Montana Articles

The Flathead Indians Seek God

6/7/2013

This is an excerpt from the book Priests and Prospectors: A History of Montana, Volume II

Bitterroot Valley from El Capitan Peak

The year 1841 was a very dynamic year in history. On January 26th the British occupied Hong Kong, beginning 156 years of rule there. On April 4th President William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia while in office, and just a month after being elected, the first American president to do so. And on September 24th Father Pierre-Jean De Smet arrived in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley to start what would become the state’s first permanent settlement.

The fur trade was over by then, having come to an end the previous year when fashion tastes in Europe changed from fur to silk. That change spelled the end for the far-ranging mountain men that roamed through the mountains and forests of the state, but never created any permanent presence.

Some of the Indians in the state were accepting of the white man’s presence, others not so much. Some of those that wanted a greater white presence were the Salish, or Flathead Indians of western Montana. It was due to their insistence on having religion, and the white protection that went with it, that Montana got its first cattle, crops, and church, and saw its whole history change in the process.

The Quest for a Black Robe

Flathead Family, c 1900

The Iroquois Indians were the first to tell the Flathead Indians of the “Black Robes.” The Flathead were immediately transfixed, for they wanted all of the power and praise of the white man’s god just as much as he did. But there were ulterior motives for the Flatheads to want the “Black Robes” to come. They believed firmly that if they adopted the white man’s beliefs they would be saved from their enemies, particularly the increasingly hostile Blackfeet to the east.

It was the Blackfeet, after all, that had driven the plains tribe up into the mountains in the first place, and as the whiltes continued to push west the Flatheads were fearful that they’d be pushed further by the Blackfeet. Baptisms and hymns would protect them from their enemies bullets they felt, and if that meant converting to a foreign religion, then so be it.

Chief Tjolzhitsay, more commonly known as Big Face, sent out a delegation to St. Louis right away, knowing that there were “Black Robes” there that could help them. If they would only listen they would convince some of them to come back with them and spread the word of God to their people.

The Four Delegations

St. Louis in 1840

Their first delegation in 1831 was unsuccessful, even though they met up with an earlier acquaintance, William Clark, who was at that time still the de facto head of Indian Affairs for the Louisiana Territory. His kind words and reassurances couldn’t convince the Catholics however, and the delegation was sent home empty-handed. They waited four years before trying again in 1835, but again they were rebuffed.

Another delegation was sent in 1837, again through hostile enemy territory, this time without much luck. The whole group was killed by the Sioux Indians of the area, including one of the main people to so interest the Flatheads in Catholicism, Ignace la Mouse, or Big Ignace.

The Flathead waited, biding there time, knowing that God would not forsake them. They tried again in 1839, for the final time, and their prayers were answered. They received the promise from Bishop Rosati that a “Black Robe” would be sent to them. They returned home and eagerly waited, a wait that would last them another two years before deliverance came at last.

Notes

Baumler, Ellen. Montana Moments: History on the Go. Montana Historical Society Press: Helena, 2010. p 125.

Carriker, Robert C. Father Peter John De Smet: Jesuit in the West. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, 1995. p 31-64.

“History of St. Mary’s.” Historic St. Mary’s Mission & Museum. Web. Retrieved 7 June 2013 from Stmarysmission.org: http://www.saintmarysmission.org/history.html

Malone, Michael Peter; Roeder, Richard B.; Lang, William L. Montana: A History of Two Centuries. The University of Washington Press, 1976. p 62-3.

Toole, K. Ross. Montana: An Uncommon Land. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, 1959. p 57-61.

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Montana’s Mountain Men: Jim Bridger

4/5/2013

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Jim Bridger

Jim Bridger was born in Richmond, Virginia, on March 17th, 1804; St. Patrick’s Day. His father tried his hand at many ventures, including as a surveyor and tavern owner. In 1812 the Bridger family pulled up stakes and headed to Six Mile Prairie, Illinois, and the young Bridger often hung around the Mississippi River most days, watching the boats pass on their way to and from St. Louis.

Tragedy befell the family just four years after their move. In 1816 Bridger’s mother died, and his younger brother followed soon after. In 1817 his father died, leaving him and his sister as orphans. Jim started to operate a ferry for a time, and then moved to St. Louis and became apprenticed to a blacksmith. He worked at the forge until a newspaper advertisement caught his eye, and changed his life forever.

Joining the Fur Trade

Map of Green River

He got his start out west as many mountain men did, as one of “Ashley’s Hundred,” the group of men that responded to the September 17th, 1822, St. Louis Intelligencer advertisement calling for men of able body and adventurous spirit to join the growing fur trade. The advertisement had originally been run in the Missouri Gazette and Public Advertiser on February 13th, 1822, before spreading to other newspapers in the region. He must have overheard someone else reading the advertisement, or had it read for him, as he was illiterate. At just 18 yeas of age, Jim Bridger was one of the youngest of the mountain men then starting out, and one of the few that would live to see the trade die out.

Bridger was one of the men who traveled downriver with Andrew Henry in August 1823 to attack the Arikara villages. The Arikara Indians had been plaguing the mountain men in their efforts to trap furs, and with the aid of Henry Leavenworth’s men from Fort Atkinson, as well as many Sioux warriors, the Arikara villages were burned.

His beginnings as a mountain man were already off to a rocky start with the attack by and on the Arikaras, and it didn’t get better when he became involved with Hugh Glass and the grizzly. Bridger was one of the two men that had left Glass for dead after the bear had mauled him, and the decision weighed heavily on his conscious in the weeks before Glass reappeared from the dead one day at the gates of Fort Kiowa. Fearing he’d die still a young man, Bridger was relieved when Glass chose to forgive his youthful transgression as opposed to killing him.

Trapping and Exploring

Map of Great Salt Lake

In 1824 Jim Bridger went down the Bear River Canyon with John H. Weber’s party and reached the Great Salt Lake. He was long thought to be the first white to see the Great Salt Lake, though many historians now believe that distinction should go to Étienne Provost. The men would spend the winter at the site of the second mountain man rendezvous in the Cache Valley, held in 1826.

Over the next several years Jim Bridger would hone his skills as a fur trapper, mountain man, and explorer. He did well for himself, and was able to fight off the numerous Blackfeet that continually attacked him and his companions. He built up a loyal following of men, and a good amount of money as well.

When William H. Ashley decided to hang up his hat and retire from the fur trade in 1830, Bridger was one of the men that bought him out. He and his partners continued the Rocky Mountain Fur Company’s challenge to the larger Hudson’s Bay Company and American Fur Company, and did quite well for a time.

Constructing Fort Bridger

Sketch of Fort Bridger, 1852

Jim Bridger continued to move about the Rocky Mountain wilderness, trapping and exploring. In 1832 he took two Blackfeet arrows in the back. One he carried around with him for three years, as the point broke off and wasn’t removed until the Green River rendezvous of 1835 by Dr. Marcus Whitman.

In 1843, together with Louis Vasquez, Bridger built a trading post on Black’s Fork, a tributary of the Green River. The fort, named Fort Bridger, became a mainstay for pioneers in need of goods while travelling overland on the Oregon Trail, as well as a way-station for the Pony Express.

By 1846 Brigham Young and his Mormons were travelling in the region looking for a permanent home, and Bridger informed them of the Great Salt Lake, telling them where it was and that it could in fact prove a hospitable area for them. The group moved into the region and made it their permanent home.

More and more travelers wanted to get to the Great Salt Lake, especially now that the Mormons were calling the area home. The South Pass of Wyoming had always been a difficult crossing, and in 1850 Bridger was searching around for an alternative. He found it while guiding the Stansbury Expedition back east from Utah in 1850, and the route ended up shortening the Oregon Trail by 61 miles. It was such a good path through the mountains that the Union Pacific Railroad would choose it as the place to lay track when they began building their lines through the region.

Problems with the Mormons

Ridgeline on Bridger Trail

In 1853 a Mormon militia sought to arrest Jim Bridger with the aim of seizing his business. They claimed he had been selling guns to the Indians, which were then being used against their men around Salt Lake. They failed in getting hold of the business, but they did loot Fort Bridger, convincing him to leave the area. The Mormons took over the fort, and even built another trading post, Fort Supply, twelve miles to the southwest to aid other Mormon’s travelling to the region. They would end up investing $60,000 in the twin endeavors before the U.S. Army decided it had had enough.

The seizure of Fort Bridger probably had something to do with Bridger’s decision to lead federal troops into the region during the Mormon War of 1857-8. Brigham Young had been elected as the territorial governor of the region in 1849, but was not doing what Washington wanted, and so they appointed a new man, Alfred Cumming, in 1857. He was never allowed to take up his post, so President Buchanan ordered troops into the area.

General Albert Sydney Johnston led his 2nd US Cavalry force of 2,500 soldiers from Fort Leavenworth to the region during the winter, and the men suffered terribly for it, losing many mules and horses. They could have fared much worse if they hadn’t hired Bridger to guide them, a job which gave him the rank of major.

The Mormons vowed they would burn Salt Lake City to the ground before letting the federal troops in, but they never had to. Young had dispatched 75 men on a “Corps of Observation” to find out what the troops were doing. They burned both Fort Supply and Fort Bridger, although Johnston moved his troops into the remnants of the latter and used it as a base.

After being harried by Young’s men for several months, a compromise was reached and Cumming was allowed to take up his post. All of the Mormons involved were pardoned and the whole incident was forgotten as those in Washington probably thought it best to let them pass their time in their desert home.

Family and Frontiers

Chief Washakie

Jim Bridger was married many times, to many different Indian women. He had the bad luck of seeing all of his wives die, most within a few years of each other. In 1835 he married a Flathead woman named Cora, and gave her three children. They were married for nearly 15 years before she died in 1846. Their daughter, Mary Ann Bridger, would later be captured and killed near Walla Walla, Washington, in 1847.

Bridger then took either a Ute or Shoshone wife, but she died of complications from childbirth in 1849. The next year, in 1850, Chief Washakie of the Shoshone offered his own daughter to Bridger, and together they had two children. She would die in 1859.

Also in 1859 Bridger left St. Louis with Captain William F. Raynolds for Fort Pierre, in the Dakota Territory, with a large contingent from the Army Corps of Engineers heading toward the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. They’re goal was to map the uncharted territory between Fort Pierre and the Yellowstone River, and it included seven scientists, seven congressional guests, and thirty military escorts. They had a hard winter, and returned to Omaha in the fall of 1860.

His work as a guide continued, and in 1861 he showed the way for the Edward L. Berthoud survey looking for a Denver to Salt Lake stage route. He also helped the U.S. Army find its way while attacking Sioux and Cheyenne along the Powder River in 1865-6.

The Bridger Trail

Map of Bozeman Trail

When gold was found in Montana around Virginia City in 1863, prospectors from around the world began spilling into the state. Those who wanted to get to Montana had to trek around the state, and a more direct route was sought from Wyoming to the south. Jim Bridger created that route from nothing, and it became the Bridger Trail. Still, he never succumbed to the gold fever that was affecting many of the mountain men, saying he was satisfied to keep trapping beaver, which were now going for as much as $8 a pound.

The Bozeman Trail was becoming too dangerous, what with the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Sioux Indians feeling threatened by the swelling tide of people coming into their territory, and they increased their attacks as a result. Bridger had travelled heavily in the area that would become the Bridger Trail during 1859 when he was doing reconnaissance.

Colonel William O. Collins of Fort Laramie knew of Bridger’s travels in the area, and being concerned about the situation, contacted Bridger to guide a group of settlers from Denver, Colorado, up through the Big horn Basin of Wyoming and along the Big horn Mountains into Montana. The trail was a success, and that spring and summer it saw 10 wagons ride through the mountains and into the state, two of them led by Bridger himself.

Bridger had to abandon the route the very next year, in 1865, when things began to heat up along the Bozeman Trail. The First Powder River Expedition was launched against the three tribes that had been hindering commerce and travel, and Bridger served as one of its guides. The soldiers destroyed an Arapaho village and established Fort Connor, but the Indians were neither defeated nor cowed, and they would continue their attacks into the future.

By that time Jim Bridger was suffering a rash of health problems, including arthritis, goiter, and rheumatism. He left Fort Laramie in 1865 and headed to Westport, Missouri, where his remaining days were spent as a gentleman farmer. He died on his Kansas City farm, peacefully in bed, on July 17, 1881. He was 77 years old.

Notes

Vestal, Stanley. Jim Bridger: Mountain Man. Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln, 1946. p 1-56.

Palmer, Rosemary G. Bridger: Trapper, Trader, and Guide. Compass Point Books: Minneapolis, 2007. p 10-21.

Rodriquez, Junius P. The Louisiana Purchase: A Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, Inc.: Santa Barbara, 2002. p 51.

Janin, Hunt. Fort Bridger, Wyoming: Trading Post for Indians, Mountain Men and Westward Migrants. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, 2001. p 78-82.

Ismert, Cornelius M. “James Bridger.” Hafen, LeRoy R. (ed.). Mountain Men and Fur Traders of the Far West: Eighteen Biographical Sketches. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln, 1965. p 252-65.

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Montana’s Mountain Men: Jedediah Smith

4/2/2013

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Jedediah Smith

Jedediah Smith was born in Jericho, New York, on January 6, 1799. Smith was raised by a devout Methodist family, and these teachings would stay with him his whole life, making him a rather atypical mountain man. Smith prayed often, didn’t drink or swear, and took an unfavorable view to the unnecessary killing of Indians. When Smith’s father was caught passing counterfeit money in his general store, possibly inadvertently, he up and moved the family to Pennsylvania in 1810.

It was in Pennsylvania that Jedediah Smith met the man that would become his mentor, Dr. Titus G.V. Simons. This physician to pioneers gave Smith a copy of the 1814 Journal of Lewis and Clark. Smith was so taken by the work that he supposedly carried it everywhere he went in the West.

Jedediah Smith was known for having basic communication skills with many different Indian tribes later in life, and it’s no wonder why. While growing up around Jericho, Smith routinely made contact with the Delaware, Mohican, Mohawk, and Wyandot Indians. He also spent a lot of time traipsing about the woods, something that would come in useful for him later in life in the vast wildernesses of the Rocky Mountains.

Jedediah Smith was also acquainted with another hero of American folklore, John Chapman, better known as “Johnny Appleseed.” Chapman and the Smith family owned adjacent properties in Green and Wayne Townships in Ohio. Chapman had been born in Massachusetts, but moved out west to the Ohio frontier in 1800, both to spread his form of Swedenborgian Christianity, which extolled humility and pacifism, and to plant apple trees. Simons also owned adjacent property to Chapman, so it’s a good guess that some of Chapman’s teachings rubbed off on a young Jedediah Smith.

Heading West

Smith's areas of exploration

By 1817 the family had again moved, this time to Ohio. Financial concerns were once again heavy on their mind, although this time it was from a lack of money. Jedediah took it upon himself to find work, going first to Illinois and then to Missouri. It was there that he saw the September 17th, 1822, St. Louis Intelligencer story asking for “enterprising young men” to join the fur business on the Missouri. Jedediah spoke with William H. Ashley, who was impressed with the imposing 23-year old and hired him on the spot.

He traveled with Daniel Moore’s expedition to Fort Henry, learning to trap and hunt buffalo on the way upriver. And it was on that expedition that disaster struck, at least for Ashley. While rounding a bend, the keelboat’s mast became entangled in some trees and capsized. Men and materials were tossed about, and while no lives were lost, $10,000 of cargo was.

Moore quickly headed off to inform Ashley, while the others had to sit and wait beside the river. Such a rocky start could have dashed anyone’s hopes, but not Ashley’s. He quickly outfitted another expedition, and to make sure that no further incidents occurred, led it himself, reaching the stranded men a month later.

Ashley reached the Mandan villages in September and split his party, sending half up the Missouri while he and a group went overland toward the Yellowstone River. Jedediah Smith joined the overland route, and they reached Fort Henry, spending the months winter months hunting and trapping around the Musselshell. Ashley had left before the rivers froze, meaning to get back to St. Louis to sell some furs, no doubt hoping to wipe that earlier loss off the books as soon as possible.

The Arikara War

Henry Leavenworth

Andrew Henry was in need of fifty horses in the spring of 1823, and he chose Jedediah Smith to deliver the message to Ashley in St. Louis. He was just past the Arikara villages on the Missouri when he ran into Ashley coming upriver. The two talked over the matter, and William Henry Ashley decided to attempt trade with the Arikaras. His men had already been killed in a fight with the Indians the previous year, and were always under fear of further attacks from them, so it’s hard to imagine how Ashley thought this time could be any different.

Things worked out alright at first. Trading was slow, but over two days Ashley was able to get what he wanted. A large wind storm began just as the men were about to head back to the river, making navigation all but impossible. They were forced to stay another night on the village’s outskirts, and most men were certain that an attack would come. And come it did, on the morning of June 2nd, around 3:30 AM.

Forty of Ashley’s men were sleeping near the river’s beach, and they were awoken by someone shouting that the Arikaras were attacking. Smith became pinned down on the beach, while all around him his companions were dying. He put up a brave fight, but his position made his efforts largely futile. By the time the men could get out of there, thirteen had been killed, as well as all of the horses that Henry had requested. Ashley decided to send for Henry, ordering him to come down the Yellowstone River at once, and he chose Smith to deliver the message. He and an unnamed Canadian headed upriver and managed to bring Henry and his men back down and past the Arikaras without being noticed.

Ashley headed to Fort Atkinson to see if you could get something done about the intolerable Indian situation blocking him from making a profit on the rivers. He solicited the help of Colonel Henry Leavenworth, who put together 250 men for an attack on the villages. Together with Joshua Pilcher’s men from the Missouri River Fur Company, and another 700 Sioux Indians that had it out for the Arikara, the total force exceeded a thousand men.

Two months after the attack that had started it all, Henry Leavenworth ordered his “Missouri Legion,” as Pilcher called it, to the villages. The first attack came on August 10th, but it had little effect other than killing the Arikara leader, Grey Eyes. By that evening the Sioux Indians were making their displeasure at the pace of the attacks known, and they departed. Now back down to little more than 300 men, Leavenworth decided to call the whole thing off, and quickly made a peace agreement on August 11th. Most of the mountain men were furious, none more so than Pilcher, who would later write off a nasty letter to the St. Louis Enquirer about the whole affair.

And the Arikara War, as the incident came to be known, probably did more harm than good. Far from being cowed at American might, the Arikara and other Indians were emboldened. They had fought and held their ground against men that were coming into their territory and taking whatever it was they wanted. It also showed that the federal government’s Indian policy was outdated and needed to change. There were no real directives from Washington involved with Leavenworth’s decision to attack the Arikara, and perhaps he never should have. All of the mountain men were in direct violation of federal interstate commerce laws by even being in the area and trading in the first place. Of course this was never discussed when the beaver pelts were being bought and sold, especially with many in the nation’s capital wearing fur-lined hats. What is clear is that the attack only made further Arikara attacks more likely, and the mountain men’s lives more dangerous.

Scarred For Life

Mother Grizzly with cubs

It was September, 1823, by that point, and William Henry Ashley continued upriver, though Jedediah Smith and a group went overland toward the Powder River. One day Smith was walking through a ravine along the Cheyenne River when a large grizzly bear decided that he’d make a fine meal.

The attack occurred in full-sight of Smith’s companions, and they reported that the bear tackled Smith to the ground, ripping open his side with its massive claws. At one point, Smith’s head even became wedged between the bear’s jaws. One of the men that rushed up when the attack occurred managed to get off a good shot with his rifle, killing the bear. When the rest of Smith’s companions rushed to him, they found him in bad shape.

While the wounds that covered his body were severe, it was the gruesome damage done to Smith’s face that really shocked them. The bear had ripped Smith’s ear and scalp nearly clean off, and Jim Clyman had to sew them back on. After cleaning his wounds with water and binding up his broken ribs, Smith was able to rest, though the scars that now covered the right side of his face would mar his good looks for the rest of his days, and he’d usually grow his hair long to cover the right side of his face.

Exploring and Profiting

Green River in Wyoming

Jedediah Smith and the men wintered with the Crow around the Wind River, and got a fresh start on exploring and trapping in the spring of 1824. By that time Smith was interested in finding a better route through the Rocky Mountains and solicited the Crow Indians for help.

The Indians were able to relay that the best route lay through the Continental Divide between the Wind River Range and Great Divide Basin. The pass became known as South Pass, and Smith and his men managed to get through safely to Utah’s Green River. While the pass had been known before, having been discovered by whites and used extensively from 1811-1813, Smith’s use of the trail brought it back into the consciousness of Americans, especially the fur trappers and mountain men that needed it most.

Between 1824 and 1825 Smith spent most of his time trapping along the Bear, Clark’s Fork, Green, and Snake Rivers. He did so well that he was able to become a partner with William H. Ashley when Andrew Henry decided to retire. And he was probably ready to partner up and have a go at directing affairs and not being such a direct player in them.

Heading to California

For the next several years, from 1826 to 1829, Jedediah Smith was mostly in or around California. He travelled up and over the Sierra Nevada Range, and across the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts. He travelled up the California coast to the Oregon Country, the first white to get to the area that way. And he trapped thousands of beavers, often trekking to the rendezvous held around the Great Salt Lake.

By 1829 Smith was on a roll. His firm of Smith, Jackson, and Sublette was making good money, and in 1830 the men sold out to Tom Fitzpatrick, Milton Sublette, Henry Fraeb, John Baptiste Gervais, and Jim Bridger. Smith let them form the Rocky Mountain Fur Company while he considered retirement from the fur trade altogether, and in 1830 he did just that.

While leading a group of supply wagons for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in late May, 1831, Smith went for water and never came back. The party was travelling on the Santé Fe Trail, an area well-known for Comanche Indians. The party continued on to Santa Fe, where several of the members of the group discovered many of Smith’s possessions being sold by a Mexican merchant. When pressed, the merchant said he had gotten them from Comanche Indians. Jedediah Smith died on May 27, 1831. He was just 32 years old.

Notes

Barbour, Barton H. Jedediah Smith: No Ordinary Mountain Man. The University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, 2009. p 16-55.

Morgan, Dale L. Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West. Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln, 1964. p 110-114.

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Montana’s Mountain Men: Hugh Glass

4/1/2013

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This is an excerpt from my book Tribes and Trappers: A History of Montana, Volume I

Also check out: Is the Film The Revenant Historically Accurate?

Rough and Tumble with a Grizzly

Like many of the mountain men that came to Montana, Hugh Glass was from Pennsylvania. He was probably born around 1780, but that fact and much of the rest of his early life remains unclear.

At one point Hugh Glass may have been a sailor, and was either working with or forced to flee the French pirate Jean Lafitte, who operated in the Gulf of Mexico.

That would have put Glass in the area sometime between the end of the War of 1812 and around the time the US Navy got serious about removing Lafitte in 1821, if it’s even true at all.

What we do know is that Hugh Glass gets his first real notice by those recording history when he joined the Ashley expedition of 1823, and that he was present when the group came under attack from the Arikara Indians, taking a wound in the leg. The men continued upriver, led by Andrew Henry.

The Grizzly

Grizzly Bear

A Female grizzly bear’s weight can exceed 400 pounds, and all of them will attack if they think their cubs are in danger. Hugh Glass is most known today as the mountain man that was mauled by a grizzly, and it was a female protecting her young.

It’s not quite clear how he came across the animal, but there are two accepted possibilities. First, Moses Harris, the same African American that almost had to be dragged from the wilderness by James Beckwourth, got lost while out looking for berries.

Glass headed out to look for him, and stumbled upon a Grizzly instead. Second, it could also have been that Glass just wanted to head out on his own, the scouts and other men be damned. Mountain men were strong willed, and Hugh Glass more so than others.

The attack occurred in August, 1823. Glass was 100 yards from the beast when he took aim and shot it, but he might as well have been shooting at a freight train for all the good it did him.

Sensing that he was on the losing end of this proposition, Glass turned to run, but tripped and fell to the ground. By the time he looked up, the bear was towering over him. He grabbed his pistol, got off a shot, but had it swatted away a second later.

The bear dug in with her claws, and Glass was ripped and shredded to the bone in several places. He stabbed with his knife as best he could, but didn’t seem to be making much headway.

Finally he let the blade drop from his hand and went limp. The bear did the same, dying atop him from the gunshot wounds and at least twenty knife wounds.

Left for Dead

1823 Route of Hugh Glass

The men didn’t know what to do with Hugh Glass after the bear had had its way with him. They waited patiently for him to die, for no one amongst them believed that a man could survive such terrible wounds.

nd terrible they were; nearly every area of Glass’s body had been ripped open in at least one spot, from his legs to his arms to the massive wound in his throat that appeared to make breathing all but impossible. The men took stock and counted fifteen major wounds.

The minutes stretched into hours, and soon night was upon them, and Andrew Henry was in a quandary. He didn’t want to leave Glass to die unattended, but he didn’t want to stay in the area for fear of another Arikara attack.

And the men in Fort Henry further upriver were waiting on him too; each hour that Henry sat there on that riverbank was another hour the men in the fort would have to wait for their supplies, and the peace of mind that having more men in Indian country could bring.

In the end he compromised, and solicited volunteers to stick it out with Glass for as long as it took for the man to succumb to his wounds.

It must have been clear to him that no one wanted to risk sitting around the area, or perhaps his conscious was nagging at him. Either way, Henry offered money to those that would stay with the dying Glass. Each man was encouraged to contribute, and all did, to the tune of $1.

Whether they actually contributed actual money or just promissory notes, $80 ended up being collected, and two men quickly jumped at the offer, John F. Fitzgerald and the 18-year old Jim Bridger. After all, $40 was half the money they could make in a year, and the earlier dangers of the day quickly faded from memory at the prospect of all that money for just a few hours of work.

Henry set out the next morning, and came under further Indian attacks, losing two men. A few days later they made it to the fort. Fitzgerald and Bridger meanwhile did the best they could with what they had, which wasn’t much.

They used cold creek water on Glass’s wounds, and fed him soup. They didn’t hunt, not wanting to fire their rifles, and fires weren’t built either. Both men were still fearful of Arikara attacks, and that fear no doubt increased every hour they had to stay with Glass.

By the third day Fitzgerald claimed to have seen signs of Indians, and he told Bridger he meant to go. Bridger agreed, not wanting to go, but not wanting to stay alone either.

Fitzgerald reckoned he’d need proof that Glass had died, the better to collect the reward money with after all, so the men took all of Glass’s possessions; his rifle, knife, and other gear. Glass was barely conscious.

Just a few days later, Fitzgerald and Bridger came traipsing into Fort Henry. They informed Henry that Glass had taken five days to die, and that they had given him a proper burial in the end.

They presented Glass’s rifle, knife, and other gear to Henry, and the matter was settled; another mountain man had died because of Indian attacks, something that occurred with frequent regularity.

From the Dead

Shepherdia argentea, Buffalo berries

Hugh Glass awoke alone, without his things, and in some of the most dangerous country a man in America could find himself in. How long he had lain there after Fitzgerald and Bridger left is anyone’s guess, and what one is to make of the two men’s story is also up for judgment.

Glass didn’t earn the reputation as having escaped from pirates through a lack of resourcefulness, and he quickly weighed his options. He was beside a small creek, and over it hung a wild cherry tree.

Buffalo berries were also growing about the area, but the final reward may have been what was lying beneath him. Perhaps not wanting to dig through a dying man’s clothes, Fitzgerald and Bridger had left Glass’s wallet. Inside was a thin razor, which Glass could fashion into a knife. They may not have been much, but they bolstered Glass’s confidence in his ability to survive.

For ten days he lay beside the creek, gaining his strength back from the cool flowing water, and the sour buffalo berries.

At one point a rattlesnake slithered up beside him, perhaps looking for a place to lounge after sating itself on a meal by the creek. Glass killed the thing with a stone, and used his razor to get at the meat. It may not have been the best meal, but it went a long way in rejuvenating him.

He decided to walk himself out of there, even though he could barely stand. Fort Kiowa lay 350 miles away, so it’s a wonder he thought he could make the trek at all.

The going was slow, but he didn’t have to go too far before stumbling upon a pack of wolves downing a buffalo. To scare them off, Glass used his razor as a flint and started a grassfire.

For two more days Glass stayed put, this time dining on raw buffalo meat, which he probably found as a great improvement over the sour buffalo berries and snake he had eaten for ten days beside the creek.

Accounts differ as to how he did it, but what is known is that Hugh Glass arrived at Fort Kiowa after his ordeal. He could have walked the whole way, perhaps starting with one mile, then five, before working his way up to ten each day.

Another account has him being found by a group of Sioux Indians coming up the Missouri, who then took him to the fort. Whatever his pace or method, he made it, much to the surprise of everyone.

And there was Jim Bridger, sitting in the fort worrying like crazy when Glass walked in. The haggard mountain man recounted his story of survival, never once looking Bridger’s way.

Finally he walked up to the man who was barely more than a boy and said that he forgave him. He asked about Fitzgerald and was told he’d headed downriver to Fort Atkinson.

By the time that Hugh Glass had gotten to where Bridger was, he had rowed upstream 300 miles and walked another 550. He’d been chased by Indians along the way and travelled through some of the worst weather the Rockies could throw at him.

Revenge was a strong motivator for Hugh Glass, but in the end he decided to let the whole thing go. Perhaps the look on Bridger’s face was all the revenge he needed by that point.

Fur trapping posts on the Upper Missouri from 1820 to 1826. Fort Kiowa is not listed but was built in 1822 in today's south-central South Dakota. It was abandoned in the 1840s. (map from The Fur Trade of the American West, 1807-1840, by David Wishart)

Upriver Again

Shortly after his return to Fort Kiowa, Hugh Glass joined up with Joseph Brazeau’s party heading up to the Mandan villages, which was being led by Antoine Citoleux, dit Langevin.

It could have been that he wanted to get back with the men he had been with, his companions and friends of the Ashley expedition, or he could have just wanted more adventure. They left on October 10, 1823, one of the few definitive dates in Glass’s life.

There was nothing eventful about the six-week journey to the outskirts of the Mandan villages, except that Fitzgerald was going down the river when Glass was going back up. The two passed one another, but they weren’t aware of it.

Just before the party was to reach the Mandan villages, two things happened. First, Toussaint Charbonneau quit flat out. He had a bad feeling, and his “medicine” told him so. He would travel the rest of the way by land, letting his companions keep to the waterways. Second, just 10 miles from the villages, Glass got out of the boat and went ashore to hunt. It was the last he’d see of his companions again.

There was only a bend in the river, wide enough that you couldn’t see around it, and Glass thought he could bag a few animals and meet up with the boat as it finally came around the wide turn. Instead he ran into more Arikara Indians, the last thing he needed.

He was in no shape to be running, especially with wounds still tender and ready to break open at the slightest exertion. But he had little choice; the party was intent on his blood, and he ran as fast as he could.

His luck proved strong once again, for a lone Mandan Indian riding by caught site of the race, and for whatever reason, perhaps feeling the odds too stacked against the white man, or because he didn’t much like the Arikara, who may have torched several Mandan villages, he rode by and hoisted Glass up onto his horse and rode him to Tilton’s Fort, which was owned by the Columbia Fur Company.

Charbonneau was there, but no members of Langevin’s crew made it, and everyone figured the Arikara had slaughtered them and taken off with the goods.

Glass wasn’t one to sit around, and he didn’t expect any further Indian attacks, didn’t care if they did occur, or just thought himself invincible, for he set out alone from the fort toward the Yellowstone River and Fort Henry.

It took him two weeks to get there, and he found the place abandoned. Andrew Henry had given up on any further trapping near Three Forks after the most recent spate of Indian attacks, so the fort was no longer needed.

Henry most likely left a note as to where he was going, for Hugh Glass set out for the Powder River, making it as far as he could that late in the season before the rapids became too rough, and then went overland.

He ran into some Crow Indians, got some horses from them, and then ran into a group of mountain men, Jedediah Smith with them. He reached Henry’s new post on the mouth of the Bighorn River toward the end of December.

Another Close Call

Map of North Platte River

After wintering at the fort, Hugh Glass set out for Fort Henry on February 28, 1824.

He had with him four companions: an E. More, A. Chapman, someone named Dutton, and another man named Marsh.

he men walked overland until they came to the North Platte River and built a boat. They went down as far as the Laramie River before they spotted any Indians, these peaceable Pawnees.

The men were urged to come ashore, and so comfortable were they at the sight and reception of the Indians that all but Dutton left their guns in the boat. The Indians treated them like kings and laid out a great feast. Something seemed amiss, and one of the men said so.

Glass shouted out that they were in fact Arikaras, and the men didn’t waste time getting back to their boat. Their guns were gone, however, and it soon became every man for himself when the Indians began whooping in delight at the white men’s peril.

Dutton made it away, as none of the Indians wanted to risk getting shot, especially when there was such easier prey before them. Marsh was a fast runner, and managed to evade his pursuers. Somehow Glass made it up some rocks and remained hidden.

He watched in horror as both Chapman and More were killed, and stayed low until dark, when the Indians called it a night. He set out on another long walk, and met up with another band of Sioux Indians who accompanied him to Fort Kiowa. From there he descended the river to Council Bluffs, where he was reunited with both Dutton and More.

By that time it was June, and Hugh Glass learned that Fitzgerald was in town. Unfortunately for Glass, Fitzgerald had renounced the life of a mountain man for that of a soldier, and was now serving as a private in the Sixth Infantry. He couldn’t have his man, but at least he could get new gear, including his rifle, from Colonel Leavenworth. And at that point Glass decided to leave the Rocky Mountains for a time.

Hugh’s Luck Runs Out

Deciding to give up fur trapping, Hugh Glass joined up with a party heading to Santa Fe. At that point he disappears until 1830 when he was recorded as being at Fort Union. After that we have only one more mention of Glass, and that was through a recounting of events from the mountain man Johnson Gardner to Prince Maximilian of Weid.

The story says that Glass was around Fort Cass on the Yellowstone River during the winter of 1832-3. Glass and two companions were hunting bears when a party of thirty Arikara Indians descended upon them. However the fight went we can’t be sure, but it’s hard to believe Glass not fighting for all he was worth, even taking down an Indian or two, perhaps even several.

Gardner and his men were in the area when the Indians came up with the intention of stealing their horses. Gardner was wise to their act, however, and had several of the Indians seized. On one of them they found Glass’s old rifle, and another his knife.

Hugh Glass’s luck had finally run out. He was 53 years old.

Notes

Morgan, Dale L. Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West. Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln, 1964. p 96-109.

Myers, John Meyers. The Saga of Hugh Glass: Pirate, Pawnee, and Mountain Man. Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln, 1963.

Vestal, Stanley. Jim Bridger: Mountain Man. Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln, 1946. p 40-56

Leslie, Edward E. Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls: True Stories of Castaways and other Survivors. Sterling Seagrave: New York, 1988. p 265-288.

Mayo, Matthew P. Cowboys, Mountain Men & Grizzly Bears: Fifty of the Grittiest Moments in the History of the Wild West. Globe Pequot Press: Guilford, 2009. p 21-26.

Chittenden, Hiram Martin. The American Fur Trade of the Far West [Vol 2]. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln, 1986. p 682-96.

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Montana’s Mountain Men: James Beckwourth

3/30/2013

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James Beckwourth in 1860

James Beckwourth was born on April 6th, 1798, in Virginia. His father, Sir Jennings Beckwith, was a slave owner, and his mother a mulatto, making him a slave. Beckwourth’s mother had 13 children, James being the third, although it’s unclear whether all of them were from her master, Beckwith. His father emancipated Beckwourth in court in 1824, making him a free man.

A brother and sister travelled with him to St. Louis. The brother became a barber, while the sister became a prostitute. Jim spent four years in school in St. Louis before he became apprenticed for a time to a blacksmith when he was 19, and he even dabbled a bit in Andrew Henry’s passion, lead mining. But with Ashley’s help he became a mountain man.

Going Upriver

Beckwourth portrayed as Indian, 1856

Beckwourth first got his start as a mountain man when he joined William H. Ashley and his party of men leaving Fort Atkinson in November, 1824. The winter was a rough one on the men, and provisions were scarce. Beckwourth was able to bag several deer one cold day, but most days saw scant provisions.

The men travelled as far as the North Platte before heavy snows overtook them as they were searching for the Green River. One story from the trip involved another black mountain man, Moses Harris, and Beckwourth loved to recount it years later.

The party’s provisions diminishing, Harris offered to walk to the Pawnee Indian village some 300 miles away. No one wanted to go with him, for the tales of Harris walking so fast that he left his companions behind were well known. Not even the bravest of men wanted to be left behind in Indian country, after all, so no one volunteered. Finally Ashley suggested that Beckwourth go. He reluctantly agreed, and the two set out the next morning, but instead of Beckwourth falling behind, it was Harris who couldn’t keep up, and in fact collapsed from exhaustion. They had travelled 30 miles with 25 pounds of food on their backs.

Beckwourth was lucky, and shot a few wild turkeys, which lasted them for a day. And it was a good thing, too, for when they reached the Pawnee village ten days later, they were out of food entirely, and there was no one about. The Pawnee had already left for their winter quarters, so Beckwourth and Harris had no choice but to continue on.

They lucked out two weeks later when they stumbled across a fresh trail left by Indians. By that time the two men had thrown away even their blankets, so weak were they. The only thing they had to sustain them for those two weeks in the wilderness was coffee and sugar, and perhaps the occasional root or berry, all the while walking in the dead of winter. It’s a wonder they survived at all.

It was evident to Beckwourth that only he could go, so weak was Harris. But when he told of his plans to leave him behind, Harris begged for his life. Beckwourth went anyway, and soon found two Osage Indians. Beckwourth retrieved Harris and they were brought to the Indian village and feasted like kings.

Second Thoughts

Just like John Colter vowed to leave the Rocky Mountains after his near brush with death, so too did Beckwourth decide to leave after almost starving to death, and he even headed down the Missouri. But the mountains were in his blood now. He was in St. Louis for all of a day before he ran into Ashley, and quickly agreed to another trip.

They headed back up to the men that Beckwourth and Harris had left the previous year, and didn’t find them in much better shape. They were nearly down to the last of their food supplies once again, and were soon on rations of just a single cup of flour a day, which was mixed with water into a kind of paste or gruel.

Beckwourth headed out with his rifle and shot a duck, considered sharing it, but devoured it instead. He wanted strength for what he intended to do next, which was find larger game. And he did, downing four deer and wolf. His companions cheered his return, but his guilt over the unshared duck weighed heavily on his mind, even when the others told him it was the right thing to do.

By April 19th, 1825, the men finally found the Green River. The area was rich in trapping opportunities, and within just a few short days they had over 100 furs, worth $1,600 downriver in St. Louis. Still, that didn’t leave much for each individual man, and Beckwourth received most of his pay in trade goods that he’d need to find more furs. He was consoled by the sight of Jedediah Smith and J.H. Weber, however. Both men had been out in the wilderness for two years, and they made quite haul at that first rendezvous.

A Native at Heart

Salmon River

Beckwourth continued trapping around the Rocky Mountains, even trading with the Blackfeet on occasion. That didn’t mean that the majority of the tribe was peaceful, however, a fact that Beckwourth learned firsthand in the spring of 1828. While around the Salmon River in Idaho, a fellow mountain man and trapper was killed by Blackfeet, the first incident in what would be a very violent year between the Indians and the whites.

Robert Campbell’s trapping party was in the area, and Beckwourth and a friend named Calhoun rode out to meet them while heading to Bear Creek for a new rendezvous. The whole party was set upon by Blackfeet, and pinned down for five hours. They were about out of ammunition when Beckwourth suggested they make a break for it. He and Calhoun did just that on the party’s fastest horses, and somehow managed to ride through a hail of Blackfeet gunfire without getting hit. By the time they returned to the party with help, the Indians were long gone.

While that story was true, Beckwourth was known to tell tall tales around the nightly campfire, and he soon became known for his exaggerated wit and interesting lore. Many stories told by others claimed that Beckwourth was a Crow Indian, the son of a chief in fact, who had only been brought to the wider world when a band of Cheyenne Indians stole him as a baby and sold him to whites. Beckwourth so acted like an Indian for many years that many believed the story.

One story that has a bit more weight to it involves Beckwourth living with the Crow. Beckwourth claimed that he was captured by the Indians, but accounts from the Rocky Mountain Fur Company paint a different picture. Beckwourth went willingly to the Crow to open up trade relations with the Indians at the company’s behest. And it was with the Crow that Beckwourth may have married the first of his many native wives.

It was common for mountain men to marry the natives, for not only did it give them valuable friends in the wilderness, but it also opened up new avenues for trade with their respective fur companies. And Beckwourth was a fan of marriage. By all accounts, he had four different wives, two of them Indian, one Hispanic, and the other African American. And he had numerous children by them, probably more than he even knew, for he was always going from one place to the next, exploring and trapping.

Moving On

Map of Salmon River

Beckwourth lived with the Crow for nine years, and rose steadily through their hierarchy, from warrior to chief. Beckwourth claimed that he reached the highest-rank of the Crow Nation, that of a war chief. He routinely went on raids against other tribes, most notably the Blackfeet. And he stopped working for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, instead selling his furs to the American Fur Company led by John Jacob Astor.

When not out raiding, Beckwourth was out trapping, and he had a few good years with the American Fur Company. By 1837 the fur trade was changing, however, and the American Fur Company chose not to renew his contract. He headed first to St. Louis, and then to Florida, where the Second Seminole War was being waged, already in its second year.

By 1838 he was back in his old stomping grounds in the west, working on the Arkansas River and trading with the Cheyenne, as well as around Fort Vasquez in Colorado. He worked for the Bent & St. Vrain Company for a bit in 1840, and then teamed up with some partners to build a trading post in Pueblo, Colorado.

By 1844 Beckwourth was trading on the Old Spanish Trail that led from the Arkansas River to California. The Mexican-American War broke out in 1846, and Beckwourth did quite well serving as a courier for the US Army. During one daring raid into Mexico, he managed to abscond with 1,800 horses.

Going to California

Pyramid Lake, Nevada

By 1848 the California Gold Rush was just beginning, and always one to sense an opportunity, or just a little adventure, Beckwourth quickly headed to the new state. He set up a shop in Sonoma, sold it, and then headed to Sacramento where he became a card sharp. Whether that panned out for him or not is unknown, but he didn’t get killed, and by 1850 he was again kicking around uncharted territory, and discovered a low-elevation pass that went through the Sierra Nevada Range.

The pass became known as Beckwourth Pass, and he continued to improve another trail that would become the Beckwourth Trail, an old Indian path from Pyramid Lake, through Beckwourth Pass, and into the gold fields at the northern California town of Marysville. It was quite a trail, and saved people 150 miles of steep and treacherous mountain passes, like those found on the Donner Pass 70 miles to the south.

It was while living and ranching in the Sierra Nevada that he made his largest footprint on history. He had opened a hotel in what would become Beckwourth, California, and over the winter of 1854-5 a man named Thomas D. Bonner checked in. Beckwourth indulged the man in his whole life story, and Bonner wrote it up, and the following year sold the book to Harper & Brothers in New York.

The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth hit the market in 1856, and although Beckwourth was to receive half of the profits, he never received a cent from Bonner or Harper & Brothers. While the book may not have been a runaway success, or made Beckwourth a nickel, it did tell later historians how the US government often used alcohol to subdue and negotiate with Indians, as well as the impacts of massacres and war on them.

Back to Montana

Beckwourth Pass

By 1859 Beckwourth was finished with California, and headed back to Missouri and then to Denver, Colorado. He worked both as a storekeeper and as an agent for affairs involving Indians. He became a scout for the Third Colorado Volunteers in 1864, something that he most likely regretted later.

Colonel John M. Chivington’s campaign against the Cheyenne and Arapaho led to the Sand Creek Massacre, an action that resulted in the deaths of between 70 and 163 innocent Cheyenne men, women, and children. The Indians had been staying in an area approved by the former commander of the nearby Fort Lyon, and had even flown an American flag to show where their loyalty lay.

Beckwourth had traded with the Cheyenne more than 20 years earlier, and his heart surely sunk at the atrocity. He was banned by the tribe from trading with them again. He decided to try his hand at fur trapping once again, even though he was well into his 60s and the fur trade was almost non-existent by that point.

His final job was as a scout for the US Army around Fort Laramie and Fort Phil Kearny in 1866. He was guiding some soldiers to a band of Crow Indians in Montana when he came down with uncontrollable nose bleeds and severe headaches, most likely brought on by hypertension. He died in the Crow Village on October 29, 1866. He was 68 years old.

Notes

Haggard, Dixie Ray (ed.) African Americans in the Nineteenth Century: People and Perspectives. ABC-CLIO: Santa Barbara, 2010. p 152.

Manheimer, Ann S. James Beckwourth: Legendary Mountain Man. Twenty-First Century Books: Minneapolis, 2006. p 16-26.

Oswald, Delmont R. “James P. Beckwourth.” Mountain Men and Fur Traders of the Far West: Eighteen Biographical Sketches. Hafen, LeRoy R. (ed.) University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln, 1965. p 162-85.

Rodriquez, Junius P. The Louisiana Purchase: A Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, Inc.: Santa Barbara, 2002. p. 28-9.

Van Ravenswaay, Charles. Saint Louis: An Informal History of the City and its People, 1764-1865. Missouri Historical Society Press: Columbia, 1991. p 215.

Wilson, Elinor. Jim Beckwourth: Black Mountain Man and War Chief of the Crows. The University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, 1972. p 31-40.

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Montana’s Mountain Men: James Beckwourth

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The Flathead Indians Seek God

The Quest for a Black Robe

The Four Delegations

Montana’s Mountain Men: Jim Bridger

Joining the Fur Trade

Trapping and Exploring

Constructing Fort Bridger

Problems with the Mormons

Family and Frontiers

The Bridger Trail

Montana’s Mountain Men: Jedediah Smith

Heading West

The Arikara War

Scarred For Life

Exploring and Profiting

Heading to California

Montana’s Mountain Men: Hugh Glass

The Grizzly

Left for Dead

From the Dead

Upriver Again

Another Close Call

Hugh’s Luck Runs Out

​You Might Also Like

Montana’s Mountain Men: James Beckwourth

Going Upriver

Second Thoughts

A Native at Heart

Moving On

Going to California

Back to Montana

MT Book 7

​Montana Blog

​Popular Posts

Categories

Archives

​My MT History Books

My Montana Novels

My Montana Short Fiction

You Might Also Like

Montana Blog

Popular Posts

My MT History Books