FORT UNION TO FORT BENTON
"Fort Union is situated on the eastern bank of the Missouri, about
two miles and three quarters above the mouth of the Yellowstone. It
was built by the American Fur Company in 1830, and has from that
time been the principal depot of that company. It is framed of
pickets of hewn timber, about sixteen feet high, and has two
bastions, one at the northwest and one at the southeast corner. The
main or front entrance is on the side opposite the river. The fort
is 250 feet square. The main buildings, comprising the residence of
the superintendent and the store, are on the front or eastern side.
They are two stories high, and built of wood. The shops and
dwellings of the blacksmith, the gunsmith, the carpenter, the
shoemaker, the tailor, and others are of adobe or of wood, and
occupy the other sides. These mechanics are mostly French
half-breeds, and have half-breed or Indian wives and many children.
There is a grassy plain around the fort, extending to the base of
the rising ground, which is a full mile distant on the eastern side.
The Assiniboines, the Gros Ventres, the Crows, and other migratory
bands of Indians trade at this fort, exchanging the skins of the
buffalo, deer, and other animals for such commodities as they
require. Mr. Culbertson, who has occupied the position of chief
agent of the company during the past twenty years, has under his
supervision not only Fort Union, but Forts Pierre and Benton also.
He is a man of great energy, intelligence, and fidelity, and
possesses the entire confidence of the Indians. His wife, a
full-blooded Indian of the Blood band of the Blackfoot tribe, is
also deservedly held in high estimation. Though she appears to have
made little or no progress in our language, she has acquired the
manners and adapted herself to the usages of the white race with
singular facility. Their children have been sent to the States to
be educated in our best schools."
Fort Union was long since abandoned.
Agreeably to instructions, Mr. Culbertson, immediately on reaching Fort
Union, dispatched expresses to the chiefs of the Blackfoot nation with
presents of tobacco and goods, and Governor Stevens's message:--
"I desire to meet you on the way, and assure you of the fatherly
care and beneficence of the government. I wish to meet the Blackfeet
in a general council at Fort Benton. Do not make war upon your
neighbors. Remain at peace, and the Great Father will see that you
do not lose by it."
The Blackfeet at this time numbered 12,000, divided into four great
bands,--Blackfeet proper, Bloods, Piegans, and Gros Ventres. Pressing
down from the north over a century before, they drove back the Crows,
Shoshones, and Flatheads, and took possession of all the country about
the headwaters of the Missouri from above the boundary line to the
Yellowstone, and from the Rocky Mountains eastward to Fort Union. True
Ishmaelites, they waged perpetual war upon all other tribes, and
cherished special and inveterate hostility against the whites ever since
one of their number was slain by Captain Lewis, of Lewis and Clark's
expedition, in 1807. They suffered, indeed, two rival trading-posts on
the upper Missouri, three hundred miles above Fort Union, namely, Fort
Benton and Fort Campbell, for it was indispensable for them to exchange
their peltries for arms, ammunition, blankets, and goods; but the
traders never dared admit them within the forts.
War was their sole business, the only means by which the young braves
acquired influence, gained wealth, and found favor in the eyes of the
maidens. Their war parties invariably started out on foot, each warrior
trailing a long lariat, and bearing a bundle of moccasins with rawhide
soles. It was a point of honor never to return unless mounted, and war
parties were sometimes absent over a year before they succeeded in
capturing their steeds. Penetrating thus on foot from three hundred to a
thousand miles into the country of their foes, they would patiently lurk
in the mountains, or some hidden resort, until an opportunity offered,
when, running off the horses, and perhaps lifting a few scalps, they
would retreat home at full speed, mounted and triumphant. Thus they
raided the Crows and Assiniboines on the east and south, the Shoshones,
Snakes, and Flatheads on the west, and even beset the emigrant trail of
the Platte and South Pass, eight hundred miles distant; and many a
lonely trapper and emigrant had fallen victim to their cunning and
ferocity. Yet the chiefs and elders plainly saw that this incessant
warfare was slowly but surely cutting off their warriors in detail, and
threatened the ultimate extinction of the tribe, and were not unwilling
to relinquish it for a more peaceful mode of life, but ever found it
impossible to restrain the young braves.
With these powerful and intractable savages Governor Stevens undertook
to make a lasting peace, not only between them and the whites, but also
between them and their hereditary enemies, the other Indian tribes. He
early realized that the establishment of peace and the cessation of
Blackfoot war parties were indispensable to the exploration and
settlement of the country, and the passage of emigrants through it, and
characteristically set to work to effect it, without waiting for orders.
He took every opportunity to meet and confer with the chiefs and parties
of the Blackfeet, urging them to make peace, and proposing a great
council for the next year, at which they and the whites and the other
Indian tribes were to meet together and unite in bonds of lasting
friendship. From Fort Benton the governor reported his views and action
to the government, and in the strongest manner recommended the holding
of the council. He sent Mr. Culbertson expressly to carry his report to
Washington, and impress his policy upon the government. It is remarkable
how Governor Stevens, although eminently loyal and subordinate to
authority, always impressed his own views upon the government, and
caused them to be adopted, instead of waiting for instructions to be
given him. With his sagacious foresight and ardent patriotism, he was
quick to discern needed measures, which always appeared to him as duties
to be undertaken, and moreover he had such courage and force of
character that he never hesitated to take the responsibility of any
action that he deemed necessary for the public welfare.
Thus far the expedition had met with most gratifying success. Lieutenant
Donelson made a satisfactory examination of the Missouri to a point one
hundred and twenty-five miles above Fort Union, and an extended
reconnoissance of the country north of that point. The main party
surveyed two routes westward from Pike Lake, and ascertained the
topographical features on both flanks for a wide scope, while Lander,
during the stay at Fort Union, examined the Mouse River country
northward to the 49th parallel. Dr. Evans was at work geologizing in the
Bad Lands on the other side of the Missouri. The force was now hardened
to field work and in fine spirits, and the animals were toughened,
thoroughly broken, and in fine condition.
"From the 2d to the 9th of August we were closely occupied in
preparing for the continuation of the survey. The men were engaged
in making Pembina carts, and additional transportation was purchased
of the fur companies. Our experience thus far had shown how well
adapted ox-trains were to transportation, and accordingly two
additional teams were added at Fort Union. In all these
arrangements both the fur companies zealously coöperated, placing at
my disposal not only all the animals they could spare, but guides,
hunters, and their information in regard to the country. We were
much pleased and benefited by the good offices of the Indian women
at the two posts, the wives of the officers, who fitted us out with
a good assortment of moccasins, gloves, and other guards against the
severity of the weather in the fall and winter.
"The voyageurs belonging to the fur companies' posts thought it a
good practical joke to spread bugbear stories about the immense
snows to be expected early in the season, and many of the men got to
believe that they would find snow knee-deep before they reached Fort
Benton, and that it would be twenty feet deep in the passes of the
Rocky Mountains in October, and the men became exceedingly alarmed.
Fortunately I had with me some books of travel in that country,
particularly De Smet's 'Oregon Missions,' and had carefully
investigated the climates of the country west of the Rocky
Mountains. Mr. Culbertson and the officers of the companies also
gave me reliable information in reference to the lightness and
lateness of the snow this side of the mountains, and therefore
little difficulty was found in satisfying the men that they had been
trifled with in this matter."
Advancing the expedition westward again in two parties under Lieutenants
Grover and Donelson on the 9th of August, the governor, to quote from
his final report,
started on the 10th from Fort Union at about twelve o'clock,
followed by a war party of the Blackfeet, consisting of twenty Blood
Indians and forty Piegan Indians, who arrived at Fort Union on the
8th on a visit to my party, and with whom I had had the most
friendly interchange of civilities. I desired their company for two
or three days in order to impress them fully with the beneficent
policy of our government towards the Indians, and with the peaceable
character of my own duties and objects, intending then to dispatch
them on their way to their several tribes, and to make generally
known to the Blackfoot nation our objects in passing through their
country. I camped that evening with Lieutenant Grover on the Little
Muddy River, when, towards night, a serious difficulty came near
happening between them and our party. Mr. Culbertson and myself,
however, succeeded in arranging the matter, and we spent a most
interesting evening with the principal men in conversing about the
Blackfeet and the Indian policy of our government. On this occasion
I presented the subject of a general council to be held at Fort
Benton the ensuing year, to make peace between the Blackfoot Indians
and the hunting tribes west of the mountains, and to preserve peace
with the white children of the Great Father. On this as on previous
occasions, Mrs. Culbertson, a native of the Blood tribe of the
Blackfeet, was unwearied and efficient in her good offices.
The next day we reached the Big Muddy River. The crossing was at a
difficult ford, and we were all highly gratified at the zeal and
efficiency of one of the Blackfeet, who pulled as steadily at the
rope as any man of my party.
Before leaving the Big Muddy I had a long conversation with the
White Man's Horse, the chief of the war party of Blackfeet. He had
frequently visited the Bitter Root valley, and stolen horses from
the Flatheads. He observed, "I take the first Flathead horse I come
to; it is sure to be a good one." He and one of his men had just
returned from the Flathead country, and they gave a very favorable
description of the route, assuring me, pointing to my wagons and
Pembina carts, that there would be no difficulty in taking them
through the mountains. The country between Fort Union and this point
is broken and rolling, with occasional formations of the _mauvaise
terre_ and outcroppings of sandstone. On the Big Muddy there is
quite a large and open valley of a very good soil and excellent
grass, with a very heavy growth of cottonwood near its junction with
the Missouri.
On starting from the Big Muddy on the 14th of August, the command
was in most excellent condition and spirits. Two of the mule teams
were strengthened by an additional pair of mules, and the wagons
were somewhat overloaded; for I determined to take nearly all my
provisions along, so there should be no possibility of suffering for
want of food, even though the depot of provisions in the Bitter Root
valley had not been established by Lieutenant Saxton. We made eleven
and a half miles, and encamped at a most beautiful point in the
midst of luxuriant grass. The day was very sultry, some rain fell,
and one ox died from the heat.
August 15. Excellent road all day. Crossed Poplar River and encamped
on the west side, distance eighteen miles. I now felt the importance
of renovating my health in order to prepare for the mountain work.
It had been my custom thus far to continue at work till midnight,
and to be up with the first in the morning.
August, 16. The road to-day was over the level river-bottom of the
Missouri. Timber in sight all day, the route running through timber
for about a mile. Reached a camp where there was excellent water,
grass, and abundance of timber at five o'clock, making twenty three
and two thirds miles. I issued this evening an order directing every
person in the expedition, so far as it was consistent with his
duties, to walk a portion of the way each day; for in approaching
the mountains my effort was that the animals should be increasing
rather than diminishing in flesh, and our experience had taught us
that, by care in all these particulars, long marches could be made
and the animals improved each day.
August 17. Made fifteen miles to-day, and camped on the Missouri at
two o'clock. The road was over the level river-bottom. Much side
work has been done since leaving the Big Muddy by Lieutenant Grover,
Mr. Lander, and Mr. Tinkham, and the meteorological observations
have been as numerous as they were on the route up to Fort Union. We
organized to-day a day guard for the care of the animals, the object
being to keep them in the best grazing without picketing as long as
possible.
August 18. Passed through to-day villages of prairie dogs. Crossed
the Porcupine River about five miles from camp. Encamped on Milk
River, sixteen miles being the day's march. Here we determined to
remain a day to prepare charcoal for the blacksmith, and to make
observations for the geographical position of its mouth, which is
considered a very important point in the survey. Our camp was
surrounded by a large grove of cottonwood, and near it was a
delightful spring of water. The valley of Milk River is wide and
open, with a heavy growth of cottonwood as far as the eye can reach,
which is also to be found along the adjacent shores of the Missouri.
At this camp, which I named Camp Atchison, in honor of the acting
Vice-President, I reduced to writing, and issued in an order, the
instructions for the government of the expedition and the
distribution of duties, under which we had been moving by my verbal
instructions from the Big Muddy River. I availed myself of this
opportunity to express my sense of the services of the several
members of my party. On the 19th there was some little alarm in camp
in consequence of false reports about the vicinity of a war party of
Blackfeet.
We left Camp Atchison on the 20th, and after moving fifteen miles
reached a very pleasant camp, with excellent grass, wood, and water.
In the evening there was a very heavy thunder-storm. My order was
read to the gentlemen of the party this evening, and was the subject
of general congratulation, and not a little mischievous by-play or
joking.
August 21. This morning was clear, cool, pleasant, and delightful
for moving. Engineer parties, both yesterday and to-day, have been
actively at work getting in the country bordering the route of the
main party. I dispatched a small party across Milk River to Panther
Hill to observe the country. Game was very abundant; plenty of
buffalo, antelope, and beaver. A heavy rain and thunder-storm
occurred about noon. Wild horses were reported as having been seen
to-day by the reconnoitring parties. A fine eagle was shot and
brought in to Dr. Buckley, our naturalist. To my exceeding regret, I
found that there were points arising regarding the relations of army
officers and civilians, and I concluded that the only way to
overcome all difficulty was to pursue a firm, steady course,
according to the terms of my written order. The distance to-day was
seventeen and two thirds miles.
August 22. We crossed Milk River five miles from camp, and took a
cut off to the south. We made our camp, after moving nineteen and a
half miles, a quarter of a mile from the river, in the vicinity of a
very heavy growth of cottonwood, there being a high bluff between us
and the river. As usual, the evening was spent in considering the
question of the proposed Blackfoot council, and in examining the
work of the parties, and preparing for the work ahead. We passed
through large herds of buffalo to-day.
August 23. We left camp late in consequence of the oxen straying,
and about a mile from camp crossed Milk River. The order to walk
some miles each day has been carefully observed, and the effect was
to be seen upon our animals. On reaching our camping-ground, we
found a deputation of Gros Ventres, consisting of seven of their
chiefs, five of whom were accompanied by their wives. Among these
was the Eagle Chief and his son, White Eagle, and the Little
Soldier. The wife of the son of Eagle Chief was a very pretty woman.
Her name was the White Antelope. They welcomed us in the most
cordial manner, and were dignified in their deportment, which was
marked by the strictest propriety. We were invited to visit their
camp, about thirty miles farther on. After smoking and talking for
some time, lunch was served up about dusk, consisting of coffee,
rice, etc., after which they made us presents of horses, giving one
to myself and two to Mr. Culbertson, to whom they seemed to be much
attached. There was a large tent put up for their accommodation, and
supper was provided about ten o'clock.
As my health had now been rapidly improving for some days, I
determined to push ahead as rapidly as possible with two advance
parties in order to examine the approaches to the mountains.
Accordingly I organized two parties, under Lieutenant Grover and Mr.
Lander, for the above purpose. To Mr. Lander I assigned four and to
Lieutenant Grover five members of the party. Each was provided with
reserve horses, and with fifty days' rations of flour, sugar, and
coffee. These arrangements delayed me, so that on the following
morning,
August 24, I got off somewhat late, and was obliged to go into camp
seven and a half miles this side of the Indian camp. Our Indian
friends were again with us to-night, and we treated them with bread
and coffee.
I learned to-day that a feud has lately broken out between the Gros
Ventres and the Blackfoot tribes. A Gros Ventre was married to a
Blackfoot woman. Traveling along, he was attacked, killed, and a
fleet horse of his stolen. His wife was with him at the time, and
the assassin proposed that she should marry him, go northward, and
the Gros Ventres would never learn of the death of one of their
tribe. She assented. He gave her the slow animal, upon which he had
ridden himself, mounting the fast horse, which had been taken from
her murdered husband. They soon arrived at water; she went off to
get some, and on her return pressed him to go, as the water was very
good. He did so, leaving his horse with the squaw. After he had gone
some two or three hundred yards she mounted the fast steed, and,
pursuing a contrary direction, joined the tribe of her deceased
husband, and gave such information as would lead to the revenge of
his untimely death. I find these Indians determined to revenge this
outrage, and they are now fitting out war parties for the purpose of
cutting off straggling Blackfeet, and stealing their horses.
August 25. Took an early breakfast, making to-day twenty-two and a
half miles, when we reached the camp of Gros Ventres on the bank of
Milk River, at half past three o'clock. This camp consisted of three
hundred lodges, at least one thousand horses, and over two thousand
Indians. We were soon waited on by others of the tribe, dressed in
their finest costumes, among whom I would name the Cloudy Robe, who
presented me with a horse; the Eagle, Big Top, the Discoverer or
Ball in the Nose, the Man who goes on Horseback, the White Tail
Deer, the Running Fisher, the Two Elks, the Wolf Talker, the Bear's
Coat, White Bear, the Clay Pipestem Carrier, the Old Horse, the
Sitting Squaw, the Little White Calf. Accompanied by the gentlemen
of the party, I visited their camp and the lodges of the principal
chiefs, at all of which we were treated with the utmost kindness and
hospitality. They first received us in a large lodge prepared for
the occasion, some twenty-five feet in diameter, within which some
sixty were seated. We here smoked, drank, and ate, talked some time,
and then visited the lodges. I was much struck with the prominent
characteristics of this tribe. Polygamy is universal; several of the
chiefs above named having four, five, and even six wives, one of
whom is the especial favorite and mistress of the household. The
husband will appropriate any of them to purposes of prostitution
when he can profit by so doing. They are filthy in the extreme in
their habits, many of the women actually eating the vermin out of
each other's heads, and out of the robes in which they sleep. Being
improvident, it is always feast or famine. Returned to camp about
eight o'clock, and fixed the next day for a council.
August 26. The Pembina train arrived shortly after breakfast, and
the main train about noon. The necessary preparations were made for
the feast, and about one o'clock the Indians were seated around in
squads of twenty or thirty to the number of two hundred. Before the
feast the Indians seemed to be in high glee, passing the time in
singing their songs, accompanying them with rattles made of the
hoofs of antelopes strung very fancifully upon a piece of wood about
a foot long, with which they marked time.
Shortly after the feast was over we had a council, at which the
chiefs and many of the principal men were present. Mr. Culbertson
acted as interpreter. When I first commenced talking with them, I
found they were deeply enraged against the Blackfeet for the cause
alluded to in the journal of the 24th; that they were determined to
wage war against that tribe. I determined to put an end to this, and
at once made a proposition to them to settle with that tribe on
their delivery of the offender, or making a suitable reparation. I
then explained the folly of going to war; how much they would suffer
from it and how little was to be gained; that it was the desire of
the Great Father that all his children should be at peace with each
other; that while war parties of both tribes were scouring the
country, the road was dangerous to the whites who should go there;
and it was my duty to demand that they should not so act as to
endanger the life of a single man of my own party, or any white man
who should hereafter travel through this region.
I then proceeded to explain the objects of the expedition in passing
through their country. I wished to make a treaty of peace between
the Gros Ventres, Blackfeet, Piegans, and Bloods, and between these
and the Indians west of the mountains who resort to the plains of
the Missouri to hunt the buffalo. I then proceeded to explain the
advantages which would arise to the Indians from entering into such
a treaty, and receiving from the government directly what they now
get from other Indians. They would then obtain goods, provisions,
etc., in the way of annuities; could keep their horses, instead of
being obliged to go with their horses and purchase of other Indians
at an increased price, what the liberality and benevolence of the
Great Father, in his fostering care over his children, would at once
freely and abundantly supply them. "Think well of the matter.
Suspend for the present your difficulty with the Blackfoot Indians.
Let some of your chiefs come with me to Fort Benton, and we will try
to settle the difficulty between the tribes. If it cannot be settled
there, let it be referred to a commissioner sent here by the Great
Father, who will settle all your differences at a council of the
tribes to be held next year, where the grievances of both parties
will be fully heard. But I must insist on the safe conduct of every
white man through this country."
They then held a consultation with their braves and principal men.
In about an hour we met again. They assented to every proposition
made. Some of their chiefs consented to accompany me to Fort Benton,
and the whole tribe announced their willingness to wait until some
time next year, and refer their difficulties to such a council. We
continued the talk for some time, after which the Indians were
invited to come over to the camp of the main party and witness the
firing of the howitzer, which seemed to give them much pleasure.
About five o'clock we made a distribution of the presents and
provisions designed for this tribe, consisting of blankets, shirts,
calico, knives, beads, paint, powder, shot, tobacco, hard bread,
etc. They received them with the greatest satisfaction; no grumbling
or envy was manifested. They continued about our camp, loitering,
smoking, and talking, all the afternoon and evening.
August 27. Busy this morning in the purchase and exchange of horses
with the Indians. We secured several very good horses in place of
six very indifferent mules. Several members of the expedition bought
horses for clothing, guns, etc., their private property, thus
relieving for the use of the expedition their present riding
animals. By the distribution of presents and provisions, and
consumption at camp, we lightened our loads some two thousand
pounds, apart from the issue to the detached parties, and have
received twelve serviceable animals in place of unserviceable ones,
besides four new ones purchased by members of the party, two
presented to me, and two purchased by Mr. Culbertson.
August 28. I made to-day twenty-four and a half miles with the
advance parties. I was very much pleased with the good offices of
the Running Fisher, who brought into camp two of our missing horses.
By my invitation he will accompany us to Fort Benton.
August 29. The road to-day was not as good as usual: the
river-bottom was much dried up, with deep cracks in the soil, and
the numerous holes made by the prairie dogs were even, at times, a
worse obstacle to our progress. Made our halt about twelve miles
from camp, where we dined. By an accident, the wind being high, the
prairie took fire, which extended over considerable surface. Our
dining-place was on a branch of Milk River, flowing from Cypress
Mountain. Parallel to this, and some three miles farther on, crossed
a second branch, issuing also from the Cypress Mountain. By a bend,
the two branches nearly meet, forming what is called the junction.
Mr. Culbertson estimates the number of the Gros Ventres at about
three hundred lodges, ten persons to the lodge, of which the
proportion of men to women is one to two, the number of men being
about six hundred. On his arrival in the country twenty-three years
ago, they numbered four hundred lodges. In 1838-39, by a junction of
the Crees and Assiniboines, some sixty lodges were entirely
destroyed at Julius Mountain. A few years subsequently another
attack was made at Cypress Mountain, in which sixty more lodges were
exterminated, three men only escaping on this occasion, one of whom
was the Sitting Squaw, father of the one already mentioned. Soon
after Mr. Culbertson's arrival in the country, he and four or five
other whites, with a party of Blackfoot Indians, were attacked by a
war party of Assiniboines, numbering some seven or eight hundred.
The field was contested all day, night only ending the conflict. In
the morning the Assiniboines did not resume the attack, and
abandoned many of their dead on the field. A considerable number of
the Blackfeet were also killed, but none of the whites.
August 30. Yesterday we were in sight of the Bear's Paw, quite a
broad and rugged mountain upheaval, stretching from Milk River to
the Missouri. I sent off Lieutenant Grover, Mr. Lander, and Mr.
Stanley, to make an examination of the Bear's Paw, so far as it
could be done by ascending one of its highest peaks, estimated to be
about seventeen or eighteen miles distant. I moved on myself with
the remainder of the party, having determined that I would no longer
ride in the ambulance, but would make the effort to push forward
either on horseback or on foot. After moving seven or eight miles I
suffered so exceedingly from riding that I walked some five or six
miles with great difficulty, until, coming to a good camp on our
second crossing of Milk River, and the point where we were to leave
it on our way to Fort Benton, I halted the party and rested for two
hours. This gave me strength enough to mount my horse and ride to
camp, eighteen miles farther on, on a tributary of the Box Elder
Creek. We crossed several branches of this creek, which is a
tributary of Milk River, that has its source very near the Missouri
and is on our general line to Fort Benton. The ascent is very
gradual from Milk River to our camp; the soil generally is very
good. The view this afternoon was delightful. Bear's Paw itself
presents a rugged, grotesque appearance, and it requires no great
stretch of the imagination to see in it the paw of a grizzly bear,
ready to spring upon the plain.
The Three Buttes, or the Sweet Grass Hills, some sixty miles to the
northward of us, are a favorite resort of the Blackfeet, who say
that Providence created these hills for the tribe to ascend and look
out for buffalo. Southward we have a view of mountains on the other
side of the Missouri. Our distance to-day was twenty-nine and a half
miles.
August 31. We made an early start this morning, and in twelve miles
came to the upper waters of the Box Elder Creek, which is a clear,
limpid stream, affording an unfailing supply of water. We then
pushed on five miles over a fine rolling prairie to a coulee in the
hills, where there was a spring, and here we halted to dine. This
spring is a great resort for buffalo. Considerable water flows from
it, but the ordure of the buffalo was in such great quantities about
it that it infected the water, and moreover they had trampled all
the ground, and had stirred up the water of the spring with their
feet. We however thought it would be well enough for us to make
coffee, and we managed to get up a very respectable meal. After
stopping three hours, we continued on over a very good road. There
was a shower of rain and hail about four P.M. At five the Missouri
was in sight, the Belt Mountains looming up beyond it at a distance
of not less than fifty miles. After a march of thirty-three miles
from our morning camp, we came to a place called the Springs; here
the water was dried up, and there was no wood, but excellent grass.
We pitched our camp in a coulee surrounded by high hills, and went
to work to dig wells for water, in hopes to procure some for our
animals. We succeeded in getting only a small quantity for each.
There was a very high wind and a heavy thunder-shower until near
midnight. Our Indian friends assisted us very much in the night in
looking out for our animals. Grover, Stanley, and Lander have not
come in, which gives me a good deal of apprehension. The Running
Fisher told me a story to-day illustrating one of the phases of
Indian life. The Bear's Paw, as one would infer from its wild and
stern appearance, has been a scene of Indian fight and massacre.
Seven years ago a fight occurred in the Bear's Paw between their
tribe, allied with the Blackfeet, and the Crows, in which he killed
one of the latter. The Crows occupied an impregnable post, from
whence they could shoot down all who approached within twenty paces.
A Blackfoot was shot in the head through a fissure in the rocks. The
Gros Ventres then determined to surround and starve them out; at
night the Crows got off with the loss of one man, killed by Running
Fisher.
September 1. This morning we made an early start, and, crossing over
a high, rolling prairie, in eleven miles and three quarters came to
the Marias River. The descent to this river on the trail is somewhat
steep, the prairie plateau being over two hundred feet above the
river-bottom. The river itself here presents a beautiful view. It is
a clear, limpid stream, flowing over a pebbly and sandy bed, the
bottoms lined with cottonwood of heavy growth, with thickets of the
service and other berries. The Belt Mountains are very distinctly
visible in the distance, as is also Citadel Hill, called so because
its base rests upon the Missouri, and it rises perpendicularly like
a bastion some two hundred feet high. Near by is Square Hill, so
called from its supposed resemblance to that geometrical figure.
At our noon halt, or near by, was the scene of a sanguinary conflict
between the Gros Ventres and the Crows in 1849, in which the latter
were all killed. Several of those traveling in our company figured
in the action. A party of Crows to the number of twenty-two were
concealed in the hollow just in advance of where we dined, for the
purpose of stealing horses from the Gros Ventres' camp, consisting
of two hundred lodges. Being discovered, the Gros Ventres surrounded
them, and threw up dust in the air, which was carried by a strong
wind in the faces of the Crows, blinding them, when the Gros Ventres
rushed in upon them, and killed the whole number without losing a
man. None were left to carry home the news.
We were off about noon; passed over the prairie, and descended in
the valley of the Teton, where we met Mr. Clarke, in charge of Fort
Benton, who came out to meet us. We arrived at Fort Benton at 3.30
o'clock, where we were received with a salute of fifteen guns.
Fort Benton stands on the eastern bank of the Missouri, near the
Great Bend, and three hundred and seventy-seven miles by the trail
taken by me above Fort Union. The river is here perfectly
transparent at most seasons of the year. The Teton River empties
into the Missouri six miles below Fort Benton, the Marias twelve
miles below, and the Milk two hundred miles below. The falls of the
Missouri are seventy miles above this fort. The muddy character of
the Missouri has its commencement at the mouth of Milk River, which
takes its name from the whitish muddiness of its waters. The ascent
from the wide, grassy plain in which the fort is located to the high
table-land is somewhat abrupt, the only passage on a level with the
plain being close to the river on the south and very narrow. Fort
Benton is smaller than Fort Union. Its front is made of wood, and
the other sides of adobe, or unburned brick. It usually contains
about a dozen men, and the families of several of them. The
Blackfoot Indians are the principal traders here. It is the custom
of the several bands of this tribe to locate in sheltered and
otherwise eligible places in the vicinity of wood, water, and grass
in the early winter, where they remain as inert as possible until
the melting of the snow. At such times the half-breeds of the fort
visit them with goods upon horses and mules, and exchange their
merchandise for the skins and furs captured by the Indians.
Fort Campbell is situated on the same plateau with Fort Benton,
about half a mile above it, and is built in very much the same way
as the latter place.
I was agreeably relieved by the missing gentlemen coming into the
fort September 3. They were in fine spirits, although they had eaten
but little food since they left me on Milk River, had traveled a
very long distance, partly on foot, and had been a good deal annoyed
at the loss of so much time.