WERE INDIANS AFRAID OF YELLOWSTONE?
Beginning with the origin of Yellowstone as a National Park the idea
became current that Indians were afraid of the area. The opinion is
still widely held that they considered it a cursed domain, unfit for
habitation. While it is true that superstition and taboo loomed large in
primitive experience, there is no reason to suppose that Indians gave
Wonderland a wide berth.[87] Rather, there is an abundance of material
evidence that controverts this view. Furthermore, the proposition is at
once illogical and untrue historically.
How, then, did this fiction originate? Probably the major reason is
found in the fact that, with the exception of a small band of
recluse-like Tukuarikas, or Sheepeaters, Indians did not live
permanently in Yellowstone. This fact alone suggests that the region was
not regarded as an appropriate abode. Only a pygmy tribe of about four
hundred timid souls deemed it a suitable homeland.
These people were the weakest of all mountain clans. They did not
possess horses. Their tools were of the crudest type; they lived in
caves and nearly inaccessible niches in cliffs along the Gardner River,
especially in wintertime. These more permanent camps were carefully
chosen in the interest of security against other Indians. Superintendent
Norris discovered one of them by accident:
In trailing a wounded bighorn I descended a rocky dangerous pathway.
In rapt astonishment I found I had thus unbidden entered an ancient
but recently deserted, secluded, unknown haunt of the Sheepeater
aborigines of the Park.[88]
This campground was a half mile in length and four hundred feet at its
widest point, with a similar depth, "and hemmed in and hidden by rugged
timber-fringed basaltic cliffs...."
In summer, the Sheepeater Indians ventured further into the interior,
following the game upon the higher plateaus. There they erected:
skin-covered lodges, or circular upright brush-heaps called wickiups,
decaying evidences of which are abundant near Mammoth Hot Springs, the
various firehole basins, the shores of Yellowstone Lake, the newly
explored Hoodoo regions, and in nearly all of the sheltered glens and
valleys of the Park.[89]
In 1874, the Earl of Dunraven discovered such a camp just west of Mary
Mountain on the head of Nez Percé Creek.
Superintendent Norris and his associates focused their eyes particularly
upon evidences of Indian occupancy. In a dozen places they observed rude
but extensive pole and brush fences used for wild animal driveways.[90]
An especially strategic camp was discovered near the summit of a grassy
pass between Hoodoo and Miller creeks. From this skyline perch, marked
by forty decaying lodges, an entire tribe could command a view of all
possible approaches for many miles. Fragments of white men's chinaware,
blankets, bed clothing, and male and female wearing apparel bore mute
but mournful witness of border raids and massacres. This was an Absaroka
summer retreat.
However, there are few such evidences discernible today because snows
are heavy and wind fallen trees profuse, while the character of Indian
structures was flimsy. In fact, these Indians, on the whole, left fewer
enduring signs of their dwelling places than beaver. Several log
wickiups still stand in a pleasant fir grove in the triangle formed by
Lava Creek and Gardner River above their point of union. These wickiups
are readily accessible from the Tower Falls highway one half mile east
of the Gardner River bridge.
What happened to the timid Tukuarikas? They simply vanished from the
scene as the white men invaded their refuge. They left without a contest
for ownership or treaty of cession. That is the way most Americans would
have had all Indian tribes behave!
All mountain Indian tribes visited Yellowstone. We-Saw, Shoshoni guide
for Captain W. A. Jones in 1873, said his people and also the Bannocks
and Crows occasionally visited the Yellowstone River and Lake.
For one thing, Obsidian Cliff had the effect of a magnet upon them. It
was their arsenal, a lance and arrowhead quarry. Arrowheads and spears
originating here have been found in an area extending many miles in
every direction. The obsidian chips, from which implements were
assiduously shaped by the Indians, still litter the side hills and
ravines in chosen areas all over the Park. Many fine specimens of
arrowheads, knives, scrapers, and spears have been found at various
places. The most notable finds have been around the base of Mt. Holmes,
along Indian Creek, at Fishing Bridge, near West Thumb, in the Norris
and Lower Geyser basins, and about the Lamar Valley. Actually, these
artifacts have generally turned up wherever excavation for modern camps
has been made.
[Illustration: _Remnants of Sheepeaters' Wickiup_]
In P. W. Norris' _Fifth Annual Report, 1881_, there is a comprehensive
analysis of the problem of Indian occupancy. Diagrams of four steatite
vessels found in widely separated places are represented. Drawings of
arrowheads and sinkers also occur, and figures 10 to 24, inclusive,
depict the natural sizes of scrapers, knives, lance, spearheads, and
perforators, mostly chipped from Park obsidian.[91] These artifacts were
found in various places, such as caverns, driveways, at the foot of
cliffs, and along creeks. Said Norris: "Over two hundred such specimens
were collected this season."[92]
In his report of 1878, Mr. Norris states: "Chips, flakes, arrowheads and
other Indian tools and weapons have been found by all recent tourists in
burial cairns and also scattered broadcast in all these mountain
valleys."[93]
Is it any wonder Indian artifacts are scarce in Yellowstone today?
Still, they are frequently found when excavations are made. Winter
snows, animal trampings, land slides, and floods have covered them. A
few isolated items of discovery should be noted: arrowheads have
recently been found on Stevenson Island, in lake gravel pits, about
Buffalo Ranch, in the sewer line, near South Entrance, on the Game
Ranch, around Norris, Lower, and Midway geyser basins, and at Fishing
Bridge.[94]
Another evidence of Indian visitation was evinced by a network of
trails. One of these followed the Yellowstone Valley across the Park
from north to south. It divided at Yellowstone Lake, the principal
branch adhering to the east shore and leading to Two Ocean Pass where it
intersected the great Snake and Wind River trail. Since Indian trails
multisected the Yellowstone area it is obvious that the region was a
sort of no-man's land. Undesirable as a homeland, it was used as a
summer retreat by many Rocky Mountain tribes. From this circumstance it
may be assumed that an autumn seldom passed without a clash between the
Bannocks and the Crows or the Shoshonis. Surely, the shrill notes of
Blackfeet warwhoops have echoed in these vales. Campsites were well
chosen both from the viewpoint of preserving secrecy and desirability as
watchtower sites.
The most important trail, however, was that known as the Great Bannock
Trail. The Bannocks of southeastern Idaho made an annual trek to the
Bighorn Basin for buffalo. Their trail followed Henrys Fork of Snake
River to Henrys Lake, an ancient Bannock rendezvous. From this notable
camp the trail went up Howard Creek and crossed the Continental Divide
at Targhee Pass. Upon reaching the Upper Madison Valley, the route
passed Horse Butte and angled north of West Yellowstone townsite. A camp
at Great Springs (now Cory Springs) was situated near the Park boundary.
In Yellowstone National Park, the Bannock Trail winds its devious way
across the northern part. There are a half-dozen deviations from the
main artery. Wayne Replogle suggests that weather conditions determined
these alternations. High ground would be chosen enroute to the plains,
but the return trip could be made along the streams. Other
considerations might include security, grazing, and game. Entering the
Park upon Duck Creek the Trail swung northward across Campanula Creek,
paralleled Gneiss Creek to the point of crossing, then quartered
southward, crossing Maple Creek and Duck Creek, on toward the head of
Cougar Creek and its ample pasture lands.
From this area the Trail goes almost due north to White Peaks, which are
skirted on the West. The Gallatin Range was crossed via a saddle north
of White Peaks. The Trail then dropped upon the headwaters of Indian
Creek and followed down to Gardner River. The route then looped to the
left, across Swan Lake flats, on through Snow Pass, down the decline to
Mammoth Hot Springs. From Mammoth the Indian thoroughfare struck right,
recrossed Gardner River, and followed Lava Creek toward Tower Fall.
The Yellowstone River ford was located just above Tower Fall, near the
mouth of Tower Creek. Vestiges of the trail may still be discerned along
both banks of Yellowstone River. Other evidences, such as deep
grass-sodded furrows, may be seen in the vicinity of junction of the
Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek. One branch paralleled Soda Butte Creek
to the divide and then descended Clarks Fork to the bison range. The
alternate route continued along the Lamar to a secondary divide between
Cache and Calfee creeks. This hog's back was then followed to the
summit, and the descent was down Timber Creek to its confluence with
Clarks Fork. The deep ruts worn by travois in these pilgrimages are
still obvious in many places, although unused for three quarters of a
century.
[Illustration: W. S. Chapman
Horse and Travois Transportation.]
Can anyone doubt that the Bannocks made frequent and extensive
excursions beyond this thoroughfare? Surely their young men ranged far
and wide, prying into every nook and cranny of Wonderland. They
undoubtedly fished in the great lake and river, hunted elk and bighorn,
bathed in warm springs, and reveled in the beauties of the landscape.
Any other view of the evidence would impute undue naïveté to human
nature. After all, Indians were children of nature; the earth was their
mother. In Yellowstone Mother Earth was especially intriguing. They
might not understand her; they might entertain great respect for her
strange manifestations, but cringing trepidation? Hardly! But weren't
they afraid of the geysers? In 1935, White Hawk and Many Wounds visited
the Park. They were members of Chief Joseph's band when it crossed the
Park in 1877. When asked if the Nez Percé Indians were afraid of the
geysers and hot springs they said no and implied that they used them in
cooking.[95] Still the critic objects, saying the geyser and spring
formations were all intact when the first white men came. Primitive
people were seldom guilty of wanton spoliation. Hence, missing
incrustations were not essential evidence of Indian visitation. They
left nature's beauty as they found it, a proper example for all who
might follow after.
Did Indians ever hear the legendary overhead sounds in the vicinity of
Shoshone and Yellowstone lakes--those strange half-minute tunes like the
humming of bees or echo of bells?[96] Perhaps they did. Any phenomenon
audible to white men with the naked ear would be discernible to them
because they were sensitive to nature and her communion was always
welcomed. However, since Indians were without records and formal
procedures for obtaining and preserving scientific knowledge they were
tremendously limited in understanding. They operated upon a single
dimension of experience. For instance, they could never realize that the
fish they took from Lake Yellowstone was a Pacific Ocean species which
could only have reached these inland lakes via the Snake River system,
signifying that, in ages past, the great lake must have possessed an
outlet in that direction. All such problems awaited the scientists, but
red men still knew much in their own right.
Surely then, Indians were summertime visitors in Yellowstone. They
literally swarmed around the lakes. The most unimpeachable testimony on
this point comes from trapper accounts of actual encounters. This phase
of the case is discussed in the following chapter. Their known presence
in the wooded area was the greatest deterrent to the white man's
interest. Few men voluntarily risk their lives for a view of nature's
wonders. It is a historical fact that the Washburn-Langford-Doane party
saw Crow Indians along the north environs of the Park and actually
followed a fresh line of tracks into the Yellowstone area. Thus the
scenic exploitation of Wonderland was not feasible until the Indians
were rounded up and confined to the reservations. This program was
accomplished in the states surrounding Yellowstone between 1860 and
1877.
This process of racial adjustment was not accomplished without minor
repercussions upon Yellowstone. The exciting Nez Percé flight of 1877 is
considered separately in Chapter XI. However, the very next year the
Bannocks conducted an impressive horse-stealing foray against the
property of laborers and tourists. These episodes resulted in
unfavorable publicity from the standpoint of tourist interest in
visiting Wonderland. In consequence two important steps were taken by
the officials. In 1880 Superintendent Norris made a tour of all the
Rocky Mountain Indian reservations. His mission was to secure solemn
promises from the tribes to abide by the terms of their Washington
treaties and in particular to stay away from the Park.[97]
These agreements were widely advertised, and in order to further
neutralize any fear of Indian trouble a policy of minimizing past
incidents was evolved. The recent invasions were represented as
unprecedented, actually anomalous. Indians had never lived in
Yellowstone, were infrequent visitors because they were afraid of the
thermal activity! It was not a conspiracy against truth, just an
adaptation of business psychology to a promising national resort.