USA > North Dakota > Early history of North Dakota: essential outlines of American history > Part 4
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THE EVOLUTION OF TIIE BRITISHI FLAG-ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY
The first historic mention of an ensign is the cross raised on a banner as the emblem and sign of Christianity. This in the fourth century displaced the monogram of Christ used by the earlier Christians, and was finally adopted as the insignia of the Church of Rome and used by Pope Urban II during the first crusade to indicate the special cause in which his armies were engaged; the several nationalities being known by the form and color of the cross, which was borne not only on their banners but on helmet, shoulder, breast and back. Thus Italy bore the cross of blue; Spain, red; France, white; Germany, black; Eng- land, yellow, and Scotland, the white saltire (diagonal cross) of St. Andrew, and the crosses were arbitrarily retained after the crusades as a distinction of nation- ality, superseded in the course of time by other devices designed by popular choice or royal decree.
In the third crusade, the banner of Richard I (Cœur de Lion) King of Eng- land, was a white Latin cross, and remained the English national ensign until appropriated by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, as a badge of a faction, A. D. 1265, and as early as the reign of Edward III in the fourteenth century, the red cross of St. George on a white ground was adopted as the national banner and the army badge.
Scotland retained her cross of St. Andrew, a white saltire, on a blue ground, from the time of the crusades. The apostle Andrew, a brother of Peter, was the first disciple chosen by Christ. He is the patron saint of Scotland, and Russia has a Knighthood order of St. Andrew, the highest order in rank of that realm. When in 1603, James VI of Scotland was crowned James I of England, and the Scots claimed precedence for their cross of St. Andrew over the cross of St. George, the king, to preserve the peace, on the 12th of April, 1606, com- manded all subjects of Great Britain travelling by sea to bear at the mast head the red cross of St. George and the white cross of St. Andrew united according to a design made by his heralds. This flag was called the "king's colors." At the same time all vessels belonging to South Britain, or England, might wear the cross of St. George, and all vessels belonging to North Britain, or Scotland, might wear the cross of St. Andrew, as had been their custom. All vessels were forbidden to carry any other flag at their peril.
The "king's colors" was the "First Union Jack," and contained the blazonry of the rival ensigns of England and Scotland, united by an earlier process than that of quartering, in which the cross and the saltire were blended in a single subject. This was effected by surrounding the cross of St. George with a
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narrow border, or fimbriation, of white, to represent its white field upon the banner of St. Andrew.
The voyages of the most celebrated English navigators were made under the cross of St. George, but Jamestown, Plymouth, Salem and Boston, were settled under the "king's colors;" many English vessels carrying the cross of St. George according to royal permission. Under the cross of St. George two fleets, num- bering in all twenty-eight ships, and carrying 1,700 passengers, sailed from Eng- land, in 1630, and populated eight plantations in Massachusetts Bay Colony, under the first charter, in which train bands were formed who bore this cross as an ensign.
During the Civil war in England in 1641, the standard of Charles I was a large blood-red streamer, bearing the royal arms quartered, with a hand pointing to a crown above, and a motto, "give Caesar his due." The badge of the royal troops was red; that of the Parliamentary troops orange, the Scotch blue. The flag in general use during the Commonwealth was blue, with the white canton and cross of St. George, and a harp of Ireland in the field. This was also the admiral's flag. One of the banners was quartered with those of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The first and fourth quarters, white with the red cross of St. George for England and Wales; the second, blue with the white saltire for Scotland; the third, a harp with a golden frame and silver strings on a blue ground for Ireland.
After the death of Charles I, the new council of state on the 22d of Feb- ruary, 1648, restored the red cross as the flag of the navy. In the British colonies the same flag was retained, except in Massachusetts Bay, where all flags had been laid aside except upon Castle Island in Boston harbor where the colors called the king's arms were displayed. In 1651, Parliament ordered the restoration of the old standard of St. George as the colors of England, and they were advanced by order of the General Court on all necessary occasions at Castle Island.
In 1664, two years after the restoration, Charles II sent a fleet of four ships, carrying ninety guns, 400 troops and four commissioners, to New England, where they obtained 200 recruits, and the aid required, and sailed for New Amsterdam bent on conquest, and with further volunteer forces from Connecticut and Long . Island achieved their purpose, changed the name to New York in honor of James, the Duke of York, the king's brother-afterward James II-and raised the cross of St. George over the Dutch tri-color. The British colonies in America were then flying the cross of St. George from Labrador to Florida.
In February, 1697, six Union flags, the revival of the "king's colors," were shipped to New York, in response to an application for flags for "His Majesty's Fort."
After this there were slight variations, such as a crimson flag with the cross of St. George and a tree cantoned in the upper staff quarter, and a blue flag with the same cross and a globe instead of the tree, until March I, 1707, when the flag of the new nation of "Great Britain" in the reign of Queen Anne, was ordered by Parliament to be composed of the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, the old "king's colors"-the "First Union Jack"-joined on a crimson banner, and that the flag of the,admiral, who carried a red flag, should be disused, and the "First Union Jack" substituted therefor. This was declared to be the
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"ensign armorial of the United Kingdom of Great Britain," and was the national flag for nearly a century under which the most brilliant naval battles were fought. Under its folds the power of France was driven from the East Indies, and suc- cessive conquests of her strongholds in North America led up to the Heights of Abraham, where it triumphed at Quebec.
In the flag which the American colonies raised against Great Britain in 1775, were the "king's colors" of the British flag and the stripes, red and white, of the flag of the East India Company, and this was used until the adoption of the stars and stripes, June 14, 1777.
On November 25, 1783, when the British sailed out of the harbor on the evacuation of New York, the cross was lost to view as an emblem of national authority, with two exceptions, viz., the temporary occupation of the British in the War of 1812, and a battle flag of the Southern Confederacy of 1861-'65, described in an address by Col. William O. Hart of Louisiana, November 7, 1913, as designed by Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard; a red square, with the St. Andrew cross of blue with thirteen white stars, one in the center, and three on each arm of the cross: "This flag," said Colonel Hart, "is frequently made oblong, but there is no warrant therefor, and such copies are not correct repre- sentations of the original battle flag." When states seceded the emblems of their former fealty to the Union remained fixed stars on the national ensign.
From the first day of January, 1801, the "Second Union Jack," the "Union Jack" of today, superseded the flag of King James and Queen Anne. In con- sequence of the legislative union, its blazonry must be incorporated with that of Ireland to comprehend the three crosses-St. George, St. Andrew and St. Patrick-in a single device formed by the combination of a cross and two saltires. As before, the blue field of St. Andrew forms the field, then the two diagonal crosses, the one white and the other red. are formed into a single com- pound saltire of the two tinctures alternating, the white having precedence. A narrow edging of white is next added to each red side of this new figure, to represent the white field of St. Patrick, as the narrow edging of white about the red cross represented the white field of St. George ; and, finally, the red cross of St. George fimbriated with white as in the "First Union Jack," is charged over all. In this device the broad diagonal white members represent the silver saltire of St. Andrew; the red diagonal members, the saltire gules (red) of St. Patrick, and the narrow diagonal white lines are added, in order to place the saltire gules on a field argent (silver). It will also be observed that the diagonal red and the broad diagonal white members represent the two saltires of St. Andrew and St. Patrick in combination, and that the fimbriated red cross in front gives prominence to the cross of St. George.
The Royal Standard was adopted January 4, 1801, on the union of Ireland with Great Britain. The quarters were representative of the three countries : England, three couchant lions on a red background in the first and fourth quar- ters : Scotland, a rampant lion, in the second quarter, taken from the coat-of- arms of James VI, and Ireland, a golden harp on a green background in the third quarter.
Since 1864, the white ensign alone remains the naval flag of Great Britain, the blue ensign the mark of the Royal Naval Reserve, and the red of the mer- chant service.
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LIFE AT THE POST
At 4 o'clock of the day the choice of site was made at Park River, a herd of buffalo came down to drink within a few rods of the camp. At the southward there were herds of them as far as the eye could see, and during the night the camp was alarmed by a large herd at the river. From all directions came the bellowing of the buffalo and the whistling of the deer. The next day a band of deer, followed soon after by four bears, crossed the river, and a day later Mr. Henry, climbing to the top of a tall oak, saw buffalo and deer on all sides.
A stage had been constructed at the camp, and the Indians loaded it with choice meats and bears' fat. The men were employed cutting up and melting bears' fat, which was poured into wooden troughs and sacks, made of deer skins.
Bears made prodigious ravages in the brush and willows. The plum trees were torn to pieces, and every tree that bore fruit shared the same fate. The tops of the oaks were also very roughly handled, broken and torn down to get acorns.
Grizzly bears were killed and many raccoons taken during the fall. The great abundance of both red and fallow deer is frequently mentioned. The men are reported as taking many wolves and some fishers. The female wolves enticed the dogs from the fort, and when they came back they were horribly chewed up by their wild cousins. The coons had two inches of fat on their backs. The hunters came in from Grand Forks with thirty beavers. The stur- geon continued to jump day and night and many were taken in nets extended across the river-sometimes upwards of 100 a day, weighing from 30 to 150 pounds each.
September 20, 1800, the day the fort was finished, the Indians having gone a few miles above Park River, reported that they had killed forty bears, some red deer, moose and a few beavers. The Indian lad at the fort killed two bears.
THE VICIOUS ELEMENT OF LIQUOR
At this time intoxicating liquor was being used by the rival traders as a leading element to attract trade, and was distributed among the Indians by the keg, jug or bottle, to any who might apply-often without price-and some- times used to incite the Indians to plunder, and in some instances to murder those who interfered by successful competition. The Indians had become demoralized and degenerated to an extent almost beyond belief. As one writer described the situation : "Indians were warring with Indians, traders with traders. clerks with clerks, trappers with trappers, voyageurs with voyageurs."
While the post was being built at Park River, the Indians were given a keg of rum "to encourage them to pay their debts." and supposing the Indian might now drink in safety, on September 18th, Mr. Henry began to trade rum, and they were soon drunk, men and women, and some of the children.
On September 21st, the Indians were sent nine gallons of mixed liquor, and the following day paid their debts with pelts caught on their hunt, and received more liquor. with the usual result. Henry took the children into the fort. for
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HUNTING THE GRIZZLY BEAR
From a painting by Charles Bodmer from "Travels to the Interior of North America in 1832-3-4," by Maximilian, Prince of Wied, 1843.
HERDS OF BISON AND ELK ON THE UPPER MISSOURI
From a painting by Charles Bodmer from "Travels to the Interior of North America in 1832-3-4." by Maximilian, Prince of Wied, 1843.
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their safety, and about midnight one of the Indians tried to chop his way through the gate to get more liquor. On September 28th, when the flagstaff was raised at the fort, the men were given two gallons of alcohol and some tobacco and flour "for merry-making."
SACRIFICE AND THANKSGIVING
October 17th, the Indians having killed a grizzly bear, thereby taking the life of an uncommon animal, in order to properly render thanks to Manitou and appease the spirit of the bear, it was thought necessary to give a feast, and liquor was believed to be the most effective agent in gaining the favor of Manitou and satisfying the bear's ghost. They secured the liquor and a quarter of a yard of red cloth for a sacrifice.
AN ATTEMPT AT BRIBERY
After all, human passion unrestrained is about the same among all men, and impulses are liable to take the same direction.
October 25, 1800, Henry's hunter reported that the leading Indians wanted him to stop hunting so that Henry would be obliged to pay a higher price for meat, whereupon the bourgeois ordered that thereafter the Indians should receive no liquor excepting in exchange for meat. This created consternation among the Indians disposed to make trouble. They attempted to bribe the hunter by giving him a drum trimmed with all of the symbols of the Wabbano medicine, and a number of different articles of superior value and high consideration among the Indians, such as rarely fail to bring satisfactory results when given to accomplish some particular object, but they were not sufficient to sway the hunter from his loyalty to his employer.
On the retirement of the Indians, Henry treated his people to a gallon of alcohol and a few pounds of sugar, in order that they might make a feast after their arduous labor in establishing and building the Park River Post.
"October 31st, Indians drinking quietly.
"November 2d. Gave the Indians liquor after their successful hunt.
"November 4th. Gave the Indians a nine-gallon keg of liquor on their promise to pay their debts on their return from the hunt."
Every opportunity was seized for an occasion to encourage the use of intox- icating liquor for the reason that the trader's greatest profit was in its sale, and gave him an advantage over the Indians, who, by its use became incapable of protecting their interests. January 1, 1801, the new year was ushered in by several volleys which alarmed a camp of Indians near by. The men came run- ning in armed, having ordered the women to hide themselves. But they were agreeably received and got a share of "what was going"-some shrub and cakes. Every man, woman and child was soon at the fort ; all was bustle and confusion. Henry gave his men some high wine (alcohol), flour and sugar; "the Indians purchased liquor, and by sunrise every soul of them was raving drunk, even the children." On the 19th there was another drinking match among the Indians. An Indian shot his wife with an arrow through her body and her supposed lover through his arm.
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HUNTERS AND THE SPOILS
A very successful winter was spent at Park River. Henry took at his station, 643 beaver skins, 125 black bear, 23 brown bear, 2 grizzly bear, 83 wolf, 102 red fox, 7 kitt, 178 fisher, 96 otter, 62 marten and 97 mink.
Michael Langlois, clerk on the Red River Brigade, who remained in charge of the party at Morris during the winter of 1800-'01, had also a station at Hair Hills (Pembina Mountains) that winter. The returns showed 832 beaver skins, 52 black bear, 20 brown bear, 4 grizzly bear, III wolf, 82 red fox, 9 kitt, 37 raccoon, 108 fisher, 60 otter, 26 marten, 68 mink and various other skins, bags of pemmican, kegs of grease and bales of meat.
André Lagasse, "a voyageur, conductor," in the Red River Brigade was sent from Morris to trade with the Indians in the Pembina Mountains the winter of 1800-'01. With him went Joseph Dubois, "voyageur, steerer or helmsman," and later they were succeeded by Joseph Hamel, "voyageur and midman" in the Red River Brigade.
Nicholas Rubrette and Francois Sint were employees of Henry in 1800 and later.
CONTRACTS WITH THE "LORDS OF THE FORESTS"
Contracts were made with the Indians by Mr. Henry for the season. For an agreement to procure sixty beaver skins they were allowed credit to the extent of twenty skins. Thread and other necessary little things were supplied gratis. On returning from their hunt, if they paid their debts their credit was renewed to the same extent as before. All transactions with the Indians of those times were based on beaver skin values.
Articles given gratis to the Indians who took credit, were one scalper, two folders and four flints each to the men, and to the women two awls, two needles, one skein of thread, one fire steel, a little vermilion, and a half a fathom of tobacco.
LITTI.E CRANE, THE HUNTER
Little Crane, a Chippewa member of Henry's Indian Brigade, on September 12, 1800, while they were building the fort at Park River, was appointed "hunter" to receive for the season the value of sixty beaver skins and to be furnished with gun and ammunition, and clothing for himself and wife.
CROOKED LEGS
September 24-26, 1800, inclusive, Little Crane hunted with Crooked Legs, Crow (Corbeau) and Charlo. The hunter killed a bear and a deer. Crooked Legs killed a bear, and they, with Corbeau and Charlo. returned to the post, each with a good pack of beaver skins. They found plenty of beavers, and only killed what they could carry.
While celebrating at Park River, Crooked Legs stabbed his young wife, after having been beaten by her, wounding her so severely that there was little hope
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for her recovery. In the demonstration against him which resulted, his own son joined, all being as it is written, "blind drunk," with Crooked Legs sitting in his tent singing, and saying he was not afraid to die. But Mr. Henry opportunely interfered, and Crooked Legs was forgiven by every one but his wife. On this occasion, it is said that the Indians kept up the carousal until there was a rumor that the Sioux were coming, when they ceased drinking. To his credit it is recorded, that when Crooked Legs realized that his life was saved, he "sobered up," and being a "great doctor," used his skill to cure his wife's wounds, which attention seems to have been received by her with slight appreciation, but accept- ing her censure with humility, he urged her to take courage and live. Evidently she consented, for in another fit of intoxication, it is alleged, she beat him and severely roasted him with a fire brand.
CHARLO
The career of Charlo as a hunter was very brief, and the first mention of him in "Henry's Journal" shows him in a bad light, offering to sell his twelve-year-old daughter to Mr. Henry for a dram of liquor, and his propensity for drink was again demonstrated on September 11, 1800, when he received liquor in pay for four bear skins. His brother Maymiutch, four days later, while hunting with Mr. Henry killed the same number of bcars.
Mr. Henry desired to visit Grand Forks, and other points on the Upper Red River, with a view to considering the possibilities of trade, and invited Charlo to go with him, but Charlo feared the Sioux. However, on the promise of a keg of liquor on his return he risked his life and went to Grand Forks, and by an offer equally tempting, namely, "a treat" when he got back to Grand Forks, he was induced to go on to Goose River, but here he balked. Goose River was the limit. He returned to Grand Forks, received his "treat" and after the first drink wanted to go at once and invade the Sioux country; after the second he was ready to go alone, and it was necessary to restrain him after the third. He would advance to the edge of the darkness surrounding his camp fire, and shak- ing his fist call the Sioux "dogs," and "old women," and invite them to come on and he would do the rest. He finally fell into the deep sleep of intoxication and the Sioux troubled him no more.
After all Charlo was not worse than his white cousins of a later period, one of whom after taking a drink of Moorhead whiskey was sure he could whip any man in that city, and after each successive drink extended the area of his influence until he became exhausted, when he murmured softly: "I tank I take in too much territory."
Charlo's wife died and he obtained a keg of rum "to help wash the sorrow from his heart," and to aid his friends in properly lamenting her departure. A few days later his daughter died, and not long after still another daughter, and Charlo had two more occasions for over-indulgence which he did not fail to improve.
Something was always happening to Charlo. He was taken very ill and the medicine man was called, but before he arrived Charlo's sister-in-law came and sat beside him, screaming and howling, calling on his deceased wife by name and frequently sobbing, but was soon the gayest of those in attendance. When the
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doctor came he began beating a drum, singing, dancing, tumbling and tossing and blowing on the sick man, until he worked himself into a foam, when, redoubling his exertions, he burst his drum, trampled it in pieces and went away exhausted. His patient is described as having been "almost worried to death."
January 15, 1801, Charlo died. His brother, Maymiutch, wanted liquor with which to properly show his grief. He said he knew why his brother died, and why his wife and two children passed away, all within a few months of each other. It was because Charlo went to Mouse River and stole three horses and the white men there threw "bad medicine" on him. He knew Henry did not do it, but his friends advised him to take revenge on him. He would not do that, but he did want some liquor. His brother he said was a bad Indian who stole horses, cheated the traders, and never paid his debts, so that even though they had caused his death he would not blame them, but his heart was oppressed and he wanted a "drink."
EARLY TRADING POSTS
In 1664, Daniel de Greysolon Sieur Duluth established a trading post at Lake Nipigon, extending his explorations to the region of Minnesota and Dakota, and in 1728, was followed by Sieur Pierre Gaultier de la Verendrye, who also built a trading post that year on Lake Nipigon; in 1731, he built another on the Lake of the Woods, and in 1733, still another on Lake Winnipeg. He visited the Red River Valley and extended his explorations to Grand Forks, which appears to have been so called by him from the confluence of the Red Lake and Red rivers. In 1736, his son and twenty of his men were killed by the Indians on the Lake of the Woods.
At this period rival factions of Montreal traders were occupying the country, between whom bitter warfare was being waged, each trying to incite the Indians against his opponents, and against the Hudson's Bay Company, which was inimical to both, until the Indians were on the point of uprising.
In February, 1913, a leaden plate buried by Verendrye at the present location of Fort Pierre, S. D., was discovered by school children, and passed into the possession of the state historical society in March, 1916.
THE SMALLPOX SCOURGE OF 1780
In the year 1780, appeared the great scourge of smallpox at the Mandan Villages ; and through the Assiniboines, who attacked the villages during the prevalence of the disease, it became epidemic throughout the whole Northwest, continuing until 1782, entirely destroying some bands and depleting others to an alarming extent. It is claimed that of one band of 400 lodges, but ten persons survived, and of the large number of traders who had occupied that country but twelve remained.
In 1783, came the North-West Company, composed of Montreal traders consolidated. In 1784, Peter Grant, a young man twenty years of age, entered the service of that company, and ten years later, about 1794, established a trading post on the ground where now stands St. Vincent. It was on the east side of the Red River, at the mouth of the Pembina River, then called "Panbian" River,
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