USA > North Dakota > Early history of North Dakota: essential outlines of American history > Part 3
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Gen. Francis Marion and his men were brought up in this school of warfare. Marion was with Governor Nicholson in his expedition of 1759, and a captain with Colonel Grant in 1761. When Lord Charles Cornwallis adopted the same methods to destroy the patriots in the Revolutionary war that Amherst had ordered for Indian warfare, Marion starting with a force of sixteen men, soon accumulated an army which drove the British troops out of the Carolinas. They had burned the homes of the patriots, destroyed their crops, leaving women and children without food or shelter, reducing many from affluence to abject poverty, but with unbroken spirit; and yet Marion, whose heart went out to the Indians in the bloody wars that had been made upon them, refused to allow his men to retaliate.
THE CREEKS OR SEMINOLES
The Creeks occupied Florida and all that portion of Georgia and Alabama extending from the Atlantic to the highlands. They came in contact with the early explorers and De Soto wintered among the Appalachees, one of their tribes, in 1539-40. The latter became strong friends of the Spanish, who established missions among them and they had become christianized, and industrious, and disposed to peace when, through attacks from the wild tribes, they became involved with the Carolina settlers, and in 1708 Governor James Moore of South Carolina led a strong expedition against them, destroying their villages, their missions, fields and orange groves. Another expedition the next year completed the work of destruction in which the English were aided by other Creek tribes.
The home of the Apalachees was in the region about Tallahassee. They numbered from six thousand to eight thousand people. Governor Moore's expe- dition carried away 1,000 as slaves; others fled to friendly tribes, and what remained sought refuge with the French at Mobile.
The Creeks were allies of the English in the wars of the Revolution and 1812, and allies generally of the Carolina settlers in their warfare against other Indian tribes. In 1812, they were visited by Tecumseh and his brother, the
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prophet, and urged to make war on the whites, and occasional local outbreaks followed.
THE FORT MIMS MASSACRE
Early in 1813, becoming alarmed at the threatening attitude of the Indians, 550 men, women and children-white, Indian, mixed bloods and negro slaves- assembled at the plantation of Samuel Mims, near the confluence of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, and built a palisaded fort where they became overconfident of their security, as the spring and early summer had passed without manifesta- tions of hostility ; but on August 30, 1813, as the dinner bell sounded at noon, 1,000 savages who had been concealed in a nearby ravine, rushed to the fort with terrifying yells and effected an entrance before the gates could be closed.
The well-organized settlers made strong resistance as the battle raged within that small inclosure, from noon until 5 P. M., but all fell except twelve who cut their way through and escaped, and the negroes who were saved for slaves. Not a white woman or child escaped. Four hundred of the inmates lay dead when the battle closed, and about an equal number of Creek warriors fell in the furious fighting.
The massacre aroused the whites of the southwest and Maj .- Gen. Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States, who was born in North Carolina, and a Revolutionary soldier at the age of fourteen, bred in an atmosphere of border warfare, and educated in its bitter school, was sent to punish the Indians. The war was soon over, the Indians paying dearly for their bloody work.
THE FIRST SEMINOLE WAR
In the spring of 1817 the Creeks, who had then become known as Seminoles, again began a war on the whites which through the rough and vigorous cam- paigning of General Jackson resulted in the cession of Florida to the United States by Spain in 1819.
THE SECOND SEMINOLE WAR
This war, commencing in 1835, and lasting until 1842, was begun for the purpose of forcibly removing the Indians from lands which they had ceded to the United States and their removal to other lands. The cost in money was nearly seventy million dollars; 61,000 soldiers were employed and the losses, principally from disease, never fully ascertained, were frightful, but it gave the United States a trained nucleus for the army of occupation in Mexico, which so quickly followed and added lustre to American arms, which the Seminole wars failed to bring.
CONFLICTS DUE TO THE FUR TRADE
The early history and conflicts in all the colonies arose from the fur trade, as between the New York people and the five nations of Indians in Central New York, also between the Dutch and English and the French and English. It led
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the Russians down our western coast and to contest there till the gold discovery overcame it. The fur trade was the cause of the Oregon question in later years. It was the universal impulse and cause of struggle.
THE BUFFALO AND BEAVER
It is estimated that in 1787 there were ninety millions of buffalo in the present area of the United States proper. There were none north of the St. Lawrence or northeast of the great lakes, but the abundance continued northward from the great plains far into Canada. Indeed the vast herds swarmed from the plains nearer the Mississippi westward to the Rocky Mountains; the abundance being greatest in our territorial days and to preserve the great hunting grounds from the Missouri to the Big Horn region and from the Bear Paw Mountains, down to and beyond the Arkansas was the cause of the hostility and frequent Indian uprisings, including the Sitting Bull wars.
The wealth springing from the fur trade was enormous. The great wealth of the times was concentrated from that source. This trade extended clear across the continent to the Pacific, and led to the successive discoveries of gold, but did not lead settlement like the fur trade which founded the towns and trading posts.
We are surprised at the numbers of the buffalo, but the beavers were found in every state in the Union, and are yet to a limited extent. No other wild or fur bearing animal was so universal. A considerable fur trade is yet carried on in the older northwestern and western states.
In 1890 to 1895, North Dakota trappers had nearly extinguished the beaver of that whole area. Desiring to restore them, a wise Legislature enacted a law for their preservation, with a heavy penalty attached. The result was satisfac- tory. United States surveyors in remote regions found thriving colonies of those remarkable rodents in 1898, repopulating many choice streams in happy security.
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Andrew Jackson
Martin Van Buren
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William H. Harrison
John Tyler
James K. Polk
Zachary Taylor
PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1829 TO 1849
CHAPTER II
OCCUPIED FOR INDIAN TRADE
THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY-RUPERT'S LAND-THE NORTH-WEST AND X. Y. COM- PANIES-ALEXANDER HENRY'S RED RIVER BRIGADE-THE EMBARKATION-THE INDIAN CONTINGENT- THE INDIAN HUNTING GROUNDS, ABOUNDING IN BEARS, BEAVERS AND BUFFALO TERRORIZED BY THE SIOUX-THE PARK RIVER POST- STORY OF THE BRITISH FLAG-THE VICIOUS ELEMENT OF LIQUOR-SACRIFICE AND THANKSGIVING AN ATTEMPT AT BRIBERY-HUNTERS AND THE SPOILS-CON- TRACTS WITH THE LORDS OF THE FORESTS-EARLY TRADING POSTS- PEMBINA POST ESTABLISHED.
"For mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears along Round the earth's electric circle, the swift flash of right or wrong, Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity's vast frame, Through its ocean-sundered fibres, feels the gush of joy or shame- In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal claim." -James Russell Lowell.
THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY-RUPERT'S LAND
In 1609 Henry Hudson, a navigator of English birth, sailing under the flag of the Dutch West Indies, ascended the stream now known as Hudson River, discovered by Giovanni de Verrazano in 1524. The next year he explored Hud- son Bay, and perished on the voyage. In 1667, the Duke of York and Prince Rupert formed a company in England for the exploration of Hudson Bay with a view to trade, and two vessels were dispatched for the purpose; one of them the Nonsuch Ketch, commanded by Capt. Zachariah Gillam of Boston, reach- ing Hudson Bay in September of the following year. The winter was spent in that region at Fort Charles. They returned to Boston, and thence to London in 1669, and proceeded to organize the Hudson's Bay Company, which was char- tered by Charles II, May 2, 1670, the king himself, his brother the Duke of York, and his nephew Prince Rupert, leading a long list of distinguished stockholders. They were granted exclusive privileges on Hudson Bay and along the streams flowing into the bay and their tributaries, embracing a vast region which came to be known as Rupert's Land, including the Red River country and the streams tributary to the Red River, until restricted by the location of the international boundary after the Revolutionary war.
The Hudson's Bay Company had full power to own, occupy, govern, sell and convey, and were authorized to maintain armies and levy war, if necessary for defense, but for more than one hundred years they had been content to con- Vol. 1-2
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fine their attention to the shores of Hudson Bay, and to trade with the Indians visiting their factories, as their trading posts on the bay were called. But the French traders from Montreal were occupying portions of their country, and were pushing on beyond them, while strong opposition had arisen in England, which demanded the annulment of their charter, or at least an equal opportunity for trade. In 1797, the company extended their trade to North Dakota points on the Red River, and to the Missouri River and other places west and north. They continued to own, occupy and govern Rupert's Land until 1869, when they sold their possessory rights to Great Britain, and in 1870 Rupert's Land became an independent province in the Dominion of Canada, known as Manitoba.
The Hudson's Bay Company, however, continued in business as a commer- cial organization, in direct competition with which James J. Hill built and operated a fleet of steamboats and flatboats to such advantage that they willingly formed a combination with him to control the transportation business of the Red River. They still occupy and govern leased territory in the British posses- sions. The building by Mr. Hill of his first steamboat was the initial venture in the Canadian Northwest of the man who died in St. Paul on May 29, 1916, leaving a vast estate, and a reputation unsurpassed in the world of commerce and finance.
THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY ORGANIZED
In 1783 the rival Montreal traders consolidated under the name of the "North- West Company," and pushed its trade into new and hitherto unexplored regions, Sir Alexander Mackenzie leaving on his first expedition on behalf of this com- pany in 1789, exploring the Mackenzie River and making other important dis- coveries, points on the upper Mississippi having been occupied.
The Hudson's Bay Company had greater resources and were pushing their explorations with much vigor. In 1801 another company was organized, with which Sir Alexander Mackenzie became interested on his return from Europe, known as the "X. Y. Company," these initials being adopted for marking their goods, in order to distinguish them from the "H. B." of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany and the "N. W." of the North-West Company. In selecting this title they chose the letters of the alphabet immediately following the "W" of the North- West Company, to let them know they were right after them, and intended to make their opposition merciless.
ALEXANDER HENRY'S RED RIVER BRIGADE
In the year 1800 Alexander Henry, a nephew of Alexander Henry mentioned in connection with the early fur trade on Lake Superior, but known in history as Alexander Henry, Jr., was the leader of an expedition which set out from Lake Superior with Turtle River for its objective point. It was Henry's inten- tion to establish his headquarters on that stream for use while in charge of the Red River District to which he had recently been assigned by the North-West Company. His party bore the title of "Henry's Red River Brigade."
The manuscript journals of Alexander Henry and David Thompson, 1799- 1814, edited by Dr. Elliot Coues, were published by Francis P. Harper, New
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York, 1897. Doctor Coues was a surgeon in the United States army and the medical officer on the boundary survey of 1872-1876, and was familiar with much of the country of which Thompson and Henry wrote. Thompson, learned in mathematics and astronomy, was in charge of the location of the boundary line on behalf of the North-West Company of which he was the geographer.
THE EMBARKATION
After a portage of nine miles from Lake Superior to a point on Pigeon River, Alexander Henry and his party left for the mouth of the Assiniboine, on the Red River, July 19, 1800, where they arrived on the 17th day of August.
On starting from Lake Superior the men were each given a two-gallon keg of liquor, and on the fifth day they reached the height of land where they "finished their small kegs and fight many a battle."-Henry's Journal.
At the first stop three leading Indians accompanying the expedition were each given various articles of merchandise, including a scarlet-faced coat and hat, a red, round feather, a white linen shirt, a pair of leggings, a breech clout, a flag, a fathom of tobacco, and a nine-gallon keg of mixed liquors-two gallons of alcohol to nine gallons of water being the usual mixture. After giving them their presents, Henry made a formal address to the Indians, encouraging them to be good and follow him to Turtle River, and not to be afraid of the Sioux, but just as he was giving them their farewell glass, before their return to their tents to enjoy their liquor, some of the women reported that they had heard several shots fired in the meadow. A council was immediately held. Henry ordered them to leave their liquor with him and put off their drinking until the next day, but they had tasted the liquor and must drink, even at the risk of their lives. They requested Henry to order his men to mount guard during the night.
Tobacco, beads and wampum, the shell currency of the early fur trade, were measured by the fathom. Six feet of the cured and twisted tobacco plants, cut in suitable lengths, was called one fathom and had a value equal to one beaver skin. Beads in number having a current value of 60 pence were called one fathom; six strings of wampum-one foot in length-whether in bunch, bundle or belt, or in the form of loose shells sufficient to make that much were called a fathom .* Canoes were also sold by the fathom, according to their length.
Having reached the Assiniboine August 17th, on the 18th the party divided, and that portion intended for the Red River embarked on the 20th. There were four canoes in this party, carrying a total of twenty-one persons. Two horses were led along the shore, and Henry claimed that these were the first introduced into the Red River Valley by the whites. Such an assemblage of canoes was called a "brigade," and the master, standing between the proprietors and the men, was called the "bourgeois."
Each canoe was loaded with twenty-six packages of merchandise, or an equiv- alent in baggage, each package weighing 90 pounds. The packages were so
* See "Exchange, Commerce and Wampum Hand Book, American Indians," "Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 30."
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arranged for convenience in transportation. There were many portages on the route from Lake Superior, ranging in length from short distances to 3,000 feet, over which both canoes and goods were packed, each man carrying from 90 to 180 pounds, the bowman and the helmsman carrying the canoe.
In the first canoe there were-First, Alexander Henry, the bourgeois ; second, Jacques Barbe, voyageur, conductor or bowman; third, Etienne Charbonneau, voyageur, steerer ; fourth, Joseph Dubois, voyageur, steerer; fifth, Angus McDon- ald, voyageur, midman; sixth, Antoine Lafrance, voyageur midman; seventh, Pierre Bonga, a negro servant of Mr. Henry.
Second canoe-Eighth, Michael Langlois (sometimes mentioned as Coloret), clerk, with his wife and daughter; ninth, André Lagasse (sometimes mentioned as Lagace or La Gasser), voyageur, conductor, with his wife; tenth, Joachim Daisville (sometimes mentioned as Danville and once as Rainville in transcrib- ing Henry's Journal), voyageur, steerer ; eleventh, André Beauchemin, voyageur, midman; twelfth, Jean Baptiste Benoit, voyageur, midman.
Third canoe-Thirteenth, Jean Baptiste Demerais, interpreter, wife and two children; fourteenth, Jean Baptiste Larocque, St., voyageur, conductor; fif- teenth, Jean Baptiste Larocque, Jr., voyageur, steerer; sixteenth, Etienne Roy, voyageur, midman ; seventeenth, Francois Rogers, Sr., voyageur, midman.
Fourth canoe-Eighteenth, Joseph Masson (or Maceon), voyageur, con- ductor, wife and child; nineteenth, Charles Bellegarde, voyageur, steerer; twen- tieth, Joseph Hamel, voyageur, midman ; twenty-first, Nicholas Pouliotte, voyageur, midman.
THE INDIAN CONTINGENT
There were forty-five Indian canoes, also called a brigade, loaded with Indians and their families, who accompanied Mr. Henry for the purpose of engaging in hunting and trapping, under an agreement to receive goods on credit to be paid for from the proceeds of the chase.
Flatmouth, a noted Indian mentioned in connection with the explorations of Lieut. Z. M. Pike, was among the Indians, also, Maymiutch, Charlo, Corbeau, Short Arms, and Buffalo. They were mainly Chippewas, usually called "Salteurs" by Mr. Henry, and a small contingent of Ottawas.
September 2, 1800, the brigade divided; a portion remaining for the winter near where Morris, Manitoba, is situated, the others, viz., Henry, Demerais, Bellegarde, Daisville, Rogers, Benoit, the two Larocques, Beauchemin, Lafrance, Barbe, Charbonneau, McDonald and Bonga, going on to Park River.
THE HUNTING GROUNDS-BEARS, BEAVER, BUFFALO, DEER AND OTHER GAME
The large number of bears on Red River and its tributaries, and reported to be on the Sheyenne River and Devils Lake, was a remarkable feature. The ter- ritory contiguous to Devils Lake and the Sheyenne was disputed ground, where it was dangerous for either the Sioux or Chippewa to hunt, and became the favorite breeding place for the bears; there they were seldom molested. As the party advanced up the Red River, the Indians killed four otter and three bears. They complained that Henry's men "made so much noise" that they could not kill bears and other large game.
SEVEN BEARS AT THE RIVER
From painting by E. W. Deming, illustrating an incident mentioned by Captain Henry, 1801.
THE WOUNDED BEAR
From painting by E. W. Deming, illustrating an incident mentioned by Captain Henry, 1801
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September 6th the Indians killed four bears and eight deer. While they were pitching their temporary camp, a bear came to the river to drink. Henry shot him, but he ran off, and was found sitting under a brush heap, grumbling and licking his wounds. Another shot killed him. The next day seven bears were noticed drinking from the river at the same time. Red deer were whistling in every direction, and a wolf came near and was killed. The men killed a stur- geon with an axe.
They arrived at Park River September 8, 1800, about 2 P. M., and it being plain that the Indians would go no farther up the river, it was determined to build a post at that point.
TERRORIZED BY THE SIOUX
The Sioux were the terror of all the neighboring tribes, and the enemy of all. They wandered over the prairies in large bodies and in small, attacking when they thought it safe, lying in wait in ravines or timber, to attack women or children, as they came for water, berries or roots. They lingered about the camps in the hope of securing scalps, when they would return to their home as "big Indians," and bask in the sunshine of admiration.
For these reasons, there was an ever-present feeling of dread of the Sioux, not only among the Chippewa, but also among the Mandans, Gros Ventres (Hidatsa) and Arikaras, which led to like raids and like outrages by them against the Sioux.
The Cheyennes formerly occupied the Sheyenne River country. They were friendly to both the Sioux and Chippewa but the latter distrusted them, and about 1740 fell upon them and destroyed their villages, and forced them to flee across the Missouri River, when they became allied to the Sioux. There- after, for many years, neither Sioux or Chippewa attempted to hunt in the Shey- enne or Devils Lake country, unless in sufficient force to defend themselves against any attack likely to be made upon them.
About the year 1780, the Chippewa went to York Factory on Hudson Bay for supplies, leaving their old men and women in camp near Lake Winnipeg. During their absence, the Sioux attacked their village and killed a great number of the old men, women and children. The place where this occurred is now known as Netley Creek.
Some years prior to 1800, a wintering trader of the name of Reaume. attempted to make peace between the Sioux and the Chippewa. The meeting was held on the Sheyenne. They at first appeared reconciled to each other, but the Sioux took guns and ammunition away from the Chippewa giving them in return bows and arrows; to some bows without arrows, and to some arrows without bows, and after the Chippewa dispersed on the plains, followed and killed many of them.
In the fall of 1805, there was a battle on the Crow Wing, between the Sioux and Chippewa in which the Sioux were defeated, and on December 29, 1807, an engagement took place between 30 lodges of Sioux and the Chippewa on the Crow Wing, in which the Sioux lost 20 lodges and a great many horses. On this date a battle was fought on Wild Rice River in which the Sioux were defeated.
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It required little more than the mention of the name Sioux to create a panic among Henry's Indians. At one time two boys were playing Sioux to frighten the other children. The Indians became alarmed; the warriors stripped to breech-clouts for war, and the women and children were hurried into the fort for safety. Henry's men were called to arms, and the appearance of some of them is described as ghastly; their lips contorted, eyes rolling and countenances pale as death. Any trifling circumstance was sufficient to inflame their imagina- · tions, for the moment at least-on one occasion the slamming of a door caused a sleepless night. But their fears were not always unfounded.
LOCATION OF TRADING POSTS
The choice of the trading posts was largely determined by the presence of beaver dams. Park River, Pembina, Tongue and Turtle rivers, were particu- larly desirable on account of the dams along those streams. The same was true of the Sheyenne and Knife rivers, and their tributaries, and other streams empty- ing into the Missouri River or its branches.
The number of beaver dams on Park River influenced Alexander Henry in his choice of it as a site for a trading post. There were beaver dams on almost every creek. These were necessary to the life of the beaver, which in the winter time fed on roots or shrubs to be found under the ice, and on the bark of trees which they were able to fell and haul to their lodges for use in con- structing and strengthening their dams, the bark being stripped for food as required.
DEATHS AMONG THE BEAVER
About 1805, an epidemic broke out among the beaver. John Tanner in his "Narrative" gives the following description of this calamity :
"Some kind of a distemper was prevailing among these animals, which destroyed them in great numbers. I found them dead and dying in the water, on the ice and on the land. Sometimes I found one that, having cut a tree half down, had died at its roots; sometimes one who had drawn a stick of timber- half way to his lodge, was lying dead by his burden. Many of them which I opened were red and bloody about the heart. Those in large rivers and running water suffered least. Almost all of those in ponds and stagnant water died."
September 8th, Henry's party camped at Park River, and Mr. Henry and Jean Baptiste Demerais went up the river about two miles, and saw two large harts, and killed one on which the fat was four inches thick.
The farther they went up the river the more numerous the bears and red deer became, and on the shore raccoon tracks were plentiful.
THE PARK RIVER POST
Park River, Mr. Henry states, was so named from the fact that the Assini- boine Indians made a park or pound there for buffalo, heading them in from all points, as they became alarmed from any cause, and then slaughtering the number desired.
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The spot selected for the fort on September 9, 1800, was on the west side of Park River, about three-quarters of a mile from the mouth. The buildings con- sisted of a stockade, dwelling house, storehouse and shop, all made of oak, for which 3,114 pieces of timber were used. They were completed on the 20th of September, 1800, and a flagstaff 55 feet high was erected on the 28th. The British Flag, the "First Union Jack," a red flag, with the crosses of St. George of England and St. Andrew of Scotland, presumably the first of any kind to float in North Dakota, was raised every Sunday.
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