DESCRIPTION OF FORT CLARKE AND THE ENVIRONS
History of the Fort--Description--Climate--Soil--Geological
Formation of the Country--Plants--Animals--The neighbouring
Indian Population--Indian Villages.
Lewis and Clarke gave an account of the state of this part of the
country at the time of their residence in the vicinity of the Mandan
villages, in the winter of 1803-4.[172] At that time they erected a
fort on the north bank of the Missouri, a little above the place where
Fort Clarke now stands, but, at present, there is not the smallest
trace of that post. The river has since changed its bed in such a
manner, that the site of that building, which was then at some distance
from the shore, is now in the middle of the stream. Such changes in
the channel of the Missouri are of very common occurrence, so that
all the islands, sand banks, little bends, and points of land formed
by them, laid down in the special maps, are correct for only a short
time. Above the Manitari villages is a place where the river made its
way through a tongue of land, and now forms a channel nearly four
miles from its former bed. This took place in 1828. Some persons think
that Lewis and Clarke's fort would now be on the south bank of the
Missouri. Charbonneau, who was interpreter for the Manitari language,
and had lived thirty-seven years in this part of the country, was here
at the same time as those travellers, passed the winter with them, and
afterwards accompanied them to the Columbia River. He generally lives
at Awatichai, the second village of the Manitaries, and, excepting some
journeys, has always remained at this spot: hence he is well acquainted
with the Manitaries and their language, though, as he candidly
confessed, he could never learn to pronounce it correctly.[173]
Mr. Kipp, a Canadian of German descent, now clerk of the American Fur
Company, and director of Fort Clarke, came here in 1822, as agent of
the Columbia Fur Company.[174] At that time there was no fort here.
Major Pilcher, the same gentleman who came with us up the {319} Lower
Missouri, in order to take the management of the trading post of Mr.
Cabanné, among the Omahas, was, at that time, a proprietor of the
Missouri Fur Company, and directed a trading post a little above the
Manitari villages, on the southern coast. In the spring of 1822,[175]
this fort was abandoned, the above-mentioned Fur Company having been
dissolved. In May, the same year, Mr. Kipp commenced building a fort
in the prairie, which lay between the present Fort Clarke, and the
forest, in which the inhabitants of Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush live in the
winter. This fort was completed in the month of November. In the same
summer, Colonel Leavenworth,[176] with a considerable body of troops,
artillery, and an auxiliary corps of the Dacota Indians, came up the
river to the Arikkara villages, to chastise those people, who, not
long before, had attacked the keel-boats of General Ashley, killed
eighteen of the crew, and wounded many others. The inhabitants of the
banks of the Missouri affirm that this enterprise was conducted with
very little energy; they retired from the enemy's villages without
destroying them, or doing much injury to the inhabitants, at which the
allied Indians, especially, were much dissatisfied.[177] The Arikkaras,
on the other hand, became excessively arrogant, and henceforth attacked
and murdered all the white men who were so unfortunate as to fall in
their way. When Lewis and Clarke were here, these people were friendly,
but now they are violently inimical to the Whites, and have killed
many more than any other nation on the Missouri.[178] After Colonel
Leavenworth's retreat, the Arikkaras removed to a station higher up the
river, and settled in the forest which the Mandans have now selected
for their winter quarters.[179] The garrison of the fort, built by Mr.
Kipp, consisted of only five men, besides Mr. Tilton, the director. It
was, therefore, in constant danger, because of the near vicinity of the
Arikkaras. Those savages remained constantly close to the fort: one of
their chiefs, Stanapat (the little hawk with the bloody hand) killed
one of Mr. Tilton's people at the very door of the fort. Three white
men, coming from the Rocky Mountains, were obliged by the Arikkaras,
who lay in wait, to abandon their boat, and to escape, at imminent risk
of their lives, to the opposite shore. In the same autumn these Indians
murdered five persons belonging to the French Company on Cannon-ball
River. Neither Messrs. Tilton and Kipp, nor any of their people, durst
venture out of the fort, where they were obliged to remain in durance
the whole of the autumn. Subsequently, the latter resided in a Mandan
village till the fort was completed, though those people were on a
friendly footing with the Arikkaras. When the man above-named was shot
at the door of the fort, the Mandans were very anxious to declare war
against the Arikkaras; but this was overruled, because the people
belonging to the Columbia Fur Company, who had to come hither by land
from Lake Travers and St. Peter's River, would inevitably have suffered
by it.[180]
At the beginning of December, Mr. Laidlow, now on the Little Missouri,
came from Lake Travers with six wagons laden with goods, on which a
sort of peace was concluded with the Arikkaras.[181] They came first
to the fort, because they could nowhere else obtain goods from the
Whites, and the {320} precaution was always taken of admitting only
a few of them at a time. The peace with these Indians was not, as
might have been expected, of any long duration. They always behaved
extremely treacherously, and it was at length dangerous even to go out
for water, wood, or other necessaries, and the people were frequently
threatened and intimidated; for which reason, Mr. Tilton left the fort,
and went to the next Mandan village, where he resided in the hut of the
distinguished chief, Tohp-Ka-Singka (the four men), who protected him
against every attack. He afterwards went down to St. Louis.
In the spring of that year the Arikkaras returned to their former
villages, declaring that they would, in future, live in peace with the
white men. Mr. Kipp alone remained behind, and, throughout the summer,
did not see a white man; the skins and goods of the Company were in his
keeping in the hut of the chief, but he afterwards built a house near
the village, where he dwelt, till 1824, with one Jeffers, who, with
seven men, and wagons laden with goods, had come from Lake Travers.
The Mandans had hitherto protected the abandoned fort, and kept it in
order, that the Arikkaras might not burn it. During the summer Mr. Kipp
caused the palisades of the fort to be cut down close to the ground,
and the Mandans conveyed the wood to their village, carrying some of
the beams on their shoulders, and floated the remainder down the river.
The buildings were likewise destroyed. Several apartments were added to
Mr. Kipp's house, and the palisades were placed round it. As he had
not a sufficient quantity of goods, Mr. Kipp sent Charbonneau (who was
likewise in the service of the Columbia Fur Company), in company with
another man, to fetch a wagon-load from Lake Travers; but, on their
return, encountering a party of Assiniboins, they were compelled to
abandon their wagon, horses, and goods, and all was lost. About this
time the Crows arrived with a good supply of furs, but as Mr. Kipp had
not a sufficient number of articles to barter, he himself undertook,
with two Half-breeds, the journey to Lake Travers, and succeeded in
bringing a wagon-load in safety.
On his way he perceived a camp of the Dacota, and avoided it; and,
during the night, lost his horses, but was fortunate enough to recover
them. When he returned, General Atkinson, with 500 or 600 troops, had
been at the Mandan villages, whence he proceeded upwards to Milk River.
These troops returned during the summer, and hostilities had nearly
ensued between them and the Crows, who were with the Mandans.[182] The
French Fur Company had sent some of their servants with the General to
trade in the Mandan villages. Bissonette was the chief trader. In the
autumn Mr. Tilton came up from St. Louis, in a keel-boat laden with
goods. Mr. Kipp had, meantime, sent some people to the Assiniboins,
Crees, and Ojibuas, to invite their chiefs to come hither and open a
trade with them. The troops had brought a person named Wilson, as
agent of the United States for the Indians;[183] and all these people
lived together in the Mandan fort. Peace was therefore concluded
between those three Indian tribes, as well with the Whites as with the
Mandans and their allies. The object was to break off their connexion
{321} in the north with the English, and to draw them to the Missouri.
In April, 1825, Messrs. Wilson and Tilton returned to St. Louis, and
Kipp alone remained in the fort, with five men.[184] In November, Mr.
Tilton returned with a supply of goods, and Mr. Kipp went to White
Earth River, carrying with him a fine selection. Here he built a fort,
a little on this side of the mouth of the river, and remained there
during the winter, trading with the Assiniboins. In the autumn of
1826 the Sioux made an attack on the Mandans and Manitaries, killed
above fifty of the latter, a couple of the Mandans, and likewise a
Crow Indian, who happened to be on the spot. This year, the Columbia
Fur Company united with the American Fur Company, and commenced its
operations here on the Missouri.[185] In the winter of 1830 Mr. Kipp
caused the wood to be prepared for the present Fort Clarke, and
the palisades were erected in the spring of 1831. Mr. Mitchell now
undertook the direction of this new fort, which he completed to a
certain extent, and called Fort Clarke. In July, with forty-five men,
Mr. Kipp was sent to Maria River, where he built the fort, the ruins
of which I have mentioned above. He remained there till the spring
of 1832, when he was succeeded by Mr. Mitchell, who then built the
present Fort Piekann, or Mc Kenzie.[186] Mr. Kipp has since had the
direction of Fort Clarke, except in the winter of 1832-33, when Mr.
Lamont had it,[187] and Kipp was under him as clerk. Skirmishes with
the Sioux took place in the neighbourhood; and, on one occasion, when
Lamont and Kipp were conversing by the fireside, they were startled
by a shot fired through the window, while the ball passed between
them, and lodged in the wall. The Mandans, who were brought hither by
Mr. Kipp, have remained here for eleven years, in the same position
as then, and their number has neither increased nor diminished. The
trade with the Indians is, on the whole, unchanged, and the goods
remain nearly at the same prices, except when their value is raised by
foreign merchants. This year (1833), on account of the competition with
Messrs. Soublette and Campbell, twelve dollars were paid for a large
beaver-skin, though it was, in reality, worth no more than four dollars
in the United States. But it was of great moment to the Company not to
suffer any other party to compete with them. The Indians now generally
require horses in exchange for their beavers; and as there are but few
at Fort Clarke, messengers were despatched to Fort Pièrre to fetch
some. Messrs. Soublette and Campbell had, at present, one of their
people in each of the neighbouring Indian villages. I have already
mentioned their clerk, Mr. Dougherty, who lived among the Manitaries,
and stated that they had taken Charbonneau into their pay. Mr. Kipp
had likewise stationed a trader among the Manitaries, who, in the
winter, visited the villages in a sledge. The circumstances which took
place during the thirty-seven years of Charbonneau's residence in the
Manitari and Mandan villages, were nearly as follows:--
At his first arrival, the three Manitari villages stood precisely as
they do now, and Charbonneau immediately took up his residence in
the central one. No commercial intercourse had then been opened with
St. Louis; and he, as the only white man on the spot, procured what
he wanted {322} from the north, of the English. In the year of his
arrival, 1300 or 1400 Sioux, united with 700 Arikkaras, attacked the
foremost Mandan village, and about 1000 Manitaries hastened to assist
the latter. They repulsed the enemy, killing more than 100 of them,
among whom was the son of Tanahah-Tahka (the white cow), an Arikkara
chief. These people had before lived in the nearest forest, below that
which the Mandans of Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush now inhabit during the winter;
but, after this battle, they removed further down the Missouri, and
built their villages at the spot where we saw them.[188] After the war,
they left all their effects behind them in their huts. Subsequently
they often returned in a hostile manner, but never in such numbers
as at that time. Five or six years before Charbonneau arrived, the
Sioux, with 1500 tents, came on a visit to the vicinity of the Manitari
villages. Two of the latter, a man and woman, who were returning from
the Crows, were murdered by some of the Sioux; on which the Manitaries
recklessly killed five Sioux, who happened to be with them. This was
the signal for war. The Sioux surrounded the village; the inhabitants
were unable to procure either wood or water, as the river was at
some distance. There they remained closely blockaded for nine days,
drinking only the dirty stagnant water which was in the village. The
horses collected in the huts suffered hunger and thirst, and gnawed
off the bark of the wood of the posts. A chief, who had erected a kind
of bulwark on the top of his hut, shot eleven Sioux, but was, in the
sequel, killed by a successful fire from the enemy.
On the ninth day the old men gave orders that the young warriors
should mount their horses and go out to meet the enemy, while all the
inhabitants should issue forth and fetch water from the river. This was
done, but, when the Sioux observed the intended attack, they struck
their tents and retired, conducting their women and children along
the chain of hills. Eighty of the horses which were led to the river
perished, because it was not possible to prevent them from drinking
too eagerly. The Sioux were pursued, and many of them killed. During
Charbonneau's time, another war party of the same nation appeared on
the other bank of the Missouri; in the large Manitari village there
were only eighteen men, the rest being out on a hunting expedition, but
the other village collected all its warriors. The Mandans joined them,
they forded the river on horseback to make an attack, and reached a
ravine, where they faced the foe. The Sioux called to the Manitaries,
that they would first smoke together, on which all sat down, showed
each other their pipes, and began to smoke. This done, the chief of
the Sioux advanced and called to his adversaries that they were come
here to fight; both sides knew that they had brave men opposed to them,
and he, therefore, considered it would be more honourable to leave
the wood, and combat in the open plain, which was agreed to by both
parties. They proceeded into the plain and commenced the attack. Two
Mandans, the Coal, and the Black Cat,[189] had previously had a dispute
with each other, and were now resolved to see which of them would
fight the best. The Sioux soon gained considerable advantages, and the
Mandans and Manitaries {323} were already beginning to retreat towards
the forest, when the Black Cat called to the Coal, his adversary, who
was among the retreating party, whether this retreat was a proof of
his vaunted courage? On which the Coal recovered himself, took his
adversary by the arm, and said, "Well then, we will die together!" They
both turned back and rode into the thickest of the enemy. Their example
was instantly followed by all the other warriors; they recommenced the
attack with renewed vigour; the enemy was totally worsted, and many of
their people killed.
At another time a war party of the Sioux appeared opposite the village
Les Souliers,[190] in the large prairie. The Manitaries crossed the
river, defeated the enemy, and pursued them for twenty miles. The Sioux
constantly remained near the river to keep their opponents from their
camp in hills, where their women and children were placed. A Sioux,
wearing a handsome feather cap and tufts of hair, proceeded along the
hills, and a Manitari chief pursued this enemy on a fleeter horse,
and overtook him. Both dismounted and fought with their knives till
the Sioux was killed. Forty-eight of the enemy were slain, while the
Manitaries lost only three men. The Mandans had supported their allies
and neighbours in this battle. Charbonneau was witness of this action,
and said that in the following night the scalp dance was performed. Ten
or twelve years ago the Manitaries were preparing an antelope park,
and one of their people, who was occupied in a ravine, collecting the
wood necessary for the purpose, was shot by some Assiniboins, who
were lying in ambush. The relations were in the act of placing the
deceased on the stage for the dead, when about thirty Assiniboins, with
two calumets, came to the village to conclude a peace, not knowing
that another band of their people had just committed the above-named
murder. All the inhabitants hastened together, attacked and killed
about twenty Assiniboins, took three of the women prisoners, while the
few remaining of the party escaped by flight. Individuals are even now
often murdered on both sides; and only three weeks before my arrival at
Fort Clarke, three of the enemy had come to the bank opposite the fort,
and made signals that they wished to be conveyed across. A man and two
women accordingly went over in a leather boat, on which the strangers
immediately shot the man, and the women with difficulty escaped.
Fort Clarke is about three quarters of a mile below the site of the
old fort of Lewis and Clarke, 300 paces from the Mandan village,
Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush, and between eighty and ninety paces from the
southern side of the river, in a level prairie, above the rather steep
bank of the Missouri. This bank, immediately below the Indian village,
is much higher and quite perpendicular. About 200 paces below the fort
is a streamlet which has steep clay banks, and at the distance of 200
paces from the Missouri divides into two arms, one of which comes down
further south, and the other about 700 paces behind the fort, after
issuing from the hills into the level prairie. This chain of hills
limits the background of the prairie, and closes on that side the view
from the fort.[191] The ground near the stream {324} is overgrown
with grass, and, in its many windings, bushes and tall plants adorn
the banks, especially of the class _syngenesia_, such as solidago,
&c., the seeds of which are sought after in winter by the _Fringilla
linaria_, and the _Emberiza nivalis_. In the spring and autumn wild
ducks frequent this stream, which is inhabited by river tortoises; the
_unio_, too, is found in it. As soon as it freezes, which, in 1833, it
did in November, the ducks migrate to the ponds and lakes a few miles
distant, where they remain with pelicans, swans, wild geese, divers,
cranes, and other water fowl, till these lakes are likewise frozen.
About a league below Fort Clarke the Missouri makes a bend to the east
or north-east, and on this part of the bank is a rather extensive
forest, in which the inhabitants of Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush have built
their winter village of sixty or seventy huts. From the above village
there is easy access across the prairie, which is, in general, level,
to Ruhptare, the second Mandan village, there being only a couple of
small ravines filled with brushwood, the resort of prairie hens, to
break the level. Opposite the fort, on the left shore of the Missouri,
a fine forest of poplars, elms, maples, ash, &c., with a thick
undergrowth of every variety of shrub, extends to the prairie hills.
In this forest the inhabitants of Ruhptare live in the winter time,
directly opposite their summer village.[192]
Fort Clarke itself is built on the same plan as the other trading posts
of the Company. The front and back of the square are forty-four paces
in length, the sides, forty-nine paces. The northern and southern
corners have block-houses; the buildings are of one story, and they
were just erecting a new one, with a couple of rooms, having good glass
windows, which, however, was not yet completed. In front of the postern
gate was the machine in which the skins are made up into bundles, each
bundle consisting of ten buffalo hides, and weighing 100 pounds. A
small piece of garden-ground is laid out behind the fort, and not far
off, on the banks of the stream, the Indians had planted some small
fields of maize and gourds. There were only three dogs in the fort,
which were always shut out in the evening. At this time we had little
opportunity of following the chase; the herds of buffaloes had gone
to a distance, and the hunters were obliged to make long excursions
before they could meet with them. There was, however, a sufficient
stock of food for the horses in the fort, and sometimes a good many
horses were kept there; but, at this season, most of them had been
sold, in consequence of the competition in trade. These animals are
very badly treated; they are scarcely housed in a stable during the
whole winter, and in the coldest nights they were in the court-yard,
while the congealed snow lay on their backs and shoulders, some inches
thick. They had no food in the winter, except the bark of the poplar
trees in the forest; and, when the weather was not too rigorous, and
the snow too deep, they were driven thither daily. The dogs have also
to pass the night in ice and snow. Fort Clarke possessed no oxen, nor
any domestic animals, except some cocks and hens, which latter begin
to lay in March. Oxen would be in danger from the numerous Indians,
who consider them as a medicine {325} of the white men, which may be
prejudicial to them in hunting the buffaloes. There were a few tame
cats in the fort, but not sufficient to reduce the great numbers of
rats. These animals (the Norway rats) were so numerous and troublesome,
that no kind of provision was safe from their voracity; their favourite
food was the maize, among which they committed sad havoc; and it was
calculated that they daily devoured five bushels, or 250 pounds. There
were often from 500 to 800 bushels of this corn in the loft at a time.
The rats were brought hither by the American ships; but, as yet, they
have not reached the Manitari villages. The Indians killed seven of
these creatures in the prairie, which were on their route from Fort
Clarke to those villages. No rats have since attempted to visit them,
but it is more than probable that they will, ere long, find their way
thither.
The only neighbours of the fort are the Indian villages. They are
surrounded by their stages for the dead, which form a very strange
appearance, and, in the warm season, when the wind blows from that
direction, spread most disagreeable and unwholesome exhalations.[193]
In the summer time, the many Indians engaged in various occupations
in the prairie, and their numerous horses grazing around, give great
animation to the country; but, in winter, the landscape is extremely
dead and monotonous. The extensive white plain is enlivened by neither
man nor beast, unless, indeed, some herds of buffaloes are in the
neighbourhood, or a few hungry wolves are prowling about in search of
food. At that season there is generally more life on the frozen river,
as the Indians are continually going backwards and forwards from their
winter to their summer villages, and to the fort. Men, women, children,
and dogs, drawing little sledges, are seen on it all day long; and the
people of the fort amuse themselves with skating, and the children with
sledges, especially on Sundays.[194]
The climate in the country about Fort Clarke is, in general, healthy;
yet, in the spring and autumn, and even in winter, there are always
some disorders which carry off many of the inhabitants, especially
the Indians, who are entirely destitute of medical assistance. In
the winter which we passed here, several such epidemics prevailed,
which affected very many of the people; and some of the Whites, too,
were severe sufferers. A great many children were carried off by the
hooping-cough, and some Indians by diarrhoea and colic; and the cholera
having prevailed on the Lower Missouri, it was at first feared that it
had penetrated thus far, though these apprehensions afterwards proved
to be groundless. In consequence of the frequent and sudden changes of
the temperature, catarrh is very common among the half-naked Indians;
agues are quite unknown here. The winter is usually accompanied with
much rain, snow, stormy, and tempestuous weather. At times there have
even been snow-storms late in May, from which Indians have perished in
the prairie. In April, last year, a father and son were there frozen to
death.
Great inundations are rare; since Charbonneau came to this country,
which was about thirty-seven {326} years since, there have been only
two, which, however, were very severe.[195] Earthquakes, which are
frequent on the Mississippi, have not been noticed here; a circumstance
confirmed by Volney. March and April are called by the Indians the
horses' winter, because, when the weather is warm, the horses are
often driven to pasture in the prairie, and then violent storms of snow
sometimes occur suddenly, and destroy many of these animals.
The difference of climate a few days' journey down the Missouri is
often very great; for in many seasons the gourds are ripe in the
Arikkara villages, when they are only in blossom with the Mandans, and
the trees are in flower there, when the leaves are but just beginning
to sprout here; a difference which is, of course, still greater the
further you go down the river. At the Mandan villages, the leaves of
the plants seldom appear before May; the willows on the banks, perhaps,
a little sooner. The flowers in the prairie are said not to blossom
earlier, and in some years the trees have not been clothed with foliage
till the end of May. The changes of temperature are often sudden and
unpleasant.[196] The summer is always dry and hot, yet the heat is
not so enervating as on the Mississippi, though, in the prairies,
when there is no wind stirring, it is excessively oppressive. Swarms
of mosquitoes are a great torment in the summer time, but not in the
same degree every year. Last summer they were not very numerous. We
were assured that July is the only month in the year which is without
frost; before and after it there are frosts nightly.[197] In the heat
of summer the creeks become dry, and the crops of maize of the Indians
often fail in consequence of the drought. In the year 1833, the crop
was not very good, though it did not entirely fail. Autumn is generally
the most pleasant season of the year.
Fine, bright, clear days, with moderate heat, prevail; the leaves,
indeed, fall in October; and even in autumn {327} the changes of
temperature are frequently great and rapid. On the 17th October the
weather was fine, serene, and warm, and on the 18th such a sharp frost,
with a storm of snow, that two Indians were frozen to death in the
prairie. The winter is long, and generally severe; most animals then
migrate, and, therefore, the winter Fauna has but a few species whereof
to boast. We were told that, about new year, there is usually a very
cold interval of about a week, which was the case during our visit;
and the Indians have, on this account, called one of their months "the
moon of the seven cold days." The winter of 1833-34 is considered as
one of the most severe. The mercury in the thermometer was frozen for
several days, and, at Fort Union, the cold is said to have been 47°,
Fahrenheit, below zero.[198] The snow is seldom more than two feet
deep, but it remains a long time, often unchanged till the month of
March--a proof of the dryness of the climate. In the dreadful storms
of snow which perfectly darken the air, the compass is an important
and necessary instrument; in fact, it is, at all times, indispensable
in these prairies. The winter of 1832 was extremely mild: there was
scarcely any snow, and the inhabitants did not remember to have had
such a season for many years. The Missouri generally freezes in
November. Last year (1832), on the 24th November, and likewise in the
winter of this year (1833), it froze on the 23rd November, but only in
some places, at which the ice was passable two days after.
Close to the fort it is seldom frozen quite across, there being,
generally, a narrow open channel, which, however, is not of any great
length. The freezing of the Missouri in this part of the country, which
continues uninterruptedly throughout the winter, is not to be compared
with that of other large rivers; for instance, the Mississippi--for
the Upper Missouri has at this season much less depth and rapidity, so
that it freezes the more easily. Mr. Kipp recollected, in in the eleven
years of his residence here, the greatest degree of cold to have been
36° below zero. The east and north winds are generally accompanied, at
Fort Clarke, with snow and rain: the north and north-west winds are
cold. In spring and autumn there are violent storms, and but few days
are without wind, which, in fact, is pretty nearly the case in all
seasons of the year. In cold winters the sun often has a parhelion-on
either side. In the spring and autumn, there are often splendid
northern lights, while in winter they are very rare, and are most
frequently seen in autumn at about ten o'clock in the evening.
The water of the Missouri is cold, refreshing, and very wholesome.
In spring and summer it is not so transparent as at other times; in
frosty weather in winter, it is perfectly clear, as many travellers
have testified. The water in the small streams is generally bad, having
something of a brackish taste; and the banks of the Missouri are
frequently covered with a very thin, white, saline coating. Lewis and
Clarke frequently speak of this phenomenon. The soil in this country
is said to be, in general, fruitful in the plains; and especially in
the valleys which lie {328} between the hills, there is a stratum of
black mould, more than two feet thick, but the excessive drought, in
summer and winter, causes many crops to fail. The almost incessant
wind dries the ground to such a degree, that it soon absorbs the
little moisture proceeding from the rain. The dew, besides, is not
sufficiently copious to refresh and support the parched vegetation, as
it does in hot countries. When manure was spread upon the prairies, it
was immediately converted into dust, and blown away by the wind. The
Mandans and Manitaries cultivate very fine maize, without ever manuring
the ground; but their fields are on the low banks of the river,
sufficiently sheltered by eminences, where the soil is particularly
fruitful. When, after many years, the field is exhausted, they let
it lie fallow, and cultivate another spot, since these extensive
wildernesses offer them inexhaustible resources. They have been advised
to use manure, at which, however, they only laugh. Mr. Kipp intended
to make a trial with some exhausted Indian land, and to manure it;
for this purpose, he meant to spread earth over the manure, that the
wind might not so easily affect it, and in this way he hoped, in the
sequel, to convince the Indians, who pertinaciously abide by their
old prejudices. They have extremely fine maize of different species.
Mr. Kipp has made frequent trials of blue flowering potatoes, which
succeeded extremely well; but the Indians were so eager after these
incomparable roots, that he could not keep enough for seed. One Indian,
however, in Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush, had prudently preserved some potatoes
in order to plant them; and thus it may be hoped that they will be
gradually propagated among these people.
It appears, from what has been above stated, that drought and want of
wood are the chief impediments to the cultivation and settlement of
the Whites in the prairies of the Upper Missouri--an opinion in which
most of the persons engaged in the service of the Company agree, though
Bradbury thinks differently.[199]
With respect to the geological formation of the soil, it appears
chiefly to consist of clay, sand, and sand-stone. All the chains of
hills which traverse the prairie, and of which there is one along
both the banks of the Missouri, consist of clay mixed with sand, and
of sand-stone, with many impressions and petrifactions of shell-fish,
and the singular baculites, which are found everywhere on the Missouri
and its tributaries, and even here and there in the beds of the
streams. Fossil bones are frequently found, and, in the calcareous rock
further down the Missouri, entire skeletons, twelve, fourteen, or even
more, feet in length, of reptiles of the crocodile kind, of which I
brought back one, found in the vicinity of the Big Bend, for which I
am indebted to the kindness of Major O'Fallon, at St. Louis.[200] It
appears that there are no minerals in this country, and, {329} in the
immediate vicinity of Fort Clarke, not even lime. On the other hand,
the strata of black, bituminous coal appear in the hills for many
hundred miles. This coal ignites easily, with a strong sulphureous
smell, but it does not emit sufficient heat to serve as fuel or for
the forge.[201] In many places it may be evidently seen that these
strata have been on fire. The surrounding clay is frequently burnt
red, and the shards are perfectly coloured, hard and sonorous, like
our bricks and Dutch clinkers. About Fort Clarke they know nothing of
such fires, but they have frequently occurred lower down the Missouri.
The red clay, which we have so often spoken of, appears to have been
elevated by the action of fire. On the banks, extremely light, porous,
cellular, red brown scoriæ are everywhere found, which the people
here call pumice stone, though they are totally different from the
fossil usually so called, and of which extensive strata are found on
the banks of the Rhine. Petrifactions of animals and plants are to be
looked for only on the banks of the rivers, though they doubtless are
as frequent in the chains of hills, where they are concealed by the
greensward from the eye of the passing observer. I was told that, in
the prairie, about twenty miles distant from Fort Clarke, there are
places in the hills where the organic remains of the antediluvian world
lie exposed on the surface, but that country can be visited only for
short intervals of time, and that, too, attended with great danger,
on account of the hostile Indians. Entire petrified trunks of trees,
such as we had observed on the banks of the Missouri, are said to be
there, and impressions of crabs, or similar crustacea, have been found.
The Indians speak of a petrified man, at the distance of three or four
days' journey, whose head is round, and lies detached from the body.
The story about the head is, probably, incorrect, as they pretend to be
able to discern the countenance; but the rest of the skeleton is said
plainly and distinctly to be seen. These are, doubtless, the remains
of some antediluvian animal. It is much to be regretted that it is
impracticable to explore, without much risk, a country so abounding
with remains of this nature.
The extensive prairies, and their hills, certainly produce a great
variety of plants, of which a part only have been described. Bradbury
collected many plants about the Mandan villages, which were described
by Pursh;[202] and Nuttall's works likewise contain many;[203] but
there is, undoubtedly, much remaining to be done, especially in the
chain of the Black Hills. The country, about the Missouri, has its
peculiar botanical characters. The tongues of land at the bends of
the river are generally covered with wood; other parts of the banks
more rarely so; the species of trees and shrubs which occur here have
already been mentioned. There are no pines in the vicinity of Fort
Clarke; but they are found higher up the river; nor are there any
birch trees; indeed, I did not meet with one on the whole course of
the Missouri. These do not grow, except on the tributaries of the
Upper Missouri, for instance, Knife River. At the distance of three
days' journey from the mouth, at the foot of the mountains which are
improperly called La Côte Noire, though they join the Black Hills,
of which they are a branch, the latter form {330} a very interesting
chain, which runs nearly in a north-east direction from La Platte and
the great northern bend of the Missouri. They lie about 100 miles
to the east of the Rocky Mountains, and form the watershed between
the Missouri, Mississippi, and Arkansas, several rivers having their
sources in those mountains.[204] Many kinds of fossils, and numerous
species of plants and animals, which do not occur on the Missouri, are
found on those hills. The paper birch (_Betula papyracea_) grows there,
of the bark of which the northern Indians make the large pirogues,
which are described in various works on North America. This tree is
often thicker than a man's body; the bark is stripped off in large
sheets, by making two parallel transverse incisions above and below,
and then a perpendicular incision; after which the bark is loosened by
means of wooden wedges. It is dry, and comes off very easily. Within
is the smooth watered skin used by the Indians for writing their
characters upon, from which circumstance the tree has derived its
botanical name. The Black Hills are said to be likewise interesting in
a zoological point of view. Among other animals found there, are the
panther (_Felis concolor_), several species of rodentia, squirrels, &c.
In the prairies on the Missouri, near Fort Clarke, the same species of
cactus are found as near Fort Union; the grasses are not of so many
species as might be supposed; _Chondrosium oligostachyum_ (Nees), which
grows to the height of ten or twelve feet, and _Bryzophyrum spicatum_,
are, however, found there. As I had no opportunity of botanizing here
in the summer time, my list of plants of this part of the country is
very incomplete; but Bradbury and Nuttall were more fortunate. Many
officinal plants grow here, but there are no physicians to direct the
use of them.
In the forests about Fort Clarke, only a very small quantity of useful
timber is found. The poplar burns quickly, and emits much heat, and
the bark serves for the winter food of the horses. The animal kingdom
has many interesting species, for those of the extensive western
prairies are united with those of the cold regions of North America.
The best accounts of the former are given by Say, whose early death
is deeply to be deplored:[205] and for those of the more northern
regions, Richardson's admirable Fauna Boreali-Americana is replete
with interest and information. The buffalo herds do not appear in the
immediate vicinity of Fort Clarke, except when the winter is very
severe, because they are too much disturbed by the numerous Indians
in the neighbourhood. The hunters of the fort are often obliged to
ride twenty miles before they find them. In the cold snow-storms, so
prevalent during the winter, these animals take refuge in the forests
on the banks, when great numbers of them are killed, and it is often
almost impossible to drive them out of the wood. Their bones and
skulls, scattered all over the prairie, prove the immense destruction
which is made of these harmless animals. The elk may be shot at about
eighteen miles from Fort Clarke; but it does not approach nearer,
because of the Indians, to whom the skins of the elk are of great value
in the manufacture of their shoes. The white-tailed {331} deer (_Cervus
Virginianus_), called by the French, le chevreuil, is found in the
nearest woods, not a mile from the fort. The black-tailed or mule deer
is not to be seen within twenty or thirty miles. The cabri, or antelope
(_Antilocapra Ord._), lives the whole year in the immediate vicinity,
and in the summer, great numbers congregate together; but in the winter
they go towards the mountains, where they find protection against the
snow, and return in April, when large herds of them are seen to pass
the Missouri. The annexed woodcut, designed by Mr. Bodmer from the
life, gives a perfect and correct idea of this animal.[206]
The bighorn (_Ovis montana_), the grosse-corne of the French, is not
found nearer than fifty miles from this part of the country. The
Manitaries, who go to the Black Hills and other mountainous tracts
to hunt, kill a hundred or more of these animals in a season. The
grizzly bear approaches to within four miles of the fort, because the
Indians, who do not like to hunt them, leave them undisturbed. They
are, however, very fond of the flesh of the young bear; and the claws
are much valued by them, for the manufacture of their necklaces. Of the
genus _canis_, I met with five wild species in western North America.
The changeable wolf (_Canis variabilis_), undoubtedly a distinct
species, as Lewis and Clarke likewise affirm, is very common on the
whole of the Upper Missouri. It is found to vary in colour from wolf
grey to pure white. In winter these animals are nearly famished, and
extremely lean. They closely follow the herds of buffaloes, and many
sick, young, or weak animals become their easy prey; and when the
hunters are abroad there is a rich harvest for the wolves. They even
bite and devour each other, yet they did not meddle with the dead
wolves which we left in the prairie; possibly they might not have been
so {332} ravenously hungry just then. They distinguish the report of
a gun so well, that they hasten to the spot almost immediately after
the shot has been fired. The same is the case with the ravens; and the
Indian hunters affirm that the wolves watch these birds, in order to
ascertain the direction in which the prey is to be found: if a poor
animal has only been wounded, they are on the alert, and instantly
pursue it, and it inevitably becomes their prey. In cold winters they
are often so bold that they come into the villages, and approach the
people's dwellings.
[Illustration: Head of _Antilocapra Ord._]
[Illustration: Head of _Canis latrans_]
The red fox (_Canis fulvus_) is very handsome, and at the same time
common, though by no means so numerous as the wolves. The grey fox
(_Canis cinereo-argenteus_), and the cross fox (_Canis decussatus_),
are likewise found here. The black or silver fox (_Canis argentatus_),
is met with sixty or seventy miles further north, but it is
occasionally seen here, and the skin is highly prized, being sold for
sixty dollars.
The prairie fox is frequently seen, but the panther and the wild cat
are not often found. Beavers become more numerous on the Missouri and
its tributaries the higher they are ascended, and the Indians catch
them in considerable numbers; their skins are much valued by the
Whites. I saw one beautifully spotted with white; yellowish-white and
pure white beavers are not unfrequently caught on the Yellow Stone.
There are, likewise, many interesting species of birds, among which
are the turkey-buzzard, the stone falcon, the owl (a very hardy bird,
which remains here throughout the whole of the rigorous winter), the
Carolina parrot, the humming-bird (_Trochilus colubris_), wild pigeon,
woodpecker, magpie, and many others. There are many interesting species
of reptiles in this part of the country, and I much regretted that
I was not here in the summer time, when, of course, they are more
abundant and various. Several kinds of turtles frequent the Missouri
and the prairies. {333} I was told that many species of lizard abound
in summer, especially _phrynosoma_, of which there are many on the
Yellow Stone, at Fort Union, and in the Valley of the Stone Walls. I
was much surprised at not seeing a single animal of the lizard kind
on my voyage on the Missouri. Of snakes there are many species; the
black snake is not found here, but the _Coluber proximus_ (Say) is
abundant, as well as the _Coluber eximus_. There is only one kind of
rattlesnake, which is very common, and of a considerable size. Of frogs
there are several kinds, of which the _Rana pipiens_ (Schreb.), is the
most beautiful; small tree frogs likewise abound, and after a shower
of rain, the ground is frequently quite covered with young frogs. Even
many of the Whites believe that these little animals fall from the sky;
they imagine that the rainbow draws the frogs up into the air at one
end, and that they fall in a mass to the ground with the rain.
But few species of fish frequent this part of the Missouri; among
them are two kinds of cat-fish, the pike, sturgeon, gold-eye, and
occasionally the buffalo (_catastomus_). Doubtless there are many
more species, but they have not been noticed by the inhabitants, and
it is very difficult to procure them. Numerous insects of various
species abound here, to the great annoyance of the inhabitants, such
as mosquitoes, and innumerable grasshoppers, which quickly devour the
plants in the prairie, and are themselves the food of many kinds of
animals during the summer.
To give a complete picture of the country about Fort Clarke, we must
subjoin an account of the numerous Indians who inhabit this territory;
namely, the three tribes of the Mandans, the Manitaries or Gros
Ventres, and the Arikkaras, the latter of whom were absent during our
sojourn here. In order to make the narrative of our long residence
at this spot (which will be given in the sequel) more intelligible,
I shall annex, in the three following chapters, the information I
collected respecting those three Indian nations.
FOOTNOTES:
[172] Fort Mandan was occupied by Lewis and Clark during the winter of
1804-05, the preceding winter having been spent by them in camp on Wood
River, Illinois, opposite the mouth of the Missouri. Fort Mandan was
begun November 3, 1804, and abandoned April 7, the following spring;
see _Original Journals_, i, pp. 216-283.--ED.
[173] After reading the pages of Lewis and Clark's journals, one has
slight respect for Charbonneau's qualities, either mental or moral. It
is to be regretted that Maximilian relied so much upon the testimony of
this interpreter in his account of the Mandan and Minitaree Indians.
For a sketch of what is known of this interpreter's life consult our
volume vi, p. 32, note 3.--ED.
[174] For Fort Clarke and James Kipp see our volume xxii, p. 344, note
317, and p. 345, note 319 respectively.--ED.
[175] This is an evident error for 1823--the well-authenticated date
for Leavenworth's Arikkara expedition.--ED.
[176] General Henry Leavenworth was a native of Connecticut (1783);
entering the army (1812), he passed through all the grades until
brevetted a brigadier-general in 1824. He won distinction for service
at Chippewa and Niagara in the War of 1812-15, and afterwards for many
years served on the Western frontier, where he died in Indian Territory
(1834) while leading an expedition of troops to overawe the turbulent
tribesmen. See account of this expedition in P. St. G. Cooke, _Scenes
and Adventures in the Army_, pp. 225-227.--ED.
[177] General Ashley started with a party of traders March 10,
1823, arriving at the Arikkara villages May 30. He was received
with apparent friendliness, but early in the morning of the second
of June was attacked by the Indians who killed a number of his land
party, the boats escaping with great difficulty. Ashley immediately
notified the military authorities, and Colonel Leavenworth, then in
command at Fort Atkinson, near Council Bluffs, at once determined to
organize a punitive expedition. Pilcher, of the Missouri Fur Company,
joined forces with him, and secured a band of Sioux auxiliaries. For
many reasons the expedition was, as Maximilian implies, but slightly
successful. For a full account of this campaign, gathered from many
sources, consult Chittenden, _Fur-Trade_, i, pp. 264-269; ii, pp.
588-607. The expedition was notable as the first of a long series of
trans-Mississippi Indian wars.--ED.
[178] The Arikkara (for whom see our volume v, p. 113, note 76) were
the most treacherous of the village Indians upon the Missouri. After
friendly treaties with Lewis and Clark (1804), they attacked the escort
for the Mandan chief Shahake (1807); but two years later permitted his
passage with a large fur-trade caravan, and in 1811 were friendly to
the Astoria party. In 1816 or 1817 they attacked a party and killed
one man, and again (1820) robbed the trading houses of the Missouri
Fur Company. Early in the year of the campaign of 1823, they made
an unsuccessful attack upon a small post down the river among the
Sioux.--ED.
[179] In his outward journey, Maximilian found that the Arikkara
villages had been abandoned for about a year. They had therefore
re-occupied them after Leavenworth's expedition, but were never again
permanently settled therein. See our volume xxii, p. 336, note 300.--ED.
[180] For the French Fur Company see our volume xxii, p. 232, note 160.
It is evident that Maximilian's knowledge of these events was obtained
from Kipp, who had been a participant. For the Columbia Fur Company
see our volume xxii, p. 233, note 161. Tilton would appear to have
been a proprietor in this company, whose legal name was Tilton &
Company; he was sutler at Fort Gibson in 1836. See Lawrence Taliaferro,
"Autobiography," in _Minnesota Historical Collections_, vi, p. 202. The
main fort of this company was at Lake Traverse, on the boundary between
the present states of Minnesota and South Dakota. For a visit to this
place see _op. cit._, vi, p. 91.--ED.
[181] For William Laidlaw see our volume xxii, p. 316, note 279.--ED.
[182] This was Atkinson's Yellowstone Expedition of 1825. After the
Arikkara troubles of 1823, President Monroe appointed General Henry
Atkinson and Major Benjamin O'Fallon to conduct a military expedition
into the Indian country to overawe the tribesmen, and impress them with
the power of the national government. The commissioners left St. Louis
in the spring of 1825. Organized at Council Bluffs, the expedition,
consisting of nearly five hundred enlisted men, embarked on eight
keel-boats, with a cavalry escort by land. They met with no opposition
and advanced a hundred and twenty miles above the Yellowstone, reaching
Council Bluffs on the return the nineteenth of September. For the
official report, see 19 Cong., 1 sess., _House Doc._ No. 117, in vol.
vi. The difficulty with the Crows is described by Washington Irving,
_Rocky Mountains_, i, pp. 216, 217, in which the white renegade Edward
Rose figures as the hero who chastised the troublesome chiefs into
obedience.--ED.
[183] Peter Wilson of Maryland was sub-agent for the Mandan with
a salary of eight hundred dollars. He died after about one year's
service.--ED.
[184] This date should be April, 1826. Maximilian has his dates one
year behind, as is proved by the known time of Atkinson's Yellowstone
Expedition.--ED.
[185] This should be 1827. See on this subject our volume xxii, p. 233,
note 161.--ED.
[186] See notes 74 and 75, _ante_, pp. 84, 85, 87.--ED.
[187] See our volume xxii, p. 314, note 274, for Lamont.--ED.
[188] For the site of the Arikkara villages see our volume xxii, p.
335, note 299.--ED.
[189] Both these chiefs were still living at the Mandan villages when
Lewis and Clark passed a winter (1804-05) among them. Black Cat, or
Posecopsahe, lived at the second village, and was head chief of the
tribe. Clark says of him (_Original Journals_, i, p. 256), "This chief
possesses more integrity, firmness, intelligence, and perspicuity of
mind than any Indian I have met with in this quarter." The Coal, or
Shotaharrora, was chief of the first village. An Arikkara, he had been
adopted by the Mandan, among whom he had risen to a chieftainship.--ED.
[190] The French name for a people closely related to the Minitaree,
but speaking a somewhat different dialect, and considered by many
philologists as a separate tribe. See our volumes v, p. 163, note 100;
and xxii, p. 350, note 326.--ED.
[191] See the small plan of this spot on p. 363.--ED.
[192] This location of the Mandan villages corresponds with the account
of Lewis and Clark, except that these explorers represent Ruhptare as
situated on the north bank of the Missouri--doubtless their winter
village, as explained by Maximilian. When the smallpox swept away
the inhabitants of these villages (1837), the remnant of the Mandan
abandoned them to the Arikkara, and formed one small village between
their former towns and the mouth of Knife River. By 1845 they began
moving to the Fort Berthold reservation, where they have since lived,
located on the west bank of the Missouri. Their dwellings are chiefly
log huts, although a few earth lodges may yet be seen. See O. D.
Wheeler, "Last of the Mandans," in _Wonderland_, 1903, pp. 19-36.--ED.
[193] See illustration on p. 347, our volume xxii, for these burial
stages.--ED.
[194] See Plates 29, 68, and 59, in the accompanying atlas, our volume
xxv.--ED.
[195] In the first and greatest (Charbonneau did not remember in what
year it occurred) the water rose forty feet above its usual level.
Only the tops of the poplars were to be seen, and the ice lay above a
month on the land, till it was melted by the sun. The second inundation
took place on the 6th of April, 1826; the water rose, at daybreak, so
rapidly and so high, that Charbonneau was compelled to escape, with
some of his property, to the middle Manitari village, two miles from
the Missouri, and to take refuge on a stack of maize, where he passed
three days without fire, in a cold north wind, and drifting snow. The
water rose twenty-five feet above its usual level. The inhabitants of
fifteen tents of the Sioux, below the Sêche (near the Grand River,
below the Arikkara villages), were all drowned. In the wooded point
of land, at the mouth of the Chayenne River, lived a man named Pascal
Seré, who traded with the Sioux. The water rising rapidly, he took
refuge, with his goods, on the roof of his house, which, however,
was, ere long, lifted up by the river and carried a good way down the
stream. At this place the ice had formed a dam; the house was floated
into the wood on the bank, and there deposited uninjured. In the year
1784, when there were such extensive inundations in Europe, they also
occurred in America, as Volney relates of the Susquehanna.--MAXIMILIAN.
[196] Mr. Laidlow, at Fort Pièrre, rode out on a warm day about three
years ago, to hunt a buffalo. At nightfall it began to rain, and the
party was not well furnished with blankets. Towards morning, frost set
in, and all their clothes were frozen quite stiff, so that many of the
company did not, for some time, recover from the effects of this cold
night.--MAXIMILIAN.
[197] Volney, who gives an admirable description of the climate of the
United States, says, that July is the only month in the year without
frost at Philadelphia.--MAXIMILIAN.
_Comment by Ed._ See Flint's _Letters_ in our volume ix, p. 237, note
121.
[198] This probably means 47° below freezing point; for if it were to
be understood as 47° below c, of Fahrenheit, it would be 79° below
freezing point--H. EVANS LLOYD.
_Comment by Ed._ A curious misconception on the part of Lloyd,
the English translator, who could not believe this account of the
intense cold on the western prairies of the United States. Maximilian
undoubtedly intended just what he says--a temperature record not
unknown in recent winters.
[199] See our volume v, p. 267.--ED.
[200] A more accurate comparison has shown that this antediluvian
animal does not differ from the Mosasaurus, which has been found in
many parts of North America; and Professor Goldfuss, at Bonn, will
give us a description of it. I have already mentioned that I am,
unfortunately, not able to furnish any particulars of the several
specimens of this kind which I had obtained, because I have lost the
whole collection by the burning of the Assiniboin steamer in the
Missouri. Many of the specimens observed by me are described, with
figures, in Dr. S. G. Morton's "Synopsis of the Organic Remains of the
Cretaceous Groups of the United States. Illustrated by nineteen plates,
&c. Philadelphia, 1834."--MAXIMILIAN.
[201] See, however, on the use of this coal, our volume xxii, p. 364,
note 336.--ED.
[202] Frederick Pursh (1774-1820), a foreign botanist who came to
the United States in 1799 and spent twelve years exploring its plant
life. In 1811 he went to England where he published _Flora Americæ
Septentrionalis_ (London, 1814). He died at Montreal while arranging
a catalogue of Canadian plants. See also Bradbury's _Travels_ in our
volume v, p. 26.--ED.
[203] See preface to our volume xiii, for sketch of life of Thomas
Nuttall.--ED.
[204] Maximilian appears to distinguish between La Côte Noire and
the Black Hills. The term Côtes Noires was, however, applied by the
early voyageurs to the entire body of the highlands in Nebraska, and
in South and North Dakota. The limitation of the term Black Hills to
the particular chain now thus named in South Dakota, is of recent use.
Maximilian makes a curious error in thinking that these hills form part
of either the Mississippi or the Arkansas watershed. Taken in the wider
sense they form the dividing ridge between the Platte, Yellowstone, and
Missouri systems.--ED.
[205] For brief sketch of Thomas Say, see our volume xiv, James'
_Long's Expedition_, p. 40, note 1. Maximilian spent part of the winter
of 1832-33 with this naturalist at New Harmony (see our volume xxii);
and visited him upon his return; he died, however (October, 1834), just
after the prince had reached Europe.--ED.
[206] See opposite page for illustration of head of _Antilocapra
Ord._--ED.