History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 19

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

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tion from the private store embraced within Audubon's credentials. By this time the young captain was in excellent temper toward his hosts and quite disposed to forego the inspection altogether, but the virtuous Sire would not have it so. "I insisted, as it were," says the worthy navigator in his log of May 10th, "that he make the strictest possible search, but upon the con- dition that he would do the same to the other traders." A proposition so eminently fair was at once agreed to by the inspector, whose mellow faculties were now in a most accommodating condition. The shrewd steamboat captain, who never forgot to be sober when his company in- terests were at stake, escorted the officer down the hatchway and together they groped their way along the hold by the not too brilliant light of a candle. It may be imagined with what zeal the scrupulous captain thrust the candle into every nook and corner and even insisted that the inspector move a box or a bale to assure himself that everything was all right. Arrived at the foot of the hold they passed through an opening in the partition and started back on the other side. The officer was doubtless too much absorbed to notice the glimmer of light under the hatchway at the other end of the boat where a miniature train with its suspicious cargo was creeping stealthily around the curve and disappearing toward the side they had just left. The party finished their inspection and found everything as it should be."

The "Omega" reached the mouth of the Sioux late on Saturday evening, May 13th, and. entering a short distance into that stream, tied up for the night. The next morning the rain was pouring, preventing Audubon from going ott to shoot wild turkeys, as he had contemplated doing. They started on at daylight. A black bear crossing the river naturally attracted the interest of the naturalist. They found curlews. gcese, and a heronry, with thirty nests, during the day, but there were few incidents worth not- ing. While cutting wood at noon Captain Sire related the fact that at that point on a previous voyage he had arrested three deserters from the company's employ and that he had disarmed

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them and destroyed their boat and left them empty-handed in the wilderness. This circum- stance well illustrates the manner in which the fur company's officers treated men in their em- ploy. and the high-handed brand of justice dealt out in South Dakota sixty-five years ago. The deserters are supposed to have found shelter at Fort Vermillion. That day, shortly before reach- ing Fort Vermillion, Audubon says : "We reached a spot where we saw ten or more In- dians who had a large log cabin and a field under fence." This seems to have been in the exact locality where, three years later, the Mormons established themselves. They had now been in South Dakota two days and the scientist enumer- ates the following animals and birds he found during that time : Bears, wolves, buffaloes, deer, elks, hares, curlews, herons, turkeys, rails, ravens, black-headed gulls, tern, ducks, geese, swans, cliff swallows.

On the 16th they reached Fort Vermillion, "if the place may be so called, for we found it only a square, strongly picketed, without port- holes. It stands on the immediate bank of the river and is backed by a vast prairie, which is inundated during the spring freshet." It was in the keeping of "Mr. Cerre, called usually Pas- cal." That day they added to their collection wildcats, woodcock and yellow-headed troupial. Next day they added to the inventory ground- finches, robins, wood-thrushes, blue-birds, wrens, a marsh-hawk and a bunting, an antelope and two rattlesnakes. On the 18th they met William Laidlaw and Andrew Dripps-Dripps was at this time Indian agent stationed at Fort George, and he and his companions were from Fort Pierre, enroute to St. Louis with four barges of furs. "We gave them six bottles of whiskey, for which they were very thankful." Laidlaw reported that on May 5th the snow fell to a depth of two feet on the level, destroying thousands of buffalo calves. Laidlaw was taking a half-breed daugh- ter to St. Louis to be educated. They passed James river on the 20th and the next day reached Fort Mitchell, near the mouth of the Niobrara. There was an opposition house built by Narcisse LeClerc, and as no one was at home Captain Sire

exercised the American Fur Company prerogative by cutting down the pickets and even the houses themselves for fuel to supply his boilers. On the 22d, while the vessel was passing Handy's Point (Fort Randall), a party of eight Indians "canie to the shore and made signs for us to land. The boat did not stop for their pleasure and after we had fairly passed them they began firing upon us with well-directed rifle balls, several of which struck the 'Omega' in different places. I was standing at that moment by one of the chimneys and saw a ball strike the water a few feet be- vond our bows and Michaux, the hunter, heard it pass within a few inches of his head. A Scotchman, asleep below, was awakened and greatly frightened by hearing a ball pass through the partition, cutting the lower part of his panta- loons and deadening itself against his trunk. Fortunately no one was hurt. These rascals were attached to a war party of Santees who range from the Mississippi to the Missouri. I will make no comment upon their conduct, but I have two of the balls that struck our boat. It seems to be a wonder that not one person was injured, standing as we were on deck to the number of a hundred or more." The next day they passed Lower Cedar island, where they stopped to cut cedar trees for fuel, and later, a short distance above, got stuck on a sandbar, where they were compelled to lay for twenty-four hours. While stuck on the sandbar "I went on shore," says Audubon, "with Harris's small double-barreled gun and the first shot I had was pretty near killing me; the cone blew off, passed so near my ear that I was stunned and fell down as if shot and afterwards had to lie down for several minutes." Audubon does not neglect to add his contribution to the mistaken information relating to the mineral wealth along the Mis- souri: "We passed this afternoon bluffs of sul- phur almost pure, to look at, and a patch which has burnt for two years in succession." "Alım was found strewn on the shore."

They passed White river on the 25th and spent the night on American island at Cham- berlain, but make no mention of Fort Recovery, neither do they mention any settlement at Old

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Fort Lookout nor at Kiowa. On the 26th they came to the big bend and Audubon and his hunters left the boat and camped, while the steamer was making the grand turn. The jour- nal is naturally much taken up with the natural history of the locality, but develops nothing novel to the citizen of the state. They reached Fort George on Sunday afternoon at four o'clock and Major Crisp, Indian agent, came on board. Fort George at this time was a new post erected but a few months previously by Ebbetts & Cut- ting, as the representatives of Fox, Livingstone & Company, of New York, who had previously undertaken the Missouri river fur trade. Major Hamilton, acting Indian agent in absence of Dripps, pointed out to Audubon "a cabin on the east bank where a partner of the opposition line shot at and killed two white men and wounded two others, all of whom were remarkable mis- creants." The fact appears to be that this new opposition company drew about them renegades, fugitives from justice and desperate men, so evil that even the American Fur Company re- fused them employment. When the opposition set up Fort George the American sent Bouis, a well-known trader, with a stock of goods down to the locality, but the toughs hanging about Fort George destroyed his tent and robbed him of his goods. The renegades, in the very month of Audubon's visit, had stopped a boat of the American Company enroute down river under control of William P. May, compelled it to land and had confiscated his furs. The conduct of these men was so atrocious that Kelsey, Ebbett and Cutting's representative at once absolved himself from all responsibility from them. They took possession of an old cabin belonging to Fox, Livingstone & Company on Simoneau island, op- posite the fort, and defied Kelsey and all comers. Kelsey commanded them to leave the island and upon their refusal shot four of them, two fatally. Kelsey left the country at once and presumably took up his residence in Mexico.

The competition of the rival companies led to many peculiar complications. The American, being the most powerful and ubiquitous, had se- cured the appointment of one of its own men.

Andrew Dripps, as Indian agent at Fort George and he is charged, and no doubt with good rea- son, with using his official position to advance the interests of the American Company. Audu- bon spent three days at George and passed the time examining the fauna of the locality and dis- cussing the same with Mr. Cutting, of the fur company, and Mr. Illingsworth, an intelligent young Englishman who had succeeded Kelsey as the company's trader at George. While at George, Audubon made a careful study of the prairie dog and learned as much in the three days as subsequent or previous observers have been able to find out. Audubon was pleased to find that Mr. Cutting, who at the time was laid - up with a lame foot, injured by being thrown from his horse in a buffalo chase, was an ac- quaintance of his son Victor's, whom he had met in Cuba. The journal also says: "Mr. Taylor showed me the petrified head of a beaver which he supposed to be that of a wolf, but I showed him the difference at once. He found, while at George, a magpie and a black-headed grosbeak.

They reached Fort Pierre on May 31st and were warmly welcomed by Messrs. Picotte and Chadron. Audubon says: "More kindness from strangers I have seldom received. I was pre- sented with the largest pair of elk horns I ever saw, also the skin of the animal itself, most beau- tifully prepared, which I hope to give to my beloved wife." He spent the short time at Pierre writing letters, which were dispatched next day down river by the steamboat "Trapper." A daughter of Captain Sire's, with her husband, was at Pierre and proceeded to Fort Union on the "Omega." Audubon says: "She soled three pairs of moccasins for me as skillfully as an Indian." They left for the up-river trip June Ist, at two P. M. After they got under way, "we found a rascally Indian on board who had hid himself for the purpose of murdering Mr. Chardon. The latter gave him a thrashing for thieving last year and Indians never forget such things ; he had sworn vengeance and that was enough. Mr. Chardon discovered him below armed with a knife: he talked to him pretty freely and then came up to ask the captain to put

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him ashore. This request was granted and he and his bundle were dropped overboard where the water was waist deep; he scrambled ashore and we heard afterward made out to reach Fort Pierre." They passed Arickara June 4th and found the place deserted, and next day left the state without noteworthy incident after getting rid of the Indian at Pierre. Audubon and his party of assistants, consisting of Messrs Bell, Harris and Sprague, and some hired hunters, went on to the upper river where they remained until noon on August 12th when, accompanied by Alexander Culbertson, trader at Fort Union, and his wife and child, they embarked in the Mackinaw barge "Union" from Fort Union and proceeded leisurely down stream, spending much time in scientific research daily. They re-entered South Dakota on September Ist and were just one month in passing down through the state, arriving at the mouth of the Sioux on October ist. At Elk Point (this is the first time that the name appears in any of the writings so far as my observation goes) the old gentleman stumbled while entering his boat and injured his knee. He says: "I am getting an old man, for this evening I missed my footing on getting into the boat and bruised my knee and elbow, but at seventy and over I cannot have the spring of seventeen." The next day he says, "My knee is too sore to allow me to walk."

The trip resulted in the accumulation of a vast deal of scientific information as well as the preservation of the record of the native fauna of this region. Captain LaBarge complains in his memoirs, that upon this trip Audubon was ex- ceedingly irascible and difficult to get along with.

In the summer of 1847 Captain LaBarge made his first voyage up the river as master of his own vessel, the "Martha." though for many years he had navigated the stream as pilot. On this trip he was accompanied by his wife, who was undoubtedly the first white woman to visit the South Dakota country. The government at this time made it a practice to annually send agents to the Indian tribes of the Missouri with gifts of goods and trinkets, and on this trip a new

agent named Matlock was aboard with gifts for the Yanktons, who were found at Crow Creek. Matlock appears to have been entirely under control of the American Fur Company and de- sirous of promoting their interests. When the Yanktons were reached he gave them a feast and told them to go to Fort Pierre to receive their presents. This was done in the interests of the trade of the fur company, but the Indians protested and demanded their presents to be given them there. Matlock then dealt out a portion of the presents at Fort Pierre. Colin Campbell, the fur company's agent, was present and ex- ceedingly officious in the entire proceeding. Cap- tain Chittenden tells the story as follows: "The Indians were sharp enough to see that they had not received all they were entitled to and nat- urally could not understand why. Campbell. as- sured them they would receive the balance at Pierre. 'Why not here,' asked the Indians. 'Why make this long journey for what we can just as well get right here?' Campbell turned them off by saying the Indian agent would have better facilities for distributing the goods at the fort. The Indians sullenly acquiesced, appar- ently much dissatisfied. Campbell had cut ten or twelve cords of wood at this place for the use of the boat, but it was not needed until the down trip. Captain LaBarge feared, however, that if it was left, the Indians, in their present temper, would burn it, and therefore concluded to take it along. The Indians refused to allow the wood to be taken without pay and seated themselves on the pile so the men could not take it. The captain was compelled to pay for the wood, though it was cut by company men. But the matter did not end here. Etienne Provost, who was employed on these trips to take charge of the rough and turbulent mountain men, was asked to attend to the loading of the wood, as it was feared there might be trouble. Provost came up on the hoiler deck and sat down by Captain LaBarge, saying, 'We are going to have some fun before that wood is loaded.' He then shouted, 'Woodpile, woodpile,' and enough men rushed out on the bank to take the whole wood- pile at once. Provost then ordered them to take

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up as much wood as they could carry and then to move onto the boat one after the other so as to have no crowding or confusion on the gangplank. Meanwhile a dozen or more Indians were stand- ing by looking on. When the men were loaded up and were jammed closed together in single file on their way to the boat, the Indians jumped upon them and began to belabor them with the rawhide horsewhips which they always had fas- tened to their wrists. The men were frightened almost out of their wits and, dropping the wood. scrambled on board the best way they could. Pro- vost lay back roaring with laughter, saying, 'I told you we should have some fun.' He then went out himself onto the bank where the Indi- ans were and said, 'Now, men, come out here and get the wood.' They came out and loaded up. 'Now go on board,' he said, and they went entirely unmolested. Provost went last, and be- fore descending the bank turned towards the Indians and asked them, 'Why don't you stop them? Are you afraid of me?' The truth is they were afraid of him. They knew him well and understood he would stand no foolishness. LaBarge thought nothing further of the affair, for the Indians soon disappeared, as he supposed for good. The wind was too high to proceed and the boat remained at the bank nearly all the after- noon, waiting for it to subside. 'Everything quieted down,' said the Captain in describing what followed, 'and I was sitting in my cabin reading a paper, when all of a sudden there was a heavy volley of firearms and the sound of splintered wood and broken glass. This was instantly followed by an Indian yell and a rush for the boat, and in the uproar some one cried out that a man had been killed. The Indians got full possession of the forward part of the boat and flooded the boiler grates with water, putting out the fires. They had learned something of steam in the fifteen years that boats had been going up the river. My first act was to rush to my wife's stateroom, where I found Mrs. La- Barge unharmed. I told John B. Sarpy, who with his son was making the trip, to barricade her door with mattresses and to stay there until the trouble was over. I then hastened to the

front of the cabin, but was met at the door by the Indians. Returning, I met Colin Campbell and asked him what the Indians wanted. Camp- bell replied that they wanted me to give up the boat ; that if I would do so they would let the crew go, but if I resisted they would spare no one. After the rush the Indians seemed timor- ous and uncertain, evidently fearing some sur- prise in the unknown labyrinths of the boat. This gave me time for effective measures. I had on board a light cannon, of about two and a half inch calibre, mounted on four wheels. Unluckily it was at this time down in the engine room 1111- dergoing some repairs to the carriage. I had in my employ a man on whom I could absolutely rely, a brave and noble fellow, Nathan Grismore, first engineer. Grismore had just finished work on the cannon and told me he thought he could get it up the back way since the fore part of the boat was in the possession of the Indians. He got some men and lines and soon hoisted the gun on deck and hauled it into the after part of the cabin. I always kept in the cabin some powder and shot for use in hunting. I got the powder, but the supply of shot was gone. Grismore promptly made up the loss with boiler rivets and the gun was heavily loaded and printed for ac- tion. By this time the forward part of the cabin was crowded with Indians, who were evidently afraid something was going to happen. I lost 10 time in verifying their fears. As soon as the gun was loaded I lighted a cigar and, holding the smoking stump in sight of the Indians, told Campbell to tell them to get off the boat or 1 would blow them all to the devil. At the same time I started for the gun with the lighted cigar in my hand. The effect was complete and in- stantaneous. The Indians turned and fled and al- most fell over each other in their panic to get off the boat. In less time than it takes to tell it not an Indian was in sight. I had the cannon brought to the roof, where it remained for an hour or so. As soon as the Indians were off the boat I began to look up the crew, who had ingloriously fled at the first assault, leaving the boat practically defenseless. They had hidden, some here and some there, but most

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of them on the wheels (it was a side-wheel boat), where I found them packed thick as sardines all over the paddles. These were the brave moun- taineers who were never slow in vaunting their courage and valorous performances. I was so disgusted that I was disposed to set the wheels in motion and give them all a good ducking, but the fires had been put out by the Indians. The next morning we buried the deck hand, Charles

Smith, who had been killed by the Indians.'" The Colin Campbell mentioned by Captain LaBarge, who by this time had risen to be the burgoise at Fort Pierre, was none other than that Colin Campbell who, twenty years before, had, as the interpreter to Joshua Pilcher, been so officious and so troublesome to Colonel Leaven- worth at the fight before the villages at Aric- kara.

CHAPTER XIX

FATHER PETER JOHN DESMET.

While it is certain that Father DeSmet passed down the Missouri river prior to that date upon his return from sojourns among the tribes of the Rocky mountains, he has left no definite record of visits to the South Dakota Indians prior to 1848. He states that he was prompted to this trip by a transient visit to the tribes of the Sioux on the upper Missouri, made upon his return from the Rocky mountains which left in him an "ardent desire to see those poor Indians." He particularly wished to learn of their disposi- tion toward the establishment of a permanent mission among them. He therefore left St. Louis in the spring of that year, ascending the river on the American Fur Company's steamer as far as the mouth of the Platte, whence he proceeded overland to the mouth of the Niobrara. He traveled on horseback and spent twenty-five days upon the prairie, but strangely enough did not see a single Indian in all of the Nebraska region, but was almost driven to distraction by mosquitoes, gnats and gadflys. At the mouth of the Niobrara he came upon the entire tribe of the Poncas, whom he had not before seen. They received him cordially and he was able to dis- suade them from a purpose to rob and kill the post trader at the fur post nearby. At this time the Poncas were at war with the Pawnees and they accused the trader with favoring their enemies. They took Father DeSmet to their vil- lage, some four miles away, where he told them the gospel story, to which they listened most re- spectfully and with declarations of belief which

misled the credulous father into the hope that they would soon become a Christian nation.

From the Poncas, Father DeSmet made an excursion through the Bad Lands, where he made many valuable observations in science and natural history. From the Bad Lands he re- turned to the Missouri and visited the different tribes of the Sioux, particularly visiting Fort Pierre and Fort Bouis, the latter located near the big bend. At the time of this visit the Sioux were in deep disgrace and humiliation. They had made a foray against the Crows, but had been defeated, a dozen of their warriors killed and the remainder driven away with clubs, the Crows not deeming them worthy the wasting of powder and ball upon. Father DeSmet made many converts among the Sioux and baptized several hundred of them. Late in the autumn he returned to St. Louis, from which point he wrote his observations upon the events of the trip and mentions the fact that Father Heocken had made a previous visit to the Sioux and had baptized several hundred of them.

It does not appear that Father DeSmet re- turned to the Dakota country until the summer of 1851 when, in company with Father Christian Heocken, he embarked from St. Louis on the 7th of June on the American Fur Company steamer "St. Ange." There were something more than eighty passengers on the vessel. chiefly engages of the company. It was a cold, raw, unhealthy season and six days out from St. Louis the cholera broke out on the vessel. The first victim

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was a clerk of the fur company's, who died after a few hours' illness. The boat became a floating hospital and within a few days there were thirteen deaths. The two priests labored inces- santly, nursing the sick and comforting the dying until Father DeSmet himself was taken with the disease and at one time was considered beyond cure, but he rallied just at the moment when Father Heocken was smitten. The latter died on the 19th of June and was buried that day near the mouth of the Little Sioux. Five other passengers died, making nineteen in all, or more than twenty per cent. of all on board. The

river upon the steamer, which could not wait. During the subsequent years and as late as 1866 Father DeSmet spent much time with the Dakota Indians, and became a powerful influence for good among them. In 1858, at the request of General William S. Harney, he was appointed a chaplain of the United States army, but served without pay. Dr. LeLorme W. Robinson thus summarizes his work: "During his ministry of abort a half century he traversed and retraversed the land from the Missouri to the Pacific and lived in the most friendly intercourse with almost every wild tribe, whether hostile or friendly.

FATHER DESMET.

pestilence abated as they proceeded up river, but when they reached Fort Bouis they found a great epidemic of cholera in progress. Father De- Smet, still weak from the cholera, left the boat while it was making the circuit of the big bend and spent the time nursing and comforting the sick. At Fort Pierre the smallpox was also rag- ing and cholera added its terrors ; it is creditably reported that more than thirteen hundred Sioux died from the combined ravages of the small- pox and cholera that season. Father DeSmet exerted himself for the comfort of the stricken people, but was soon compelled to go on up

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History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 19

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