brule bottom. In honor of Mc- Kenzie this post was named Fort Mckenzie, and its construction assured the American Fur company a permanent foothold in the Black- foot country. It was occupied for a great many years and proved to be one of the most profitable posts the company had in the upper country.
In 1842 F. A. Cheardon, who was at the time in charge of Fort Mckenzie, killed thirty Indians within the walls of the fort, the massa- cre being brought about in the following man- ner : A party of Piegans, demanding admit- tance to the fort, were refused admission, and in malice killed a pig belonging to the whites and rode away. A small party was sent in pur- suit, and was fired upon by the Indians, a negro member of the party being killed. Return to the fort was then made, and Cheardon deter- mined upon revenge. He invited a large num- ber of the Indians to visit the post, throwing open the gates as if intending the utmost hos- pitality. While the Indians were crowding into the fort, the whites fired upon them with a howitzer loaded to the muzzle with trade balls. Men, women and children were slaugh- tered. Cheardon then loaded the boats, burned the fort buildings, and descended the river to the mouth of Judith river, where he built Fort Cheardon.
The conditions of the company at this point were in bad shape as a result, when Alexander Culberson, who had been in charge
of the fort at a former time, then again took charge, and through his efforts peace was made with the Indians. Six miles above the present site of Fort Benton he established Fort Lewis. This was simply a temporary structure, de- signed only to serve the immediate purpose. In 1846 a permanent fort was erected where the town of Fort Benton now stands. In honor of Thomas H. Benton, then United States sen- ator from Missouri, and one of the influential men of the American Fur company, this new post was named Fort Benton. This fort was well constructed, and it is the only remaining post of the American Fur company in the up- per Missouri country. This was made the head quarters for all the upper country for 20 years, or until the company retired from business.
In 1848 Fort Campbell was built a short distance above Fort Benton by the rival trad- ers, Galpin, Labarge & Co., of St. Louis, whichi was not long occupied. Later the independent traders erected a number of fortified stations on the Missouri and Yellowstone, who alter- nately courted and fought the warlike tribes of Montana, but left little historical data of their occupancy.
It must not be understood that the Ameri- can Fur company confined its operations to the Blackfoot country. No sooner was Fort Un- ion thoroughly established than trading parties were sent up the Yellowstone to traffic with the Crows. Traders and trappers were kept among these people at all times, but not until 1832 was a fort established. That year McKenzie sent Tullock to build a post on the south side of the Yellowstone, three miles below the Big Horn, to trade with the mountain Crows. These Indians were treacherous and insolent, but their trade was desired by the American company. Tullock erected a large fort which he called Fort Van Buren. The Indians complained so much of the lo- cation of this post that a little later, in 1836, Tullock built Fort Cass on the Yellow- stone below Fort Van Buren. Fort Alexander,
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HISTORY OF MONTANA.
still further down, was built by Lawender in 1848, and Fort Spary was erected by Culber- son at the mouth of the Rosebud in 1850. This was the last trading post built on the Yellow- stone and was abandoned in 1853. In 1834, Mr. Astor, the founder of the American Fur company, retired from further connection with its affairs.
Almost every year that the American Fur company was engaged in business in the upper Missouri country new fur companies were or- ganized to compete for the business which was proving so profitable. The older company had its own tactics for defeating the progress of the new concerns. Invariably the new companies would erect forts close to those of the older company in order that they might secure a por- tion of the trade with the Indians. The Ameri- can Fur company was the wealthiest concern operating in the upper Missouri country, and when the weaker rival stepped in for a portion of the traffic the older concern would pay more than the customary prices for skins-often more than could be secured for them in St. Louis. By so doing it drove the competitors from the field.
While success always crowned the efforts of the American at the established trading posts, out in the mountains its traders were not so successful. Parties were sent out to ascer- tain the methods pursued by the Rocky Moun- tain Fur company and others who were operat- ing, that the competition might be intercepted. But they were never so successful, proportion- ately to numbers and power, as were some of the smaller concerns. True they secured many valuable furs in this way, but competition was so sharp that they were not able to cope with their many adversaries and at the same time reap great harvests from the field. Away from the posts the same tactics could not be employed, and in the field men were placed on a nearer equality.
The Hudson's Bay company, that powerful corporation which controlled the fur trade of
the Columbia river district, only occasionally sent trappers into the country east of the Bitter- roots. In 1831 an expedition was planned at Vancouver to go to the Missouri river country for the purpose of trapping beaver and killing buffalo. The command of the expedition was given to John Work, a faithful and intelligent employe of the great English company.
On the 18th of August the party left Van- couver in four boats, carrying a large supply of goods for trade with the Shoshones. On the 30th of the month Fort Walla Walla was reached. Here horses were supplied the men and on the 11th of September the start to the eastward was made, the course being along the bank of Snake river. On the 16th the party turned southward and crossed Snake river at the Salmon branch. They journeyed up this stream ten days, then crossed through a woody country to a camas prairie. Continuing, they struck the Bitter Root river on October 18th, down which they traveled as far as Hell Gate, where they engaged in trapping. In that vicin- ity they found "marks of Americans." A con- siderable number of beaver were taken and there were some buffalo, but the American trappers had been over the country thoroughly, and this fact, together with the hostility of the Blackfeet, made the expedition a partial failure. The Blackfeet made life miserable for the English hunters, stealing the traps and attack- ing the trappers whenever opportunity offered. On October 30 two of the party were killed by the Indians, and three of Work's men, half breeds, deserted.
About the middle of November the party moved southward to the Jefferson branch of the Missouri and camped on a plain, in the very road of the Blackfeet, above Beaverhead, near where now stands the town of Virginia City. Here buffalo were found in great numbers and the trappers spent some time in their slaughter. On the 24th the camp was attacked by the Blackfeet and one of the men dangerously wounded. Two days later camp was broken
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and the party proceeded in a southwesterly direction for several days, arriving at Salmon river on the 16th of December. Again work- ing eastward, the 5th of January, 1832, found the party on a small branch of the Missouri. On the Ioth there was a skirmish with the Blackfeet, which resulted in the killing of two of the Indians. The Blackfeet continued troublesome, stealing the horses and firing upon the trappers from ambush. Early on the morning of the 30th the camp was attacked by 300 savages, who were not checked until one of the whites had been killed and one wounded. The Indians were repulsed with considerable loss.
By the middle of February the horses of the trappers became so thin from the scarcity of grass that they were unable to follow the buffalo, and several of them died from cold and starvation. April and May were passed by the party hunting beaver and fighting Indians, Work gradually working his way westward. Crossing the mountains, the hunting was con-
tinued until July, on the 19th of which month Fort Walla Walla was reached. Two of the party and a boat containing a valuable cargo were lost while descending Salmon river. All embarked on the morning of July 25th for Vancouver, where the party arrived on the afternoon of the 27th. Out of 329 horses which the party took from Walla Walla and subsequently purchased, only 215 were brought back, 114 having been captured, lost or starved. Three hundred and nine buffalo were killed during the trip and a large quantity of beaver taken.
In 1847 the Hudson's Bay company estab- lished a trading post on Crow creek, in the northern part of what was afterward set off as a Flathead reservation. Angus McDonald, who came to the mountains as early as 1838 or 1839, was the first officer in charge of the post. Very little has been learned of the operations of the English company in this part of the country.
CHAPTER V
FROM BEAVER PELT TO BALLOT-BOX
For many years the fur traders and trap- pers were the only white people to enter the confines of the present state of Montana. They could in no sense be termed settlers. They came to trap and hunt and not to build homes. But this condition was not always to be, and we find overlapping the fur trade epoch of Montana's history that of its early settlement. And, as has been the history of nearly all our western county, the missionaries were the first to es- tablish homes in this far away and savage country.
That portion of what is now the state of
Montana which lies between the main range of the Rocky mountains and the Bitter Root mountains was the first section of the state to be inhabited by white men. When the Lewis and Clark party (undoubtedly the first white men to set foot on the soil of that country) entered that section of the country in 1805, it was inhabited by three tribes of Indians-the Flatheads, the Kalispelumns (now known as the Pend d'Oreilles) and the Kootenais. From about 1820 up to 1841 this country was visited by white trappers, employes of the Hudson's Bay company, who trapped and
40
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HISTORY OF MONTANA.
hunted over it, and then came the first mis- sionary, with the desire to teach the savages the ways of civilization.
In the spring of 1840 Father P. J. De Smet, missionary of the Society of Jesus, left St. Louis with the intention of proceeding to the Bitter Root valley and there establishing a mission. He traveled with a party of the Amer- ican Fur company to that company's rendez- vous on the Green river, where he was met by a party of Flatheads, who conducted him to the Bitter Root valley. From reliable sources we learn that Father De Smet remained, teaching and baptizing the Indians, from July 17th to the 29th of August, when he set out on his return, accompanied as before with a party of Flathead warriors. Going by way of the Yel- lowstone and Big Horn rivers, he proceeded to the fort of the American Fur company in the country of the Crows. From this point De Smet proceeded down the Yellowstone to Fort Union. John de Velder, a native of Belgium, was his only companion on this perilous trip, and several narrow escapes from running into parties of Indians are reported. From Fort Union they had the company of three men going to the Mandan village. From this place De Smet proceeded by way of Fort Pierre and Vermillion to Independence and thence to St. Louis.
Next spring he set out again, accompanied by two priests Nicholas Point and Gregory Mengarini, and three lay brethren. Accord- ing to De Smet's journal, they fell in with a party of hunters going into the mountainous country and another party bound for the "Oregon county" and California. The three parties traveled together as far as Fort Hall, where the missionaries were met by the Flat- heads and escorted to their country.
Immediately after their arrival the mis- sionaries set about building a mission, which was named St. Mary's, and which was used as a house of worship until 1850. Unfortunately a description of the mission as it was first con-
structed is not available, but we learn that in 1846 it consisted of 12 houses, built of logs, a church, a saw mill, a grist mill and buildings for farm use. Farming was carried on, and large crops of wheat, potatoes and other vege- tables of various kinds were produced ; several head of cattle had been raised, and the estab- lishment had all the horses necessary for its use. This was the first farming done in the state of Montana. The burrs for the mill were brought from Belgium to the Oregon settlements and from there to St. Mary's.
In 1843 the Jusuit college sent out two priests to assist Fathers Point and Mengarini, while De Smet was dispatched on a mission to Europe. These priests were Peter De Voss and Adrian Hoeken, and they arrived at St. Mary's in September with three lay brethren.
Bancroft thus gives a brief history of this mission and its effects upon the Indians :
When the Flatheads took up the cross and the plowshare they fell victims to the diseases of the white race. When they no longer made war on their enemies, the Blackfeet nation, these implacable foes gave them no peace. They stole the horses of the Flatheads un- til they had none left with which to hunt buffalo, and in pure malice shot their beef cattle to prevent their feeding themselves at home, not refraining from shoot- ing the owners whenever an opportunity offered. By this system of persecution they finally broke up the establishment of St. Mary's in 1850, the priests finding it impossible to keep the Indians settled in their village under the circumstances. They resumed their migra- tory habits, and the fathers having no protection in their isolation, the mission buildings were sold to John Owen, who with his brother, Francis, converted them into a 1rading post and fort, and put the establishment in a state of defence against the Blackfoot maranders.
John Owen had come as far as the head- waters of the Snake as sutler for United States troops who were on their way to Oregon. This was in the fall of 1849. Winter overtook the troops, camp was established a few miles above Fort Hall and the winter passed there. In the fall of 1850 Owen crossed over the Bitter Root valley and, as has been stated, purchased St. Mary's Mission. Here he engaged in trad-
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HISTORY OF MONTANA.
ing with parties crossing to the Oregon coun- try, and to some extent in farming and stock raising.
Owen thought he was permanently estab- lished in this country, but the predatory Black- feet continually harassed him, and in 1853 he abandoned his post and set out with his herds for Oregon. He had not proceeded far when he met a detachment of soldiers under Col. Isaac I. Stevens, governor of the newly created territory of Washington, who was coming to establish a depot of supplies in the Bitter Root valley for the use of the government exploring parties which were to winter there. Owen and his party returned to the post he had aban- doned, feeling secure under the protection of the soldiers.
While Father De Smet had been forced to abandon his mission at St. Mary's, others soon took up the work of looking after the spiritual welfare of the Indians in the Bitter Root Val- ley, and in 1854 St. Ignatius mission was es- tablished. Hubert Howe Bancroft, in his "History of Washington, Idaho and Mon- tana," says of this mission :
In 1853-54 the only missions in operation were those of the Sacred Heart at Coeur d'Alene, St. Ignat- ius at Kalispel lake, and St. Paul at Colville, though certain visiting stations were kept up, where baptisms were performed periodically. In 1854, after the Ste- vens exploring expedition had made the country more habitable by treaty talks with the Blackfeet and other tribes, Hoeken, who seems nearly as indefatigable as De Smet, selected a site for a new mission, "not far from Flathead lake and about fifty miles from the old. mission of St. Mary's." Here he erected during the summer several frame buildings, a chapel, shops and dwellings, and gathered about him a camp of Koote- nais, Flatbows, Pend d'Oreilles, Flatheads and Kalis- pels. Rails and fencing were cut to the number of 18 000 a large field put under cultivation and the mission of St. Ignatius in the Flathead country became the successor of St. Mary's. In the new "reduction" the fathers were assisted by the officers of the exploring expedition, and especially by Lieutenant Mullan, who wintered in the Bitter Root valley in 1854-55. In return the fa- thers assisted Gov. Stevens at the treaty grounds and endeavored to control the Coeur d'Alenes and Spo- kanes in the troubles that immediately followed the
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