History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 18

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998

USA > South Dakota > History of South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 18

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).

In 1836 Catlin was again in the Dakota coun- try, in Minnesota, and visited the pipestone quar- ry, but it is not certain that he was within the present state on this occasion.

Few writers have been subjected to more se- vere criticism than Catlin and it is even yet diffi- cult to arrive at a true estimate of his work. Gen. Henry H. Sibley says of him: "His letters abound in misstatements and the voluminous work subsequently produced by him was equal to them in that respect. The people in this quar- ter were absolutely astonished at his misrepre- sentations of men and things. There is but one redeeming feature in his book and that is his sketches of faces and scenes, which are suffi- ciently faithful, as he was skilled in that line, and his pencil could not therefore, like his pen, vary much from the truth." Dr. Edward S. Niell calls him "an artist of some notoriety who made many sketches which were truthful and subsequently published many statements which were unreli- able." Audubon says, "He was dishonest." and Parkman calls him a "garrulous and windy writ- er." Perhaps the fairest criticism is by Captain Chittenden, who says: "He undoubtedly did 'a great work in preserving in pictorial form a con- dition of life which no longer exists except in history. He was a true and passionate friend of

I30

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

the Indian and an ardent worshipper of every thing pertaining to aboriginal life. His works, like those of Maximilian, will always be resorted to by students of the native races and early con- ditions of the Missouri valley. *

* Catlin was a visionary enthusiast upon a single theme, the American Indian. He saw everything per- taining to the natives through highly colored glasses and, as if that was not enough, he reck- lessly exaggerated his impressions when he at- tempted to record them with pen and pencil. He was distrusted by those who knew him in the west and was more than once taken to task by his contemporaries. It is regrettable that one who did so much work of real value should have marred it with a characteristic which throws doubt upon the accuracy of all of it."

With Captain Chittenden's view this writer is inclined in the main to agree ; as a writer Catlin was careless and sensational ; he did not attempt to portray the average among the Indians nor

the regular routine of life, but sought as his sub- jects both for pen and brush the unique and un- usual and then he made the most of it. He saw the form of things, but rarely stopped to inquire about the substance. His paintings, however, are truthful representations of the exaggerated types he chose to paint. On this point we have ample evidence. To most of them he secured the written testimony of a reliable witness at the time of making the sketch. For instance, to his South Dakota pictures he secured and attached to each the certificate of such men as Kenneth Mckenzie, William Laidlaw or even Pierre Chou- teau, Jr. Before coming into the country he pro- vided himself with printed blank certificates of authenticity and which he had signed by some competent witness as to almost every likeness. A careful examination of his writings reveals a great deal that is incorrect and exaggerated, but nothing that reveals willful and groundless false- hood.

CHAPTER XVI

EVENTS OF THE THIRTIES.

Until 1832 the use of intoxicating liquors was one of the potent instrumentalities of the fur trade. "Get your customer drunk first and then trade with him," was a fundamental maxim of the business. The extent to which this abuse was carried is almost beyond conception. To begin with, the Sioux Indian was almost insane to se- cure the villainous stuff dealt out by the traders and would make any sacrifice for it. The British traders had an unlimited supply of liquor and the Americans were compelled to use it to protect their trade. Yearly the debauchery of the Indians became more and more of a science, until finally the story of the awful conditions drifted out into the states and the conscience of the nation was aroused. Captain Chittenden says of the business : "In retailing the poisonous stuff (a pure article never found its way to the Indian) the degree of deception and cheating could not have been carried further. A baneful and nox- ious substance to begin with, it was retailed with the most systematic fraud, often amounting to a sheer exchange of nothing for the goods of the Indian. It was the policy of the shrewd trader to first get his victim so intoxicated that he could no longer drive a good bargain. The Indian be- coming more and more greedy for liquor, would yield up all he possessed for an additional cup or two. The voracious trader, not satisfied with selling his alcohol at a profit of many thousand per cent., would now begin to cheat in quantity. As he filled the little cup which was the standard of measure he would thrust in his big thumb and

diminish its capacity one-third. Sometimes he would substitute another cup with its bottom thickened up by running tallow in until it was a third full. He would also dilute the liquor un- til as the Indian's senses became more and more befogged, he would treat him to water pure and simple. In all this outrageous imposition by which the Indian was virtually robbed of his goods it must be confessed that the tricks of the trader had at least this in their favor, that they spared the unhappy and deluded savage a por- tion of the liquor which he supposed he was get- ting. The duplicity and crime for which this unhallowed traffic is responsible in our relations with the Indians have been equalled but seldom in even the most corrupt nations."

It is said that the first to raise his voice against the nefarious practices was that energetic but conscientious man, Jedediah S. Smith, whose un- timely death cut him off before the reform for which he labored was accomplished. By 1832 the public sentiment had been aroused to the point that congress enacted a law absolutely prohibit- ing the carrying of intoxicants into the Indian country and from that date forward the ingenu- ity of the trader has been taxed to devise means to evade the law, for the government has never for a moment, since that year, receded from the position then taken and its efforts to protect the savage from the degrading influence of intoxi- cants has been consistent and persistent. The efforts of the government in this behalf have never been more than partially successful, never-

132

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

theless the conduct of the traders has been much less flagrant since the ban of the law has been placed upon their practices. Much that is amus- ing has resulted from the efforts of the govern- ment to enforce the law and the counter efforts of the traders to evade it.

The Missouri river was the highway to the Indian country and the government officials at once conceived the notion that by thoroughly po- licing the river at Fort Leavenworth and care- fully inspecting every up-river cargo the traffic could be completely suppressed, but they reck- oned without knowledge of the resourcefulness of the enterprising merchants of the wilderness.

pernicious officiousness of J. P. Cabanne a little further up.

Kenneth Mckenzie, the ever resourceful man- ager of the Upper Missouri Outfit, with head- quarters at Fort Union, determined to avoid the risks of passing liquor by the Leavenworth offi- cials by taking a distillery into the country for the manufacture of alcohol from the corn abun- dantly produced by the Rees and Mandans and so supply his trade with a home-made article. In this he succeeded for a time, but next year he was caught at it by Nathaniel Wyeth, a rival trader, who made complaint to the authorities, who made so strong a protest that the govern-

JAMES PHILIPS' BUFFALOS IN PASTURE AT FORT PIERRE. 1902.

The American Fur Company had advance in- formation relating to the passage of the prohibi- tion act of July 9, 1832, and when the "Yellow- stone" returned from its successful trip to Fort Union, Pierre Chouteau promptly placed upon her fourteen hundred gallons of liquor and headed her back to Council Bluffs, but the policeman had already arrived at Fort Leaven- worth and the precious booze was all confiscated. As we have seen, Narcisse LeClerc, enroute to the new post at Fort Pierre, had successfully evaded the policeman at Leavenworth a few days earlier than the arrival of the "Yellowstone." only to lose his liquor and other equipments through the

ment was near to forfeiting the charter of the company, and as a result of the enterprise MIc- Kenzie was compelled to withdraw from the In- dian trade. These disasters made the American Fur Company exceedingly wary in its proceed- ings, but by one artifice or another all of the trad- ers managed to keep more or less liquor in their warehouses at the trading posts. In the spring of 1833 two steamboats, the "Yellowstone" and the "Assiniboine," started up the river. On the' for- mer was the irrepressible Mckenzie and his still. He also had a supply of liquor to last until he had got his distillery in operation, but the liquor was promptly confiscated at Leavenworth. McKen-

133

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

zie wrote back to Chouteau: "We have been robbed of all our liquors, say seven barrels shrub, one of rum, one of wine, and all the fine men's and sailors' whiskey, which was in two barrels. They kicked and knocked about everything they could find." Maximilian, Prince of Weid, was a passenger on this boat enroute up river upon the trip. during which he made observations which have contributed much to the history of the re- gion, and he complains : "They would scarcely permit us to take a small portion to preserve our specimens of natural history." The loss of this liquor cut Mckenzie to the heart. for he had evi- dence that Sublette & Campbell, his most formid- able rivals, had succeeded in passing the inspect- ors with one hundred small flat kegs of alco- hol. On this trip of 1833 the "Yellowstone" turned back to Fort Pierre and the "Assiniboine" went on up river. From Fort Pierre Mckenzie and the Prince took passage on the "Assini- boine." The distillery was a success from the first. Mckenzie wrote to Chouteau that "Our manufactory works admirably. The Mandan corn yields badly, but makes a fine sweet liquor."

Maximilian examined most of the fur posts in South Dakota and made drawings of some of them, but he spent very little time within the state, being detained for a considerable period at Fort Union and at the Mandan towns, at the lat- tor point by illness. Not more than two copies of his exhaustive, illustrated work are in Amer- ica and I have been unable to examine it. Cap- tain Chittenden, who made the trip to Montana to examine the precious copy owned by Hon. Peter Koch, of Bozeman, informs me that it has little of detailed information about South Dakota. From his ground plan of Fort Pierre we obtain our best understanding of the internal arrange- ment of that famous post. Prince Maximilian's works are entitled: "Travels in the Interior of North America, Maximilian, Prince of Weid." It is imperial folio in size, contains eighty-one colored plates, and the English edition was trans- lated from the German by H. Evans Lloyd and published in London by Ackermann & Co., in 1843.

In 1833 Sublette and Campbell built a trad-

ing post near Fort Pierre and did a considerable business in opposition to the American Fur Com- pany ; so much indeed that the American bought them out and took the partners into its own serv- ice as partners.

In 1834 Maj. Joseph R. Brown established a trading post on the west shore of Big Stone lake and in the next two or three years put in several auxiliary stores, one at Big Ravine, in Roberts county, one at Buffalo lake, Day county, and one on the Jim river near the present village of Rondell. This latter was established in the fall of 1835 and was under the direction of Pierre LeBlanc, who was married to a Sisseton woman. LeBlanc spent the winter on the Jim, but in the spring he returned to the Minnesota. LeBlanc was a quarrelsome fellow. Catlin met him that summer at Traverse de Sioux (St. Peter), Min- nesota, and prophesied a bad end for him. He re- turned to the Jim in the fall of 1836. It was a hard winter and buffaloes were scarce and the Indians became greatly distressed. LeBlanc showed no sympathy for them and when Ohdinape, a starv- ing Yankton, came into his house to pick up a few kernels of parched corn he kicked the Indian out of the door. Next day Ohdinape shot and killed the Frenchman. Major Brown brought the body back to Big Stone for burial, but was unable to secure the murderer, though he sent a posse of Indians after him who followed Ohdi- nape across the Missouri. Brown's stores were tributary to the northern department of the American Fur Company.

In 1835 our old friends and fellow citizens of South Dakota, the Rees, were so troublesome along the Oregon trail in northwestern Nebraska that Colonel Dodge, in command at Fort Leaven- worth, with a regiment of dragoons, made a sor- tie against them and drove them back to the Mis- souri, without an engagement.

Fort Vermillion, which was previously located near the mouth of the James, was in 1836 removed to its final location at Green Point near the present village of Burbank.

In 1837 the fur trade received a fearful set- back from a visitation of smallpox more terrible than any other recorded in history. The plague

I34

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

prevailed from Fort Pierre to the mountains, but was most severe among the Mandans, that powerful tribe being literally extinguished, only thirty souls surviving the awful pestilence. The smallest estimate of deaths on the river from this plague is fifteen thousand, but most writers place the death roll at a much higher figure. Andubon's journal places it at one hundred and fifty thousand, but this is probably a typograph-

ical error, at any rate is an exaggeration. Several years elapsed before the trade recovered its nor- mal condition. The mortality among the Fort Pierre Indians was slight, but the Grand river Sioux suffered terribly. The pestilence was brought into the country by one of the American Fur Company boats and in the whole matter the weight of evidence shows that the company was criminally culpable.

CHAPTER XVII

FREMONT AND NICOLLET VISIT SOUTH DAKOTA.

In 1838 Joseph N. Nicollet, a French savant, geographer, geologist and all-round scientist, was in the employ of the government and en- gaged in making a scientific examination of the then almost unknown northwest. Geography and geology were the chief interests and especial attention was given to cartography and particu- larly to topography. In the year mentioned John Charles Fremont, then a young man in the em- ploy of the war department, accompanied him as topographer. This year Nicollet, who had spent some seasons upon the upper Mississippi above Fort Snelling, determined to visit Pipe- stone quarry and the coteau region. He was out- fitted at Mendota, by General Sibley, with one- horse carts and drivers for the trip and, passing up the Minnesota valley to the mouth of the Cottonwood, began their work there by making a topographical map of the section through which they passed until they reached Pipestone, where they were met, by previous arrangement, by Joseph Renville, son of that Joseph who founded the Columbia Fur Company, and a party of his Indian relatives from Lacqui Parle. Young Renville was to be the guide to the expedition. He was accompanied by his young wife, who still lives on the Sisseton reservation at the ad- vanced age of eighty-six years. This writer visited the old lady in the summer of 1900 and from her secured an interesting account of the expedition of 1838. Her recollection of that event is still very vivid. In addition to Nicollet and Fremont and the employes provided by

General Sibley, there was in the party M. de Montmort, an attache of the French legation at Washington, and Eugene Flandin, a young French friend of Mr. Nicollet's from New York, and Charles Geyer, a German botanist employed- by Mr. Nicollet. After a critical and exhaustive examination of the quarry, some weeks were spent in an examination of the region from the coteau to the James. The lakes were all visited and named by Fremont, and many of them still retain the names given at that time. For in- stance Lake Preston was named for Senator Preston, of North Carolina ; Lake Benton, for Thomas H. Benton, who a year later became Fre- mont's father-in-law ; Lake Poinsett, for J. S. Poinsett, secretary of war and Fremont's patron ; Lake Abert, for Senator Abert. On the modern maps "Abert" has been corrupted to "Albert." Completing this work, the party returned to St. Paul by way of the Renville settlement at Lacqui Parle and thence to St. Louis, where a more ex- tended expedition for the succeeding year was projected.

In the early spring of 1839 the party, now consisting of Nicollet, Fremont, Geyer, and Cap- tain Beligny, of the French army, who was a guest of Mr. Nicollet's, set out from St. Louis, on an American Fur Company's steamboat and at the end of May reached Fort Pierre. Here they made observations and spent nearly a month in getting ready for the final start. They determined the altitude of Fort Pierre to be 1,456 feet above sea level. The actual surveys since

136

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

made by the railway companies have determined it at 1,442, which is an evidence of the general accuracy of their work. At Fort Pierre they were joined, by previous arrangement, by Joseph Renville and a party of friends from Lacqui Parle, among them young Dixon, a son of the red- headed English major of 1812, and Louison Freniere, who was a well-known half-Indian of the Minnesota frontier. Barely escaping a

up in the morning not much the worse for the experience. They got off on the 3d of July and that evening camped on Medicine creek at the foot of Medicine Butte and at midnight Fremont went to the top of the butte and fired rockets to usher in the national holiday. From Medicine Butte they followed the old Indian trail, which had the appearance of a well-worn wagon-way, so worn by the trailing lodge poles carried by the

JOHN C. FREMONT.

matrimonial alliance with a swell Yankton damsel, Fremont left Fort Pierre, to engage in a buffalo hunt upon the very site of the present capitol, and in his enthusiasm followed a bull he had singled out, so far that he found himself far out on the prairie when night overtook him and, presently losing his way, was compelled to sleep alone in the open, where, being something of a tenderfoot, his dreams were not altogether agree- able. However, Freniere and Dixon picked him

Indians across country to Scatterwood lake and thence down to the James at Armadale; thence up the James valley to the Devil's lake and, re- turning by way of the coteau, passed down to Lacqui Parle and home by way of St. Paul. Their work resulted in the first reasonably accurate map of Dakota east of the Missouri. Everything considered, the Nicollet map of 1839 is a remarkably authoritative contribution to northwestern geography. Relatively little geo-

I37

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

graphical knowledge of the section visited has since been 'developed.

On September 2, 1840, Rev. Stephen R. Riggs, the well-known missionary to the Sioux, accompanied by Mr. Alexander Huggins, the mission farmer, drove from Lacqui Parle by way of Chanopa (Two Woods), in Deuel county, where old Limping Devil, an incorrigible Sisse- ton leader, with a band of his own ilk, resided. He threatened dire inflictions upon the party if they proceeded, but did not carry out his threat. From Chanopa they made their way by the Indian trail to Waubay, thence to the James river, probably at Rondell, but may be further south, at Armadale, thence to Scatterwood and on to Pierre by the Indian trail. The mission- aries had held daily prayer service on the way and at Fort Pierre held regular preaching and song service, the first recorded preaching in South Dakota, and the first religious exercises of any kind subsequent to the prayer made by Jedediah Smith at the mouth of Grand river in 1823. At Fort Pierre Mr. Riggs found some

valuable testimony as to the history of the Tetons. He was told by the Indians there that they first crossed the Missouri shortly before the beginning of the century, 1800, and that formerly the Tetons lived on the Des Moines and the Yank- tons lived on the Mississippi in what is now the state of Missouri. From careful inquiry, made at that time, he concluded that the total Sioux population was about twenty-five thousand people.

In the summer of 1842 Father Ravoux, a de- voted Catholic priest, still (1903) living at St. Paul, made the trip across the country to Fort Pierre. He crossed the James river as far north as Sand lake, in northern Brown county, where he celebrated mass. In 1845 he made the trip across from St. Paul, by way of Sioux Falls, to Fort Vermillion, where he celebrated mass and made several baptisms of half-breed children. Indeed both the expedition of 1842 and 1845 were made at the request of fathers of such children who desired that they should be baptised.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE VISIT OF AUDUBON.

In the summer of 1843 the South Dakota country was visited by John James DeForest Audubon, the famous naturalist, whose specific object in making the trip was to secure material for his now famous work upon the "Quadrupeds of North America." He kept a daily journal and so left a valuable contribution to the natural history and to the history of South Dakota. It may be noted that this journal was lost in the recesses of an old writing desk in the home of the naturalist, where it remained undiscovered for fifty-three years, when it was unearthed by a granddaughter of Audubon's.

Audubon was a native of Louisiana and was a son of the well-known French admiral and a Spanish mother. He was educated in France, but returned to America in his early manhood and gave up his life to natural history, particu- larly ornithology. He left St. Louis April 25. 1843, on the American Fur Company's boat, the "Omega," Joseph Sire, captain, and Joseph La- Barge, pilot.

An incident of the trip illustrates the ingenu- ity of the fur traders in passing liquor up river in contravention of the prohibition law, of which mention has been made in a previous chapter. I cannot do better than to quote at large Captain Chittenden's story of the episode: "There was on board the usual amount of liquor, which was gotten safely past Fort Leavenworth. The point of greatest danger was that time at Bellevue. It happened, however, on the present occasion that the agent was absent from his post when the

boat arrived and accordingly there was no in- spection. Elated by this unexpected good for- tune, Captain Sire lost no time in getting off the freight destined for this point and getting on his way. He pursued the voyage until nine o'clock that evening and doubtless felicitated himself that he was out of danger. It appears that the agent had delegated the duties of in- spector to the commander of the United States troops in the vicinity. The boat left her moor- ings next morning at daylight, but had scarcely gotten under way when a couple of rifle shots were fired across her bow and she came to at once and made for the shore. There they found a lieutenant in charge of a few dragoons who had come from the camp, four miles distant.' The young officer came on board and presented to Captain Sire a polite note from Captain Burgwin, who commanded the detachment of troops, stating that his orders required him to inspect the boat before letting her proceed. This was like a dash of cold water on the buoyant spirits of Captain Sire, and none the less so to Audu- bon, to whom as well as to the company the loss of the liquor would have been irreparable. The naturalist had a permit from the government to carry with him a quantity of liquor for the use of himself and his party and upon showing his credentials to the young officer he was, to use his own words, "immediately settled comfortably." But in the moment of his good fortune he did not forget his companions who were not settled comfortably. He understood that time would

139

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

be required for the crew to prepare for the ap- proaching function, and he could at least help to secure this time by delaying the inspection as long as possible. He accordingly expressed a desire to visit the camp and the lieutenant de- tailed a dragoon to accompany him. The great naturalist rode four miles to camp to call upon an obscure army officer whom he knew he could see in a short time by waiting at the boat. The officer was overwhelmed at the honor of the visit and when Audubon offered to present his credentials he politely and gallantly replied that his name was too well known throughout the United States to require any letters. Audubon says of the occasion, "I was on excellent and friendly terms in less time than it has taken me to write this account of our meeting." Between his entertaining conversation and the shooting of some birds he contrived to detain the captain for a good two hours before they returned to the boat. The time had not been wasted by Captain Sire and his men. The shallow hold of a steam- boat of those days was divided lengthwise by a partition running the full length of the boat. A narrow-gauge tramway extended down each side of the hold its entire length, the two sides connecting by a curve which passed under the hatchway in the forecastle. Small cars received the cargo let down through the hatchway and carried it to its place in the hold, or brought it out again when the boat was being unloaded. A car could pass from the stern of the boat on one side clear around to the stern on the other. There were no windows in the hold. Everything was buried in blackness. The workmen were lightened in their labors by means of candles. During the absence of Audubon the crew had loaded all the liquors on the cars and run them down one side of the hold far enough from the hatchway to be entirely concealed in the dark- ness. They were carefully instructed in the part they were to play in the approaching comedy and very likely put through a preliminary rehearsal or two. When Captain Burgwin arrived in Audubon's company he was received most hospit- ably and treated to a luncheon, in which was included as a matter of course a generous por-

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 18

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen Number of Pages: 998

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998