USA > Wyoming > History of Wyoming, Volume I > Part 5
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From the map mentioned (Colter's description was not accurate in many particulars) the course of this first discoverer can be traced to the west of Yel- lowstone Lake and into the geyser district. That he saw the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Tower Falls and Mount Washburn is almost certain. He no doubt followed the Indian trail leading from Yellowstone River to the Big
YELLOWSTONE LAKE, YELLOWSTONE PARK
YELLOWSTONE CANYON FROM INSPIRATION POINT
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Horn, finally arriving at Lisa's trading post, after he had long been given up as lost.
Colter's account of the wonders he had seen in the Rocky Mountains was not accepted by the public. Even his friends are said to have tapped their foreheads significantly when referring to the subject, as much as to say: "Poor Colter! He has told that story so often that he probably believes it himself, but his mind is evidently wandering." Others, in a spirit of derision, gave the name of "Colter's Hell" to the region that later explorers were to prove he had graphically and truthfully described.
JIM BRIDGER
After Colter, the next man to visit the park region was probably Jim Brid- ger, the famous scout and frontiersman. Bridger was something of a romancer, and the stories he told of the wonders of the Yellowstone were somewhat "over- drawn," to say the least. One of his stories was that one day, while going through what is now the National Park, he saw an elk quietly grazing within easy rifle range. Taking deliberate aim, he fired his rifle, but much to his astonishment the animal kept on grazing as though it had not even heard the report of the gun. Two or three more shots were fired with no better results, so he determined to investigate. Approaching the elk stealthily he was again surprised when he came to a solid wall of glass, on the opposite side of which was the elk at which he had been shooting. Not only that, but the wall of glass acted as a magnifying lens and the elk was twenty-five miles away. No wonder it did not hear the reports of Bridger's rifle.
The story was quite likely suggested to Bridger's imagination by his dis- covery of the obsidian cliff of black volcanic glass, about half way between the Norris Geyser Basin and the Mammoth Hot Springs, though the obsidian is opaque and it would be impossible to see an elk, or any other object through it at any distance. This volcanic glass was used by the aborigines for lance and arrow heads and other weapons, large numbers of which have been found in the vicinity of the park.
Bridger told some of his wonderful stories to Captain Warner, Capt. W. F. Raynolds, Dr. F. V. Hayden and other early explorers, who received them with the proverbial "grain of salt," though they afterward found that the old scout's narrative contained a large percentage of truth. An editor of one of the lead- ing western newspapers stated in 1879, after the reports of Colter and Bridger had been verified by official explorations, that more than thirty years before he had prepared an article for publication, based upon Bridger's account of the Yellowstone region, but did not publish it because one of his friends advised him that he would "be laughed out of town if he printed any of old Jim Bridger's lies." He afterward apologized to Bridger for lack of confidence in his veracity.
EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS
Capt. W. F. Raynolds of the United States topographical engineers, under orders from the war department, led an expedition from Fort Pierre on the Missouri into Wyoming. His orders were to explore "the country through
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which flow the principal tributaries of the Yellowstone River, the mountains in which they and the Gallatin and Madison forks of the Missouri have their source," etc. Dr. F. V. Hayden accompanied the expedition as geologist and James Bridger acted as guide. Captain Raynolds made his report in 1860, but the Civil war came on the next year, which practically put a stop to further ex- ploration for almost a decade.
During the war parties of gold seekers penetrated into the mountain ranges in the neighborhood of the park and some accounts of their discoveries were published in the newspapers. In September, 1869, David E. Folsom, William Peterson and C. W. Cook left Diamond City on the Missouri River and spent about a month in the vicinity of the Yellowstone Lake. In the Western Monthly for July, 1871, was published an article from the pen of Mr. Folsom which wielded considerable influence toward the sending of other expeditions into the country about the sources of the Yellowstone.
What is generally known as the "Washburn-Doane Expedition" was organ- ized in Montana in the summer of 1870 and was provided with a military escort from Fort Ellis by order of Gen. P. H. Sheridan. The leader of this expedition was Gen. Henry D. Washburn, then surveyor-general of Montana. Among those who accompanied him were Nathaniel P. Langford, who wrote an account of the explorations for Scribner's Magazine, and who was after- ward the first superintendent of the park; Thomas C. Everts, ex-United States assessor for Montana; Samuel T. Hauser, later governor of Montana; Walter Trumbull, son of United States Senator Trumbull, who also published an ac- count of the expedition in the Overland Monthly for June, 1871; and Cornelius Hedges, who was the first man to propose setting apart the region as a national park. This party entered the park on August 21, 1870, under the escort of a small detachment of the Second United States Cavalry commanded by Lieut. Gustavus C. Doane, whose name is coupled with that of General Washburn.
From the heights of Mount Washburn (then unnamed) they saw at a distance the Canyon and Falls of the Yellowstone, the geyser basin on the Firehole River, which was pointed out to them by James Bridger, and then de- scended into the plateau for a more systematic examination of the natural won- ders. On September 9, 1870, Thomas C. Everts became separated from the other members of the expedition and wandered about through the wild region for thirty-seven days before his comrades found him almost dead from hunger and exposure. Mr. Everts, after his recovery, wrote an account of his experi- ences for Scribner's Magazine, which was widely read and was afterward re- produced by General Chittenden in his "History of Yellowstone National Park." In this history General Chittenden gives the following account of the origin of the national park idea:
"The members of the party were sitting around the campfire after supper (September 19, 1870), conversing about what they had seen and picturing to themselves the important pleasure resort which so wonderful a region must soon become. The natural impulse to turn the fruits of discovery to their personal profit made its appearance, and it was suggested that it would be a 'profitable speculation' to take up lands around the various objects of interest. The con- versation had not gone far in that direction, when one of the party-Cornelius Hedges-interposed and said that private ownership of that region, or any
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part of it, ought never to be sold by the government, but that it should be set apart and forever held to the unrestricted use of the people. This higher view of the subject found immediate acceptance with the other members of the party. It was agreed that the project should be at once set on foot and pushed vigorously to a finish."
In 1871 the United States sent two expeditions to the Upper Yellowstone- one under the leadership of Dr. F. V. Hayden and the other under Captains Heap and Barlow of the engineer corps. The reports of this joint expedition aided materially the project brought before Congress set on foot by the Wash- burn-Doane expedition. In the Helena Herald of November 9, 1870, appeared an article from the pen of Cornelius Hedges, giving reasons why the country about the Yellowstone Lake should be set apart as a national reservation. A little later Nathaniel P. Langford addressed a meeting in Washington, D. C., presided over by James G. Blaine, then speaker of the national house of repre- sentatives. In this way the subject was brought to the attention of Congress.
ACT OF DEDICATION
Mr. Langford and William H. Clagett, member of Congress from Mon- tana, drew up a bill providing for the establishment of the Yellowstone National Park. This hill was introduced in the house on December 18, 1871, by Mr. Clagett, and Senator Pomeroy of Kansas introduced it in the senate. After receiving the approval of the secretary of the interior and Dr. F. V. Hayden, it passed both houses and was approved by President Grant on March 1, 1872. The boundaries of the park, as defined by this act, are as follows:
"Commencing at the junction of Gardiner's River with the Yellowstone River and running east to the meridian passing ten miles to the eastward of the most eastern point of the Yellowstone Lake; then south along said meridian to the parallel of latitude passing ten miles south of the most southern point of the Yellowstone Lake; thence west along said parallel to the meridian passing fifteen miles west of the most western point of Madison Lake; thence north along said meridian to the latitude of the junction of the Yellowstone and Gardi- ner's rivers; thence east to the place of beginning."
Under the boundaries as thus established, the park extends two miles north of the northern boundary of Wyoming, and two miles west of the western boundary, being sixty-two miles long and fifty-four miles wide. The act placed the park under the control of the secretary of the interior, who was given the authority to grant leases, at his discretion, for periods not exceeding ten years, and all buildings erected by the lessees to be located and erected under his direction, the proceeds of such leases to be expended by his authority in the construction of roads, etc.
MANAGEMENT OF THE PARK
The report of the park supervisor, Chester A. Lindsley, for the year 1917 says : "The park was governed by civilian superintendents, assisted by a few scouts, from the time it was set aside until August 10, 1886, when troops of United States Cavalry were detailed to police it, the commanding officer acting
CASCADE GEYSER, YELLOWSTONE PARK
YELLOWSTONE FALLS
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as superintendent under direct orders of the secretary of the interior. On Oc- tober 16, 1916, the troops were withdrawn from the park and a civilian super- visor, with a corps of twenty-five rangers, for patrol and protection work, and a few civilian employees for other duties, were appointed by the secretary of the interior to replace them. Under recent legislation by Congress, troops were returned to the park on June 26, 1917. This action was necessary on account of a clause contained in the sundry civil appropriation act of June 12, 1917, making appropriations for the park for the fiscal year 1918. By virtue of this law, the park supervisor was relieved of so much of the park duties as pertain to 'protection'."
Park headquarters are located at the Mammoth Hot Springs, five miles in- side the park line at the northern entrance. Here are located the water and electric light systems, the telephone exchange, etc. The maintenance and con- struction of roads, bridges and general improvements in the park are carried on by special appropriation under the war department, an officer of the engineer- ing department being in charge of the work. Automobiles were first admitted on August 1, 1915, but did not come into general use as a method of transpor- tation until 1917, when practically all of the transportation of tourists was consolidated under one company-"The Yellowstone Park Transportation Company." During the season from June 20 to September 15, 1917, a total of 13,283 tourists were taken through the park by this company, and 21,915 per- sons visited the park with their own transportation and camping outfits.
The Yellowstone Park Hotel Company operates all of the hotels in the park. There are four hotels-the Mammoth Hot Springs, the Upper Basin, the Lake House and the Canyon Hotel. At all of these hotels garages and supply houses are maintained and there are four free automobile camps and shelter houses in the park, placed on the main lines of travel, besides there are six other camping places, where oils and gasoline may be obtained by tourists.
There are four main entrances to the park-north, east, south and west. The northern entrance may be reached by the Northern Pacific Railway, the west entrance by the Union Pacific, the east entrance by stage from Cody, where it connects with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, and the south entrance can be reached only by automobile or other means of private conveyance. Each year witnesses improvements for the accommodation and comfort of tourists, the number of which is constantly increasing.
AN ANIMAL SANCTUARY
Howard M. Albright, acting director of the National Park Service, in his report to the secretary of the interior for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1917, says: "The killing of wild animals, except predatory animals when absolutely necessary, is strictly forbidden in Yellowstone Park by law. The park is there- fore the greatest wild animal sanctuary in the world. We endeavor to refrain from calling it a game sanctuary, because park animals are not game in the popular sense of the term. The park is, however, the great source of game supply for the surrounding territory, and the states of Wyoming and Montana have widely sought to assist in the protection and control of this supply."
Elk, antelope and both mule and white-tailed deer are numerous in the park.
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During the winter of 1916-17 more than two hundred tons of alfalfa were fed to these animals by the employees of the park service. Heavy snows drove large numbers of elk and antelope out of the park, in search of a lower altitude. They found shelter from the severe weather in the Jackson's Hole country in Wyo- ming and near Electric, Mont. It is in such cases that the protective laws of those states, mentioned by Mr. Albright, come into play. The animals were pro- tected by the state game wardens from the thoughtless sportsman and when the weather conditions improved they returned to the park of their own accord. Since 1911 the total number of elk shipped from the park to other states or mu- nicipalities, "where their future protection is assured," was 2,263, and on June 9, 1917, there were nearly twenty thousand in the park. A few moose are fre- quently seen, the tame herd of buffalo numbered 330 in June, 1917, black and cinnamon bears are numerous, and there are 194 known varieties of birds to be found in the park. The United States Fish Commission maintains a branch fish hatchery in the park. It is located on the shore of Yellowstone Lake, near the Lake House. During the season of 1917 a total of 1,773,000 young fish were planted in the lakes and streams of the park. Fishing by visitors is permitted, and Mr. Lindsley says in his report for 1917: "The confining of fishing to the strict letter of the regulations has not been disappointing in its results, as its effects have already been noticed in the additional interest in fishing manifested by travelers ; and it has not proven as much of a disappointment to the hotels and camps as was expected, for the reason that tourists have taken an unusual inter- est in fishing and have caught many fish that have found their way to the tables."
The object in planting fish in the waters, for tourists to catch, is "to make the national parks more popular as playgrounds of the people, where amusements can be found in addition to the scenery." The lover of rod and line should there- fore be attracted to the Yellowstone National Park, where he can "cast flies" to his heart's content, while at the same time enjoying the picturesque scenery and natural wonders of the park.
From the Herbrit Coffeen Collection
TWO MOONS
A Cheyenne Chief who led his tribe in the fight with General Custer in 1876.
CHAPTER IV INDIAN HISTORY
EVIDENCES OF AN ANCIENT CIVILIZATION-THE INDIAN RACE-TRIBAL DISTRIBU- TION AT THE CLOSE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY-WYOMING TRIBES-THE ARAPAHO-TRADITION OF THE FLOOD THE CHEYENNE-THE CROW-THE SHOSHONE-CHIEF WASHAKIE-OTHER TRIBES-FOREIGN POLICY TOWARD THE INDIANS-THE UNITED STATES POLICY-ADOPTION OF THE TREATY SYSTEM- TREATY OF FORT LARAMIE-BOUNDARIES OF TRIBAL DOMAINS-TREATY WITH TIIE SIOUX-THE CROW TREATY- CHEYENNE AND ARAPAHO TREATY-TREATY OF FORT BRIDGER-WIND RIVER RESERVATION.
Before the white man the Indian; before the Indian, who? The question is more easily asked than answered. Archaeologists have found in Wyoming evi- dences of the existence of an ancient race, which some writers on the subject think was contemporary with the cliff dwellers of Colorado. Along the Big Horn and Wind rivers, and about the sources of the Yellowstone, have been found steatite vessels, lance and arrow heads, stone knives, celts and other weapons and utensils different from any found in the mounds in other sections of the country. Many of these utensils are of a green marble, marked by veins, or stones of volcanic origin, and no one has been able to determine from whence they came. Similar relics, as well as cotton and a coarse thread, have been found in the Santa Lucia Valley in New Mexico, from which it is inferred that the aborigines of that section and those of Wyoming were closely related. Says Bancroft : "Heaps of bones, tools, ornaments, weapons, burial cairns and mining shafts are among the proofs of their presence. At what period they disappeared and recent tribes took their place is among the secrets which the past refuses to disclose."
Since the first investigations of Squier and Davis among the mounds of the Mississippi Valley, about 1845 to 1850, a great deal has been written regarding the first inhabitants of the American continent. The early writers on the sub- ject were almost a unit in attributing to the aborigines a great antiquity, and in advocating the theory that they were of a separate race. More recent explorations among the mounds and relics have disclosed the fact that their civilization- if such it can be called-resembled in many particulars that of some of the Indian tribes encountered by the first white men who came to what now constitutes the United States. This is especially true of the tribes inhabiting the Lower Missis- sippi Valley and the country along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, who the first explorers in that region found using knives and other utensils of obsidian, very similar in appearance to those found in Wyoming and New Mexico. In
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the early part of the Seventeenth Century, the Natchez and other southern tribes of Indians were accustomed to the erection of burial mounds and cairns. These and kindred facts have been brought to light by the research of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, and the general theory now is that the so- called Mound Builders and other aboriginal peoples were nothing more than the ancestors of the tribes that inhabited the country at the time it was first visited by white men.
THE INDIAN RACE
Probably more pages have been written relating to the Indian tribes of North America than on any other subject pertaining to American history. To the student of history there is a peculiar fascination in the story of these savage tribes-their legends, traditions and customs-that makes the topic always one of surpassing interest, and no history of Wyoming would be complete without some account of the tribes that inhabited the country before the advent of the white man.
When Christopher Columbus made his first voyage to the New World in 1492, he believed that he had at last reached the goal of his long cherished ambitions, and that the country where he landed was the eastern shore of Asia. Early European explorers in America, entertaining a similar belief, thought the country was. India and gave to the race of copper colored people they found here the name of "Indians." Later explorations disclosed the fact that the land discov- ered by Columbus was really a continent hitherto unknown to the civilized nations of the world. The error in geography was thus corrected, but the name given by the first adventurers to the natives still remains.
TRIBAL DISTRIBUTION
The North American Indians are divided into several groups or families, each of which is distinguished by certain physical and linguistic characteristics, and each group is subdivided into a number of tribes, each of which is ruled over by a chief. At the close of the Fifteenth Century, when the first Europeans began their explorations in America, they found the various leading Indian families distributed over the continent as follows:
In the far north were the Eskimo, a people that have never played any con- spicuous part in history. These Indians still inhabit the country about the Arctic Circle, where some of them have been occasionally employed as guides to polar expeditions, which has been about their only association with the white man.
The Algonquian family, the most numerous and powerful of all the Indian nations, occupied a great triangle, roughly bounded by the Atlantic coast from Labrador to Cape Hatteras and by lines drawn from those two points to the western end of Lake Superior. Within this triangle lived the Delaware, Shaw- nee, Miami, Pottawatomi, Sac and Fox and other powerful tribes, which yielded slowly to the advance of the superior race. Almost in the very heart of the Algonquian triangle-along the shores of Lake Ontario and the upper reaches of the St. Lawrence River-lived the Iroquoian group, which was composed of the Oneida, Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca tribes. To the early
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settlers of New York these tribes were known as the "Five Nations." Some years afterward the Tuscarora tribe was added to the confederacy, which then took the name of the "Six Nations."
South of the Algonquian country, extending from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic coast, was the region inhabited by the Muskhogean family, the lead- ing tribes of which were the Creek, Chickasaw, Cherokee and Choctaw. The Indians of this group were among the most intelligent as well as the most aggres- sive and warlike of all the North American tribes.
In the great Northwest, about the sources of the Mississippi River and ex- tending westward to the Missouri, lay the domain of the Siouan family, which was composed of a number of tribes closely resembling each other in physical appearance and dialect, and noted for their warlike tendencies and military prowess.
South and west of the Siouan country lived the "Plains Indians," com- posed of tribes of mixed stock. Their domain extended westward to the foot- hills of the Rocky Mountains. Among these tribes were the Arapaho and Chey- enne in the northern part and the Apache, Comanche and Kiowa farther to the south. All these tribes were bold and vindictive in disposition and skilful hunters.
West of the Plains Indians dwelt the Shoshonean group, the principal tribes of which were the Shoshone, Bannock and Comanche. This group was one of the smallest on the continent. Farther south, in what are now the states of Arkansas and Louisiana was the Caddoan group, and scattered over other parts of the country were numerous minor tribes which in all probability had separated from some of the great families, but who, at the time they first came in contact with the white men claimed kinship with none. These tribes were generally inferior in numbers, often nomadic in their habits, and consequently are of little importance historically.
In a history of such as this, it is not the design to give an extended account of the Indian race as a whole, but to notice only those tribes whose history is inti- mately connected with the territory now comprising the State of Wyoming. Foremost among these tribes are the Arapaho, Bannock, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Crow, Shoshone, and certain minor tribes of the Siouan stock.
THE ARAPAHO
Some ethnologists place the Arapaho among the tribes of the Siouan family, but the United States Bureau of Ethnology classifies them as one of the Algon- quian tribes, which separated from the main body of that group long before the first white men came to America. One of their traditions says that many hun- dred years ago the tribe lived in Western Minnesota, from which region they were driven by the Sioux. In their migrations they became divided into three tribes-the Gros Ventres of the prairie and the Northern and Southern Arapaho. This division took place when the tribe reached the Missouri River, early in the Nineteenth Century. The Gros Ventres then went north and joined the Black- feet, seldom afterward visiting their brethren.
Dorsey says the word Arapaho means the "tattooed people," and says a tribal tradition claims that these Indians once inhabited all the country between
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