USA > North Dakota > Early history of North Dakota: essential outlines of American history > Part 23
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Jacob Halsey, an extremely dissipated man, who was in charge of Fort Union, and was returning from a temporary absence, was a passenger on the boat, and although he had been vaccinated, was sick with the disease on his arrival at Fort Union. One of his clerks, Edwin T. Denig, and an Indian also had the disease, whereupon it was determined to adopt heroic measures for defense, "and have it all over with in time for the fall trade." Accordingly, thirty squaws stopping at Fort Union were vaccinated with the real smallpox virus from the person of Halsey, and a few days later twenty-seven of them were stricken with smallpox.
Entire Indian villages had been exposed while crowding around the boat, and Indians from the boat, or who had visited it, went to the Blackfeet, Assini- boine, and other tribes, and when the epidemic was at its height, the Indians came in from the chase for the fall trade, crowding about the fort in spite of every effort to keep them away.
The contagion began to spread about the middle of June, and raged as long as there were Indians who were not immune to attack. The victims were seized with severe pains in the head and back, and death resulted generally in a few hours, the disease taking its most malignant form. In the words of an eye- witness of the scenes: "In whatever direction we go, we see nothing but melan- choly wrecks of human life. The tents are still standing on every hill, but 110 rising smoke announces the presence of human beings, and no sounds but the croaking of the raven, and the howling of the wolf, interrupt the fearful silence."
Henry Boller, who was eight years engaged in trade on the Missouri River, in his book entitled "Among the Indians." states that in one family all had died save one babe, and as there was no one to care for that it was placed alive in the arms of its dead mother, and, wrapped with her in her burial robes, laid on the scaffold, the Indian method of burying the dead.
Prince Maximilian is quoted as writing at the time of the scourge: "The destroying angel has visited the unfortunate sons of the wilderness with terrors
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never before known, and has converted the extensive hunting-grounds, as well as the peaceful settlements of these tribes, into desolate and boundless ceme- teries * * * The warlike spirit which but lately animated the several tribes, and but a few months ago gave reason to apprehend the breaking out of a raging war, is broken. The mighty warriors are now the prey of the greedy wolves, and the few survivors, in utter despair, throw themselves upon the whites, who, however, can do little for them. The vast preparations for the protection of the frontier are superfluous ; another hand has undertaken the defense of the white inhabitants of the frontier, and the funeral torch that lights the redman to his dreary grave, has become the auspicious star of the advancing settler and the roving trader of the white race."
In the translator's preface to Maximilian's "Travels in the Interior of North America," may be found a letter from the prince, dated New Orleans, June 6, 1838, in which he bears corroborative testimony to the efforts of the company's officers to retard the progress of the plague. He says that the smallpox was com- municated to the Indians by a person who was on board the steamboat which ran up the previous summer to the mouth of the Yellowstone River, to carry both the Government presents and the goods for the barter trade of the fur dealers; and the translator, Hannibal E. Lloyd, adds that it was the American Fur Company's steamboat St. Peter which carried the annual outfit and supplied the Missouri River forts, and that Larpenteur, in charge of Fort Union, says the vessel arrived June 24, 1837 ; that the officers could not prevent intercourse between the Indians and the vessel, although they exerted themselves to the utmost.
The smallpox epidemic was the direct result of the demoralizing influence of the use of intoxicating liquors. There was neglect on the boat which was mak- ing its way into the heart of the Indian country, and criminal disregard of danger, and neglect on the part of the authorities at Fort Union. There was not a delib- erate purpose to murder the Indian families vaccinated with the smallpox virus, and "have it over," but the result would have been the same had that been the case. Alfred Cummings, United States superintendent of Indian affairs, in reporting the result of investigations on his trip to the Upper Missouri tribes in 1855, said of the smallpox scourge of 1837: "Every Indian camp from the Big Bend of the Missouri to the headwaters of the Columbia and Puget Sound was a scene of utter despair. To save families from the torture of the loathsome disease, fathers slew their children, and in many instances inflicted death upon themselves with the same bloody knife. Maddened by their fears, they rushed into the waters for relief, and many perished by their own hands, gibbeted on the trees which surrounded their lodges."
With reckless abandon, born of the excessive use of intoxicating liquors and of ignorance, the Indians took no precautions against the disease, which was allowed to run its course. Some blamed the whites for introducing it and threatened vengeance, while others regarded it a judgment of the Great Spirit for their warfare upon the whites, who, they then realized, were their true friends.
The Sioux suffered less than other Indians, for the reason that they scattered, and the families isolated themselves as much as possible. The smallpox again prevailed among the Indians in 1856, but to a much less alarming extent.
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CHOLERA IN 1845
In 1845 cholera prevailed throughout the West, on the Great Lakes, and on the Missouri River steamers, and to some extent at the trading posts, and in Indian villages. There were many deaths among the men on the steamboats, but cholera cannot abide where cleanliness and fresh air are the rule, and it was quickly stamped out.
A COUNTRY WITHOUT LAWS
A lawless condition, as has been said, prevailed on the Upper Missouri for forty years, from its occupation by the American fur traders in 1822 until the organization of Dakota Territory in 1861. There was nothing to restrain the evil propensities of men. Theoretically, the laws of Louisiana, Missouri, Minne- sota, and Nebraska had been successively extended over the country, but there was no means of enforcement, and the United States laws governing intercourse with the Indians were not obeyed.
Murders were the frequent results of envy, jealousy, hatred, malice, or the excessive use of intoxicating liquors, and generally speaking, no punishment was attempted beyond an occasional reprisal. The condition grew from bad to worse from year to year and when Fox, Livingston & Company, known as the "Union Fur Confederacy," retired, in 1843, they left fifty or more lawless charac- ters in the Indian country. Incidents were numerous of murders from one cause or another, causing but a passing comment.
MASSACRE OF TIIE DESCHAMPS
The Deschamp family consisted of the parents, ten children, and a nephew. Francois Deschamp, Sr., was accused of killing Governor Robert Semple, of the Selkirk Colony, June 16, 1816, as related in Chapter VII, Part I, after he was wounded by Cuthbert Grant; of robbing and murdering others wounded in that affair ; of having twice robbed Fort Union, and of being concerned in numerous other crimes. His son, Francois, Jr., was the interpreter at Fort Union, and had interfered with the family relations of Baptiste Gardepe, another employee of the fort, who had demanded satisfaction of the Deschamp family, and they had made several attempts to kill him. Finally a conspiracy was formed at Fort Union to kill both father and son, and in accordance with the arrangements, Gardepe killed the elder Deschamp with a blow from a rifle, completing the murder with a knife, while the young man was merely wounded. This was in July, 1833. There were then about seventy men at Fort Union, and a number of half-blood families at Fort William, where the Deschamps resided, and where some of the men from Fort Union lived; Fort William having been abandoned by the opposition company.
During a carousal following the departure of the annual boat June 28, 1836, Madame Deschamp aroused the vengeance of her sons by the taunt that if they were men, they would avenge the death of their father, whereupon they killed Jack Rem, whose family hurried to Fort Union, and a party was raised and sup- plied with arms by Mckenzie, who surrounded the Deschamp house, and finally
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set it on fire. Before the affair ended they had killed the mother and other members of the family, in all eight at this time, and one, a child of ten, died the next day from wounds. One of the assaulting party, Joseph Vivier, was killed, and one wounded.
OTHER LAWLESS ACTS
A good-looking young fellow at Fort Union, Augustin Bourbonnais, made advances to the Indian wife of Kenneth Mckenzie, who directed John Brasseau, the undertaker-ready to undertake any job, ranging from the burial of the dead to furnishing the victim-to shoot him.
Bourbonnais, having been forced out of the fort, was lying in wait outside, threatening to shoot Mckenzie at sight; instead, he, himself, was shot by Bras- seau, but not fatally, though laid up nearly a year from his wound.
Christmas, 1838, the hunter at Fort Union was killed and thrown into the fire by two of his co-employees, who were tried by the drum-head court-martial which regulated the affairs of the fort, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged. The court, however, being in doubt as to its authority to carry out the sentence, it was commuted to thirty-nine lashes, and when John Brasseau showed a dispo- sition to put too much vigor into the whipping, the Court would say : "Moderate, John, moderate." Two men were caught stealing horses belonging to the fort, and there was then no moderation. Brasseau brought the blood at every stroke.
It was freely charged that Mckenzie was directly responsible for the attack by the Crows upon the outfit of Thomas Fitzpatrick in 1833. They ran off 150 horses, looted the camp of $20,000 worth of furs, equipments and mer- chandise; some of the furs, plainly marked, being sold to Mckenzie, who refused to give them up unless paid what they had cost him.
Narcisse Le Clerc was proceeding up the river to engage in trade on his own account. A shot across the bows stopped his boat, and the American Fur Com- pany took possession of boat and cargo. Le Clerc sued the company in the United States Court at St. Louis, secured judgment against the company, and Mckenzie's outfit was charged $9,200 for their "unreasonable restraint of trade."
In 1843, W. P. May, a Rocky Mountain trader, came down the Yellowstone with his winter catch of furs and proceeded down the Missouri in a boat built for the purpose. He was fired on by some of the Fox, Livingston & Co. desperadoes and his boat and cargo seized.
Fort Clark became headquarters for thieves and other criminals of the Upper Missouri, who committed depredations upon the Sioux, dressed as Arikaras, and upon the latter dressed as Sioux. Nor did they confine their attentions to the Indians entirely, but held up and robbed white trappers and others when opportunity offered. There has been a story current on the frontier since those times that a party of seven miners, proceeding down the river from Montana, were waylaid by Indians-or whites garbed as Indians-and robbed of $30,000 at a point a short distance below Fort Clark, and that the trader at Fort Clark got the gold in the "course of business."
On the way down the river from the Upper Missouri, returning from his investigation in 1855, Alfred Cummings, United States Superintendent of Indian
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Affairs, stopped at Fort Clark and lost seven mules, stolen from his outfit during the few hours he was there.
These are only samples of the numerous outrages of that period by whites on the Upper Missouri.
OUTRAGES BY INDIANS
In view of the outrages by whites against each other there is little room to criticize the perpetration of Indian outrages against the whites. Up to 1833 the whites at Fort Union hunted at will throughout that region, but later there was scarcely a boat or mackinaw, passing down the river, that was not fired on by the Indians. They would attack the men at the wood yards and in the hay fields and timber camps. Stock was run off within 200 yards of Fort Union, and the tribes were constantly at war with each other.
TIIE WILD BONAPARTE OF THE PRAIRIES
Among the Assiniboines was a chief of renown named Tahatka, or Gauche, described by Father De Smet as "a crafty, cruel, deceitful man, a bad Indian in every sense of the word ; his life was full of horrors." Gauche led his tribe for forty years, and was one of the parties, as stated, to the Mckenzie treaty of peace at Fort Union. He was sometimes called "Neenah-yau-henne," the "man-who- holds-the-knife," with which it was said he could cut a rock in two, owing to the strong "medicine," or supernatural powers, with which he was believed to be endowed. By the whites he was sometimes called the "Wild Bonaparte of the Prairies." He had no difficulty in raising a large band of warriors whenever he elected to go on the war path against other tribes.
It is related that he raised a large party to attack the Blackfeet, on the occa- sion of their return from one of their annual trips to the fort for the purpose of trade. An examination of their trail revealed to him that they were rich in horses, and well supplied with intoxicating liquor; and he reasoned that the following night would be given over to carousal, so he selected as the psychologi- cal moment for attack the hour of stupor, early in the morning after their debauch. His deductions turned out to be correct, and finding them utterly unable to defend themselves he captured 300 horses, killed and scalped a large number of men, women and children, and followed up the victory by the usual celebration.
One member of his party had remained at Fort Union, and the Blackfeet, hearing of his presence at the fort, sent word to him that they were hunting for the Assiniboines for the purpose of making peace with them and invited him to accompany them, but he was reluctant to go. Finally they sent a horse, fully equipped, which was to be his if he would go with them. This his cupidity led him to accept, and in the act of mounting he was riddled with bullets within 200 yards of Fort Union.
BEAR RIB SUFFERS THE PENALTY
As time passed the Indians on the Upper Missouri became more and inore troublesome, and more determined to drive the whites from the country, refusing
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their annuities and regarding as traitors those who accepted presents, lest it might in some manner involve the loss of their homes. United States officers who came to them bearing gifts were no longer looked upon with favor. Bear Rib was prevailed upon to receipt for the goods for his tribe, and October 8, 1862, Governor William Jayne reported his death. The Indian penalty for treason is death. Bear Rib knew this, of course, but his cupidity was stronger than his loyalty to the traditions of his tribe, and he paid the forfeit with his life. Civil government had been inaugurated in Dakota ; its settlement under the free home- stead law of May 20th of that year having commenced, and the Indian outbreak, fully described in another chapter, was in progress, but preceding that story is much of interest yet to be told.
Dr. Washington Mathews, who served some years as medical officer at Fort Berthold and at Fort Stevenson, wrote, in a personal letter to Dr. Elliott Coues, editor of Charles Larpenteur's Journal, as follows :
"The Hidatsa moved up the Missouri from their old villages on Knife River to the bluffs on which Fort Berthold was afterwards built in 1845. The Mandans followed soon after, and the Arikaras joined them in 1862.
"Soon after the Hidatsa moved up, in 1845, the American Fur Company began, with the assistance of the Indians, to build a stockaded post which they called Fort 'Berthold,' in honor of a certain person of that name ( Bartholomew Berthold) of St. Louis. This was built on the extreme southern edge of the bluff, on land which has since been mostly, if not entirely, cut away by the river.
"In 1859, an opposition trading company erected, close to the Indian village (but east of it and farther away from the river than Fort Berthold), some build- ings, protected by a stockade and bastions, which they named Fort Atkinson (the second of that name).
"This was the fort at which Boller (author of 'Among the Indians') had his trading post. In 1862 opposition ceased and the American Fur Company obtained possession of Fort Atkinson, which they occupied, transferring to it the name of Fort Berthold. They abandoned the old stockade, which was afterward (December 24, 1862) almost entirely destroyed by a war party of Sioux.
"This was a memorable Christmas eve in the annals of Fort Berthold. The Sioux came very near capturing the post, but the little citizen garrison defended it bravely, and at length the Sioux withdrew. * * * The first (I think) mili- tary occupancy of the fort was in 1864, when Gen. Alfred Sully assigned a com- pany of Iowa cavalry to duty there under command of Capt. A. B. Moreland.
"In the spring of 1865 this company was relieved by one of the First United States Volunteer Infantry (ex-Confederate prisoners) under command of Capt. R. R. Dimon. In the same year Captain Dimon's company was relieved by one of the Fourth United States Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Capt. Adams Bassett. In 1862 Fort Berthold received the traders from Fort Clark, leaving that fort in the possession of the Arikaras.
"In the spring of 1866 regular troops came into the country, and a company of the Thirteenth Infantry, commanded by Capt. Nathan Ward Osborn (colonel Fifteenth Infantry, August 5, 1888, now deceased), succeeded the volunteers.
"When the troops first moved in the traders were obliged to move out and
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built quarters for themselves outside. After the troops were withdrawn the traders returned for a short time and then made way for the Indian agency."
The United States troops were withdrawn from Fort Berthold when the con- struction of Fort Stevenson was begun in 1867. Fort Stevenson was abandoned in 1883, and the reservation was sold at private sale to a syndicate from Cincin- nati represented by Hon. L. C. Black.
CHAPTER XIII
INCLUDING THE SIOUX MASSACRE OF 1862
PRIMEVAL INGRAFTING OF MAN'S INHUMANITY TO MAN - INDIAN WARS - TREATIES OF 1837 AND 1851 - TRADERS AND THEIR ACCOUNTS - THE SIOUX MASSACRE OF 1862-ORIGIN AND EXTENT OF THE TROUBLE-FACTS GLEANED FROM OFFICIAL RECORDS-SCENES AND INCIDENTS RELATED BY TONGUE AND PEN OF PARTICIPANTS IN THE WAR-ATROCITIES OF INDIAN WARFARE-COST TO INDIANS AND SETTLERS.
"And I have seen his brow, The forehead of my upright one, and just, Trod by the hoof of battle to the dust. ** * * * * Ay, my own boy! thy sire Is with the sleepers of the valley cast. And the proud glory of my life hath past, With his high glance of fire. Woe! that the linden and the vine should bloom And a just man be gathered to the tomb!" -Nathaniel P. Willis, The Soldier's Widow.
In 1520, the Spanish carried away large numbers of the inhabitants from the islands of the West Indies and the Carolinas, and sold them for slaves ; com- mitting outrages, outranking in studied and fiendish cruelty anything ever charged to American Indians.
De Soto came with bloodhounds to run down, and handcuffs, shackles and chains to bind, American Indians it was his purpose to enslave. It is not too much to say that Christian monarchs encouraged exploration in the search of new worlds, and to exploit and to hold as vassals or slaves the conquered people. From Africa, 40,000,000 people were stolen, kidnapped or purchased from warring tribes, before the slave trade was abolished and the tide of public sentiment turned in humanity's favor.
In the Carolinas, Indians made captive in their raids upon the setlements, or in the punitive expeditions sent against them because of such raids, were enslaved under authority of laws enacted for the protection of the settlements, until the Indian and negro slaves outnumbered the inhabitants and became a menace.
The first outbreak in Virginia and the first encounter in New England were based on the terror and dread of the white men from previous outrages com- mitted in Florida and on the Labrador Coast.
In the Virginia uprising, March 22, 1622, the Indians partook of food in the morning from the tables of colonists whom they intended to slaughter at noon, and in the first surprise 347 colonists were killed, and in the warfare which
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LITTLE CROW Leader of the Indian revolt and war of 1862
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followed the eighty plantations in Virginia were reduced to eight, Jamestown and two others escaping through warning given by a Christian Indian, and the 4,000 settlers were reduced to 2,000, while the Indian tribes engaged were nearly destroyed. The colonists were restrained by law from making peace on any terms, and each year sent three expeditions against them to prevent them from planting crops in the spring, or harvesting should any be raised, and to destroy their homes should any be rebuilt. In 1636 a peace was arranged, but not of long duration.
April 18, 1644, Opechancanough, brother and successor of Powhatan, respon- sible for the massacre of 1622, again attacked the Virginia colonists, killing 300 in a few hours, when, realizing their own helpless condition, they fled. Opechan- canough, made captive, was treacherously shot by his guard, whose family had suffered in the uprising, and dying of his wounds the Powhatan confederacy was ended, and now no tongue speaks the dialect of the tribe of Powhatan.
Then came the war of extermination by the Pequots, a powerful tribe of 4,000 warriors in the Connecticut Valley, in 1637, and then the King Philip's War of the Plymouth Colony, inaugurated July 20, 1675, and the Swamp fight of the following autumn, all of which are treated in detail in other parts of this volume. In 1621 the servants of a Dutch director murdered a Raritan war- rior on the west shore of the Hudson near Staten Island. August 28, 1641, a nephew of the murdered warrior of the Raritans, to avenge the death of his uncle twenty years before, killed an old man of the Dutch Colony. In January, 1642, steps were taken toward punishing the Raritans for the later murder. The first demand for the offender was refused, the Indians holding that he did no wrong in avenging the death of his uncle, but they finally agreed to the surrender. While these negotiations were pending, a Hackensack Indian was made drunk and was beaten and robbed, and to avenge his wrongs killed two of the Dutch Colony.
The Hackensacks had been attacked by the Mohawks and fled to the Dutch Colony for protection. Pity was shown them and they were supplied with food and finally scattered, some going to the Raritans. Some of the Dutch decided that then was the time to avenge the three murders and other alleged outrages, and attacked them March 1, 1642, under the leadership of an "ex-West India convict," killing eighty men, women and children. Babes were snatched from the care of mothers and thrown into the river, and when the mothers jumped into the stream to rescue them they were prevented from landing.
Eleven petty tribes joined the outraged tribes, followed later by eight other tribes, and a long and disastrous war resulted. The homes of the colonists were burned, their animals slaughtered, the men killed and the women and children made captive; in this displaying a larger degree of humanity than the Dutch aggressors, who had found profit in selling them fire-arms and teaching their use. The attack was made after the tribe had offered to surrender the murderer and pay a suitable indemnity.
In the massacre at Fort William Henry in July, 1757, the English defenders had surrendered after a six days' siege, and were marching out unarmed,- accompanied by refugees returning to the British lines or their homes under the terms of their surrender,-assured of full protection, when about a mile from the fort the Indian allies, promised opportunity for plunder as the price of
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co-operation, fell upon them and slaughtered several hundred men, women and children before the French were able to restrain them.
The Wyoming massacre, near Wilkesbarre, Pa., occurred July 3, 1778. The attack upon Fort Forty where about 400 old men, women, and children had gathered, mainly for refuge, was made by 400 British and Tories and 700 Indians. About 200 of the defenders were killed,-massacred principally by the Indians under every circumstance usually accompanying Indian warfare. Queen Esther, a half-blood, to avenge the death of her son, tomahawked fourteen wounded. On the 5th the fort surrendered, when the Indians, throwing off all restraint, swept through the Wyoming Valley, burning, torturing and killing. The total number killed is conservatively placed at three hundred.
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