Travels in the Interior of North America Part 19

During our stay here, on board the vessel, we were continually besieged by Indians, who did not move from the spot. Our time was, therefore, divided between these visitors and our excursions into the prairie. On the 2nd of June, 7,000 buffalo skins and other furs were put on board the Yellow Stone, with which it was to return to St.

Louis. We took this opportunity of sending letters to Europe: the a.s.siniboin was a.s.signed us for the continuation of the voyage. The weather, at this time, was very unfavourable; it rained at a temperature of 57, and we were obliged to have a fire in our cabin throughout the day. The a.s.siniboin had already taken our baggage on board, but still lay on the east bank, for an attempt to bring it over to our side had failed, because the water was too low. In the afternoon, when we visited Mr. Laidlow in the fort, six Sioux, from the prairie, arrived on horseback, whose horde, of 200 tents, was at the distance of a [pg. 161] day's journey. They brought word that, two days' march from the fort, there were numerous herds of buffaloes.

Among these new comers there were some elderly men; the plaits of their hair were wound about with strips of skin, and their faces were painted red; their bodies were fleshy, which was a proof that they had suffered less from hunger than those in the fort. They paid a visit first to the a.s.siniboin, and then to Mr. Laidlow, who gave them food and tobacco. Mr. Lamont, who had taken leave of us to-day, to go by the steam-boat to St. Louis, embarked with some of the Company's clerks: he was saluted with several cannon shot, and before evening the Yellow Stone rapidly descended the river. While Messrs. Mc Kenzie, Sandford, and Mitch.e.l.l took up their abode in the fort, we went on board the a.s.siniboin, from which I made, on the 4th of June, an interesting excursion into the prairie, in order to make myself acquainted with the eastern bank.

I left the vessel at half-past seven o'clock, the thermometer being at 59, and immediately ascended the steep eminences, of which the lower were covered partly with bright green, partly with dry, yellow gra.s.s, and the higher ones bare, with the surface frequently blackened by fire. A path, trodden by the elks to the river, led me to the highest summit, from which I had a pleasing prospect of the opposite bank and the fort. It lay, clearly delineated, in the extensive verdant plain, bounded by a singular chain of hills; and I again distinguished, half way up the mountains, the black stripe of the extensive stratum of coal. At noon it was warm and I returned much heated, the thermometer being at 72. We received a visit from six or seven newly arrived Tetons, whom the interpreter, Dorion, introduced to us. They were particularly interested by the steam-boat, and, after they had very minutely examined it, they were served with dinner and pipes. The dinner chiefly consisted of bacon, which the Indians do not like; [pg. 162] they, however, swallowed it, in order that they might not appear uncourteous. Among them was a Teton, named Wah-Menitu (the spirit, or G.o.d, in the water), and who had such a voracious appet.i.te, that he devoured everything which the others had left; his face was painted red; he had a remarkably projecting upper lip, and an aquiline nose much bent. In his hair, which hung in disorder about his head, with a plait coming over one of his eyes or nose, the feather of a bird of prey was placed horizontally; but observe that he had a right to wear three. Mr. Bodmer, who desired to draw this man's portrait, gave him some vermilion, on which he spat, and rubbed his face with it, drawing parallel lines, in the red colour, with a wooden stick.[292] Wah-Menitu stayed on board for the night; sung, talked, laughed, and joked without ceasing; and seemed quite to enjoy himself.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Teton]

FOOTNOTES:

[254] This river rises in the Black Hills, near the sources of Tongue River, and discharges itself into the Missouri, about 1,000 miles from its mouth. The mouth of this river is said to be 150 paces broad, and its current very rapid. In the American descriptions of travels, the French name of this river is generally written incorrectly; for instance, "Qui-courre River," &c. It likewise bears the name of the Rapid River. Bradbury gives the names of some plants which he gathered on its banks.--MAXIMILIAN.

[255] Ponca Creek, a small prairie stream, rises in the eastern part of Tripp County, South Dakota, and flows east and southeast about parallel to the Niobrara. Lewis and Clark speak of mineral springs on the northern bank, but do not mention them as warm.--ED.

[256] A conspicuous landmark in Wheeler County, South Dakota, just below Fort Randall, at the 969 mile mark from the mouth of the Missouri. Lewis and Clark speak of it as the Dome.--ED.

[257] Hugh Gla.s.s's adventures with wild beasts and Indians formed a kind of frontier epic, and were told around many a camp-fire. All that is known of his early life is that he came from Pennsylvania, and was spoken of as "old man Gla.s.s." He was in the Ankara campaign of 1823, and seriously wounded. Nevertheless he set out with Andrew Henry for the Yellowstone, but was nearly killed by a grizzly bear, and left to die. He survived, made his way to Fort Kiowa, and later joined Henry on the Yellowstone. See Chittenden, _Fur-Trade_, ii, pp. 698-705. For his death, see _post_, volume xxiv.--ED.

[258] Sir George Back (1796-1878), a well-known explorer of arctic North America. He entered the navy in 1808, and in 1817 made his first northern journey in company with Sir John Franklin. Later he accompanied Franklin on several expeditions, being one of his most trusted lieutenants. In 1833 Back organized an expedition to search for Sir John Ross; his account of this latter enterprise was published as _Narrative of the Arctic Land Expedition, 1833, 1834, and 1835_ (London, 1836). In 1836 Back made a final voyage in the "Terror,"

whose narrative was published in 1838. Upon his return he received many honors, being knighted, made rear-admiral (1857), and admiral (1867). Maximilian quotes either from his earlier book, or from some of his narratives published with those of Franklin's expeditions.--ED.

[259] Little Cedar Island, still so-called, is just above Wheeler, South Dakota, about 1010 miles up the river. Maximilian has confused the distance with that of an island beyond, upon which Fort Recovery stood, given by Bradbury as 1075 miles up. See note 261, _post_, p.

304, and Bradbury's _Travels_, our volume v, p. 99, note 66.--ED.

[260] Bijoux Hills are on the east bank of the river, not far below Chamberlain, South Dakota. Bijoux was an engage with Long. See our volume xvi, pp. 58-59. Catlin, _North American Indians_, ii, p. 432, says Bijoux was ultimately killed by the Sioux.--ED.

[261] The name Shannon was given to the first creek by Lewis and Clark, for one of their men, George Shannon, who here rejoined them after an absence of sixteen days, when he had been lost on the prairies. It is now called Dry (or Rosebud) Creek, with Rosebud Landing at its mouth.

White, a South Dakota river, entering the Missouri in Lyman County, from the west.--ED.

[262] This is the post usually known as Fort Recovery; see Bradbury's _Travels_, our volume v, p. 99, note 67.--ED.

[263] Fort Lookout had originally been built (about 1822) by the Columbia Fur Company, and from them pa.s.sed into the hands of the American Fur Company. Later, the Indian agency was established here, as Maximilian notes. It later became a military post where troops were quartered until the building of Fort Randall in 1857. The site was some ten miles above Chamberlain, on the west bank--ED.

[264] For the Yankton, see our volume v, p. 90, note 55.--ED.

[265] Maximilian's cla.s.sification of the Dakota (or Sioux) is in accord with modern philological conclusions. J. W. Powell, "Indian Linguistic Families," in United States Bureau of Ethnology _Report_, 1885-86, gives six subdivisions of this great tribe--Santee, Wahpeton, Sisseton, Yankton, Yanktonnai, and Teton; the last three, or Missouri, tribes corresponding with those given by Maximilian.--ED.

[266] See p. 287, for ill.u.s.tration of method of wearing hair.--ED.

[267] See his portrait, which Maximilian calls "a striking likeness,"

Plate 41, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.

[268] See p. 287, for ill.u.s.tration of bows, arrows, and quiver.--ED.

[269] See p. 319, for ill.u.s.tration of Sioux tents.--ED.

[270] See Plate 81, figure 8, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.

[271] Schoolcraft (Expedition of Gov. Ca.s.s, p. 323) says, that the Dacotas, on the Mississippi, tanned their skins with oak bark, which I did not observe on the Missouri: they probably learned it from the Whites. The Aucas, in South America, seem to use such an instrument.--D'Orbigny Voyage, t. ii. p. 234.--MAXIMILIAN.

[272] Apparently the creeks took somewhat different courses in the time of Clark's visit--at least Crow, Wolf, and Campbell are now some distance apart in the Crow Creek Indian reservation of Buffalo County, South Dakota.--ED.

[273] This is a climbing plant, and the leaves are a very nouris.h.i.+ng food for horses and oxen, which are said to thrive upon it. The root has a bulb, about the size of a walnut, with a violet outer skin, and white inside, which is said to be a wholesome food for man.--MAXIMILIAN.

[274] Clark describes the Big Bend as being from a mile to a mile and a quarter at its neck, with a low range of hills running across, from ninety to a hundred and eighty feet high. He himself walked across the "gouge;" but the boats were a day and a half in pa.s.sing around.--ED.

[275] Medicine Creek was called by Lewis and Clark Tyler's River. It is a western affluent of the Missouri, and the hills mentioned are known as Medicine b.u.t.te, in Lyman County. The mouth of the creek is the site of the Red Cloud or Lower Brule Indian agency. This creek and hills should be distinguished from Medicine Knoll and a creek of that name, eastern affluents a few miles higher up.--ED.

[276] Daniel Lamont, supposed to be of a Scotch family, was one of the original members of the Columbia Fur Company, and became one of the three partners of the "Upper Missouri Outfit." He was for many years in the fur-trade, but little is known of his personal history.

Colonel David D. Mitch.e.l.l was a Virginian by birth (1806), who early entered the fur-trade--first as a clerk, later as a partner in the American Fur Company. In 1832 he built the first fort for that company among the Blackfeet (see our volume xxiii), and was for some time in charge at Fort Clark, where Larpenteur speaks of him as "very much of a gentleman." In 1841, Mitch.e.l.l was chosen superintendent of Indian affairs for the Western Department, with headquarters at St. Louis--a position which he filled until 1852. Joining the volunteer service for the Mexican War, he was chosen lieutenant-colonel of Colonel Sterling Price's regiment, and advanced first to New Mexico and later to Chihuahua with Colonel Alexander Doniphan. Mitch.e.l.l died in St. Louis in 1861.--ED.

[277] This island is now known as Fort George (or Airhart's) Island.--ED.

[278] The second Fort Teton was built about 1828; it has been contended by several authorities that its site was south of or below Teton River; but in the light of Maximilian's testimony, this appears improbable. The first Fort Teton was probably that built by Joseph La Framboise in 1817. Maximilian does not state that Fort Tec.u.mseh was the successor of Fort Teton, and the predecessor of Fort Pierre, although alluding to the former--see note 278, _post_. On the entire subject see "Fort Pierre and its Neighbors," in _South Dakota Historical Collections_ (Aberdeen, 1902), i, pp. 263-379.--ED.

[279] Fort Pierre was built by the American Fur Company in 1831-32 to replace Fort Tec.u.mseh, which had begun to be undermined by the river.

The site chosen was three miles above the mouth of the Teton, about one thousand yards back from the river. The post was christened in June, 1832, upon the visit of Pierre Chouteau, jr., in whose honor it was named. Fort Pierre continued to be the entrepot of the upper Missouri until 1855, when the company sold the post to the United States, then engaged in a campaign against the hostile Sioux. General Harney wintered here (1855-56) with one thousand two hundred men. The following year (1857), Fort Pierre was abandoned for Fort Randall, a hundred miles farther down the river; the old post was demolished, the best of its fittings transferred to the new post, and the rest allowed to fall into the hands of the Indians. The same year a trader built a new post, also popularly called Fort Pierre, three miles above the old one. New Fort Pierre, a company trading post, was built in 1859 about two miles above the original stockade. This was abandoned in the Sioux outbreak of 1863, and the goods removed to the neighborhood of Fort Sully, a government post established on an island below the city of Pierre, South Dakota.--ED.

[280] Fort Tec.u.mseh was the princ.i.p.al establishment on this part of the river for the Columbia Fur Company, being built about 1822. When this concern was consolidated with the American Fur Company, the latter made headquarters at Fort Tec.u.mseh until the building of the original Fort Pierre (1831-32). Its site has been thought, by a misreading of authorities, to have been on the east bank; but it was probably only a short distance below old Fort Pierre, on the western bank.--ED.

[281] William Laidlaw was a Scotchman who had been trained in the British fur companies, and came to the Missouri with the Columbia Fur Company. He was for several years the factor of Forts Tec.u.mseh and Pierre, and was then promoted to the charge of Fort Union, where he was as late as 1845--probably for some time after. When he finally retired, it was to settle near Liberty, Missouri, where he died a poor man. He was an able trader, but of quick, irascible temper, and unpopular with his subordinates.--ED.

[282] See p. 319, for plan of Fort Pierre.--ED.

[283] For Pierre Dorion, see our volume v, p. 38, note 7. Although Maximilian speaks of him as "old Dorion," it is probable that this was another son of Pierre, sr.; for Pierre, jr., was a grown man at the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and his father was a Frenchman, not a half-breed.--ED.

[284] See the portrait of the Dakota woman, Plate 42, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.

[285] The red pipe-clay is found chiefly on a lateral stream of the Big Sioux River, but also in other places, for instance, on St.

Peter's River; and it is said, that the several Indian tribes behave peaceably towards each other while they are digging up the stone in that place, but again treat each other as enemies as soon as they have left it. Persons who have visited the quarries on the Big Sioux River have given me the following description of them: the red stone occurs in large beds or strata, where the perpendicular sides of the stream show divers alternating layers. The strata of red stone, which are at the most a foot thick, alternate with yellow, blue, white, and other kinds of clay. The green turf on the surface, and the upper stratum, are removed, and the red-brown colour of the stone is generally more lively and beautiful the deeper you go down. It is possible to obtain large pieces, and to make beautiful slabs of them. The Indians make not only pipe-heads of this stone, but likewise war-clubs, which, however, are only carried in their hands for show.--MAXIMILIAN.

_Comment by Ed._ The first white person to visit the Pipestone quarries in southwest Minnesota was the artist George Catlin, who in 1836 obtained permission from the Indians to inspect this sacred spot.

The mineral has since been called "catlinite," from his name. There are, however, other quarries in Dakota, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

[286] See Plate 81, figure 12, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv, for a figure of a Dakota pipe; also ill.u.s.tration on opposite page of Dakota pipes.--ED.

[287] See p. 323, for ill.u.s.tration of a Dakota with plaited hair.--ED.

[288] See Plate 81, figure 9, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.

[289] For the Teton, see our volume v, p. 104, note 71. The Teton bands (as at present cla.s.sified) are the Brule, Sans Arcs, Blackfeet (not to be confused with the Blackfoot tribe of Algonquian origin), Miniconjou, Two Kettle, Oglala, and Hunkpapa. The Yankton bands are not cla.s.sified by Powell.--ED.

[290] See p. 287, for ill.u.s.tration of method of wearing hair.--ED.

[291] See Plate 30, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv, for an Indian horse-race.--ED.