WIDESPREAD EXPLORING PARTIES
For several days Governor Stevens was busily engaged in examining
voyageurs and Indians in regard to the mountain passes and the general
character of the country. Additional horses were procured, and
arrangements made for sending out parties to explore in advance and both
north and south of the route. Lieutenant Donelson with the main train
reached the fort on the 6th. Dr. Evans arrived on the 5th, after an
extended trip through the Bad Lands, where he made a large collection of
geological specimens. The same day Lieutenant Grover was sent forward
with a small party to the Bitter Root valley, crossing the main divide
of the Rocky Mountains, for the purpose of ascertaining if Lieutenant
Saxton had established his depot of provisions at that point. Thence he
was directed to forward an express to Captain McClellan and return to
Fort Benton.
Lieutenant John Mullan, with a party of six men, was sent southward to
the Muscle Shell River, not only to examine the country, but also to
convey to a band of Flathead Indians supposed to be in that region "a
message of peace and goodwill, to express my desire to make a permanent
peace between them and the Blackfeet, and to build up anew their
beautiful St. Mary's village." Thence he was to cross the mountains by a
more southerly pass and rejoin the main party in the Bitter Root valley.
The governor decided to send Lieutenant Donelson ahead with a party of
twenty-five men to examine the approaches to Cadotte's Pass, the main
train to follow more slowly in charge of Mr. Osgood, and to dispatch
Lander to examine a pass at the head of the Marias River, considerably
north of Cadotte's. "I gave Mr. Lander," says the governor, "authority,
with certain exceptions, to select his animals from my whole train,
deeming it important that he should be exceedingly well fitted out, as
he would probably have a long distance to make before he joined the main
party in the valley of Clark's Fork." The governor was exceedingly
desirous of taking his wagons across the mountains as the most striking
demonstration of the practicability of the passes.
The following from a letter of George W. Stevens, of September 10, shows
the high spirits and fine condition of the party:--
"We have reached this point with our full number of scalp-locks, and
now are preparing to cross the mountains. Up to this point we have
proceeded with wonderful success, and have done what no American
expedition has done before us. We have not felt the slightest
hardship, but the journey of over one thousand miles has been made
with as much ease and comfort as we could possibly have experienced
in traveling at home fully equipped. Our train, of forty wagons and
carts, over two hundred animals, and more than one hundred men, has
safely arrived. Not a man has died (except one who accidentally shot
himself), nor has there been a single case of serious illness. Not
more than a dozen or fifteen animals have been lost, and as a
general thing they are now in as good condition as when we left the
Mississippi. We are now eighty miles from the Rocky Mountains. On
Monday we leave with a train of twelve wagons, with which we hope to
make a comfortable crossing of the mountains in twenty days.
Yesterday the fort was the scene of the greatest confusion, growing
out of the preparations making to fit out four 'war parties,' as we
term them. The first, under Mr. Lander, explores the Marias Pass,
the most northern and nearly in the latitude of the boundary line.
The second, under Lieutenant Mullan, goes to the Muscle Shell. The
third war party is under the direction of Lieutenant Donelson, and
is to survey the approaches to Cadotte's Pass, the one which will be
taken by the main train. A fourth war party is the major's own to a
camp of Piegan Indians. Lieutenant Grover is already in the
mountains. The major's health is excellent, and though the labor is
enormous, he is the only man who could have carried the expedition
through in so glorious a manner. If he succeeds in getting the
wagons through, he will have opened a good emigrant road from the
Mississippi to the Pacific, and you may be sure the attempt will be
most vigorously made. If fortune continues with us, within two
months we shall reach Puget Sound, that looked-for garden-spot. We
have met the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre bands of Indians, and by
both were hospitably received. Upon the Sheyenne River we first came
upon buffalo, and from that point until a week's journey back we
have met them in the greatest abundance. Buffalo meat has,
therefore, been our principal article of food, and we ask nothing
better."
A very serious difficulty of another kind now confronted Governor
Stevens. He found that the funds allotted to his exploration would not
suffice to carry on the work so far and so thoroughly as he deemed
necessary, and he was forced to the alternative of cutting it short or
incurring a deficiency. He decided to continue the work, notwithstanding
the great pecuniary risk to himself, and the risk, too, of incurring the
serious displeasure of the government:--
"I very frankly and explicitly stated that to continue the survey,
and to carry out the instructions with regard to the work to be
accomplished, it was absolutely necessary to incur a deficiency:
believing that, if the facts as they existed were known to Congress
and the department, their instructions would be for me to continue
the exploration, I determined to incur the deficiency and make the
survey. My instructions required me to examine into the question of
the snows on the route, into the freshets of the streams, and the
period of time they were locked up by the ice, to do which it was
indispensable that there should be winter posts established at Fort
Benton, and in the Bitter Root valley; and it was desirable, in
connection with these posts, to have such arrangements made, and
such facilities afforded, as would enable the gentlemen in charge of
them to continue the explorations of the passes and the adjacent
country."
In a letter to Professor Bache the governor gives the reasons for his
incurring the deficiency, which were, briefly stated, the delay in the
start, owing to the young and unbroken animals furnished by the
quartermaster's department, notwithstanding that the governor had sent
an agent especially to St. Louis to insure the securing of seasoned and
broken animals, and to the unusually late and rainy season; the distance
across the continent, which turned out to be greater than the best
estimates previously obtainable; the fact that in consequence of the
great number of Indians on the route, and the warlike and treacherous
character of some of them, particularly the Sioux and Blackfeet, it was
necessary to make the expedition strong, especially in guides,
interpreters, and hunters; and that to carry out the instructions and
objects of the exploration it was indispensable to make extended
examinations, and to leave parties to continue the work throughout the
winter, in order to determine the questions of snow and climate.
It is perfectly apparent that the $40,000 allotted to the Northern
route, even though eked out by the details and supplies furnished by the
War Department, were altogether inadequate to the task intrusted to
Governor Stevens. His management was marked by strict economy and good
judgment; he was simply not given sufficient funds for the work. And it
is most creditable alike to his judgment and moral courage that he
shouldered the responsibility of the deficiency, and made his complete
and exhaustive exploration.
Having completed all these arrangements, made his reports to the War and
Indian departments, and started off the several detached parties, the
governor decided to visit personally the main camp of the Blackfeet,
near the Cypress Mountain, about one hundred miles north of Fort Benton,
and just above the 49th parallel, in order to confer with their chiefs
in regard to the contemplated council at Fort Benton next year, and
secure guides for the survey of the Marias Pass. He desired, also,
personally to examine the approaches to the several passes of the
mountains from the boundary southward, expecting to overtake the main
party before it reached the Bitter Root valley. Says he in the final
report:--
I gave my instructions to Lieutenant Donelson on the 9th instant,
inspected the train, found everything in good order, the men
cheerful, satisfied, and confident as to going on, and the means of
transportation ample, and set off towards night, having been
preceded a few hours by Mr. Lander, on the way to Cypress Mountain.
I encamped that night on the Teton, fourteen miles from Fort Benton.
Besides the party of Mr. Lander, I was accompanied by Mr.
Culbertson, special agent; Mr. Stanley, artist; Augustus Hammell,
interpreter; and three voyageurs.
September 10. We had been joined last evening by a considerable
party of the Blackfeet, who accompanied us to-day, the principal men
being the Little Dog, the Three Bears, and the Wolf that Climbs.
Started before seven, and after traveling three hours reached a fine
spring, with excellent grass, at a celebrated landmark known by the
name of the Rotten Belly Rocks. It is a formation of sandstone, and
has the characteristic of _Les Mauvaises Terres_. Columns with
capitals, resemblances to the human figure, etc., etc., abound.
Beneath, in the coulee, passes the broad Indian trail leading to the
Piegan camp. Here was killed Rotten Belly, the Crow chief, in an
encounter between one hundred of his braves and eleven well-armed
Gros Ventres of the prairie. This celebrated chief, urged on by his
people, had previously beleaguered Fort McKenzie. He captured all
the animals of the fort,--thirty-five horses. The place was in
charge of Mr. Culbertson, and there were but nineteen men to defend
it. For a month this little force baffled all the attempts of the
Crows to get possession of the fort. Being, however, in a starving
condition, and it being apparent that it could not hold out much
longer, resort was had to stratagem. All the squaws, twenty-nine in
number, were dressed in men's clothes, and with arms in their hands
were distributed around the fort in sight of the Crows, who, thus
deceived in reference to the force defending the place, became
disheartened, drew off, and separated. Rotten Belly, with a portion,
mortified at his failure, declared that he would go north and seek
death in battle. On reaching the rocks, and seeing the Gros Ventres,
he said: "Here I will die to-day; you have brought me to this!" And,
rushing upon his enemies, he killed two, and then received his death
wound. Before his death he advised his people to be the friends of
the whites, saying it was their only chance to escape defeat and
utter ruin.
Kept on through the afternoon, passing over a rolling country, and
reached the Marias about half past four o'clock, where we camped.
This stream at our crossing was about fifty yards wide, one foot
deep, and of somewhat rapid current, and the river valley was about
a mile wide. There was plenty of cottonwood, and we had a most
excellent camp. Spent the evening in conversing with the Indians who
accompanied us.
September 11. We were off about seven o'clock, and after traveling
until near noon halted at a spring, where we procured a small supply
of water. Continuing on without unsaddling, in less than an hour I
was overtaken by Baptiste Champagne with an express from Lieutenant
Donelson, inclosing a brief report from Lieutenant Grover, to the
effect that he met Lieutenant Saxton near the dividing ridge, and
that they were returning together to Fort Benton. Lieutenant Grover
intimated in his brief letter that Lieutenant Saxton reported the
route could not be traversed by wagons. This changed the aspect of
affairs, and I determined to send Mr. Stanley to the Piegan camp
with the interpreter Hammell, and to return immediately with Mr.
Culbertson to Fort Benton. I determined, also, to defer the
examination of the Marias Pass to another season. There was not that
harmony in Mr. Lander's party which I deemed indispensable to
making the examination which I had intrusted to him. Accordingly I
ordered him to return with me. Stanley continued on to the Piegan
camp, and I started back on my way to Fort Benton. It made a long
march for us, for to get a good camp it was necessary to reach the
Marias. Our Indian guide made his way pretty directly to the camp:
one hour and a half we traveled in the dark. The descent to the
river was steep and difficult. We succeeded in getting into a good
camp about eight o'clock. Before starting on my return, I dispatched
an express to Lieutenant Donelson to push on with his advanced
party, but to keep the main train till my arrival.
September 12. Started early, and, pushing rapidly, reached the fort
by three o'clock.
Lieutenants Saxton and Grover also reached Fort Benton the same day.
The former successfully led the western subsidiary party by way of
Pend Oreille Lake to the Bitter Root valley, from which point
Lieutenant R. Macfeely, with twenty-six men and sixty animals, no
longer needed, returned to the Dalles, crossing the Bitter Roots by
the southern Nez Perces trail, a more direct but vastly more
difficult route than that of the lake. Lieutenant Richard Arnold,
with his brother, Mr. Daniel Lyman Arnold, and four men, remained
with the supplies at Fort Owen in the valley; while Lieutenant
Saxton, with seventeen men, pushed on across the mountains, and was
met by Lieutenant Grover at the summit on September 8; and, as the
governor remarks, "He felt rejoiced that the plan of our operations
had been successful and the object of the expedition accomplished,
as a party from the Atlantic and one from the Pacific, each in
search of the other, had met by appointment, after traversing
thousands of miles of unknown country, at the foot of the dividing
ridge between the oceans."
The same evening Mr. Tinkham arrived, after an extensive and successful
trip of exploration up the Milk River to the Three Buttes, across
country to Marias River, and thence to Fort Benton.
In consequence of Lieutenant Saxton's positive representation that it
was impracticable to take the wagons across the mountains, Governor
Stevens reluctantly decided to leave them at Fort Benton, a decision he
afterwards regretted, for after traversing the route he was satisfied
that he could have taken them at least across the main range to the
Bitter Root valley without difficulty. The whole train was now outfitted
with pack animals, and was pushed forward on the 16th under Lieutenant
Donelson. Lieutenant Saxton, with all but three of the dragoon
detachment and some discharged men, and accompanied by Mr. Culbertson,
making a party of twenty-eight all told, was sent down the Missouri by
keelboat with instructions to examine the river, especially as to the
navigability for steamboats of its upper waters, disband his party at
Fort Leavenworth or St. Louis, thence proceed to Washington, and make a
full report, in which he was to urge the necessity of holding the
proposed Blackfoot council, and of continuing the surveys of the
mountain section of the route. The governor also instructed him to
advise with Professor Bache in relation to the continuation of the
survey, and to providing for the deficiency, necessarily incurred, in
the next deficiency bill; giving him letters to the professor, and to
Judge Stephen A. Douglas, Hannibal Hamlin, Dr. Gwin, H.M. Rice, then
delegate from Minnesota, and other prominent senators and members of
Congress. Mr. Culbertson carried the governor's reports to the Indian
Department, and was charged also to urge upon that department the
importance of the council.
Mr. Doty, with three men, was stationed at Fort Benton for the winter to
make meteorological observations, and such examinations of the country
as he could, and more especially to collect information about, and take
a census of, the Blackfeet, and improve every opportunity to impress
upon them the benefits of the proposed council and peace with the
western Indians. As already stated, Lieutenant Grover was directed to
examine the Missouri for two hundred and fifty miles below the fort,
and the country between it and Milk River, and afterwards to cross the
mountains in midwinter with dog-sledges, and study the depth of snow and
winter climate.
Lander, with a detached party, was directed to examine along the base of
the mountains from the Marias Pass to Cadotte's Pass. As already stated,
the governor had countermanded the survey of the former by Lander in
consequence of the lack of harmony in that engineer's party. After
leaving Fort Union, Lander developed a fractious, almost insubordinate
disposition. He chafed at the presence and authority of the army
officers. At Fort Benton Governor Stevens had to curb his insubordinate
spirit with some severity, and even told him that he would shoot him
down like a dog if he disobeyed his orders. Lander, realizing that
Governor Stevens would enforce discipline at whatever cost, yielded,
professing his readiness to obey instructions, but thereafter he did so
according to the letter, not the spirit. Yet the governor, both before
and after this occurrence, gave him the best opportunities for
distinction, intrusting to him the most important side explorations, and
in the reports gave him full and generous commendation for all he
accomplished, passing lightly over his shortcomings. A bold, energetic,
high-strung man, Lander could ill brook any authority. He afterwards
conducted an independent government survey with credit, and but for his
early death would undoubtedly have achieved distinction as a soldier.
This appears to have been the only instance of lack of due
subordination, or harmony, shown during the whole expedition, and
certainly some of the governor's orders had been rigorous enough to
cause restiveness, as, for instance, requiring the scientific gentlemen
to break their own mules, to stand guard, and to walk a part of each
day's march. Remarks the governor:--
"I was exceedingly gratified at this time by the spirit of the men.
Several men, who I was afraid had not strength to make the trip, and
whom I had ordered to accompany Lieutenant Saxton down the Missouri,
were so anxious to go on that they brought me a certificate from the
surgeon, Dr. Suckley, stating that in his opinion they were strong
enough for the journey, and accordingly I allowed them to go on. We
had now been together some three months, and there was great
confidence between the several members of the exploration."
On the 20th Mr. Stanley returned from his trip to the Blackfoot camp,
having traveled on horseback three hundred and twenty miles in eleven
days. A thousand Indians accompanied him back as far as Milk River,
where the main body remained to hunt, while thirty of their chiefs, with
their families, came with him to Fort Benton to hold council with the
great white chief, who remained for that purpose.
"On the 21st we held our talk with the Blackfeet. The chiefs and
warriors were all richly caparisoned. Their dresses of softly
prepared skins of deer, elk, or antelope were elegantly ornamented
with bead-work. These are made by their women, and some must have
occupied many months in making. The other articles of their costume
were leggings made of buffalo skins, and moccasins, also
embroidered, and a breech-cloth of blue cloth. Their arms were the
Northwest guns, and bows and arrows. On all solemn occasions, when I
met the Indians on my route, they were arrayed with the utmost care.
My duties in the field did not allow the same attention on my part,
and the Indians sometimes complained of this, saying, 'We dress up
to receive you, and why do you not wear the dress of a chief?'
"The governor addressed them in the same strain as the Gros Ventres:
'Your Great Father has sent me to bear a message to you and all his
other children. It is that he wishes you to live at peace with each
other and the whites. He desires that you should be under his
protection, and partake equally with the Crows and Assiniboines of
his bounty. Live in peace with all the neighboring tribes, protect
all the whites passing through your country, and the Great Father
will be your fast friend.'"
Low Horn, the principal Piegan chief, replied favorably in behalf of the
Indians, but spoke of the difficulty of restraining their young men, who
were wild, and ambitious in their turn to be braves and chiefs. They
wanted by some act to win the favor of their young women, and bring
scalps and horses to show their prowess. To this the governor
rejoined:--
"'Why is it that you have two or three women to one man? Is it not
because your young men go out on war parties, and thus the flower of
your tribe is cut down? And you will go on diminishing every year
until your tribes are extinct. Is it not better that your young men
should have wives and children, and that your numbers should
increase? Won't your women prefer husbands to scalps and horses? The
Gros Ventres desire to meet you in council, and have the
difficulties between you arranged. Will you meet them in council?'
"While in the council, Low Horn, the principal chief and speaker,
made all his replies without rising from his seat, and in a quiet,
conversational tone. After the council he assembled his braves, and
resumed the lofty bearing of a chief. He addressed them with great
fervor and eloquence, commanded them henceforth to cease sending out
war parties, and threatened them with severe punishment if they
disobeyed. It will not be uninteresting here to state that Low Horn,
the quiet spokesman of the council and the trumpet-toned chief in
the presence of his men, crossed the Missouri in 1855 with his whole
band, moved up the Judith, and camped on the Muscle Shell,--the
first man who extended the hand of welcome and friendship to the
western Indians as they crossed the mountains on their way to the
council, showing most conclusively that faith can be put in Indians;
for it must be remembered that two years intervened between my
conference with the Indians at Fort Benton in 1853 and their
reassembling in 1855 at the council appointed at that time."
[Illustration: LOW HORN
_Piegan Chief_]