Early history of North Dakota: essential outlines of American history, Part 10

Author: Lounsberry, Clement A. (Clement Augustus), 1843-1926
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Washington, D. C., Liberty Press
Number of Pages: 824

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He was reappointed by President James Madison, February 11, 1811. Louis- iana having been admitted as a state April 30, 1812, and the Territory of Missouri having been created, he was appointed governor of that territory by President Madison, July 1, 1813. He was reappointed by President James Mon- roe, January 21, 1817. On the admission of Missouri as a state, January 24, 1820, he became a candidate for governor but was defeated by Alexander McNair.

In May, 1822, President Monroe appointed him U. S. Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and in October, 1824, he was appointed surveyor general of the states of Illinois and Missouri. In 1825, he negotiated several treaties with the Indians, and had an advisory influence on the treaties made that year with his old friends, the Mandans, Gros Ventres (Hidatsas) and the Arikaras by Gen. Henry Atkinson and Maj. Benjamin O'Fallon, U. S. Indian agent. General Clark died September 1, 1838, in his sixty-ninth year.

TOUSSAINT CHARBONNEAU AND THE BIRD-WOMAN

"And the pleasant water-courses, You could trace them through the valley, By the rushes in the spring-time, By the alders in the summer, By the white fog in the autumn, By the black line in the winter, And beside them dwelt the singer."

-Henry W. Longfellow.

EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA

Toussaint Charbonneau's Indian wife sang merrily as a bird, and was known as the "Bird-Woman." By birth a Shoshone of Wyoming, and daughter of a chief, she was captured at eleven years of age from the Snake Tribe of Shoshones by the Missouri River Indians, in one of their battles with her tribe, and had been sold to Charbonneau, who lived with the Gros Ventres at the Mandan villages. She was reared by the Gros Ventres, wearing their costume. and it was they who named her "Tsa-ka-ka-wea-sh," which in the Indian language means, according to Prof. Orin Grant Libby, of the North Dakota Historical Society, Bird-Woman. As written in Gros Ventres, "Tsa-ka-wa" signifies bird, "wea," woman ; "sh," the. It was said she was uncommonly comely.

Before being taken from her native tribe, she had traveled over much of the country, east and west of the Rocky Mountains, and thus was able to furnish valuable information relative thereto. Because of her belief in, and devotion to her husband, she had confidence in the white men who were making their way to the land of her birth, and with much earnestness urged that her presence in the camp with her child, would be a means of protection to them, and her ability to talk with the mountain Indians a real help.

So far as known, she was the first Indian convert to the Christian religion, west of the Missouri River, and the first pioneer mother to cross the Rocky Mountains and carry her babe into the Oregon country. While she crooned to her chubby brown baby during the long winter, a new light would come to her eyes at the thought of her far away home.

On the way she made and mended the moccasins of the explorers, taught them the mountain Indian methods of hunting bear, told them how to make carriages for transporting the boats around Great Falls, Mont., showed them how to find artichokes stored by the gophers, and warned them against the waters they must not drink. She found eggs of the wild fowl and berries, and made ointment to cure sores and insect bites, and when her husband no longer knew the country, she became the guide. She was the only woman to accompany the expedition, and was guide, interpreter and protector. She protected the party when they were threatened by hostile Indians, secured for them food and horses, saved their journals and valuable papers at the risk of her life, when their boat capsized, and was the only one of the party who received no pecuniary reward for her services.

Captain Clark thus describes her characteristics :

"She was very observant. She had a good memory, remembering localities not seen since her childhood. In trouble she was full of resource, plucky and determined. With her helpless infant she rode with the men, guiding us unerr- ingly through mountain fastnesses and lonely passes. Intelligent, cheerful, re- sourceful, tireless, faithful, she inspired us all."

Thus it is always with the good woman, encouraging man to dare and to do. At his side at birth, in sickness and in death, helping and encouraging in hours of distress and peril-"first at the cross and last at the tomb."

The influence of the Bird-Woman on her tribe gave a wonderful impetus to the uplifting of the Shoshones, from the day she greeted her brother, Camehawait, a chief at the head of the Snake Indians, who visited the camp of Lewis and Clark on the plains of Montana. Sakakawea was the true guide who remained with them to the end.

EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA

She had recognized the Indians as they approached, as being of her tribe ; among them an Indian woman who had been taken prisoner at the same battle in which she had been captured, but escaped. Her brother did not become known to her until she began to interpret. Then her joy knew no bounds. Though much agitated, the Bird-Woman concluded her work of interpreting the council between her brother and Lewis and Clark, and then learned, that of her family only two brothers and her sister's child survived; the others having been killed in war or had died from other causes. She then and there adopted her sister's orphan child (Bazil) and took him with her to the Pacific Coast.

Returning with Lewis and Clark to the Mandan villages, she remained in that country until after the smallpox scourge of 1837. Subsequently she returned to her own tribe, then located in the Wind River country, and there lived until her death, the night of April 8-9, 1884, at the Shoshone Mission, Wind River, Wyo., in the home of her adopted son, Bazil. She was then upwards of one hundred years old, blind and deaf. The obsequies were conducted by the Rev. John Roberts, D. D., who had known her many years, and who kindly furnished for this history the facts here stated in relation to her death. They are corroborated by A. D. Lane of Lander, Wyo., who was at her house a few hours after her demise, also by Harry Brownson, an old-time resident of Bismarck, afterward an employee of the traders' store at Shoshone agency, and others personally known to the author, who knew her, and that her name, as known to the Shoshones, was "Sacajawea," meaning "to launch or push off the boat."

Her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, was the interpreter at the time of the treaty of Gen. Henry Atkinson with the Mandans and Gros Ventres at the Man- dan villages on the Missouri in 1825. He spent the winter with Maximilian at Fort Clark, 1833-34, was with him at the battle of Fort Mckenzie, and, in 1838, was met by Charles Larpenteur when he went down the river to go east on a visit. Several of the Bird-Woman's descendants are now living on the Shoshone reservation, and a photograph of her great-granddaughter in Indian costume, taken specially for it, forms one of the illustrations of this history.

Her son, Baptiste, the baby, born in North Dakota, who was carried by his mother across the continent and return, was educated by Gen. William Clark at St. Louis, where young Baptiste Charbonneau was located as late as 1820. He was an interpreter and guide with Capt. Benjamin L. E. Bonneville in 1832-35, is mentioned in the journals of Lieut. John Charles Fremont at Fort Bridger in 1842, and that year was with Sir William Drummond Stewart on a buffalo hunt in Wyoming.

Her adopted son, known as "Old Bazil," was prominent in tribal affairs on the Shoshone reservation.

Chief Washakie, of Wyoming, who recently "passed to the other shore" at the age of about one hundred years, knew Sacajawea, and held her in tender esteem.

There is a monument to her memory near Fort Washakie, at the Shoshone Mission, Wind River, Wyo., now United States Indian cemetery, erected by the State of Wyoming.

Her statue in the park at Portland, Ore., erected through the efforts of Mrs. Eva Emery Dye and others, at the time of the Portland International Expo- sition, a fine production worthy of the object, to perpetuate her memory, is, also,

SAKAKAWEA The Shoshone Indian Bird-Woman Who in 1805 guided the Lewis and Clark Expedition from the Missouri River to the Yellowstone. Erected by the Federated Club Women and School Children of North Dakota. Presented to the State, October, 1910 (Statue at Bismarck)

EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA

in the name of "Sacajawea" the spelling adopted by the Wyoming State Historical Society.

In February, 1906, a movement was inaugurated by Mrs. Beulah M. Amidon, of Fargo, N. D., to raise funds for a monument to the Bird-Woman to be erected at the state capital. The bronze statue at Bismarck, designed by Crunelle, is of heroic size, twelve feet in height, representing an Indian woman wrapped in a blanket, with a pappoose strapped upon her back.

The Legislature of North Dakota assumed the expense of the granite pedestal, but the statue was paid for by a fund contributed by the Federation of Women's Clubs and the school children of the state.

On the bronze tablet are the words:

Sakakawea The Shoshone Indian Bird-Woman Who in 1805 guided the Lewis and Clark expedition from the Missouri River to the Yellowstone. Erected by the Federated Club women and school children of North Dakota Presented to the state, October, 1910.

The artist sketched the figure and costume at the Indian reservation at Elbow Woods, N. D., and won the approbation of Spotted Weasel and James Holding Eagle, who inspected and criticised it in its early stages.

It stands on the east side of the capitol grounds on a large block of rough granite, facing the west, the baby looking over her right shoulder. One foot is in advance of the other as if she were walking. The dedication took place October 13, 1910, the ceremony of unveiling being performed by Miss Beulah Amidon, of Fargo, N. D. The invocation was by Bishop Vincent Wehrle of the Bismarck diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, and was followed by an address by Mrs. Hattie M. Davis, superintendent of schools of Cass County, who originated the idea of having the members of the women's clubs and the children of the state raise the money to pay for the statue. The presentation speech was made by Mrs. N. C. Young, president of the State Federation of Women's Clubs, Judge Burleigh F. Spalding of the Supreme Court accepting on behalf of the state. Frank L. McVey, president of the state university, made the principal address.

It was fitting that this remarkable woman, distinguished alike for intelligence, bravery and capability (and her child) should be honored by the women and children of North Dakota, and it matters little whether the name nieaning "Bird- Woman" in Gros Ventre or "The launch of the boat" in Shoshone is accepted ; that she was one and the same there can be no doubt.

THE MISSOURI FUR COMPANY

Although borne on the rolls of the regular army until February 27, 1807, Captain Clark tendered his resignation immediately after his return from the Pacific coast, and became interested in the organization of a company which was

EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA

incorporated as the St. Louis Fur Company, and after many vicissitudes finally reorganized as the Missouri Fur Company, the members of the original organiza- tion being Benjamin Wilkinson, Pierre Choteau, Sr., Manuel Lisa, Auguste Cho- teau, Jr., Reuben Lewis, William Clark, Sylvester Labadie, Pierre Menard, William Morrison, Andrew Henry and Dennis Fitzhugh. William Clark, then known as Gen. William Clark, was agent of the company at St. Louis.

THE RETURN OF THE MANDAN CHIEF

In 1807, with Pierre Choteau in command of a trading party numbering seventy-two men, an attempt was made to return the Mandan Chief Shahaka, who had accompanied Lewis and Clark on their return to Washington, together with his wife and child, and the wife and child of his interpreter Rene Jessaume. Lewis and Clark had agreed on behalf of the United States to guarantee the safe return of the party to the Mandan villages.

The chief was under the escort of Ensign Nathaniel Prior, who had been a sergeant with the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

When they reached the Arikara villages they were attacked by these Indians on account of the Mandan chief, but Choteau had anticipated treachery, and was prepared for it. After an hour's fighting he was able to withdraw with a loss of three killed and seven wounded, one mortally. Three of Prior's party were wounded, including the interpreter of the chief. The Indians followed the party, and continued the attack from along shore as they proceeded down the river, until the Choteau party singled out a chief whom they recognized and shot him, when the Indians retired.

The Indians had met with heavy loss, but to what extent was never known. Shahaka having returned in safety to St. Louis, awaited an escort, and the first contract made by the reorganized St. Louis Fur Company, thereafter to be known as the Missouri Fur Company, was for the return of the Mandan chief to his tribe. In the contract the Missouri Fur Company agreed to engage 125 men, of whom 40 must be Americans and expert riflemen, for the purpose of escort. They were to receive $7,000 for the Indian's safe return. The party consisting of 150 men left St. Louis in the spring of 1809, Pierre Choteau in command, arriving at the Mandan villages September 24, 1809, the chief laden with presents. He had been entertained by President Jefferson at his country seat of Monticello and had been honored and feted from the time he reached St. Louis until his return, but his account of his experiences not being believed, he fell into disre- pute, and was finally killed by the Sioux in one of the attacks by that tribe on the Mandan villages.

In 1807 Manuel Lisa, the first and most noted upper Missouri River Indian trader, passed through the Arikara villages, where he had a trading post, visiting them, in detail, with entire safety, immediately preceding the attack of that year upon Pierre Choteau's party.

(The several maps illustrating the early explorations, the Louisiana Purchase, and the extension of boundaries of the United States, were prepared for the General Land Office, Washington, D. C., and are used by courtesy of that office.)

VIRGINIA GRANT

Granddaughter of Sakaka- wea. Photo by A. P. Porter of Lander, Wyoming, for the Early History of North Dakota.

PRVOW MUNEL

SIOUX WOMEN DANCING-FASHIONS OF 1912 (Mandan Fair, 1912)

CHAPTER VI

"WHEN WILD IN WOODS THE NOBLE SAVAGE RAN"

THE EXPEDITION OF LIEUT. Z. M. PIKE-TREATY WITH THE SIOUX-ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI-THE CHIPPEWAS SMOKE THE PIPE OF WABASHA-SUBSTITUTING THE AMERICAN FOR BRITISH FLAGS AND MEDALS-GAME-THE WINTER CANTON- MENT-HOSPITALITY OF THE TRADERS-ALEXANDER HENRY'S VISIT TO THE MANDAN VILLAGES-IDEAL INDIAN HOMES-SOCIAL LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS.

"I am as free as nature first made man, Ere the base laws of servitude began, When wild in woods the noble savage ran." -Dryden's Conquest of Granada.

CONDITIONS ON THE FRONTIER IN 1805

In 1805 Spain still held dominion over the country west of the Missouri River, although she had already ceded her possessions to France, and from France they had passed to the United States, which had entered upon the exploration of the country. Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had spent a winter in what is now North Dakota, at Fort Mandan. They had traced the Missouri to its source, locating the Cannonball, Heart, Knife, White Earth and Yellow- stone rivers, and had given the world the first reliable information relative to the plains of Dakota, then popularly supposed to be in the heart of the great American desert. They reported a land abounding in game of all kinds, peopled by a brave and intelligent native population.

Pembina was already on the maps of the period, together with the Pembina, Park, Turtle, Goose, Sheyenne and James rivers, Devils Lake and Lake Traverse. The Minnesota River was then known as St. Peter's and at its mouth was located Fort St. Anthony. There was no St. Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota, and in California no San Francisco. Chicago in Illinois, and St. Louis, then in Louisiana Territory, were frontier villages of little importance. There was no occupation of the great West for development, save the lead mines near Dubuque, no wagon roads, aside from trails, and no means of communication, excepting by canoe and pony. There had been some early exploration by the French and by the Spanish, but until the expedition of Lewis and Clark, but little was known of this vast country, towards which the center of population of the United States is rapidly shifting.

EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA

PIKE'S EXPEDITION

The object of Pike's expedition was to select sites for military posts on the Mississippi River; to survey its waters to the source of that stream; to acquaint the traders with the change of ownership of the country and investigate their alleged unlawful conduct in the sale of goods without the payment of duties imposed, and to endeavor to bring about peace between the Sioux and the Chip- pewas and enlist their friendship on behalf of the United States. The roster of Lieutenant Pike's party was as follows :

First Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike, First Regiment U. S. Infantry, command- ing; Sergeant Henry Kennerman; Corporals Samuel Bradley and William E. Meek; Privates John Boley, Peter Branden, John Brown, Jacob Carter, Thomas Daugherty, William Gordon, Solomon Huddleston, Jeremiah Jackson, Hugh Menaugh, Theodore Miller, John Montgomery, David Owings, Alexander Ray, Patrick Smith, John Sparks, Freegift Stoule and David Whelpley, in all one officer, one sergeant, two corporals and seventeen men. His interpreters were Joseph Renville and Pierre Rosseau.

They left camp, near St. Louis, August 5, 1805; their means of transporta- tion being one keel-boat seventy feet long. On their arrival at Prairie du Chien September 4th, where they spent several days, they were saluted by the Indians with a volley of musketry, and it is claimed that some of the Indians who were under the influence of liquor, tried to see how close they could shoot without hitting the boat. Lieutenant Pike informed them of the object of his expedition, especially as to the matter of peace with the Chippewas.

On September 23, 1805, he negotiated a treaty with the Sioux-represented by Little Crow (grandfather of Little Crow, leader in the Minnesota massacre in 1862), and Way Ago Enogee-for a tract of land nine miles square at the mouth of the River St. Croix, also a tract of land extending from below the confluence of the Mississippi and St. Peter's rivers up the Mississippi to include the Falls of St. Anthony, embracing nine miles on each side of the river, for the sum of $2,000. Congress confirmed this treaty April 16, 1808, but there is 110 record that it was proclaimed by the President. It is scarcely necessary to add that it embraced the land on which Fort Snelling and the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis now stand.

When Lieutenant Pike arrived at the headwaters of the Mississippi, he was treated with great cordiality and courtesy by the traders and their employees. Coming one night to a sugar camp he was given his choice of beaver, swan, elk or deer for supper, and though sugar and flour were worth 50 cents per pound, and salt $1, there was no stint in the supply.

Among the traders he met were Joseph Rolette and associates at Prairie du Chien, Murdoch Cameron at Lake Pepin, Jean Baptiste Faribault and Joseph Renville on the Minnesota, Robert Dickson on the Mississippi and Cuthbert Grant and Hugh McGillis in the Red Lake country.

The traders were naturally pro-British and were controlled by British influ- ences. Cuthbert Grant was still flying the British flag, but explained to Lieutenant Pike that it was owned by an Indian and he was not responsible for it.

Flatmouth, one of the Red Lake band, and Tahmahah, a Sioux, became great friends of Lieutenant Pike. Flatmouth rendered him great service, and Tahma-

EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA

hah adopted him as a brother, and entered the service of the United States as a dispatch bearer, and it was his proud boast that he was the only Sioux who was an American.

Joseph Rolette guided the British forces at the time of their capture of Prairie du Chien. Tahmahal was a prisoner of war there. When the British evacuated the fort they hoisted an American flag and fired the fort. Tahmahal, at the risk of his life, saved the flag and was awarded a medal of honor.

Zachary Taylor, then major Twenty-sixth Infantry, U. S. A., afterwards President of the United States, was defeated by the Indians in his efforts to punish them for the Prairie du Chien affair. He was subsequently stationed at Fort Snelling.

ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI

On the way up the Mississippi River Lieutenant Pike found much game. There were many herds of deer and antelope and elk were so numerous that Chief Thomas killed forty in one day. They occasionally killed a bear, beaver were abundant and the buffalo plentiful later in the season.

At the mouth of the Crow Wing River they found evidence of a recent and severe battle between the Sioux and Chippewas, in which the latter were vic- torious.

October 16, 1805, Lieutenant Pike went into winter quarters, erecting a stockade at the mouth of Swan River, about four miles from the present Village of Little Falls, Minn. The structure was thirty-six feet square, with blockhouses on the northwest and southeast corners.

Here Lieutenant Pike left a sergeant and part of his command, and pushed on for the headwaters of the Mississippi with the remainder, extending his explorations as far as Cass Lake. January 8, 1806, Lieutenant Pike visited the trading post of Cuthbert Grant at Sandy Lake, where there was a large stockade built in 1796, by the North-West Company.

Lieutenant Pike found that the Indians of this region had great respect for the Americans. They did not consider them like either Frenchmen or English- men, but as white Indians, and understood that they were fierce in battle and ready at all times to defend their rights. The explorer came upon one party of Indians who were insolent and threatening in their attitude until informed that they were Americans, when their manner immediately changed, and they extended to them every possible courtesy.

The prices at Grant's post for some of the staple articles were as follows : Wild oats, $1.50 per bushel ; flour, 50 cents per pound ; salt, $1 per pound ; pork. 80 cents per pound; sugar, 50 cents per pound; tea, $4 per pound.

Lieutenant Pike visited Hugh McGillis, who had a trading post at Leech Lake, and the next day Mr. Anderson, at the trading house of Robert Dickson, on the west side of the lake.

To these visits Alexander Henry has alluded in his notes of the same date. Robert Dickson cast his fortunes with the British during the war of 1812, but after the war, returned to Lake Traverse, N. D., where he was the agent for Lord Selkirk. He had a Sioux wife and four sons

EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA

February 12th Lieutenant Pike went on to Cass Lake, and on the 18th left Leech Lake for the stockade. On the 15th the Chippewas were in council with Lieutenant Pike on the subject of peace with the Sioux. Wabasha was a leading representative of the Sioux, and having agreed with Lieutenant Pike to make terms of peace with the Chippewas, sent his pipe by the hand of Lieutenant Pike to be used as his representative in the peace negotiations. The British traders had given the Indian chiefs medals and British flags and many of the chiefs were indebted to them for their offices. Lieutenant Pike was instructed to take up these medals and flags wherever it was possible to do so, and substitute the American flag and medals, believing that the effect upon the Indians would be salutary. They all smoked Wabasha's pipe and most of the chiefs gave up their British flags and medals and received American flags and medals in return.

Lieutenant Pike returned to the stockade March 5th, and on April 7th left for St. Anthony Falls, where they arrived April IIth. He claimed that his boats were the first to pass up the Mississippi above the Falls of St. Anthony. Having been promoted brigadier-general he was present at the battle of York, in upper Canada, April 27, 1813, and was killed by an explosion of the maga- zine at the fort after its surrender.

FORT ST. ANTHONY

The fort built at the mouth of the Minnesota River was at first called Fort St. Anthony, but in 1824, when Col. Winfield Scott visited the post he suggested that St. Anthony, the name of a saint of the Prince of Peace, was not a good name for the fort; that the name was foreign to all of our associations, besides being geographically incorrect. The name was accordingly changed to Fort Snelling and the fort became the nucleus around which the first settlements were made in the great Northwest, and from which they were extended to the Dakotas and still westward.

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Early history of North Dakota: essential outlines of American history, Part 10

Author: Lounsberry, Clement A. (Clement Augustus), 1843-1926 Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Washington, D. C., Liberty Press Number of Pages: 824

Author: Lounsberry, Clement A. (Clement Augustus), 1843-1926
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Washington, D. C., Liberty Press
Number of Pages: 824