STAR VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY HISTORICAL BOOKS INVENTORY DETAILS

1. Overview

Title: Searching for John Gray

Author: Jermy Wight

Subject: Mountain Men

Publisher:

Publishing Date: January 31,1998

Number of Pages: 15

ID#: 263

Location: Website

2. Evaluation

Evaluator's Name(s): Kent and Polly Erickson

Date of Evaluation: November 2014

Key Words: Iroquois, Gray's Lake, Grey's River, Rocky Mountain Fur Company, Jesuit missionaries

Included Names: John Hatchiorauquasha, John Grey, Osbourne Russell, Alexander Mackenzie, Alexander Ross, Peter Skene Ogden, Mary Ann Charles Grey

3. Synopsis In the preface, the author refers to his purpose. He maintains that Greys River was named after John Grey, not John Day nor the John Gray for whom Gray's Lake is named. He gives the ancestral background ofJohn Grey as well as his connection to the fur industry and to the spread ofChristianity among some Indians. He was active in the fur industry longer than most men.

4. Other

*Map of the Fur Country drawn by Ferris in 1836 ^Footnotes SEARCHING FOR JOHN GREY

INTRODUCTION

One of the most scenic and accessible rivers in America is Greys river. I have always had an innate fascination with place names and so I inquired locally as to the origin of the name. No one for sure really knew. My first clue came from a highway sign at Wayan, Idaho that in essence said John Gray or Grey was an Iroquois Indian that trapped this area 1816-18 and Grays lake was named after him. This piqued my senses since this was not Iroquois country, so I had to learn more. That is the purpose of this paper to share the knowledge I found with others.

I encountered one obstacle in that some historians believe the Greys river was originally named Day's river after a sharpshooter named John Day of the Astorian fame. Mae Urbanek makes this mistake in "Wyoming Place Names" and Candy Moulton repeats it in "Road Side History of Wyoming." There is a John Day's river, a major tributary of the Columbia river in and there is a John Day's creek in Idaho. So the man did exist. However , a clerk for the , in his book, "Life In the Rocky Mountains, A Diary of Wanderings on the Sources of the Rivers Missouri, Columbia, and Colorado from February 1830, to November, 1835," He presented a detailed map of the fur country which he had drawn in 1836. Included here in is a copy of Ferris' map for your perusal.

This map specifically included Grey's river and Gray's lake in their proper places. Ferris was a contemporary of John Grey and actually served on expeditions with Grey. Osborne Russell in his "Journal of a Trapper, during the period 1834 to 1843." also places Greys River and Grays lake in their proper geographic locations.

These two early reference clarify, least in my mind, the Greys river was not originally called John Day's river. With that matter disposed of I believe the reader will enjoy a different prospective on the early mountain men from the following paper on John Grey aka Ignace Hatchiorauquasha. F/dThe

dsheJl

^ao

'ovi^sfone

tuca. pterres Hole Jodcseta

R.^mer/cati ic Faffs

South OMi

flpQ Cache ' VQIIw

A detailed map of the fur country drawn byFerris in 1836 SEARCHING FOR JOHN GREY

It would be easy to dismiss this subject by saying John Grey was a half breed Iroquois Indian who found Grays Lake in Idaho and Greys River in Wyoming. This would do an injustice to the man and his era and would not tell the true history.

Technically there is no tribe of Iroquois Indians. The Iroquoian family is a linguistic stock of North American Indians consisting of several different tribes along the Appalachian Mountain Range from the Mohawks in the north in Canada to the Cherokee Nation in the south. Five of the northern tribes formed a confederation in the 1600's to protect themselves against their common enemy the Algonquin Indians. This confederation was known as the Five Nations and given the name of Iroquois League by the French settlers. They called themselves Ongwanonsionni, the people of the long house. The five nations were the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Seneccas. In 1715 they took in the Tuscaroras tribe when they were driven from their homes in North Carolina. Thus they became the Six Nations.1

John Grey was from a Caughnawagan village located opposite Cornwall, Ontario, Canada on the south side of the St Lawrence River and south of the international boundry. He would have been from the Cayugas Tribe. By accident of birth he was a U.S. Citizen. John Grey's Indian name was Ignace Hatchiorauquasha. John or Ignace was half white and half Indian blood. In the matriarchial Indian society it would have been common to follow his mother's lineage. It is not written that his father's name was Grey. But, in the patriarchial white society he would probably used his father's name. There is nothing unusual about this practice of having two names.

Under the French Canadian regime the Jesuit Missionaries were active early on with the tribes of the Iroquois League. The missionaries brought two values to the Indians along the St Lawrence river; Religion and Education. John Grey received an adequate education in a white man's school. He as very articulate and conversant in the English language. He possibly had a better education than most of his counterparts of the American mountain men with whom he later associated. He also understood and could deal with the white man's psyche much to the chagrin of the fur trade companies. This was probably one of his greater strengths. He received his religious strength through his wife Marianne Naketichon or as known by the British, Mary Ann Charles. She was only one-quarter Mohawk and three-quarter French. She was a devout Catholic and spoke fluent French which would indicate a French Canadian influence as well as that of the Jesuit Missionaries.

Around 1816 the North West Company, a Canadian fur trading cpfi^ortium, recruited a group from among the Caughnawaga Indians to train the Flath^a^ tribe and the Nez Perce In the art of trapping beaver. Among them were John Grey ancj Mary Ann. There was possibly as many as twenty lodges of these new Indian peopjp. We don't currently have a full record. But among them was thought to pe Pierre Tev6(nitagon, after whom 1 Page 390, The Encyclopedia Americana. 1956 Edition, Volurrji^ ^5, Americana Corporation, N.Y. Pierre's Hole on the west side of the Teton Mountains near present Driggs, Idaho was named. And an Indian named LaMousse and another called Robert Fraiser a highly unlikely Indian name. The birth date of John Grey is unknown. Since he was married by 1816 and was hired for such an undertaking he must have been a young adult.

There are two gems to be found in this last paragraph. The year 1816 is important. The peace treaty ending the War of 1812 was signed this year.This made interrelationships between the Americans and the British possible once again in the Columbia river basin. During this war the so-called Iroquois Indians fought on the British side against the Americans. John Grey's participation is not confirmed but highly likely. At least part of the group must have had service to the crown. After the war they were most vulnerable to be recruited into western service because of high unemployment.

The other gem is the North West Company. Even before the North West Company there was the Hudson's Bay Company. In the year 1670 King Charles II granted an exclusive charter to Prince Rupert and seventeen other noble men and gentlemen to Incorporate themselves into the Hudson's Bay Company for the procurement of furs in all the drainage of Hudson Bay. At one time the Company had entire legislative, judicial and executive power over their vaguely defined territory. This made them a powerful controlling force in Canadian History. The North West Company was formed by a group of Montreal merchants in 1783 to challenge the Hudson's Bay Company who up to this time had a monopoly. The timing was right since this was the end of the American Revolution and the British were in no frame of mind to have difficulties in Canada. The North West Company Insisted the territory of the Northwest did not fall under the Hudson's Bay Charter and besides parliament never ratified the King's charter. The two companies were strong competitors until 1821 when they were merged together in to a single company.2

Alexander Mackenzie, an employe of the North West Company was the first white man to traverse the continent from east to west. (October 1792 to July 1793). From Lake Athabaska he travelled up the Peace river, across the continental divide and down the Blackwater river to the Pacific coast at Cape Menzies opposite Queen Charlotte Islands. As a scientist he published his findings and was knighted in 1801 for his work.3 Mackenzie's report had been known to Lewis and Clark before their trek westward. The Canadians were in the Northwest these twelve years before the Americans and claimed prior rights to the territory.

Now to return to John Grey and the Iroquois he accompanied west. They were engaged by the North West Company to instruct the F|git|iead and Nez Perce Tribes in western Montana and northern Idaho to trap fpr fuf. A^ such they were contract employees. The employer furnished transportation ar]cf supplies in exchange for service and they were required to sell their pelts to X\)e parent company at prices established by that company. In the French fur trade they would have been called 2 The EncyclopediaAmerican. Vol 12 an 20, Americana Corp. 1956 Edition, New York. N.Y. 3 The Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol XV, page 157, R.S. Peale Company, Chicago, III 1892. "Engages". The preferred status was that of freeman. The freeman could sell his catch to the highest buyer. The company kept control over the engagee and freeman by advancing them goods and staples from the company store at high prices and thus were always endebted to the company store. Not unlike our modern-day credit card system.

The indication are that 1816 and 1817 the Caughnawaga group lived among the Flatheads and the Nez Perce and fulfilled their contract with the North West Company. They apparently got along well with these western tribes. The Flatheads were first exposed to Christianity through this contact twenty years before the Reverends and Henry Spaulding established their Indian missions in western Idaho. During their twenty year stay in the west the Iroquois group retain a close personal relationship with the Flathead tribe.

By 1818 the Iroquois declared themselves freemen and had gone off on their own to trap the Boise Valley. From 1818 to 1820 the Iroquois group joined the famous Donald Mackenzie's Snake River Brigade which brought them into the upper reaches of the Snake River drainage and Gray's lake and Grey's River area.4

Lest you be led astray the Snake River Brigade were not the first trappers in the upper Snake river drainage. That honor goes to Pierre Menard and Andrew Henry of the St. Louis Missouri Fur Company who established a short-lived trading post near St. Anthony, Idaho in 1810. The following year 1811 Wilson Price Hunt led an expedition through the upper Snake river country stopping at Henry's trading post. Mr. Hunt left a small number of trappers in the area to explore and they met an untimely death at the hands of unfriendly Indians. The War of 1812 put a hiatus on the trapping until 1816.

The Snake river brigade made seasonal expeditions into the back country by approaching a valley and dividing in to small groups of two or three persons and each group trapped the creeks and drainages of the valley. They cream the most readily available beaver pelts and then reassemble at a predesignated time a week or ten days later at a site previously agreed upon. They moved over to the next drainage and repeated the process. By not trapping all the beaver in one place and depleting the resource they were able to return to the same areas year after year. At the end of the trapping season this Brigade would return to the Flathead post of the North West Company on the Clark's fork of the Columbia river and settle with the company under price fixing terms favorable to the Company. It was during these trapping expedition the names of Gray's Hole and Grey's river was accredited to John Grey, free trapper.

When the North West Company was amalgamated into the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821 the free trappers came under the dominance of the Hudson's Bay people. Alexander Ross became the commandant of the brigade and the company representative on the expeditions and he had difficulty relating to the Iroquois. In 1824 4 The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West, Volume VII.Editor Leroy Hafen, Biographical Sketch by Merle Wells, pages 161 to 175. The Arthur Clarke Co., Glendale, California 1969 at the suggestion of John Grey the freemen of the Iroquois refused to go out at all with Ross until he promised to reopen their accounts so that the trade goods would cost them only half as much as the rate offered originally. At that time Grey's debt to the company was 4,000 livres. This was more than double the value his average annual catch of pelts would bring.5 Mr. Grey had been in the west at this time for eight years and was two years in debt to the company. Obviously John Grey was caught in the company web.

John Grey became Ross' nemesis. Alexander Ross got the brigade (66 people) snowed in on the upper Bitterroot river in Ross' Hole. He had a hard time trying to persuade the Iroquois to help dig out a route over to Big Hole. Some of them wanted to abandon the expedition. Ross wrote it in his journal this way;

"Late in the evening (of March 19, 1824) John Grey a turbulent disputant and leading character among the Iroquois, came in the character of spokesman to my lodge, to inform me that himself and 10 others were resolved to abandon the party and turn back. On being asked the cause he answered, that by remaining here they would lose the spring hunt, that besides they were tired of the large band, and moreover that they did not come to this country to be digging in snow nor passing their time making roads. I told him that I was suprised at hearing a good, quiet, honest worthy fellow like him utter such language: a person on whom I so much depended for his zeal and activity in cases of emergency. God forgive me for saying so [After listening to the reasons Ross offered for keeping the brigade intact] John answered that he was neither a soldier nor engage, nor was he a slave:therefore he was under the control of no man. I told him he was a freeman, and a freeman of good character and be careful and not to stain. In my heart however I felt otherwise. I saw John in his true colours, a turbulent blackguard, a damned rascal."6

None of the group quit the brigade and two days later Ross found a solution to his problem. "Finding John (Grey) at the head of a party I sent for the intriguing scamp and agreed with him to hunt me animals, when ever I should want any, from which the source of his debt of 4000 livres is to be reduce 400 livres or about twenty beaver. All quiet once more. It is impossible to proceed without these hunters."^

The brigade was held up in the head of the Bitterroot in Ross' Hole for nearly a month. The Iroquois successfully hunted buffalo on snow shoes. Only old Pierre Tevanitagon of the Iroquois would work on the road. "By this time Grandeau having made a drum and John Grey a fiddle, the people were entertained with a concert of music."8 Another talent of John Grey previously gone unreported. Ros§, inspite of his feelings, did accredit John Grey with great valor in the heroic way fie |i5indled a war party of forty 5T.C. Elliot, ed.,"Journal of Alexander RossiSnake Country Expedition 1824," In Oregon Historical Quarterly, (Dec 1913) xlv, p. 370. 6 Mountain Men - Hafen, op. cit.,pgs 163-164 7 T.C. Elliot op. cit., p. 376. 8 Ibid p 377 Piegans (Blackfeet) on June 19, 1824 as recorded in his journal of that date.9

Oddly enough it was Pierre Tevanitagon who left with a group of Iroquois on June 14 to trap separately from the brigade. It was John Grey who stayed with Ross. Ross would have preferred Pierre to have remained. Pierrie returned to the expedition further along on October 14 and he brought with him Jedediah Smith and six of Ashley's men. The seven Americans accompanied Ross back to the Flathead Post. For the Hudson's Bay Company it proved to be disasterous to let the American competition into their territory and allow them access to the Iroquois freemen. Jedediah Smith was smart enough not to openly prostelyte. But the Indians were also smart enough to inquiry as to the price of goods from the Americans and the prices the Americans were willing to pay for beaver pelts. There was a disparaging difference between the two companies.

That fall Peter Skene Ogden succeeded Alexander Ross as the brigade commander of the Snake river expeditions. Two days after Ogden's expedition left the Flathead Post on December 20, 1824, John Grey returned to the post and got his wife and children and rejoined the brigade.10 it became apparent later why he took such a course of action. His action should have been a precursor of his intent to defect at the given opportunity.The seven Americans accompanied Ogden as far as the Bear river where they took their leave and went east to their camp on the Green river.

The brigade's destination was Ogden's Hole, a small enclave nestled in the north edge of Cache valley. It was of lower elevation and a milder climate and a good place to winter and to start the spring hunt. As luck would have it Americans under Johnson Gardner had the same idea and camped nearby. The two parties actually worked together through April 1825 taking a rich haul of beaver from the surounding streams.

Johnson Gardner, one of the American partners, planted the American Flag and wrongly asserted that this was part of the under United States jurisdiction and the Hudson's Bay Company had no authority here in this valley. In actuality neither had jurisdiction for they were both in Mexico. This was of little consequence but led to a discussion of legal obligations of contract. Gardner argued the freemen were free to break their agreements with the Hudson's Bay Company and join the Mountain Men. His argument had no legal meflt The real inducement to the freemen was an offer to pay a high rate of $3.50 9 pound for beaver fur and to undersell the British on trade goods. The Iroquois also ^aw this as a way to get out of debt. 11

A meeting of the freemen May 24, 1825 in John Grey's tent brought the matter to a head. John Grey spoked heatedly about his past dealing with the British. He qualified his remarks by saying that Ogden had treated the Iroquois fairly. But that not 9 Ibid p. 382-384 10 Mountain Men-Hafen op. cit., pg 166 11 Ibid pg 167 withstanding he declared that with Gardner's support he and his friends would leave, "to seek their own interest." Grey then ordered "His partners to raise camp and immediately all the Iroquois were in motion " This included Pierre Tevanitagon who had been so loyal to Alexander Ross the previous year. A near riot ensued as a dozen of Ogden's freemen took off with company property. Unlike most of the deserters John Grey settled his account in full with the company before leaving.

On May 24, 1825 Peter Skene Ogden wrote of following his discontented freemen Into John Grey's Lodge. He reported the villian Grey as saying:

"I must tell you that all the Iroquois as well as myself have long wished for an opportunity to join the Americans and if we did not sooner it was owing to our bad luck in not meeting with them. But now we go and all you can say cannot prevent us," Gardener was silent having made one remark as follows; "You have had these men already too long in your service and have most shamefully imposed on them selling them goods at high prices and giving them nothing for their skins," on which he retired. Grey then said that is true and alluding to the gentlemen he had been with in the Columbia they are said to be the greatest villians in the world and if they were here this day I would shoot them. But as for you sir you have dealt fair with me and with us all, but go we will and we are now in a free country and have friends here to support us and if every man in the camp does not leave you do not seek their own interest. He then gave orders to his partners to raise camp and immediately all the Iroquois were in motion." 12

It is uncertain the exact number defecting to Gardner. The records of the Hudson's Bay Company archives show Ogden started with 58 trappers. Warren A. Ferris, "Life in the Rocky Mountains",i3 indicates Ogden had only twenty men left after the dust settled. The Biographers of the Sublette Brothers, Gary Wiles and Delores Brown state 29 defected to Gardner. These figures seem to substanciate each other.

What is certain John Grey's action changed the course of events in the Rocky Mountain fur trade. The British were required to up scale their prices and their business practices to compete. The Americans were provided with a knowledgeable group of experienced trappers able to penetrate further into the British domain. This had an effect on who would eventually own the Oregon Territory. This also saw the change where instead of the trappers going to a post to transact business the traders would henceforth come to the trappers in the form of an annual rendezvous.

The institution of the rendezvous began quite by accident. Ashley of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company promised to meet the Montain Men and resupply them in late JuI)H^24 somewhere on the upper Sweetwater. Without resupply they could not stay anothehy^ar in the mountains. They waited impatiently for almost a month and finally 12 Peter Skene Ogden's Snake Country Jounal 1824-25, Hudson's Bay Record Society, London 1950 Vol Xlil. 13Warren A. Ferris, "Life inthe Rocky Mountains", op. cit,. pg Ixxix started down the Sweetwater where they met the supply train coming up the river. After apologies It was decided henceforth they would meet at a specific time and specific place. The next summer would be on Henry's Fork on the Green rlveri4 . The word went out and other free trappers and Indians, not employed by the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, were encouraged to come and trade their plews too. The rendezvous was an Instant success and lasted through 1840.

John Grey accompanied Johnson Gardner's group to William H. Ashley's first rendezvous on Henry's Fork of the Green river that summer of 1825 where John Grey acquired a new hat and saddle.

With unmitigated gall John Grey returned to the vicinity of Flathead post In the summer of 1826 and relying upon his friendship with the local Indians convinced twenty Nez Perce and Flatheads to accompany him to the Ashley's next rendezvous In Cache valley for the purpose of trading with the Americans.16 Following the rendezvous of 1826 the Iroquols trapped the Yellowstone Country with William L. Sublette and David E. Jackson. The succeeding year 1827 they were back with the Flatheads. For the next three years the Iroquols trapped mostly by themselves.17

As far as can be ascertained John Grey's party never kept an written diary. The activities of the Iroquols for the the four year period of 1827-31 is sketchy. The best assumption Is they trapped during seasons and attended the annual rendezvous to trade their skins. What we know of John Grey comes mostly from eye witness white authors. We are endebted to one such writer, Warren Angus Ferris, a clerk for the Western Division of the American Fur Company, a John Jacob Astor comglomerate. Ferris travelled with the Western Division from February 1831 to November 1835 and kept an extensive diary which he first published In 185418

Ferris Indicates John Grey was with their party In the winter of 1831-32. He begins his story by relating his group had crossed the Snake river on the Ice on March 4th and encamped near the mouth of the Blackfoot river. This would be near the present day Indian reservation. They had come across the lava country from the vicinity of the Salmon river. The plain was barren of snow but It was cold and the Ice In the river was frozen solid enough for the horses to cross.

On the 5th John Grey and David Montgomery departed for Cache valley to determine if Andrew Dripps and his party were there. On the 10th the Ferris party moved their camp to a spring east of Porteneuf river. That same evening two of the hunters brought In

14 Located north of McKinnon, Wyoming on the Utah border in Southwest Wyoming. Not to be confused with Henry's Fork on the Snai

"We proceeded," said he, "by the way of the south fork of the Portenuef to Cache valley, without incident, and sought throughout the northern extremities, for traces of the whites, but were unable to find the least evidence of their having been there at any time during the winter. Hence we concluded, that the story told us by the Ponacks, (Bannocks) was a falsehood invented solely to draw from us a present, which is usually given to Indians on receipt of good news. This conviction added to numberless traces of foot Indians, that appeared wherever we went, induced us to return to camp with the least delay. In the afternoon of the 8th we discovered a small herd of buffalo, and succeeded in killing one of them, after firing several ineffectual shots. Our appetites had been quickened by two days stavation, which urged the adoption of bold and prompt measures. We quickly secured the tongue, with other choice pieces, and proceeded in quest of fuel, at a rapid pace. During our progress we say what greatly resembled an Indian, laying on the ground, with his buffalo robe thrown over him. We hesitated a moment, but concluded it to be the carcase of a buffalo, and continued on. At length, we reached a small lake, which is the source of the south fork of the Portenuef. It was frozen over in the early part of the winter, and since covered with water to the depth of one foot, which was encrusted with a sheet of ice, though not strong enough to bear one. Near the margin were several clusters of large willows, which were now surrounded by ice and water; they supplied us with fuel, which we conveyed to the bank, beyond the reach of the water, and kindled a fire, by which we roasted and devoured our meat, with tiger-like voracity, until our hunger was allayed."

"By this time the sun was disappearing behind the western hills, and being fully aware of the danger of remaining in such an open place over night, I remarked to Montgomery that we had better saddle our horses, and proceed down the creek, until after dark, and pass the night in some of the groves of cedars which were scattered along the entrances of ravines in our route. He objected to this measure, and added that wiser men than ourselves had encamped in worse places. Finding that remonstance would be useless, I immediately cut way some of the briars in the centre of a bed of rose bushes, and spread down our blankets. At dark we lay down, and my companion slept soundly. For my own part, I was alarmed in the early part of the night by some unusual noise, which might have been occasioned by the trampling of our horses: but which together with a train of thought foreboding evil, effectually prevented me from closing my eyes to sleep at all."

"I arose early in the morning, before it was yet light, can commenced kindling a fire, in the course of which, having occasion for my powder horn, I called Montgomery to hand it to me. He immediately arose and stepped out, but sprang back to his bed the next instant exclaiming Indians! Indians! At one bound I was with him, and the Indians commenced firing upon us. The rose bushes which surround us, only served to conceal us from view but offered no resistance to their balls, one of which grazed my neck. I immediately exclaimed "lyiontgomery I am wounded." The next instant he arose with the gun to his face, in a sitting postion, but ere he had time to shoot, his gun dropped from his hands, streams of blood gushing from his mouth and nose, he fell backwards uttering a groan, and expired. I sprang up and presented my gun to the advancing Indians, determined to kill one of them, but they threw themselves down in the grass. I then wheeled and fled through the breaking ice of the lake, and exerted my utmost strength, to gain the opposite bank. Some of the Indians were instantly in close pursuit, whilst others deliberately fired from the bank. One of their balls grazed my thigh and another cut out a lock of my hair, and stunned me so much that I could with difficulty keep my feet; however I succeeded in reaching the bank, but had mortification to see the foremost of my pursuers step ashore as soon as I did. A this moment a thought crossed my mind, to surrender all I had and they would spare my life; but the recollection of the cruelties they have ever practiced upon prisoners, always terminated in death, awoke me to reason, and I redoubled my efforts to gain a ravine, which led into the mountain. As I reached the entrance the loud, harsh voice of the chief, calling back my pursuers, fell upon my ears like strains of the sweetest music; but I continued running until overcome by exertion, I fell down quite exhausted. After resting a few moments, I ascended the mountains and dragged myself through the snow until dark, in the direction of Snake river, at which time, I descended to the margin of the Porteneuf and followed its course."

"My mocasins became worn out and left my naked feet to be cut by the ice and stones, and at the same time, I was drenched by a shower, which chilled me through. I endeavored to kindle a fire, and made use of the powder in my gun for the purpose, but was unsucessful. There being no alternative, I was compelled to crawl along or freeze. My feet now being extremely painful, and I found they were frozen. Being no longer able to support myself upon them, sought a stick with which I hobbled along some distance, but at length found myself in a field of prickly pear, that pierced me to the very soul. Here, for the first time, I wished for death and upbraided myself for running from the Indians. I stopped and picked the thorns from my bloody feet, proceeded and the next moment was again upon them. At length, I crawled into the willows, bordering the river, and to my great joy found a quanity of bull rushes. Fortunately, I happened to have my pen knife, with which I cut as many as I could grasp in my arms twice, and bound into three separate bundles: these I fastened together with willows, launched it without difficulty, and embarked upon it, allowing it to be carried along by the course of the current."

"In the afternoon of the following day, I reached the nearest point from Portenuef to camp, and abandoned my floating bed. With a stick in one hand and my gun in the other, I set out; but the torture from my feet was such, that I fell down, unable to proceed farther. In this situation, whilst revolving in my own mind the chances for getting to camp, a distance of twelve miles, I was discovered by the two hunters whose presence gave me a thrilling sensation of joyful dellverence, indescribable. One of them immediately dismounted, and placed me upon his horse, which he led slowly back to camp."i9 19 Life In the Rocky Mountains-Ferris op. cit., pages 133 to 137. Upon examination John Grey's feet were swollen twice their normal size and had turned black. Within two months he was healed and quite well and no worse for the wear. His perseverance and the account of his super-human ability to survive under such trying circumstances is remarkably narrated. Presuming they are John Grey's words and not Ferris', the tale shows excellent verbal skills.

In the same year 1832 John Grey had an altercation with Milton Sublette. This must have been sometime after the rendezvous in July which occured in Pierre's Hole in Idaho on the west side of the Tetons.The story is told that John Grey and seven of his people had accompanied a party of whites from the camp at Ogden's Hole as trappers to Bear River. The exact location is not identified nor germaine to the story. In this expedition was Milton Sublette. This would have been a party then associated with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in which Milton was a partner.

Milton was a younger brother of William Sublette and a single man. He had a terrible reputation as a womanizer. He was large of stature; weighing 220 lbs and over six feet tall. As a young man in Missouri he was a bouncer and served some in local law enforcement because of his physical size and disposition. Gary Wiles and Delores Brown, the Sublette Brother biographers, speak of him often as being in trouble because of his sexual indiscretions.

John Grey was no slouch of a man either. He had good bulk and size and except for his infirmities from the experience in March on the Porteneuf was in good physical shape. Ferris in his desertation on bears said "John Grey, a herculean trapper, has fought several duels with them (bears), in which he has thus far been victorious, though generally at the expense of a gun, which he usually manages to break in the conflict."2o Indicating that John Grey was also courageous.

John Grey travelled with his family which included wife Mary Ann Charles and their children. The family had been in the west for sixteen years by this date and they had a teenage daughter. It isn't written, but this girl with her dominate French genes and her early physical development from her Indian side, must have been a beauty or at least attractive. Although this probably would not matter to much to Milton. To him she would have been just another conquest.

It is written that on Bear river Milton Sublette made the mistake of insulting Ignace's (John Grey) daughter.21 That was a polite way of saying Milton made a sexual advance at the maiden. But to continue; In the fight which resulted Ignace again showed his skill in handling a knife. At the end of the battle, Sublette's chances of recovery looked dubious indeed, and he was out of the trapping business for over a month under the care of Joe Meeks.22

20 Ibid, pg318 21 The Mountain Men- Hafen, op cit., page 169 22 Ibid For the next four years the Iroquois trappers followed their romantic and nomadic ways: going where the spirit directed; following their dreams and attending the rendezvous in season. The field was becoming crowded and the west was changing. Ferris concluded that there were at least 300 trappers and scores more of camp keepers in the fur industry.23 There were now three main companies. The Hudson's Bay Company, The Rocky Mountain Fur Company and the American Fur Company of Mr Astor. The American Fur Company with its vast organization and seemingly unlimited resources was becoming the predominate force in the business.

Twelve families of Iroquois, John Grey's among them, decided in the spring of 1836 to return to civilization and selected the French settlement on the Missouri river west of Independence, Missouri that was to become Kansas City. The settlement was under the auspices of the Catholic diocese administered by the Order of the Jesuits. This had a familiar ring to it. It was the old order from whence they had come along the St. Lawrence river in New York State. It was also the supply post of Trader Francois G. Chouteau. In Febuary 1834 a Roman Catholic chapel was started there.24

The rationalization for the move could have been the declining fur trade with its dimminishing beaver resources or in deference to Mary Ann's religious preference to be near the church for their daughter's wedding or they thought it was about time to educate their children. Perhaps all the above. They must have arrived in Kansas City before July 12, 1836 because John Grey's daughter married Benjamin Lagautherie there on that date. If so they missed the Rendezvous of 1836 on Horse creek of the Green river at a place the trapper dubbed Fort Nonsense or Bonnyville's folly, not far from the present town of Daniels, Wyoming.

On their return trip east the Greys met the Marcus Whitman and Henry Spaulding party who accompanied the resupply wagons of the fur traders west that spring of 1836. The men were Presbyterian ministers and were accompanied by their wives. and Mrs Spaulding have been lauded as being the first white women to cross the continental divide. This honor rightly should belong to Mary Ann (Charles) Grey. What degree of sanguinity is necessary to be classified as white? Mary Ann was three-quarter French and one-quarter Mohawk. And with as deep of religious convictions as were the Whitman-Spaulding ladies and preceding them by twenty years. Some people just fall through the cracks of history.

John Grey had a cabin next to his son-in-law Benjamin Lagautherie on land not far from the Kansas border, acquired from Francois G. Chouteau25 and settled down in a civilized society much like a fish out of water. The transition was not an easy one. This trapper and had survived twenty years in the wilderness existing on his native abilities much longer than than could be reasonably expected for his occupation and far beyond the actuarial tables of longevity for men of the fur trade. 23 Life inthe Rocky Mountains-Ferris op. cit., pg 285 24 The Mountain Men-Hafen op. cit., pag 179-180 25 Ibid It was at this French settlement the Iroquois became acquainted with Jean-Pierre De Smet, a Belgium born Jesuit missionary. This thirty-six year old Catholic priest was assigned to administer to the Potawatomies, a Kansas tribe of native Americans located not far from the settlement. The relationship was refreshing for both parties. The Iroquois in general and Mary Ann Grey in particular were fluent in the French and conversing with this priest in a familiar tongue was a nostalgic experience that brought back fond memories of home, of their youth along the St Lawrence river. Father Peter De Smet as he was to be called by the American was elated. These new friends, the Iroquois. were educated Christian Indians of his catholic faith. They subcribed to his doctrine and they spoke his language. The added bonus for Father De Smet Is these friends had recently lived among and taught the Christian Indians of the northwest: the Flatheads and the Nez Perce.

De Smet's purpose in life was to be a missionary to the American Indians, a passion he followed until his death in 1873.26 He distinguished himself gloriously in history as a champion of the native Americans. Father De Smet questioned the Iroquois about all the aspects of the Flatheads at great length and finally extracted a promise from John Grey to lead him to the Flathead tribes. On May 10, 1840 De Smet's group with John Grey in tow joined the Bidwell-Bartleson California Trail party bound for the Rocky Mountains.27 Pierre, another Iroquois departed several months earlier for the Flathead country with a message that "Black Robe" would be at the rendezvous on the Green Rlver.28

De Smet In a letter to Rev. F. N. Blanchet summed it up in this way;

"Very Reverend Sir: Your Reverence will be glad to learn that Mgr. Rosati, Bishop of St Louis, in concert with my provincial superior of the Society of Jesus in Missouri, with the desires often repeated of the Flatheads, Pend D'Oreilles and a number of Nez Perce, has sent me to the Rocky Mountains to visit these missions."29

The Flatheads detailed ten of their most trusted warriors to meet De Smet on Horse creek of the Green river and escort him to their camp. The De Smet party arrived at the rendezvous site on Tuesday, June 30, 1840. Father De Smet rested and visited in camp until the following Sunday the 5th of July when he conducted mass there on the prairie for the motley crew of Indians, trappers and traders there assembled.30

Monday the Sixth of July 1840 De Smet left the rendezvous In the company of his military escort, the ten Flathead warriors. John Grey satisfied his mission to deliver the Father to the Indians was completed, returned home to Missouri. Meanwhile the

26 Concise Dictionary of American Biography. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1964 27 The i\/lountain Men- Hafen op. cit., pg 171 28 History of Wyoming, by Dr. C. G. Coutant, Agronaut Press, New Yor, 1966first published 1899. pg 229 29 Ibid, pg 232 30 Ibid, pg 230 Flathead tribe moved east to an encampment in Pierre's Hole, now called Teton Valley Idaho to await the arrival of Black Robe, the white holy man who communes with the Great Spirit. Along the road their numbers were increased by detached bands of other tribes - Nez Perce, Pend d'Oreilles and Kalispels, numbering, all total, some 1600 souls. Father De Smet's entrance into the Indian camp on the Fourteenth was a real triumph.3i De Smet stayed with the group as they moved back to their ancestral home. The first move was to Henry's fork and then into the Gallatin valley where he left his newly found parishioners on August 27th and started back to Missouri on the northern route. He crossed over to the Yellowstone country visiting many tribes and returned home on the last day of 1840 via the Missouri river.

Father De Smet begain his second pilgrimage to the Rocky Mountains in the spring of the next year, 1841. He was again accompanied by John Grey. They were met at South Pass by a group of Flatheads. De Smet spent a short time in southwestern Wyoming and then crossed over to Fort Hall, Idaho and finally to old Fort Owens in Montana,32 and then returned back to Missouri.

De Smet wrote of John Grey in his journals. One entry of an encounter with bears stands out because Ferris earlier mentioned John Grey and bears. According to Father De Smet: "One evening the party was preparing camp. Gray was out hunting. Suddenly a great deal of firing was heard at a distance and the party, thinking that Gray was in a fight with Indians, rushed to the source of the sound. Upon arrival they found Gray in a circle of five bears finishing off the last.33

John Grey returned home that September 28,1841 unharmed. After his return, the exact date has not been ascertained, he was killed by Mrs. Perrault, a Snake or Shoshone Indian woman, who was an enemy of his family. The circumstances of his death are not elaborated. Whether he was killed from ambush or by frontal assault is not known. Or whether he died immediately or linger for several days is not clear. There can be no question however he died an ignominious death.34

Bad luck now plagued the family. In 1844 Mary Ann lost all their possessions in the flood of the Missouri River and she lived in a hovel, half wood and half canvas next to the log church and did her cooking in an apartment on the south end of the log hut, (church) in exchange for keeping the church clean.35 she was enumerated in the census of 1850, after which she moved to Fort Scott, Kansas and into obscurity.

The man Ignace Hatchiorauquasha, aka John Grey or Gray, and sometimes known among the French speaking people as Jean Gray, plays second fiddle to no man.

31 Ibid, pg 232 32 Ibid, pg 234 33 MountainMoi Men - Hafen, op, cit., pg 172 34 Ibid,Ibid pg 174-175 35 ibid Except for the racial bias of nineteenth century historians he should be as well known as Bridger, Sublette or Kit Carson. He worked with or was contemporary to all the great ones - Donald McKenzie, Alexander Ross, Peter Skene Ogden, Johnson Gardner, William Sublette, Jedediah Smith, Benjamin Bonneville, Andrew Henry, , Father Jean-Pierre De Smet and many more too numerous to mention.

His involvement in the fur trade of the Rocky Mountains span the whole of the era of the mountain men from 1816 to 1841. More time than perhaps any other individual. There are references to John Gray in most of the journals and writings of the writers contemporary to this part of history. Some speak disparagingly of him as a turncoat to the British or drunkard and others yet laud him. Unfortunately John Grey left no known personal letters, journals or dissertations. The limited material presented here-in has been carefully selected and abreviated and summarized in the interest of brevity. The entire bank of knowledge on John Grey has only been skimmed. He needs a dedicated biographer with the time and resources who fully appreciates this good man to write his biography.

His accomplishments should be legend. His defection, with his band, to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company help bring down the monopoly of the British in the northwest and thusly opened new territory for the American trappers. This subsequently led to the loss of the Oregon territory by the British to the Americans. He was also instrumental in assisting to bring Christianity to selected Indian tribes of the northwest. There can be no doubt of the value of his contributions.

The story of John Grey is an important part of our early western American History and should be preserved for posterity.

Jermy B.Wight January 31, 1998