History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 11

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198

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Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

While the fur trade grew to be a great and profitable industry, it declined for lack of material to feed it, and passed away leaving but little impress upon the regions where its great sources of supply existed. It aided in bringing to- grether the white and red races, and rather led the way to the advent of the better civilization that was to occupy the land and subdue and develop it for the uses of civilized mankind. It is now little more than a memory, except in the far North, though within a century it formed the principal industry of our nation. It was the one crop which was annually harvested and which furnished the

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

means to a large extent of supplying subsistence to the pioneers and founders of the republic. It laid the foundations of great fortunes that have since in- creased manifold and today wield a potent influence in the business affairs of mankind. The Verendrys, the Astors, the Choteaus, the renowned Lord Selkirk, and others, designedly or not, used it to advance the standard of Christian civili- zation. It was a valuable aid to the earliest missionaries among the red men, contributing the ways and means which sustained and gave success to their un- selfish and heroic labors.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, of small traders were engaged. The Randolph Expedition reveals a type of trading that was largely represented. Even subsequent to the advent of steamboats, for a score of years, the small trader continued to patronize the mackinaw, the pony's back, and his own, and move around among the producers who were scattered in small bands, and who provided the element of barter. Of this numerous class but little of record is left. A trader's license was all that was necessary to legitimatize and legalize the trader's right to pursue the business.

The original mackinaw boat was supplied, a little forward of midships, with a stout mast, thirty feet high. A rope from two hundred to three hundred feet long called the "cordel" was made fast to the foot of the mast and passed through a block at the top, and from there to the bow of the boat, passing through another block, so as to bring this block at any required distance from the bow. The rope was then passed ashore and lengthened out or shortened as circumstances might require. From twenty to fifty men grasping the rope constituted the motive power, assisted occasionally by a lodge skin set as a sail. The men who followed this business as a profession were generally French-Canadians and were known as "voyageurs," or "cordellers." This was the genuine mackinaw used in Canadian streams and on the Missouri before the advent of steamboats, and on its unnavig- able tributaries until a much later period. It was a boat usually that would carry fifteen to fifty tons. With the advent of the gold miner in 1862 and later, when thousands of small boats descended the Missouri in the fall bringing down the miners and their gold, the name "mackinaw" was given indiscriminately to all kinds of small boats, and it became the custom to speak of the arrival of these boats as the arrival of mackinaws. A well equipped boat, having sail and oars, would come down the Missouri at the rate of ten to twelve miles an hour. The Lewis and Clark bateau would seem to have been a first-class mackinaw, fitteil for towing, rowing and sailing.

Regarding the average profits of the fur trade in its best days. Major Galpin and others who were still engaged in it when Dakota was opened to set- tlement and well acquainted with the pioneers, estimated that it was not below 300 per cent net, and this, it was maintained, was justified by the extraordinary risks attending the trade and the fluctuations in the market price of robes and furs.

As showing the magnitude of the traffic, the export business from the port of Philadelphia for the year 1824 was made public. Philadelphia was not the only export point, but had the largest share of this country's business. The mer- chandise was all from the upper Missouri country, and amounted to 250,000 pounds of deer skins; 250,000 pounds of beaver; 17,000 buffalo robes ; 800 bear skins : 4,500 otter skins: 25.000 raccoon ; 81,000 muskrat ; 1,000 mink; 1,500 fox and wolf, and 400 fisher and martin skins. The shipment was on account of American traders and largely for that company. The Hudson's Bay Company shipped from Canadian ports, and in still larger quantities, and while they con- tinued their illicit trade on the Missouri, the great bulk of their business was in the vast region drained by the Red River of the North and its tributaries. It was estimated that this company received annually from the Northwest frontier about 120,000 beaver; 30,000 martin ; 20,000 muskrat; 5,000 fox ; 4,000 otter ; 2,000 bear; 2,000 mink; 30,000 buffalo; 5,000 lynx ; 4.000 wolf; 1,000 elk, and 12,000 deer skins.

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

The early fur traders, those that engaged in the traffic directly with the In- dians, were men of no ordinary mold. In many instances they were heroes, at all times resolute, self-reliant, and often self-sacrificing. As a rule 10 obstacle discouraged them, and they were appalled by no threatened calamity. This much can be said in commendation of their merits, without meaning to justify their methods of bartering with the ignorant natives.

The fur traders have disappeared from the Dakotas along with the buffalo, the beaver, the elk and the mink, and to a large extent the native inhabitants. Civilization had no place for them, but delayed its invasion until their occupation had been well nigh extinguished for want of material to subsist on. But the memory of the traders has been preserved on history's page, and in story and song, and among the most attractive type of these itinerant merchants, who were self-banislied in their lust for gold to a life of isolation from their race, and ex- posed to a brood of privations and dangers inseparable from their avocation, it is peculiarly appropriate that a native Dakota boy should compose the requiem that tells of their departure and disappearance. We have therefore thought it appropriate to give place to a most excellent poem composed by the talented son of Maj. J. R. Hanson, of Yankton, in which he portrays the fur traders as the central attraction of a word-picture that will be found true to nature and of charming expression :

The moon on plain and bluff and stream Casts but a faint and fitful gleam, For striving in a ghostly race The clonds that rack across her face Now leave her drifting, white and high,

In some clear lake of purple sky. And, then, like waves with crests upcurled,

Obscure her radiance from the world. Across the wild Missouri's breast, Which lies in icy armor dressed, The north wind howls and moans,

Wrenching the naked trees that stand

Like skeletons along the strand To shrill and creaking groans. On distant butte and wide coteau Is snow, and never ending snow, Whirling aloft in spiral clouds, Weaving in misty, crystal shrouds, Then floating back to earth again To drift across the frozen plain In slow and strangely sculptured waves,

Whose like no shell-strewn sea beach laves.

Such night is not for mortal kind To fare abroad; the bitter wind, The restless snow, the frost-locked mold, Bid living creatures seek their hold And leave to winter's monarch will The solitude of vale and hill. The buffalo, whose legions vast A few short moons ago have passed Adown these bleak hillsides, Now graze full many a league away Where, through the softly tropic day The winds of Matagorda Bay Caress their shaggy hides. The wolves have sought their coverts deep In dark ravine and conle steep, Where cedar thickets, dense and warm, Afford protection from the storm ; And every creature of the plains Has left his well-beloved domains To seek, or near or far, A haven where warm-blooded life May cower from the dreadful strife Of hyperborean war.

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HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

But, see! across yon barren swell. Where wind and snow-rime weave a spell Of phantoms o'er the hill, What awkward creatures of the night Come creeping, snail-like, on the sight, Halting and slow in weary plight, But ever onward still. Their limbs are long and lank and thin, Their forms are swathed from foot to chin In garments rude of bison skin. U'pon cach broad and stalwart back Is strapped a huge and weighty pack ; Their coarse and ragged hair Streams back from brows whose dusky stain Is dyed by blizzard, wind and rain,

They are a fearsome pair ;

Lone pilgrims of the cotean vast,

They seem like cursed souls, outcast, To roam forever there.

Yet, hark! Adown the cold wind flung, What voice of merriment gives tongue ? 'Tis human laughter, deep and strong.

And then, all suddenly, a song Rings o'er the prairie lone ;

A chanson old, whose rhythm oft

Has lingered on the breezes soft That kiss the storied Rhone,

Or floated up from lips of love

To some dark casement high above

The streets of Avignon, Where lovely eyes, all maidenly,

Glance slyly forth that they may see What lover comes to serenade Erc drawing back the latticed shade To toss a red rose down.

What fickle fate, what strange mischance, Ilas brought this song of sunny France To ride upon the blizzard crest That mantles o'er the wild Northwest; To find its echoes sweet

In barren butte and stark cliff-side, Whose beefling summits override The fierce Missouri's murky tide;

To rouse the scurrying feet Of antelope and lean coyote, To hear its last, long, witchery note, Caught in the hoot owl's dismal throat, Sweep by on pinions fleet ?

Full far these errant sons of Gaul llave journeyed from the grey seawall That fronts on fair Marseilles. But still the spirit of their race Bids them to turn a dauntless face On whatever fates prevail. The storm may drive to bush and den The creatures of the field and fen, But neither storm nor darksome night. Nor icebound stream nor frowning height, Can check or turn a foot to flight These iron-hearted men.

Across the flats of stinging sands, Through thickets, woods and sere uplands, Their weary pathway shows : Toward some far post of logs and stakes. Deep hidden in the willow brakes, Right onward still it goes Persistently, an emblazed track Bent from the cheerless bivouac

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

Of some poor, prairie Indian band, Whose chill and flimsy tepees stand Half buried in the snows. Yet what of costly merchandise That wealth may covet, commerce prize, Could these adventurers wring From that ill-fed barbarian horde Will be to them a sweet reward For all the risk and toil and pain They've suffered on the winter's plain Amid their journeyings.

Ah, wealth enough such tepees hold, Though not of silver or of gold, To rouse the white man's longing greed And send his servants forth with speed The treasure to unfold.

The trinkets cheap these traders brought

The savages have dearly bought.

Persuaded guilelessly to pay

A ten times doubled ustiry In furs of beavers and of mink ; Of silver fox and spotted lynx ; For all their rich and varied store Of peltries, gathered from the shore, The wood, the prairie and the hill, By trapper's art and hunter's skill

The trader's heavy packs now fill.

A journey far those furs must go, From these wild fastnesses of snow, By travois, pack and deep bateau ; By keel-boat, sloop and merchantman, Till half a hemisphere they span Ere they will lie, at last, displayed By boulevarde and esplanade, In Europe's buzzing marts of trade. These martin skins so soft and warm

May wrap some Russian princess' form

And shield her from the Arctic storm That howls o'er Kroonstadt's Bay. That robe, a huge black bear which dressed, May cloak some warrior monarch's breast As, gazing o'er the battle crest. He sees the foemen's legion pressed In panic from the fray.

But it is not the destinies Which may, perchance, beyond the seas, Await these rare commodities

That chiefly signify. Though king and knight and fair princess

Should drain the Northwest wilderness Of all its savage tribes possess,

Their pride to gratify. But this-that in the storm tonight,

Through cloudy gloom, through pale moonlight, Two men still press along, Not hiding as the wolf and hind

From blinding snow and bitter wind,

Nor like the Indian crouching low Above a brush-fire's feeble glow. But vigorous and strong. Hasting their bidden task to close Whatever obstructions interpose. And parrying fortune's adverse blows Right gaily, with a song.

Plains of the mighty virgin West, Plains in cold sterile beauty dressed ; Your time of fruit draws near ! Creatures of thicket, vale and shore,

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

Tribes of the hills, your reign is o'er ; The conqueror is here! His foot prints mark your secret grounds,

Ilis voice upon your air resounds, llis name, unto your utmost bounds,

Is one of strength and fear. The magic of his virile powers Shall change your desert wastes to bowers,

Your nakedness to shade;

Shall stretch broad rustling ranks of corn

Along your stony crests forlorn ;

And wheat fields, dappling in the sun,

Where your mad autumn fires have run,

The trails your bison made

Shall grow beneath his hurrying feet To highway broad and village street, Along whose grassy sides shall sleep Meadows and orchards. fruited deep; Ilomesteads and schools and holy fanes, To prove that o'er the vanquished plains At last, the Lord Jehovah reigns, Whose power shall never fade.

CHAPTER VIII INDIAN WAR-BRITISH TRADERS STIR UP TROUBLE

FIRST BATTLE ON DAKOTA SOIL BETWEEN UNITED STATES TROOPS AND INDIANS-

IIOW IT HAPPENED-COLONEL LEAVENWORTHI CHASTISES THE ARICKAREES- THE YANKTON INDIANS AID GOVERNMENT FORCES-MISCHIEVOUS INFLUENCE OF BRITISHI TRADERS-AMERICAN OFFICERS CRITICISE THE INGRATE FOREIGNERS -FIRST INDIAN PEACE COMMISSION.

The first battle between the United States troops and the Indians to occur on what is now Dakota soil took place on the 10th of August, 1823, near the mouth of the Grand River, which empties into the Missouri from the west near Wakefield, Carson County, and near the state boundary. The United States troops engaged were a detachment of riflemen and infantry commanded by Lieut. Col. Henry Leavenworth, of the Fifth United States Infantry. His com- mand numbered 200 soldiers, and in addition a large number of trappers, traders and frontiersmen, who were volunteers for this engagement only, and also several hundred Yankton Indians. The enemy were the Arickaree Indians, who had their villages on the banks of the Missouri, near Grand River, and also on an island near the same locality. These Indians bad borne the reputation of a friendly tribe and inclined to a peaceful life. They were not nomadic in their tribal life, but built permanent villages, cultivated the soil in a crude way and raised corn, beans, pumpkins and potatoes, and traded these articles to other In- dians for furs and peltries, which, in turn, they bartered with the white traders for such articles as they desired to have and could procure. They also trapped and hunted, in addition to their agricultural employment. An occasion and temptation came to these Arickarees to perpetrate an act of serious hostility in the month of May, 1823. William H. Ashley, of Missouri, a licensed trader, was descending the Missouri River with a number of small mackinaw boats loaded with furs and peltries, on the way to St. Louis. He had in his company about ninety men. Regarding the immediate outbreak. Mr. Ashley reported the facts five days later to Colonel Leavenworth, at Council City (Council Bluffs), dating his report aboard "The Keelboat Yellowstone, 25 miles below the Arickaree villages." He says that he arrived at the Arickaree villages on the 30th of May, and that the chiefs invited him to stop and trade with them. He was desirous of procuring some horses for a journey up the Yellowstone, and finding that the Indians had some animals to dispose of, he halted, made the Indians some pres- ents, and made arrangements to purchase forty or fifty horses. The Indians were apparently friendly disposed, though they spoke of some recent differences with the Americans in which a son of one of the Arickaree chiefs had been killed, but they had concluded to overlook that offense because they regarded the Americans as their friends. The following day was passed in negotiating the horse trade satisfactorily. The horses were delivered and placed in charge of forty men of Ashley's force, and plans were made to get an early start the following morning. Mr. Ashley continues :

"About half past three in the morning t was informed that one of my men had been killed, and in att probability the boat would be immediately attacked. The men were all under arms and so continued until sunrise, when the Indians commenced a heavy and well-

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

directed fire from a line extending along the picketing of their towns, about six hundred yards in length. In about fifteen minutes from the time the firing commenced the surviving part of the men embarked, nearly all the horses killed or wounded; one of the anchors had been weighed, the cable of the other cut and the boats dropping down the stream." His losses he gives at twelve killed and eleven wounded; and says seven or eight Indians were killed. Ashley asks Colonel Leavenworth to send a force to punish the Indians and tells the military commander that "their towns are newly picketed in, with timber from six to eight inches thick, twelve to fifteen feet high, dirt on the inside thrown up about eighteen inches. They front the river where there is a large sandbar, forming two-thirds of a circle, at the head of which where the river is very narrow, they have constructed a breast- work of dry wood. The ground on the opposite side of the river is high and commanding."

The hostile force numbered about six hundred warriors, three-fourths of them armed with London fuzees and the remainder with bows and arrows and war axes. Ashley tells the colonel that he expects Major Henry, another trader from above, very soon, and that his own party then numbers but twenty-three effective men.

This Mr. Ashley was a man of enterprise and courage, and resolved to con- tinute his efforts to bring about the punishment of the Indians who had assailed him in such a treacherous and summary manner. Ile dropped down the river to near the mouth of the Cheyenne, where he was joined, probably in July, by the Major Henry spoken of above, who had passed the hostile villages success- fully and without being attacked.

The combined forces went into camp here while Ashley made a trip down the river to about where the capital of South Dakota is now located, thinking to purchase horses from the Sioux. Here he learned that Colonel Leavenworth was on his way up the river at the head of a force of 200 men to punish the Arickarees. He then returned to his camp, where he intended to join Leaven- worth's expedition with eighty men, forty men having been secured from the Missouri Fur Company. A camp of Yankton Indians numbering four or five hun- dred were also in the vicinity who had volunteered to join the whites, which would make a mixed force of about eight hundred, sufficient to destroy the hostiles. Colonel Leavenworth's expedition arrived in due time and was joined by Ashley's conglomerates, made up of the trappers, traders and Yankton Indians, whom Leavenworth does not regard as entirely trustworthy, for in a letter to the United States Indian agent, O'Fallon, at Fort Atkinson, he says: "These Yanktons appear to be zealously determined to cooperate with us, but I have some doubts as to the continuance of their ardor." Leavenworth's expedition reached the Arick- arce villages on the oth of August. The Yankton Indians, who were in the ad- vance, were met by the Ricaras a short distance from the towns, and a skirmish took place, the Ricaras forcing the Yanktons back upon the regulars and Ash- ley's men, and by this time the Indians had become so intermingled that Leaven- worth declined to order his forces to fire, fearing that they would kill his friendly Indians. The military operations of that day appear to have ended with this skirmish, but on the morning of the 10th. Colonel Leavenworth's artillery having arrived by boats, a company of riflemen and a company of infantry took posses- sion of a hill to the north of the upper village within three hundred feet of the town. An attack on the lower town was also undertaken, aided by a six-pounder cannon and a 512 inch brass howitzer. The assault was kept up with energy until 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the Yankton Indians in the meantime being industriously engaged in securing the spoils of war by carrying off the Ricaras' corn. Towards evening a party of Yanktons were discovered holding a council with the enemy on a hill above the upper village, and it was discovered that they were quietly withdrawing from the fieldl though not having announced such an intention. Firing on the part of the troops ceased about 4 o'clock, when the Ricaras sent out an embassy to ask for peace, stating that the first shot from the cannon had killed their chief "Grey Eyes," who had caused all the trouble, and that we had killed a great many of their people and their horses.

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

Colonel Leavenworth in his report says :

They were evidently very much terrified and completely humbled. Being convinced of this and supposing that the Government would be better pleased to have them corrected than exterminated and as the Sioux in a very strange and unaccountable manner, had left us, it was thought best under all circumstances, to listen to the solicitations of the Ricaras for peace, especially as it was understood that our round shot were nearly all expended Consequently a treaty was made with them and the next two days was occupied in arrang ing its terms.

Under this treaty the Indians agreed to recognize the United States Govern- ment as their rightful sovereign, and to remain true and faithful in their alle- giance to the republic, to live at peace with the white people and to commit no depredations upon the persons or property of the whites who came among them to trade and barter. To deliver over to the military power of the Government all offenders among their own people against the persons and property of the whites. for trial and punishment, and to seek peace with their neighboring and other trihes. The Government agreeing to protect the Arickarees so long as they fulfilled their agreements faithfully and to look after their welfare and to guard them against the imposition, fraud and violence of the whites ; the Arickarees not to take the law into their own hands to punish such offenders, but to deliver them over to the military, report the facts of their grievance to a licensed trader or to the military authorities who would investigate the charge and punish the offenders.

General Ashley's property was restored and although there was some com- plaints that the Indians had kept back some articles, the principal chief, who was now "Little Soldier," insisted that all had been turned back, while he made pres- ents of buffalo robes and protested that he could do no more. Leavenworth assured him that he would not further be disturbed, that his property was not wanted, to faithfully observe his treaty engagements and there would be no further trouble. But it would seem that the Indians had little faith in these assurances or in their treaty, for during the following night they evacuated their villages. and made haste to put as great a distance as possible between themselves and the little army. The next morning the soldiers entered the villages but did not dis- turb them. They found from the best evidence obtainable that not less than fifty of the Ricaras had been killed and a much greater number wounded. Troops were sent out to find the fugitives bearing this message to them:

Ricaras-You see the pipe of peace which you gave to me in the hands of Mr. Char- lonneau, and the flag of the United States. These will convince you that my heart is not bad. Your villages are in my possession ; come back and take them in peace, and you will find everything as you left them. You shall not be hurt if you do not obstruct the road or molest the traders. If you do not come back there are some bad men and bad Indians who will burn your villages. Come back and come quickly. Be assured that what i say is the truth.

11. LEAVENWORTH, Colonel U. S. Army.

The message bearer, however, returned without finding the fleeing band. The Ricarees had left the mother of their fallen chief "Grey Eyes" in one of their principal lodges, giving her water and provisions, she being the sole occupant of the town. She was an old woman and according to the custom of many tribe .: she was abandoned because she would require too much attention and assistance if taken along. Leavenworth did not disturb her nor anything else belonging to the Indians, believing that possibly they might return and he was desirous that they should find their property just as they left it. The troops then embarked for home, leaving the okl squaw, the sole occupant of the villages. Before the command had passed out of the sight of the villages, however, they were dis- covered on fire and it was supposed they were totally destroyed. The burning was undoubtedly the work of incendiaries and Leavenworth thought the guilty people were a partner and clerk of the Missouri Fur Company.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 11

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1198

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198