President’s Message Jane Randol Jackson Historic Trails & Communities New literature on the! weapons of Lewis and Clark ! ! LCNHT Interactive Map Updates
Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation / www.lewisandclark.org November 2011 Volume 37, No. 4 Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation / www.lewisandclark.org May 2013 Volume 39, No. 2 THE SHEARCH!"#$%& FOR R C&%'#$!("LARK’S E LUSIVE BY&#)&&(ELLOWST ONEB%'*+,&&# CANOE CAAMP(- A.&/$*'( F0/ T/'11&/"
KARL BODMER, BLACKFOOT CHIEF AND PEIKANN CHIEF, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
Thomas Jefferson, A Moose, and Thethe EarlyTheory History of American of We Proceeded Degeneracy On "Our Canoes on the River Rochejhone" by Charles Fritz, 19 inches by 16 inches, oil on board Reflections on William Clark Contents
President’s Message: What Would Lewis and Clark Do? 2
Letters: Suicide Theory Challenged 4
L&C Roundup: Remembering Ruth Lange, 6 Frank X Walker named Kentucky Poet Laureate, Clymer Masterpiece on Exhibit, Artists on the Trail
Short Tempers and Long Knives: 8 Hostilities Between the Blackfeet Confederacy and American Fur Trappers from 1806 to 1840 The geographic location of the Blackfeet Confederacy, the confederacy’s alliance with the British, the inclusion of the Atsinas in the confederacy, and materialistic competition that developed as a result of the fur trade all led to hostile relations. A Blackfoot Indian on Horseback, p. 8 By Jay H. Buckley
We Proceeded On 19 A look back at the creation and early years of our historical journal. By Barb Kubik
William Clark: Reflections on His Interactions 25 with Family, Native Nations, and Landscapes Clark’s legacy in the West is intrinsically tied to his relationships and encounters with family and friends, American Indian nations, and landscapes of the East. By Jay H. Buckley
Book Reviews: Weapons of Lewis & Clark Expedition 35
Soundings: Updates to the Lewis and Clark National Historic 36 Trail Interactive Map Jim Peterson and Bev Hinds, p. 21
On the Cover WHEN SIOUX AND BLACKFEET MEET, BY C.M. RUSSELL, COURTESY OF THE SID RICHARDSON MUSEUM, FORT WORTH, TEXAS A moment of furious !ghting involving three individuals from two of the most feared tribes on the plains tells the history of war at close quarters. William Clark, p. 25 President’s Message What Would Lewis and Clark Do? May 2013 r Volume 39, Number 2
WE PROCEEDED ON is the of!cial publication of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc. Its name derives from a phrase that appears repeatedly in the ometimes I collective journals of the expedition. © 2013 S embark on E. G. Chuinard, M.D., Founder a personal mental ISSN 02275-6706 exercise by asking Interim Editor and Designer the question: “What Wendy Raney would Lewis and Eileen Chontos, Chontos Design, Inc. Clark do right Volunteer Proofreaders now?” That is, if )$BSM$BNQr+FSSZ(BSSFUU President Barack Printed by Advanced Litho Obama were to give Great Falls, Mont. explorers a mission in 2013, what would EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD that endeavor be? +BZ)#VDLMFZ Glen Lindeman Provo, UT Pullman, WA Just as the Corps H. Carl Camp +*.FSSJUU o f D i s c o v e r y Omaha, NE Pennington, NJ “proceeded on” From left, Dan Sturdevant, Tyler Frisbee, staff member for Robert C. Carriker 3PCFSU.PPSF +S through challenges Congressman Earl Blumenauer, D-OR, and Lindy Hatcher. Spokane, WA St. Louis, MO and trials 210 years Most of Dan and Lindy’s 12 congressional office visits involved a Carolyn Gilman Gary E. Moulton ago, the corps of the 10- to 15-minute meeting with a congressional staff member who St. Louis, MO Lincoln, NE works on land, water, and trail issues. +BNFT)PMNCFSH Philippa New!eld Lewis and Clark Louisville, KY San Francisco, CA Trail Heritage Foundation proceeds modern explorers are interested in Barb Kubik Wendy Raney on today. exploring the ocean floor and outer Vancouver, WA Chair Lewis and Clark would be surprised space. Astronauts on the U.S. Apollo Cascade, MT to know the Lewis and Clark Trail moon missions embarked about the Heritage Foundation has carried on Membership Information same year that the Lewis and Clark their “darling project” to be keepers National Historic Trail was created by Membership in the Lewis and Clark Trail of the story and stewards of the trail. Heritage Foundation, Inc. is open to the Congress. The Space Shuttle missions public. Information and applications are Like the captains, our organization followed and were quite successful, available by writing Membership Coordinator, has had ties to the nation’s capital, although Challenger and Columbia Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, especially during the Lewis and Clark ended in disaster. Now, robot rovers P.O. Box 3434, Great Falls, MT 59403. Bicentennial. We continue to be a are conducting Mars explorations called WE PROCEEDED ON, the quarterly journal national leader, in concert with federal, Spirit and Opportunity. They roam the of the Foundation, is mailed to current members in February, May, August, and state, and tribal organizations, to red planet and send back photos of what November. Articles appearing in this journal protect, promote and extend the appears to be water. More recently, are abstracted and indexed in HISTORICAL reach of the Lewis and Clark National private individuals are considering plans ABSTRACTS and AMERICA: HISTORY AND LIFE. Historic Trail. to send tourists into space. Annual Membership Categories: Recently, Lindy Hatcher and I Scientists also are probing inner space. Student: $30 represented the Lewis and Clark Exploration into microscopic matter and Individual: $49 Trail Heritage Foundation at a “Hike subatomic particles, nanotechnology, Individual 3-Year: $133 the Hill” event sponsored by the and other quantum physics is leading Family/International: $65/$70 Partnership for the National Trails Trail Partner: $200 them where no one has gone before. Heritage Club: $100 System and the American Hiking We seek cures for diseases and other Explorer Club: $150 Society. We visited the of!ces of a dozen solutions to pressing questions. +FGGFSTPO$MVC members of Congress in February to Like Lewis and Clark, humankind Discovery Club: $500 talk about land and water legislation Lifetime: $995, $2,500 and $5,000 remains engaged in war and and other bills related to the Lewis and peace, seeking ways to overcome The Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc. is a tax-exempt nonpro!t corporation. Individual Clark National Historic Trail. disagreements, breaking down racial, membership dues are not tax deductible. The Lewis and Clark were interested national, and economic barriers, and portion of premium dues over $40 is tax deductible. in exploring the unknown, just as living in peace with one another. As
2 ! We Proceeded On May 2013 President’s Message
our country and our world advance, members like you. We have pared and will not be able to continue as how are people living together, despite down our expenses to meet constricting editor. Wendy Raney graciously agreed the clash of cultures and traditions? budgets. We thank you for your past to step in as interim editor of this issue. How are the Native American tribes support and encourage you to offer We will be announcing the hiring of that Lewis and Clark encountered— your continued support. a permanent editor who will assume especially after the facing the challenges Lewis and Clark also faced responsibility for the August issue. Our that started with European arrival? publication pressures and obstacles. intent is for our new editor to be on Lewis and Clark lived in a time Lewis’s efforts to publish their journals board for at least !ve years. We believe when the government was in debt, were challenged by several editors this continuity will be a great blessing international relations were in turmoil, who initiated and stopped production. for the journal and for the organization. and a major political shift had resulted Eventually they were published in 1814. Meanwhile, we encourage you to start from the last presidential election. Our quarterly journal, We Proceeded writing articles for this publication. The captains had to find ways to On, has had the good fortune to have We thank you for your continued use their resources and improvise had some great editors for extended support of this, our excellent journal, to make ends meet. The bulk of the periods of time. Jim Merritt and then We Proceeded On. funds held in trust by the Lewis and Wendy Raney edited the journal for I want to thank Jay Buckley for his Clark Trail Heritage Foundation is more than a decade. Since Wendy help in writing the above. invested as endowed funds supporting started her family, we have had editors trail stewardship. While the recent step in, including Caroline Patterson. –Dan Sturdevant stock market rise has helped the funds Caroline just received her “dream job” President, LCTHF recover to 2008 levels, those funds are reserved for projects like the trail stewardship grant program that we launched two years ago. We carefully Two great ways to explore the Trail! use these endowment funds for the bene!t of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. We feel optimistic about the long-range future of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation Grab a paddle and and we express our gratitude to those IDAHO’S OUTDOOR ADVENTURE RESORT board one of ROW’s 34’ Canoes to travel the whose forward thinking helped make The ideal location for exploring the Historic Lolo waters that Lewis & Clark and Nez Perce Trail. Located along US Hwy. 12 on the this possible. We encourage our readers paddled nearly 200 years ago, Clearwater River 2 1/2 hours west of Missoula, Montana. to make a donation. hiking and exploring along the way. The resort o!ers 8 hand-crafted log cabins with private A current financial phenomenon hot tubs and spectacular views. Enjoy "ne dining and ROW provides all equipment, professional guides, among nonpro!ts is symbolized by a superb wine list at the Syringa Café. Bring your family gourmet dining and a luxury camping experience. the statement, “Don’t break into jail.” or friends to explore the Trail or go on one of our - )( '($ * +' - &"'/ + !*+)!( An organization may have endowed whitewater rafting or gentle #oat trips. There's also hiking, "shing, biking and more! funds, which have limits on how “!e expert help of ROW’s strong, young canoeists who prepared our and when withdrawals can be made, camps and doubled as cooks even if the current office budget extraordinaire made the trip as enjoyable as it was easy.” suffers. The Lewis and Clark Trail –Gary Moulton, Editor, Heritage Foundation needs to grow Lewis & Clark Journals, our endowments (and we have limited University of Nebraska Press. capacity to draw from them), but www.RiverDanceLodge.com www.ROWadventures.com we also require operating funds. For a free brochure about River Dance Lodge, Missouri River trips, Operating expenses for the of!ce and ROW's whitewater rafting trips, as well as international adventures We Proceeded On depend largely on including history-oriented yacht cruises in Croatia, Turkey or annual membership dues, our annual Greece, barging in France and more, call 1 1 . appeal letter, and contributions from "!7@("7-=:,4-6- E5)1416.7#!(),>-6<=:-;+75 May 2013 We Proceeded On " 3 Letters The Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc. the Danisis have seen the published !ndings of modern handwriting professionals who testify that they were forgeries. Secondly, the story of the !nal leg P.O. 3434, Great Falls, MT 59403 of Lewis’s journey from Fort Pickering 406-454-1234 / 1-888-701-3434 to Grinder’s Stand in September and Fax: 406-771-9237 October of 1809 must be discounted as www.lewisandclark.org fabrication. Major Neelly’s whereabouts The mission of the LCTHF is: prior to and after the death of Lewis As Keepers of the Story ~ must be examined by serious researchers Stewards of the Trail, the Lewis in light of recent discoveries noted in The and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Death of Meriwether Lewis, A Historic Inc. provides national leadership in maintaining the integrity of Crime Scene Investigation, by James the Trail and its story through Starrs and Kira Gale. Among other stewardship, scholarship, education, discrepancies in the story of that trip, partnership and cultural we now have evidence that James Neelly inclusiveness. Lewis Suicide Theory was in court in Franklin, Tennessee, on October 11, 1809, and did not arrive at Grinder’s Stand as he claimed in his Challenged letter to Jefferson. Franklin is more than OFFICERS I read with dismay and disappointment a day’s ride from Grinder’s Stand. President another article in WPO (November 2012) Lewis was traveling in a violent and Dan Sturdevant about the cause of Meriwether Lewis’s volatile environment, especially when Kansas City, MO death. This time we are presented with one considers the potential damage Immediate Past-President the meaning of phraseologies Thomas Lewis could have caused General James +BZ#VDLMFZ Jefferson used in correspondence Wilkinson and his associates if he had Provo, UT following Lewis’s death. An interesting been allowed to arrive in Washington. premise in the article is that Jefferson Vice-President The various competing conspiracies Margaret Gorski never visited or ordered a federal demand a close examination of Lewis’s Stevensville, MT investigation of the site of Lewis’s death remains at Grinder’s Stand. This will and he accepted, without question, an allow science an opportunity to quantify Secretary account of the incident written by a total a de!nitive pathway to the truth rather Larry Epstein Cut Bank, MT stranger, James Neelly. than a continued stream of scholarly- All points made in the article by John presented speculations. It would be and Thomas Danisi support the theory Treasurer cause for real excitement to see fine Clay Smith that Lewis killed himself, accidentally, researchers such as the Danisis direct Port Townsend, WA to end the torments of acute malaria their considerable talents in the direction and, in Jefferson’s words, “distressing of something that is waiting for serious hypochondriac affections,” which are DIRECTORS AT LARGE and long-deserved revelation. therein revealed as digestive disorders. Della Bauer, Omaha, NE Sue Buchel, Great Falls, MT We also are led to an examination of the J"#$ P. (J%&') Y"($) ,FO+VU[J $BNBSJMMP $" term “intermittent paroxysms” as well as Mt. Pleasant, SC Barbara Kubik, Vancouver, WA various observations and explanations of Ron Laycock, Benson, MN Lewis’s bouts of depression. Gary Moulton, Lincoln, NE .BSL/FMF[FO 0TILPTI 8* The article obviously is written by Author Responds to Philippa New!eld, San Francisco, CA good researchers and would present a Richard Williams, Omaha, NE compelling story if it were not for the Challenge fact that we already have information Incorporated in 1969 under Mr. Young , in his letter above, addresses Missouri General Not-For-Pro!t that precludes the acceptance of the Corporation Act. IRS Exemption Danisi theory, no matter how well compelling ideas on Meriwether Lewis’s Certi!cate No. 501(c)3, Identi!cation death by calling attention to the Neelly No. 510187715. organized it is. First of all, the validity of the letters and Russell letters and who really written by Major James Neelly and Captain composed them. I am happy to report Gilbert Russell is in question. Did those that those concerns are fully explained in men actually compose the letters? Surely my book, Uncovering the Truth About
4 ! We Proceeded On May 2013 Meriwether Lewis (2012, Prometheus Books): 154-67, 168-77. These two chapters also include additional handwriting samples, unavailable in 2009 to Starrs/Gale, that prove who wrote the letters and for what purpose. Mr. Young also raises a formidable challenge that dedicated researchers
WE PROCEEDED ON (Back issues, 1974 - current) All back issues of our quarterly historical journal are available. Some of the older issues are copier reproductions. Orders for a collection of all back issues receive a 30 percent discount. Order your missing issues to complete your set. Call 1-888-701-3434 or order at [email protected]. $10 originals or cds $4 shipping & handling
A copy of the bond summoning Captain James Neelly to appear in court in Williamson County. Advertise your L&C products and services in WPO! should direct their talents in the ADDITIONAL DISCOUNTS directions of long-deserved revelation. RESERVATION DEADLINES Issue Reservation Date Ad Due Foundation members receive a 15% discount Would Meriwether Lewis’s court martial February January 15 February 1 Repeat advertisers receive a 10% discount trial fall into that category? I think not; May March 15 April 1 If you pay in advance, we can offer however, for the past one hundred years, August June 15 July 1 additional discounts as long as the it has been assumed that Lewis was November September 15 October 1 following conditions are met: intoxicated and challenged a superior Advertiser must place a minimum of at of!cer to a duel. Then we !nd out in AD RATES least 2 ads within 12 months in the same calendar year or at least 2 consecutive ads 2012 the opposite and that this superior Full page (7¼” x 9 ½”): $400 b&w/$500 color if the ads fall in different calendar years. of!cer wanted to teach Lewis a lesson. 2/3 page vertical (4¼” x 9½”): $300 b&w/$400 color Payment must be received 30 days in How do we know this? Direct and 1/2 horizontal (7¼” x 4”): $250 b&w/$300 color advance of the ad deadline for the first incontrovertible evidence is documented 1/3 vertical (2¼” x 9½”): $150 b&w/$300 color scheduled ad. Multiple ads must be paid for 30 days in advance of the ad deadline in my new book. 1/3 square (4 3/4” x 4 5/8”): $150 color/$300 color 1/6 vertical (2¼” x 4 5/8”): $75 b&w/$100 color for first advertisement. Payment must be in This is what is seriously lacking cash, check or money order. NO CREDIT CARDS accepted. today in Meriwether Lewis scholarship, COLOR: authentic documented evidence. I Full page, back cover (8½” x 11” trim, Discounts challenge Mr. Young or anyone else who 8 5/8” x 11¼” bleed, 8” x 10½”safe area): $600 2 ads earn an additional 2% discount has a theory about James Neelly, James Inside back cover (7½” x 9 ½”): $500 3 ads earn an additional 3% discount 4 ads earn an additional 4% discount Wilkinson, or the “various competing Inside front cover (7¼” x 9 ½”): $500 5 ads earn an additional 5% discount conspiracies,” to !nd the evidence to Double spread, inside: $800 Maximum additional discounts: 5% support their assumptions. Until they do, we should view those arguments, no To reserve your ad space, contact For example, a Foundation member Don Peterson: [email protected] who runs ads in the May, August, and matter how convincing, as !ction. November issues of WPO would receive an 18% discount on his total bill if he paid T#"*%+ C. D%$,+, by cash, check or money order. St. Louis, MO May 2013 We Proceeded On " 5 L&C Roundup
Very few people, other than Bob, knew all the things Ruth Passages: Ruth Lange did for LCTHF. She helped edit articles and proofread R(.# K,$&%,/ L%$)0, age 88, passed away December 14, WPO, and served as Bob’s sounding board and right hand 2012, at Park Manor Nursing Home in The Woodlands, in all projects they worked on for the Oregon Historical Texas. Ruth was born February 24, 1924, at home in the Society and the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation. rural community of Indian Point in Menard County, Dayton Duncan recognizes her on pages 378 and 379 in his Illinois. In 1947, Ruth graduated from Washington book, Out West. University in St. Louis and its School of Nursing. She Bob and Ruth jointly received the Foundation’s worked as a nurse in New Orleans, several cities in Meritorious Achievement Award in 1983 and 1989. Ruth California and at the Naval Hospital in San Diego, later donated Bob’s extensive collection of Lewis and Clark California. At the end of her active duty in the Navy, Ruth books to the Fort Clatsop Library. married Robert Lange, whom she had met in St. Louis. Ruth was a special lady, one much admired, and now They made their home in Portland, Oregon, for 50 years. sorely missed by those who knew her. She was preceded Bob and Ruth helped found the Lewis and Clark Trail in death by her husband. She is survived by several nieces Heritage Foundation and published We Proceeded On. and nephews.
in Buffalo Dance is taken from a letter backgrounds. According to an article Frank X Walker named William Clark wrote to his brother in the Lexington Herald-Leader, he November 9, 1808. Regarding York wants to encourage kids to develop their Kentucky Poet Laureate he says, “… if any attempt is made by creativity and to read books. Danville, Kentucky, native Frank X york to run off, or refuse to provorm “Everybody is creative,” Walker Walker recently was named Kentucky his duty as a Slave, I wish him Sent to said. “They just need the tools to Poet Laureate for 2013-14. At 51, he New Orleans and Sold, or hired out harness and control their creativity. I is the youngest to be appointed to to Some Severe master untill he thinks grew up in the projects, so I want to this esteemed position. He is the !rst better of Such Conduct.” tell them, ‘Your circumstance is not an African-American to be tapped for In the accompanying poem, York excuse.’ If you commit to something, this honor. speaks of missing his wife because of if you work hard and have disciplines, Walker is the founder of the the three years spent assisting Lewis you can accomplish anything.” Affrilachian poets, who celebrate and Clark. “I fear that next time I sets Walker’s poems were featured in African heritage and roots, giving voice my eyes on her might be my last.” the February 2007 issue of WPO and to traditional values associated with Walker recently wrote Isaac he was a speaker at the 2006 LCTHF family, land, food, artistic community, Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride, a annual meeting in St. Louis. music, and transformation. collection of poems that lauds the Much of Walker’s poetry brings accomplishments of legendary African history alive. Two American jockey, Isaac A New Clymer of his collections, Burns Murphy (1861 – Buffalo Dance: the 1896). Walker’s poems Masterpiece on Exhibit Journey of York and allow us to hear the The Clymer Museum and Gallery When Winter Come: voices of Burns, son of in Ellensburg, Washington, is now the Ascension of York, a slave; his wife, Lucy; exhibiting Visitors at Fort Clatsop by examine York’s role on his trainer, Eli Jordan; John Clymer. This large work was the Lewis and Clark and his parents. painted in 1978 and shows Clymer’s Expedition. York’s As Kentucky’s Poet attention to detail, his historical point of view is Laureate, Walker accuracy, as well as technical merit. e x p r e s s e d i n t h e will travel the state It features an engaging scene of the poems, but quotes reading from these and inhabitants of the fort welcoming a Frank X Walker has written two other works. A gifted from primary source collections of poetry on York. small band of Indians that came to documents are used teacher, he says he trade goods such as roots, berries, to educate the reader. For instance, an wants to serve as a role model for kids, !sh, and woven items. The Corps of epigraph to the poem titled “Souvenir” like himself, who come from humble Discovery built the fort in 1805 in the
6 ! We Proceeded On May 2013 Northwest Territories at present-day awaits a remarkable world The greater Palouse Astoria, Oregon. The location of the of interest beyond the rivers, region is divided in the winter camp offered a good supply of prairies, and mountains of brochure into three water and wild game. the Lewis and Clark National areas: Farms and Forest The painting is on loan through Historic Trail. It is the world of Towns in the north; collaboration of its owners the Portage local artists and artisans that is Palouse Hills in the Route Chapter of the Lewis and Clark ripe for exploration. central region; and Heritage Foundation, and the Clymer Unlike the Corps of Rivers and Prairies to Museum and Gallery, and was made Discovery’s unmapped the south. possible by the Clymer Museum’s experience in the area, the Artisan Trails also presence in Great Falls, Montana, artists’ and artisans’ locations lists lodging, farms, during the community’s Western Art are very accessible thanks to the gardens, markets, Week in March. It will be on exhibit brochure Artisan Trails: North antique shops, historic for three months, pending a possible Central Idaho & Southeastern sites, museums, tours, change in ownership. Washington, which is produced p e r f o r m i n g a r t s , by the University of Idaho recreational and scenic Extension, the City of Moscow, sites, restaurants, Artists on the Lewis and the Clearwater Resource Conservation wineries and breweries, and online & Development Council, and Two businesses. The map section delineates Clark Trail in Idaho and Degrees Northwest. Artisan Trails is a scenic byways and bike trails in each guide to the cultural and historic sites, of the three areas. The brochure is a Washington experiences, and businesses of the greater remarkable resource for modern-day For Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Palouse region—the area between explorers in the thoroughness of its Foundation members who plan to the 45th and 47th degrees latitude in coverage and the schematic clarity of attend the Idaho-Washington-Oregon north-central Idaho and southeastern its maps. It may be downloaded as a chapters’ regional meeting in Oro!no, Washington. The brochure notes, .pdf !le at 2dnw.org. Weippe, and Lewiston, Idaho, over “Listings in this guide were selected for Memorial Day weekend 2013, there authenticity and quality.” –Philippa Newfield TON G ASHIN RG, W RG, ELLENSBU , Y R ALLE G AND M USEU R M E M LY C THE
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AT RS ITO S I V R, E M LY C OHN J Visitors at Fort Clatsop is now on display at the Clymer Museum and Gallery in Ellensburg, Washington, pending a possible change in ownership.
May 2013 We Proceeded On " 7 S#"1. T0*201+ A$/ L"$) K$,30+: Hostilities Between the Blackfeet Confederacy and American Fur Trappers from 1806 to 1840
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ext to grizzly bears and Mother Nature, the determination to keep them out of their neighborhood most feared enemy of American fur trappers instilled apprehension and fear in the heart of virtually Ntraveling along the upper Missouri River were every traveler venturing along the Yellowstone and Missouri the Niitsítapi or Blackfeet, the “Original People” or rivers before 1840. “Prairie People.”1 The Blackfeet Confederacy comprised After wintering at Fort Clatsop during the winter the dominant military power on the northwestern plains. of 1805-6, the Corps of Discovery began its return to Blackfeet sought to maintain their hegemony by preventing St. Louis. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark divided American traders and trappers from trading with and their expedition at Travelers’ Rest. Clark’s group ventured strengthening the Shoshones, Crows, Flatheads (Salish), toward the Three Forks of the Missouri and to Bozeman and Nez Perces. They accomplished this by harassing and Pass, intending to 4oat down the Yellowstone River to attacking American trappers and stealing their horses and its con4uence with the Missouri. Lewis took nine men furs. Blackfeet enmity toward the Americans and their eastward across present-day Lewis and Clark Pass. Five of
8 ! We Proceeded On May 2013 them traveled to the Great Falls to dig up caches stashed hours straight, fearing Blackfeet reprisal. Fortuitously, on the year before and 4oat down the Missouri. Lewis took Monday morning July 28, Lewis’s entourage met the party three men, George Drouillard, and Joseph and Reubin who had dug up the caches at the Great Falls and together Field, and headed overland, searching for the Marias River they descended the Missouri River to rejoin Clark’s party to determine if its headwaters originated north of the forty- near the con4uence of the Yellowstone and the Missouri.4 ninth parallel. Historians have asserted that the enmity between The !rst documented encounter between Americans the Niitsítapi (Blackfeet) and the Nistosuniquen —an and Blackfeet occurred on July 26, 1806, when four Algonquian word for “Big Knives,” referring to long members of the Corps of Discovery—Lewis, Drouillard, Green River knives (or perhaps even swords) mountain and the Field brothers—met and men carried—could be traced encamped with eight Piegan or to this initial violent encounter Atsina teenage boys along the in 1806. For example, in 1807 south side of the Two Medicine British trader David Thompson River.2 Lewis, through George noted, “the murder of two Drouillard, explained to the Peeagan Indians by Captain Blackfeet boys that America Lewis of the U.S. drew the wanted to make peace and Peeagans to the Missouri.”5 Even GASS CK I
establish trade with the Indians R if Lewis’s group had not killed of the Plains and Rockies. The PAT the Blackfeet teenagers, several Patrick Gass drew this image, Lewis Fires upon a Blackfeet, who kept other tribes Blackfeet Warrior, in his expedition journal. additional factors help explain from coming north to trade the hostile relations between with North West Company Blackfeet and Americans during traders and at Hudson’s Bay The young man returned Lewis’s fire, his bullet the first four decades of the Company posts along the narrowly missing Lewis who wrote that he felt nineteenth century: namely, Saskatchewan River, realized the geographic location of the their trading advantage would the wind of the bullet pass near his head. Blackfeet Confederacy; the diminish if the “Big Knives” confederation’s alliance with (Euro-Americans) provided their the British; the inclusion of enemies with weapons and supplies. Blackfeet had no need the Atsinas within the confederation; and, materialistic to ally themselves with Americans because they already competition resulting from the fur trade. received armaments and supplies at British posts along the The First Nations comprising the Blackfeet Confederacy Saskatchewan River.3 included the plains Algonquian-speaking Siksikas/ After spending a pleasant Saturday evening together, Siksikáwa (Blackfoot Proper), Kainahs/Káínaa (Bloods), Lewis posted a guard to watch their horses and weapons. On and Piegan (Aapátohsipikáni or Northern Piegan in Sunday morning Lewis awoke when he heard Drouillard Canada; Aamsskáápipikani or Southern Piegan/Blackfeet shout, “damn you let go my gun.” The young Indians had in Montana). Two other nations also belonged to the seized an opportunity to steal their guns and horses since alliance: north of the forty ninth parallel, the Tsuu T’ina raiding represented the fastest way to acquire wealth and (Sarcee); south of the border, the Atsinas (Gros Ventres of status within the tribe and their party outnumbered the the River), relatives of the Arapahos. Hereafter, the term Americans two to one. Reubin Field seized his gun, wrestled Blackfeet applies to Indians in any one of these nations when it away, and mortally stabbed Calf-Standing-on-a-Side-Hill no distinction otherwise is made, although most incidents [Side Hill Calf] with his knife. Shortly thereafter, Lewis in Montana and the Intermountain West usually involved pursued those taking the horses and shot He-Who-Looks- either the Southern Piegans or the Atsinas, two nations at-the-Calf in the belly. The young man returned Lewis’s whom American trappers took the liberty to lump together !re, his bullet narrowly missing Lewis who wrote that he under the all-encompassing term “Blackfeet.”6 felt the wind of the bullet pass near his head. Lewis left a The Blackfeet Confederacy straddled the demarcation peace medal around the neck of Calf-Standing-on-a-Side- line between the rapidly expanding American and British Hill that the Blackfeet “might be informed who we were.” territories. With the majority of their tribal lands in Canada, After recapturing four horses, the Americans rode for 18 North West Company and Hudson’s Bay Company May 2013 We Proceeded On " 9 traders established the !rst contact with the Blackfeet, and their domination of the Northern Plains. Horses stolen developed an extensive trade with them at British posts from Flatheads, Nez Perces, and Shoshones mobilized on the Saskatchewan River. Blackfeet monopolized the their !repower. The Blackfeet tenaciously and ferociously fur trade of the northwestern plains by preventing other drove all the weaker nations to the south and west over the native nations from trading at British posts. This allowed Rocky Mountains.8 Americans an opportunity to establish alliances with a The Lewis and Clark Expedition’s exploration of majority of nations south of the forty-ninth parallel, such the Louisiana Purchase brought Americans into contact as the Crows, Shoshones, Nez Perces, and Flatheads. with dozens of Indian nations, including those of the These tribes welcomed opportunities to trade and acquire Blackfeet Confederacy along the upper Missouri. The weaponry and commodities to repel Corps of Discovery was among the the Blackfeet. Blackfeet saw potential The Lewis and Clark Expedition’s first American ventures to travel danger as their traditional enemies to beyond the Mandan villages on the west and south grew stronger and exploration of the Louisiana Purchase the upper Missouri in 1805.9 After became more formidable opponents brought Americans into contact with crossing the Rockies and wintering when backed by American weapons.7 at Fort Clatsop near the Oregon The British seized upon this situation dozens of Indian nations, including Coast, Lewis and Clark embarked and stirred up the growing animosity on their return journey, splitting between Blackfeet and Americans. those of the Blackfeet Confederacy their forces to cover more territory Dependency on British guns and and ful!ll particular missions. While whiskey ensured Blackfeet assistance along the upper Missouri. Clark’s group went to the Three in helping the British attempt to Forks of the Missouri and to the expel the Americans from the Paci!c Northwest. The Yellowstone, Lewis’s group traveled toward the Great Falls Blackfeet acquired guns from North West Company of the Missouri. He took three men to venture overland traders, the Hudson’s Bay Company, and Cree and to the northeast to the Marias River. When his celestial Assiniboine neighbors. The well-armed Blackfeet gained observations indicated he was still south of the forty-ninth immediate advantage over their southern rivals and began parallel, he named the place Camp Disappointment. Shortly thereafter they met the eight Blackfeet teenagers.10 Map of Northern Great Plains c. 1806 Several versions of Blackfeet oral history describe the encounter differently. One account relates that the boys crept into Lewis’s camp to steal from an enemy, a coming- of-age ritual demonstrating courage. In another version, “Lewis and his party ran into a group of young boys from the Skunk Band who were herding horses back to camp from a previous foray.” The boys camped with and wagered with Lewis. “There is a story of a race. In the morning, they went to part company and the Indians took what they had won. That was it. That’s when they were killed.” An important Blackfeet account comes from George Bird Grinnell’s 1895 interview with Wolf Calf, a 102-year-old Blackfeet who said that he was personally at the !ght scene when he was thirteen. He said their raid leader “directed the young men to try to steal some of their things. They did so early the next morning, and the white men killed the !rst Indian [Side Hill Calf] with their big knives.” Wolf Calf acknowledged that the boys were frightened but that they “were bitterly hostile to the whites after the incident and ashamed because they had not killed all the white men.” ITT
RR Most importantly, when Lewis left the peace medal around ME
M the dead Indian’s neck, it would have seemed like he was JI
10 ! We Proceeded On May 2013 “counting coup” and it would have appeared “as a form upstream, several hundred Blackfeet surrounded them and of scalping.” As a result, Blackfeet closed their borders to ordered them to shore. Colter went to the shore where they Americans, “attacking and killing any intruder they could stripped him naked; Potts decided he would rather stay !nd within their borders.”11 in his canoe. Struck by a well-aimed arrow as he shot the Upon the expedition’s return to St. Louis in September Indian who !red upon him, Potts’s body was immediately 1806, its members related tales about the upper Missouri riddled with dozens of bullets. “They dragged the body up country teeming with beaver. Preparations to capitalize onto the bank, and with their hatchets and knives cut and on this knowledge, especially in St. Louis, reached a hacked it all to pieces, and limb from limb.” They threw fevered pitch. Several Spanish and French traders sought Potts’s body parts at Colter’s face. Colter narrowly escaped to be the !rst to take advantage of death by running a race for his life. In this untapped source of wealth. the following months, Colter returned Perhaps the most important trader to the Jefferson River to retrieve his to take action was Manuel Lisa. traps that he had dropped in the river Lisa quickly organized a large before the Blackfeet had attacked party of men to ascend the river, Potts and him. While camping one which included about a third of night on the Gallatin River, Colter the veterans of the Lewis and heard the clicking of gun hammers and Clark Expedition.Within the next quickly dove into the thicket, narrowly several years Blackfeet killed at least escaping death for a third time. Colter two former Corps of Discovery made the long journey back to Fort R members.12 Raymond, decided his luck with LIN WHEELE LIN
Unlike the British, who built O Blackfeet had run out, and promised trading posts outside of Blackfeet Wolf Calf, a Blackfoot interviewed by George his Maker to leave the country and territory and encouraged the Indians Bird Grinnell in 1895, claimed to have taken part “be d—d if I ever come into it again.” to do the trapping, Americans in the Two Medicine Fight as a boy of 13. Colter 4oated down the Missouri and constructed forts within Blackfeet never returned.15 territory starting in 1807 and began trapping beaver on These three run-ins with Colter angered the Blackfeet their own. Americans built posts along the Yellowstone, to the point that they determined to drive all Americans the Missouri’s Three Forks, and Henry’s Fork of the Snake out of the area. Simultaneously, Manuel Lisa continued River. These encroachments infuriated the Blackfeet. They seeking Blackfeet contact. He sent men, under the felt their resources were being robbed, which led to hostile command of Andrew Henry, Reuben Lewis, and Pierre confrontations as they repeatedly drove Americans from Menard, to the Three Forks to establish a trading post.16 their land. These circumstances set the stage for the bloody Blackfeet warriors killed two dozen of Menard’s American encounters during the !rst half of the nineteenth century. 13 trappers in the spring of 1810 near the Three Forks of Lisa’s Missouri Fur Company group ascended the the Missouri. The remaining trappers cowered in their Yellowstone to its con4uence with the Bighorn and in the makeshift fort, afraid to leave for fear of a Blackfeet fall of 1807 erected Fort Raymond, the !rst American post reprisal. Former expedition member George Drouillard near Blackfeet territory. In November, Lisa sent John Colter ventured out alone twice and brought back nearly twenty to !nd and bring in the Crows, Blackfeet, and other tribes beaver pelts. As a French Canadian Shawnee, Drouillard to trade. While traveling with a group of several hundred boasted he was too much Indian himself to be captured or Flatheads along the Gallatin River, !fteen hundred Blackfeet killed. On the third day, he convinced two Delawares to attacked Colter and his Flathead allies. With the help of some leave the fort with him—all three failed to return. A search Crow reinforcements who joined in the fray, they repelled party found the Delawares’ bodies “pierced with lances, the Blackfeet attack.14 arrows, and bullets and lying near each other.” Nearby This encounter further in4amed Blackfeet hostility they discovered what remained of Drouillard and his toward Americans. The next year, John Colter and John horse. Drouillard had put up a !ght, “being a brave man Potts paddled up the Jefferson River, the most western and well armed with ri4e, pistol, knife, and tomahawk.” of the Missouri River’s three forks, stopping occasionally The pools of blood documented where Blackfeet had to trap the plentiful beaver. As they paddled their canoe been wounded. The famous scout and hunter’s body was May 2013 We Proceeded On " 11 “mangled in a horrible manner; his head cut off, his entrails disrupted and halted American trapping and trading on the torn out, and his body hacked to pieces.”17 upper Missouri. The following years marked relative peace The Blackfeet hated the Americans’ invasion, especially among Blackfeet and Americans for one simple reason: the construction of American forts within their lands. they experienced very little contact. The British drove the Nestled between the Jefferson and Madison rivers, the Astorians from the Paci!c Northwest; the North West trapper-traders experienced great success for the !rst few Company forced John Jacob Astor to sell his trading post, weeks. They realized that if they could stay the whole season Fort Astoria, to them for a fraction of its value; and, the they would be !nancially secure for years. The Atsinas had Blackfeet already had driven Lisa, Henry, and Menard’s other plans. Trappers could not venture out a single mile trappers from their territory and destroyed their forts. without Atsinas attacking them. “So constant were the The War of 1812 had a major impact on most native Indian attacks that little trapping could be done.”18 These nations. The competition between Americans and British for attacks demoralized the trappers, causing Menard to lead a control of the fur trade in the upper Mississippi and upper group of them back to St. Louis. Henry, convinced of the Missouri areas forced Indians to choose sides. Most Indians futility of staying there, took the remaining men and crossed in the Great Lakes and upper Mississippi region tended the Continental Divide to build a fort on Henry’s Fork of to favor the British, while those living along the lower the Snake. After a terrible winter of suffering and hardship, Missouri af!liated themselves with America. Early British Henry’s party returned to successes in the war helped St. Louis. Several hundred them recruit Indian allies. Blackfeet warriors gave The competition between Americans and British for American frontier towns them a violent sendoff near control of the fur trade in the upper Mississippi and feared neighboring tribes the Three Forks, killing would switch alliances when one trapper but suffering upper Missouri areas forced Indians to choose sides. they learned of American two dozen casualties defeats. By 1814, the British themselves.19 Henry and his and Americans agreed to men believed the British incited Blackfeet hostility toward return to prewar status by signing the Treaty of Ghent. them. Meriwether Lewis received a letter from his brother However, hostility among the natives took years to Reuben, who was part of the group, wherein Reuben dissipate. When the British and Americans entered into con!ded, “I am con!dent that the Blackfeet are urged on another treaty in 1818, the two nations resolved their by the British traders in their country.”20 long-standing boundary issue by extending the forty- American wariness and fear of Blackfeet increased in ninth parallel west to the Rocky Mountains. This arti!cial 1811 when the overland Astorians—John Jacob Astor’s boundary line bisected the territory inhabited by the nations American Fur Company who were traveling to the mouth comprising the Blackfeet Confederacy. Nevertheless, by of the Columbia under the leadership of Wilson Price 1819, the fur trade on the upper Missouri River looked like Hunt—altered their course and traveled overland through a promising venture to entrepreneurs in St. Louis.22 present-day Wyoming rather than risk venturing where The 1818 treaty between America and Great Britain the Piegans and Atsinas lived. The following year Robert had declared joint-occupation of the Oregon Country. Stuart, on his return trip from Astoria to St. Louis, carefully America was caught up in expansionism. In 1819, the traveled “out of the walks of the Blackfoot Indians, who U.S. government demonstrated its support for the fur are very numerous and inimical to whites.”21 trade by allocating funds for the Yellowstone Expedition. The Prairie People won round one of Blackfeet- Unfortunately, this expedition met with disaster as the American hostilities. Piegan and Atsina warriors successfully steamboat became marooned on a sand bar in the Missouri drove the Big Knives out of the upper Missouri River River. Upon returning, Major Thomas Biddle addressed the and burned down all three American trading posts. The U.S. Senate on October 29, 1819. He initiated discussions Blackfeet resumed fighting their Indian enemies who on the government’s fur trade involvement. In 1821, the recently had defeated them several times with the help government relinquished its control over the fur trade. 23 of American weapons. Blackfeet successfully expelled all After Manuel Lisa’s death in 1820, new entrepreneurs the Americans who had gone to trap in the Three Forks appeared. Joshua Pilcher’s newly reorganized Missouri Fur country, stealing their beaver pelts, horses, traps, guns, Company was one of the !rst to try its luck on the upper and ammunition in the process. The War of 1812 further Missouri. The Blackfeet were waiting. Pilcher sent Robert
12 ! We Proceeded On May 2013 Jones and Michael with supplies, they A Immell to capitalize M planned summer LAHO on the lucrative OK rendezvous that ULSA, ULSA, b e a v e r t r a d e . T accomplished the , Obtaining large M same tasks. The pack numbers of pelts trains would carry EASE MUSEU EASE each day, activities CR needed supplies into , GIL flowed smoothly ATH the Rockies during RP u n t i l m i d - M a y the summer that when 38 “friendly” could be exchanged Blackfeet arrived f o r f u r s f r o m BLACKFEET ON THE WA , in camp. Immell R mountain men and successfully avoided friendly Indians, OB MILLE a n d p r e v e n t e d C which the returning ED JA R
LF 27 any hostility from A men sold in the fall. occurring. Fifteen The Blackfeet were so adept at stealing horses and furs and causing havoc that The rendezvous days later, however, American trappers developed the rendezvous system, which allowed trappers to system temporarily their luck ran out. avoid Blackfeet territory throughout the 1820s. provided a solution Three hundred to four hundred Atsinas descended upon to Blackfeet hostilities because the trappers avoided them and cut Immell to pieces. Jones’s body was riddled their territory throughout the 1820s. Jedediah Smith had with arrows; !ve others died and four more were wounded. wintered with the Crows on the east side of the Wind River The Atsinas stole more than $15,000 worth of property. Mountains in 1823. While there he learned about the Green This mishap severely crippled the Missouri Fur Company.24 River Basin, located on the other side of the mountains; Survivors of the Immell-Jones massacre blamed the attacks not only was it rich in beaver, but the friendly Utes and on the British. The chief purportedly possessed a letter with Shoshones had not trapped the area. From 1824 to 1829, the words “God Save the King” inscribed, which seemed to Americans and British trapped out present-day Utah, justify the Americans’ accusations.25 Idaho, and Wyoming. As beaver became scarce, trappers Even if the British did not incite the Blackfeet to raid were forced to journey to Three Forks and the land of the their American rivals—as the Americans believed—the Blackfeet in Montana. British pro!ted signi!cantly since valuable beaver pelts By the late 1820s, Blackfeet did not distinguish between with American stamps dominated the majority of furs that beaver trappers according to nationality as they previously were exported to British posts on the Saskatchewan. Most had done.28 The North West Company had merged with importantly, Blackfeet continually traded stolen horses at the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821. These British trappers British posts for tobacco and whiskey. British attempts to continued their encroachment along American streams as compete with their American rivals caused them to abandon beaver became scarce in Canada. They eagerly moved up their moderation policy in supplying liquor to the Blackfeet. the Snake River to trap streams out before the Americans Britain realized liquor motivated the Blackfeet to trap beaver. had a chance to harvest any furs. Peter Skene Ogden of This was both pro!table and dangerous as the viciousness the Hudson’s Bay Company reported Blackfeet hostility and violent character of drunken Blackfeet had no rival.26 against British as well as Americans during this time.29 Meanwhile, Blackfeet simultaneously attacked Ashley Blackfeet hostilities toward the Long Knives increased and Henry’s trappers near present-day Great Falls, in the 1820s as materialism permeated and undermined Montana, killing four men and stealing numerous furs, traditional Blackfeet culture. The fur trade created Blackfeet traps, and horses. The company built a fort at the mouth dependency on foreigners as inundation of western goods of the Yellowstone but the Atsinas’ constant horse-raiding such as kettles, guns, awls, axes, knives, tobacco, and larger forced them to abandon it. Blackfeet were so adept at tepees made it necessary to acquire more furs and horses to stealing horses and furs and causing havoc in Montana that exchange with British traders for these commodities. Horses Ashley and Henry decided to adopt a different system of also could be used to purchase additional wives, which collecting furs. Instead of using trading posts on the river were necessary to handle the increased burden of preparing to collect and transport furs and furnish men and Indians provisions and tanning hides. Female labor turned idle May 2013 We Proceeded On " 13 capital (surplus horses) into productive capital (women). The feared northern plains people. Contact between Atsinas easiest way to acquire women was to steal them from other and trappers occurred frequently—much too frequently for tribes or to trade horses for them. Stealing from Americans the trappers. Many trappers often developed a bad case of provided the Blackfeet with furs and horses. To a Blackfeet “Blackfeet Fever,” which caused them to mistake herds of warrior, horses could be exchanged for anything in life worth antelope and bison for a Blackfeet war party. Meanwhile, having; therefore, one could never capture enough of them.30 actual failure to detect Atsina raiders often resulted in Magni!cent warriors, the Blackfeet excelled at horse death. Alexander Henry described the Atsinas as a “most larceny. The desire to acquire horses and scalps increased audacious and turbulent race, and have repeatedly attempted an individual’s personal wealth and ful!lled part of his to destroy and massacre us all.”31 Ranging up and down initiation process to become an acceptable warrior within both sides of the Rockies, particularly the Three Forks area, the nation. Many skirmishes during the rendezvous period Atsinas and mountain men clashed repeatedly.32 consisted of Blackfeet attempts to take horses and furs Atsinas visited their Arapaho kinsmen in present-day from Americans. The Blackfeet raiders traded horses and Wyoming and Colorado during the summer months, furs they stole from Americans for British goods, guns, leading to disputes and confrontations with Americans whiskey, and tobacco. The Atsinas, in particular, mastered along traditional travel routes. Atsinas hunted bison on horse larceny. They were among the most numerous and the Wyoming plains and ventured as far south as Santa Fe, capturing mustangs between the A map of the territory controlled by the Blackfeet Confederacy. Platte and Arkansas rivers.33 Atsinas realized the rendezvous strengthened their rivals, providing armaments and supplies to Shoshones, Utes, Crows, Flatheads, and Nez Perces. Large horse herds accompanied the rendezvous as hundreds of mountain men and thousands of Indians gathered for games and recreation. These horses proved tempting targets for Indians skilled at the deadly but exciting game of grand theft cayuse. As could be expected, several violent encounters occurred during summer rendezvous. James Beckwourth gave an excellent !rst- hand account of the 1827 rendezvous at Sweet Lake (present-day Bear Lake) on the Utah-Idaho border. A Blackfeet party surprised and killed !ve Shoshones. Shoshone Chief Cut Face asked the American trappers to show their friendship and loyalty by assisting the Shoshones in mounting a counter-attack. William Sublette gathered nearly three hundred trappers and charged the enemy. After a six-hour battle the Blackfeet retreated, abandoning many of their dead—an unusual occurrence because LEY CK
U of the almost certain mutilation that B . H awaited the deceased. Beckwourth JAY JAY
14 ! We Proceeded On May 2013 HIVES ARC ATIONAL ATIONAL N . S . U
T 31, 1833, S U G U A ENZIE, MONTANA, ENZIE, MONTANA, K T MC R O F
R NEA S OF THE PIEKANN ATION MP R A C INIST EAT EAT M R D G A , R E DS R M O C OD B L R KA AND RE In 1837, Blackfeet stole blankets contaminated with smallpox from a steamboat at Fort Union and brought them back to their village near Fort McKenzie. As many as 6,000 Blackfeet died as the epidemic spread throughout the area.
recorded the fruits of their the pass and saw a group victory to be 173 Blackfeet “If you will send Traders into our Country we will protect of travelers, whom they scalps, and numerous assumed to be one of the weapons. The following them and treat them well; but Trappers—Never.” supply trains that had not year, in 1828, a repeat attack arrived at the rendezvous.37 nearly occurred in the same location. Blackfeet abandoned The Atsina chieftain rode out to meet the trappers. An the !eld when reinforcements from the rendezvous arrived Iroquois named Antoine Godin rode his horse out to meet before any bloodshed took place.34 him. Godin, whose father had been brutally murdered by In 1830, artist George Catlin observed, “The Blackfoot, Blackfeet, raised his gun and shot the Atsina chieftain.38 are, perhaps, the most powerful tribe on the continent.” The previous week, this same group of Atsinas had Even though American trappers attempted to incorporate attacked Thomas Fitzpatrick and taken his horses. George a pro!table trade system, Catlin recognized the Blackfeet Nidever relates how the Atsinas made a forti!cation in the Confederacy’s strength and saw them stubbornly resist fur willows and fought tenaciously against the trappers and traders. Catlin noted the country “abounds with beaver allies. The Atsinas 4ed the scene when several hundred and buffalo and others.” Yet he lamented the destruction reinforcements from the rendezvous arrived. Three mountain of the beaver. “The Blackfoot have repeatedly informed men and !ve Indian allies died. Accounts list Atsina casualties the traders of the company that if this persists they will kill between 27 and 50 dead.39 Ironically, this same year a the trappers. The company lost 15-20 men. The Blackfoot group of Piegans had signed a treaty with the American therefore have been less traded with and less seen by whites Fur Company to allow Kenneth McKenzie to build a fort and less understood.”35 there the following year, provided the Indians would trap Perhaps the most signi!cant rendezvous battle occurred the beaver and trade at the post.40 Built in 1831, Fort Piegan at the 1832 Battle of Pierre’s Hole. The Atsina attackers became the !rst fort in Blackfeet lands of which the Piegans consisted of !fty men plus several women and children approved. The following year, however, Bloods or Atsinas and, as the Indians advanced, a British 4ag 4apped in the burned it down. In 1833, McKenzie built Fort McKenzie near breeze.36 A small brigade under Milton Sublette and two the con4uence of the Marias and Missouri rivers.41 other parties had left the rendezvous on July 17. This party This new fort achieved immediate success by offering of 41 men proceeded up the hills to the southeast, headed Blackfeet the chance to trade and barter. A chief had told for Teton Pass. The next morning they looked up toward John Sanford, Indian agent for the upper Missouri tribes, “If
May 2013 We Proceeded On " 15 you will send Traders into our Country we will protect them as they both traversed the northern and central Rockies. and treat them well; but Trappers—Never.”42 Unfortunately, Atsina depredations forced Americans to desert the upper this fort unwittingly spread the deadly smallpox epidemic Missouri and venture overland to reach trapping streams. that journeyed upriver in 1837 aboard the St. Peters These supply routes of the rendezvous caravans opened steamboat. Smallpox spread as far as Fort Union where the way for the overland migrations of the 1840s and 1850s infected trade goods were transferred to another vessel along the Great Fur Trade Road. After more than half a heading for Fort McKenzie. The post commander there, century of con4ict, diplomats for the United States and for Alexander Culbertson, quarantined the infected vessel to the Blackfeet Nation met at a council held on October 17, prevent the epidemic from spreading; however, the Blackfeet 1855, near the mouth of the Judith River. They agreed to a felt the Americans were discriminating against them by treaty setting aside a reservation for the Blackfeet in what withholding trade commodities, particularly a shipment became Montana. The Blackfeet represented the last Great of guns they needed to !ght the Crows and Flatheads.43 Plains Indian nation to enter into a treaty with the United Several Blackfeet snuck on board and removed infected States, which ushered in a new era between the Blackfeet blankets that contaminated their village near the fort. As the and the Big Knives.45 tribes dispersed, they spread the epidemic. Perhaps as many as 6,000 Blackfeet, roughly half of their population, died in this Jay H. Buckley, associate professor of history at Brigham outbreak. This debilitating plague marked a numerical decline Young University, served as president of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation in 2011-12. He is the author of that ended Blackfeet domination of the northern plains. William Clark: Indian Diplomat (2008) and co-author of Consequently, by fall, the Blackfeet concerned themselves By His Own Hand? The Mysterious Death of Meriwether more with survival than with !ghting Americans. After 1837, Lewis (2006); and Zebulon Pike, Thomas Jefferson, and the mountain men often followed Blackfeet to !ght them in their Opening of the American West (2012). weakened condition. However, only minor confrontations NOTES occurred as the beaver trade drew to a close and bison robes 1 became the new trading commodity at the forts.44 The term Blackfeet referred to northwestern plains nations who sometimes wore black moccasins dyed with paint or darkened Between 1806 and 1840, the northern location of the with ashes. J. Cecil Alter, James Bridger (Columbus, OH: Long’s Blackfeet Confederacy had brought them into contact with College Book Co., 1951), 6. “Original People,” “Real People,” British trappers who formed alliances with them. These and “Prairie People” are some renderings of their national identity. The author thanks reviewer Gary Moulton and proofreaders Carl bonds provided the British with an easy way to expel Camp and Jerry Garrett for their assistance with this article. Americans—by encouraging Blackfeet to attack Americans 2 Helen B. West, Meriwether Lewis in Blackfeet Country, to take their horses, furs, and guns. The Americans failed Bureau of Indian Affairs, Blackfeet Agency (Browning, MT: to learn from the British how to trade effectively with the Museum of the Plains Indian, 1964). Blackfeet. Whereas the British built posts on the outskirts 3 Horse stealing represented the central focus of Plains Indian of Blackfeet territory and sent representatives to trade with culture. Alexander Henry regarded the Blackfeet tribes as the the nations, Americans chose to invade the territory and “most independent and happy people of all the tribes East of the Rocky Mountains. War, women, horses and buffalo are their trap fur-bearing animals themselves. In addition, Americans delights, and all these they have at [their] command.” Elliott Coues, built trading posts and forts in Blackfeet territory, often ed., New Light on the Early History of the Greater Northwest: The without permission, traded with their traditional enemies, Manuscript Journals of Alexander Henry and David Thompson, and often intermarried with those tribes, becoming enemies 1799-1814, 3 vols. (New York: Francis P. Harper, 1897), 2:737. For an in-depth study, see John C. Ewers, The Horse in Blackfoot through kinship. Blackfeet disliked trapping themselves and Culture (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Of!ce, 1955). found it immensely easier to steal furs and horses from the 4 Gary E. Moulton, ed., The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Americans and trade them with the British to meet their Expedition, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, rising materialistic tendencies. Blackfeet capitalistic ventures 1983-2001), 8:127-37, esp. 134-35; John C. Jackson, “The Fight often ended in violent confrontations with American and, on Two Medicine River: Who Were Those Indians, and How Many Died?” We Proceeded On, 32:1 (February 2006), 14-23; later, British trappers. To compound the problem, trappers Robert A. Saindon, “The ‘Unhappy Affair’ on Two Medicine depleted the beaver, bison, and other fur and hide bearing River: Were the Indians with Whom Lewis Tangled Blackfeet animals and introduced diseases that killed more Blackfeet or … Gros Ventres of the Prairie?” We Proceeded On, 28:3 (August 2002), 12-25; Arlen J. Large, “Riled-up Blackfeet: Did than bullets or big knives ever did. Meriwether Lewis Do It?” We Proceeded On, 22:4 (November The inclusion of the Atsinas in the Blackfeet 1996), 4-11; and Paul R. Cutright, “Lewis on the Marias 1806,” Confederacy brought frequent encounters with Americans Montana: The Magazine of Western History, 18:3 (1968), 30-43.
16 ! We Proceeded On May 2013 5 David Thompson, David Thompson’s Narrative of His and Clark, 1804—1904, 2 vols. (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Explorations in Western America, 1784-1812 (Toronto: Champlain 1904), 2:311-12. See Frederick E. Hoxie and Jay T. Nelson, eds., Society, 1916), 375. See also Ted Binnema, “Allegiances and Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country: The Native American Interests: Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) Trade, Diplomacy, and Warfare, Perspective (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007), 168-79; 1806-1831,” Western Historical Quarterly, 37 (Autumn 2006), John C. Jackson, The Piikani Blackfeet: A Culture Under Siege 327-49; Ted Binnema and William A. Dobak, “‘Like a Greedy (Missoula: Mountain Press Publishing Company, 2000), 56-57; Wolf’: The Blackfeet, the St. Louis Fur Trade, and War Fever, and Eric Newhouse, “Blackfeet recollections differ from those 1807-1831,” Journal of the Early Republic, 29 (Fall 2009), 411-40, recorded in Lewis’s journal,” Great Falls Tribune, April 23, esp. 415; Peter W. Dunwiddie, “The Nature of the Relationship 2003; A !lm, A Blackfeet Encounter, directed and produced by between the Blackfeet Indians and the Men of the Fur Trade,” Dennis Neary (Lincoln: Vision Maker Media, 2007) combines Annals of Wyoming, 46 (Spring 1974), 123-33; Paul Raczka, Blackfeet and expedition viewpoints:
18 ! We Proceeded On May 2013 A look back at the creation and early years of our historical journal
B5 B%17 K(7,'
“WE PROCEEDED ON …” With those three simple words, the Lewis and Clark Above: The original Committee. Chuinard had served Trail Heritage Foundation’s sixth president, Gary Leppart, We Proceeded On as Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage masthead, created announced the long-awaited publication of We Proceeded by Edward Burns Foundation president in 1971-72, On, the organization’s quarterly journal. The board of Quigley in 1975, has and Lange in 1973-74. directors had chosen that name, Leppart said, because it graced the cover of At the August 1974 meeting every issue of WPO of the board of directors, George was “one of the most used phrases from the journals of for the past 38 years. the captains …” and because the words seemed to be a Tweney (Seattle, Washington), chair !tting tribute to both the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage of the Publications Committee,4 assured the board that Foundation and its members.1 One member said, “Who the !rst four issues would be published “at no expense to could resist the name … We Proceeded On?”2 [the] Foundation,” through a $2,000 grant from the Lorene The masthead came from the pen of Edward Burns Sales Higgins Charitable Trust (Portland, Oregon).5 At the Quigley, then a well-known western artist living in same time, the board began to explore fund-raising ideas Portland, Oregon. Quigley worked in many mediums, to help offset the costs associated with the publication of including oils, pen and ink, graphite, and wood—both We Proceeded On. sculpture and bas-relief. He was well known for his That !rst issue set both the tone and the standard ability to capture, with these mediums, the cowboys, for subsequent issues of We Proceeded On. There was wild horses, and round-ups of the Yakama people and news about the trail, with the Foundation a strong pioneering ranch families living in east-central Washington proponent for trail stewardship and site protection. There and eastern Oregon.3 William P. Sherman, a “founding was information about the Foundation’s business, the father” of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, president’s column, and highlights of the sixth annual was a generous patron of the western art world, and it is meeting in Seaside, Oregon. possible that through Sherman, Quigley agreed to design Starting with that !rst issue, and for decades thereafter, the masthead for We Proceeded On. the Foundation’s editor printed a roster of meeting The editor for We Proceeded On was Robert E. (Bob) attendees, and a group photograph. Many subsequent Lange and the business manager, Dr. Eldon G. (Frenchy) issues also included several candid photographs, taken by Chuinard. Both men lived in Portland, Oregon, and were Roy Craft, of Foundation members, guests, and speakers “founding fathers” of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage enjoying fellowship, programs, and !eld trips. Craft was Foundation and active in the Oregon Lewis and Clark Trail the editor and owner of The Skamania County (Stevenson, May 2013 We Proceeded On " 19 Washington) Pioneer, a The Man Behind weekly newspaper. He had honed his craft as a the Masthead photographer in the Edward Burns Quigley was military, working for a born in North Dakota in 1895. number of prominent West In about 1900, his family moved west, first to Idaho, and then to Coast newspapers, and as Spokane, Washington, where a Hollywood publicist. he honed his skills as an artist His photographs in We drawing horses, cattle, and Proceeded On reveal his circus animals. Spokane was eye for organization and for a frequent point of disembarkation for circus trains, and young people watching. It is obvious he loved the Foundation, Quigley often stayed for hours at the rail yards, sketching the 6 animals and their handlers and equipment.1 the story, the people, and the trail. After graduation from North Central High School in Spokane Like so many others who brought a necessary skill set in 1916, Quigley joined the military. According to Quigley’s to the organization and We Proceeded On, Craft served biographer, Carl Gohs, he eventually was assigned to the as a Foundation board member. In addition to his work Camouflage Division of the 40th Engineers. During World War with the Foundation and his many activities in Skamania I, artists such as Quigley were put to work in the U.S. Army’s County, Craft also was a longtime member and chairman newest, most creative, and far-thinking division, Company A, 40th Regiment of the Corps of Engineers, or the camouflage of the Governor’s (Washington State) Lewis and Clark division. In all probability, Quigley served his time in World War I Trail Committee. as a “camoufleur,” disguising gun placements, troops, trenches, In the center of that !rst issue readers found Donald and war material from German aerial photographers.2 Jackson’s thoughtful and scholarly article, “Thomas After the war, Quigley lived in Chicago and worked a variety Jefferson and the Paci!c Northwest,” which had been the of art-related jobs, freelanced, and attended the Chicago Art subject of Jackson’s banquet address at the Foundation’s Institute. In 1930, he left Chicago for Portland, Oregon, where his family had moved during the war. In Portland, he set up a sixth annual meeting. Jackson was the editor of the commercial studio and had another on the third floor of his University of Illinois Press, the editor of Letters of the parents’ home. At the same time, he purchased 1.5 acres of Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents, woodland on Cedar Creek, in the shadow of Mt. Hood. There 1783-1854, and the author of numerous articles about he built a log cabin, hand-carving the lintels and doors with the expedition. He also was a “sustaining member” of western themes.3 the Foundation and recipient of the Foundation’s earliest During the next five decades, Quigley became a respected 7 painter and carver of western art, the Yakama people, and the award, the Meritorious Achievement Award. circus. Among his works are more than 500 paintings, carvings, Jackson’s article set the standard for scholarship that and sketches with these themes. Some remain in private continues to this day, both within the organization and collections and others are housed in the High Desert Museum on the pages of We Proceeded On. Authors old and new, 4 in Bend, Oregon. He painted murals for lodges, government published and unpublished, have contributed hundreds agencies, patrons, and Irvington Elementary School in Portland. of pages of thought-provoking, timely, and thoughtful He carved countless horses and circus settings from sugar pine, teak, and maple. pieces that engage members, scholars, and students of the –Barb Kubik story. From biographies of individual corps members, to studies of mapping and tribal relations, to discussions of Notes 4ora and fauna and boats, much has been learned from 1 Carl Gohs, Ed Quigley: Western Artist (Portland: Geneva Hale Quigley, 1970), 8-9. the pens of these authors. In the second issue, Spring 1975, Lange shared the 2 E. Malcom Parkinson, “The Artist At War: Painters, Muralists, Sculptors, Architects Worked to Provide Camouflage for Troops story of the publication’s masthead with the membership in World War I,” Prologue, 44:1 (Spring 2012) 2, under http://www. and introduced two new components to We Proceeded archives.gov/publications/prologue/2012/spring/camoflauge On, book reviews and “Up-Dating Lewis & Clark in accessed March 5, 2013). Recent Periodicals.” 3 Gohs, 9-10; 163. The !rst book review was by Tweney, a member 4 Andrew Moore, “Shaped By Experience: Edward Quigley’s Western Art on Display at New Praegitzer Gallery,” Bend Bulletin, September of the Foundation’s board, a dealer and collector of 15, 2006, under http//:www.bendbulletin.com (accessed March 5, 2013). rare books of western Americana, and like Thomas
20 ! We Proceeded On May 2013 R NE CK E B Y RR A L Longtime Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation members Jim Peterson, of Vermillion, South Dakota, and Bev Hinds, of Sioux City, Iowa, examined slides and photographs in the William P. Sherman Library and Archives in 2007 to identify people and places, particularly from the early years of the Foundation’s history.
Jefferson, a bibliophile. Tweney put Lange also began contributing his pen and wit to paper to explore Authors old and new, published his own scholarship to We Marshall Sprague’s book, So Vast So Proceeded On. His first article Beautiful a Land—Louisiana and and unpublished, have contributed was a two-page analysis of the the Purchase, noting that Sprague hundreds of pages of thought- cost of the expedition.9 Lange had “given us the de!nitive book based his research on three key on the Louisiana Purchase, and provoking, timely, and thoughtful publications that have frequently again in the distinguished style of appeared as annotations in We his numerous previous writings on pieces that engage members, Proceeded On articles: Jackson’s the western scene.”8 scholars, and students of the story. Letters, Reuben Gold Thwaites’ The Lange’s new column, “Up- Original Journals of the Lewis and Dating Lewis & Clark in Recent Clark Expedition and the Missouri Periodicals” offered readers a quick peek into other Historical Society’s Bulletin.10 publications featuring articles about the story and the trail, In the third issue of We Proceeded On, Tweney from Crown-Zellerbach’s Resources to the U.S. Army reviewed John Logan Allen’s seminal work, Passage Corps of Engineers’ Water Spectrum, Arizona Highways, Through the Garden: Lewis and Clark and the Image and Montana: The Magazine of Western History. Lange of the American Northwest. Tweney called the book “a thoughtfully provided readers with a synopsis of each scholarly contribution indeed to the literature of the article, as well as information on ordering that particular expedition, and will rank with Paul Russell Cutright’s publication and at what cost. Lewis & Clark: Pioneering Naturalists and Donald May 2013 We Proceeded On " 21 Jackson’s Letters … as the triumvirate of published reliable Buffalo Country.” Like so many other early scholars, information dealing with the expedition … no Lewis and Burroughs was a Foundation member and a recipient Clark bookshelf can be considered complete without this of the Foundation’s Meritorious Achievement Award newest work …”11 Tweney and others continued to review (1974). His book, The Natural History of the Lewis and books for children and adults, movies, and the occasional Clark Expedition, could be found on many members’ kitsch, noting those items that should be on every “Lewis bookshelves, and he was a frequent contributor to history and Clark bookshelf” and others that were not worthy of and natural history publications before his death in 1976.16 the Foundation’s endorsement. Other items in that issue included There was news of the passing a new column that would appear of a Foundation member, Owen During this time, the Foundation’s irregularly, honoring Foundation P. Buxton, a great-grandson of president, Wilbur Werner of Cut members and their work with the expedition member Sergeant organization, the trail, or the story— Patrick Gass.12 At this time in the Bank, Montana, was working on or all three. Called “Foundation Foundation’s early history, when Personality,” the first column few descendants of the Corps of a proposal to help underwrite the recognized Seattle resident Cliff Discovery were known, Foundation costs associated with publishing Imsland and his work developing members enjoyed Buxton’s warm audio-visual materials about the trail, friendship and welcomed his We Proceeded On. Publication as well as his speaking engagements and membership in the organization, his work as a member of the Governor’s his interest in the expedition, and his costs were primarily for “the three (Washington State) Lewis and Clark participation in the annual meetings. Ps”: paper, printing, and postage. Trail Committee.17 Articles in We Proceeded On The Spring 1976 issue contained were not without controversy. information about the upcoming annual Irving W. “Andy” Anderson’s meeting, organizational and trail news, article, “Sacajawea?—Sakakawea?—Sacagawea?: and more periodical updates.18 Bob Saindon’s article, “The Spelling—Pronunciation—Meaning”13 started a long and Abduction of Sacagawea,” added to our understanding of often raucous debate about the spelling and meaning of the the young Shoshone woman’s frightening journey from young Shoshone woman’s name, her contributions to the her homeland to that of her captors near the con4uence expedition, and her marriage to Toussaint Charbonneau. of the Knife and Missouri rivers in present-day North In the next issue of We Proceeded On, Lange announced Dakota.19 the journal would use the spelling “Sacagawea,” unless During this time, the Foundation’s president, Wilbur the contributing author spelled her name differently.14 For Werner of Cut Bank, Montana, was working on a proposal nearly 40 years, respected scholars have addressed these to help underwrite the costs associated with publishing We and other questions in the pages of We Proceeded On. Proceeded On. Publication costs were primarily for “the By the fall of 1975, the Foundation had successfully three Ps”: paper, printing, and postage. Lange worked as a published four issues of We Proceeded On. The fourth volunteer. The black and white images in each issue were issue contained periodical updates, information about the either part of the public domain (i.e., William Clark’s maps) upcoming eighth annual meeting in Great Falls, Montana, or graciously donated by an author or photographer. and news from the trail and trail-related organizations. Members and authors contributed articles, news items, Lange included Larry Gill’s scholarly article, “The Great and news releases. Lange frequently encouraged readers Portage—Lewis and Clark’s Overland Journey around the to contribute articles of scholarship, assuring writers they Great Falls of the Missouri River.”15 Lange encouraged would “receive every consideration from our editorial the meeting planners to contribute a series of informative advisory committee.”20 articles about topics associated with the upcoming meeting During the board of director’s meeting at the site. Gill’s analysis of the corps’ portage was the !rst of Foundation’s eighth annual meeting in Great Falls, Werner many such pre-meeting articles designed to pique the presented a proposal he hoped would provide long- membership’s interest in the annual meeting. term funding for We Proceeded On. Werner proposed The !fth issue of We Proceeded On included Raymond commissioning well-known Montana sculptor Bob Scriver D. “Dar” Burroughs’s article “Lewis and Clark in to “strike a miniature bronze of Meriwether Lewis and the
22 ! We Proceeded On May 2013 expedition’s dog.”21 When he asked for a “show of hands” Lange printed two scholarly articles in that issue, from board members, committee chairmen, and guests at John Logan Allen’s banquet address, “The Summer the board meeting, 15 people indicated a willingness to of Decision: Lewis and Clark in Montana, 1805,” and purchase one of the limited edition Chuinard’s article, “The Photographs bronzes for about $1,500. Werner of Sgt. Patrick Gass.” Chuinard’s also suggested the funds generated by article was the !rst of many about the sale of the bronzes be earmarked Gass and existing images of him, and specifically for We Proceeded On. it served to engage Gass descendants Newly elected Foundation president in the story.25 Clarence Decker appointed an ad hoc When Lange printed the next committee, with Werner as chair, to issue of We Proceeded On, he changed study the proposal, engage Scriver, it from a seasonal publication date to 22 HOTO P and create a marketing plan. a monthly one, December 1976. The THF C
One year later, the board L issue contained important news about announced the sale of the Foundation’s The Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation the publication’s funding. Lange !rst bronze miniature, “Meriwether commissioned Montana sculptor Bob Scriver reminded readers of the generosity of Lewis and his Dog.” Proceeds from to create “Meriwether Lewis and His Dog.” the Lorene Sales Higgins Charitable Proceeds from the sale of the bronzes were the sale of the limited edition, 8-inch- used to establish the Foundation’s Bronze Fund, Trust in providing additional grant by-10-inch bronze were earmarked which continues to provide partial funding for money for We Proceeded On: $2,000 for the “Bronze Fund,” an endowed the publication of We Proceeded On. in 1974, $2,000 in 1975, and $2,500 fund to be used to publish We in 1976. In addition, the J.N. “Ding” Proceeded On. The bronze !rst was offered to Foundation Darling Foundation had just given the Lewis and Clark members for $950. Werner, still chair of the ad hoc “Bronze Trail Heritage Foundation a gift of $500 to help with Committee,” noted he had received orders for 30 of the operational expenses.26 150 pieces in just a few months.23 Generous gifts such as these, and the sale of the The Fall 1976 issue of We Proceeded On was !lled with bronze the following year, allowed the Lewis and Clark Foundation news, including the appointment of Hazel Trail Heritage Foundation to “proceed on” for the next Bain as the organization’s !rst membership secretary. Bain, 36 years, publishing its quarterly scholarly journal, We of Longview, Washington, later became the Foundation’s Proceeded On. !rst female president. For many years, Bain worked hard to increase the Foundation’s membership knowing that it was a portion of the members’ dues that helped support Barb Kubik is a former LCTHF executive director and of!cer. She currently is the historian on the Meriwether Project. This the publication of We Proceeded On. is the !rst installment in her history of We Proceeded On. The issue included a list of “contributing editors,” names we recognize as early contributors to We Proceeded NOTES On: Anderson, Jackson, Burroughs, Saindon, Chuinard, 1Gary Leppart, “President Leppart’s Message,” We Proceeded and Tweney. In 1976, the Foundation’s Meritorious On, 1:1 (Winter 1974-1975), 1. See We Proceeded On, 1:4 (Fall Achievement Award was presented to two organizations 1975), 1, for examples of usage of the phrase, “we proceeded on.” 2 and four people, including the two most important people Robert E. Lange, “What’s in a Name,” We Proceeded On, 1:2 (Spring 1975), 6. to the operations of We Proceeded On, editor Bob Lange 3 Carl Gohs, Ed Quigley: Western Artist (Portland: Geneva Hale and its business manager, Dr. Frenchy Chuinard. Quigley, 1970), 10-11. The Foundation continued to advocate for the 4 The Publications Committee included Tweney, Leppart, Lange, preservation and protection of trail sites, including the and Chuinard. 5 Minutes of the meeting of the Lewis and Clark “salt cairn” in Seaside, Oregon. Oregon Senator Mark Trail Heritage Foundation Board of Directors on August 11, Hat!eld and Oregon Congressman Les AuCoin regulary 1974, 6. informed Lange as to the status of their federal legislation 6 www.columbiagorge.org, “Roy D. Craft” (accessed March 12, to make the salt cairn a part of the Fort Clatsop National 2013). This more than 40-page !le contains numerous obituaries and tributes to Roy at his death on Christmas Day, 1989, as Memorial. In turn, Lange noti!ed the membership through well as biographical sketches and copies of his work as editor of the pages of We Proceeded On.24 several newspapers—The Kodiak (Alaska) Bear, The Skamania May 2013 We Proceeded On " 23 County Pioneer and the McCleary (Washington) Stimulator. ninth annual meeting was in St. Charles, Missouri, across the Craft also worked for the Eugene (Oregon) Register-Guard, the Missouri River from then-president Clarence Decker’s home U.S. Army’s Stars and Stripes, and the San Francisco Examiner, in East Alton, Illinois. and he was the publicist for many Hollywood stars including 19 Bob Saindon, “The Abduction of Sacagawea,” We Proceeded Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. In 1987, the Lewis and Clark On, 2:2 (Summer 1976), 6-8. Saindon would contribute many Trail Heritage Foundation presented Roy with its Distinguished articles to We Proceeded On, and when Bob Lange retired as Service Award. the Foundation’s editor in the spring of 1987, Saindon took the 7 Robert E. Lange, We Proceeded On, 1:1 (Winter 1974-1975), job. He was a writer and editor, an educator, and a longtime 5-9. In 1974, general membership dues were $10 per year. member of the Foundation. Saindon currently lives in Wolf Sustaining members paid $25 per year. Point, Montana. 8 George H. Tweney, “Book Review,” We Proceeded On, 1:2 20 Robert E. Lange, “Preview of Forth-Coming ‘Feature Stories (Spring 1975), 6. …’,” We Proceeded On, 2:1 (Winter 1976), 12. 9 Robert E. Lange, “$2,500.00 vs. $38,722.25—The Financial 21 Robert E. Lange, “Scriver’s Sculpture to be Dedicated June Outlay for the Historic Enterprise,” We Proceeded On, 1:2 13th at Ft. Benton,” We Proceeded On, 2:1 (Winter 1976), 1, (Spring 1975), 8-9. 3. Bob Scriver recently had completed a heroic bronze statue 10 At the time, Reuben Gold Thwaites’ eight-volume The of Clark, Lewis, and Sacagawea for the nation’s bicentennial Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (New York: celebration. The 16-foot-high bronze was installed on the Fort Dodd, Mead and Co., 1904-05) was the de!nitive, annotated Benton-Missouri River levee in Fort Benton, Montana. Funding work of the corps’ journals. Other edited, published journals of for this particular work had come, in part, from the sale of a importance were Ernest S. Osgood’s The Field Notes of Captain miniature bronze replica. William Clark, 1803-1805 (Yale University Press, 1964) and 22 Minutes of the meeting of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Milo M. Quaife’s The Journals of Captain Meriwether Lewis Foundation Board of Directors on August 18, 1976, 11-12. and Sergeant John Ordway (The State Historical Society of 23 Wisconsin, 1916). The Missouri Historical Society published Robert E. Lange, “World Famous Sculptor, Bob Scriver, The Bulletin from 1944 to 1980. Since 1980, the publication has Creates Exclusive Bronze for Foundation,” We Proceeded On, been called Gateway Heritage. 3:3 (July 1977), 1, 3. Minutes of the meeting of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation Board of Directors on August 11 George Tweney, “Book Review,” We Proceeded On, 1:3 16, 1977, 6, 8. (Summer 1975), 5, 11-12. 24 12 We Proceeded On, 1:1 (Winter 1974-1975), 11-12 and We Owen P. Buxton (1904-1975) was the grandson of Patrick Proceeded On, 2:3 (Fall 1976), 7. Gass’s youngest daughter, Rachel Gass Brierly, and the son of Rachel’s daughter, Sally Ann Brierly Buxton. 25 John Logan Allen, “The Summer of Decision: Lewis and Clark in Montana, 1805,” We Proceeded On, 2:3 (Fall 1976), 8-11. Allen 13 Irving W. Anderson, “Sacajawea?—Sakakawea?—Sacagawea?: continues to contribute to our knowledge of the expedition’s Spelling—Pronunciation—Meaning,” We Proceeded On, 1:3 cartography. He lives in Laramie, Wyoming, and is a lifetime (Summer 1975), 10-11. member of the Foundation. Dr. Eldon G. “Frenchy” Chuinard, 14 Robert E. Lange, “Editor’s Note,” We Proceeded On, 1:1 “The Photographs of Sgt. Patrick Gass,” We Proceeded On, 2:3 (Fall 1975), 4. (Fall 1976), 4-5. In addition to his studies of Gass’ images, the 15 Larry Gill, “The Great Portage—Lewis and Clark’s Overland late Dr. Chuinard contributed much to our understanding of Journey around the Great Falls of the Missouri River,” We the expedition’s medical practices, including his book, Only Proceeded On, 1:4 (Fall 1975), 6-9. Gill was a former Great One Man Died: The Medical Aspects of the Lewis and Clark Falls resident and a “dedicated student of the … Expedition Expedition, !rst published by Arthur H. Clark Company in and particularly of the trials … over the navigational barrier of 1979. By 2001, !ve images of Gass had been identi!ed by various the Great Falls.” family members. J. I. Merritt, “A ‘New’ Portrait of Patrick Gass,” We Proceeded On, 27:1 (February 2001), 26-30. We are 16 Raymond Darwin Burroughs, “Lewis and Clark in Buffalo interested in the images of Gass because we know what so few Country,” We Proceeded On, 2:1 (Winter 1976), 6-8; Robert E. members of the expedition looked like. To our knowledge, only Lange, “R. Darwin Burroughs, 1899-1976,” We Proceeded On, Lewis and Clark had their portraits painted, and only Gass and 2:4 (December 1976), 11. Minutes of the meeting of the Lewis Private Alexander Hamilton Willard had their picture taken, as and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation Board of Directors on elderly men. August 17, 1977, 8. When Burroughs died in 1976, his family 26 established the “Dar” Burroughs Memorial Fund in his honor. http://www.ding-darling.org (accessed March 12, 2013). This endowed fund is earmarked for youth and youth education. Clarence H. Decker, “President Decker’s Message,” We 17 Proceeded On, 2:4 (December 1976), 2-3. Robert E. Lange, Robert E. Lange, “Foundation Personality: Washington State’s “Annual Membership Renewal Due,” We Proceeded On, 2:4 ‘Cliff’ Imsland’s L. & C. Lectures in Demand,” We Proceeded (December 1976), 5. Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling was a proli!c On, 2:1 (Winter 1976), 5. editorial cartoonist, whose passion was the conservation of the 18 For many years, the Foundation’s annual meeting was held in nation’s natural resources. Following Darling’s death in 1962, the current president’s home state. The seventh annual meeting colleagues, friends, and family established the J.N. “Ding” was in Bismarck, North Dakota, the home city and state of then- Darling Foundation to provide funding for trail stewardship, president Gary Leppart. Werner was a resident of Cut Bank, conservation, and activities such as those the Lewis and Clark Montana, and the eighth annual meeting was in Great Falls. The Trail Heritage Foundation has long advocated.
24 ! We Proceeded On May 2013 William Clark By Charles Willson Peale W,66,%* C6%1': Re"ections on His Interactions with Family, Native Nations, and Landscapes
B5 J%5 H. B(&'605
hen William Clark was born on August 1, 1770, William’s parents, John and Ann Clark, moved to the Virginia Colony encompassed a territory Albemarle County, Virginia, in 1749 to develop a 410-acre Wthat stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the tract of land along the Rivanna River near Charlottesville, Mississippi River, including all of what would become only a few miles from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Kentucky and portions of West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Five years later, the Clarks inherited land from John’s Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana. When Clark was 17, the uncle, also named John Clark, and moved to a plantation rati!cation of the U.S. Constitution created the United in southwestern Caroline County twenty-five miles States of America. Five years later, Kentucky entered the from the Rappahannock River’s tidewater. There, in the union as the !fteenth state. The 1803 Louisiana Purchase homeland of the Mattaponi and Rappahannock nations, effectively doubled the size of America. Clark was the Clarks shipped their tobacco from Port Royal, the instrumental in exploring this new territory, negotiating principal shipping outlet of the region. The Rappahannock with its original inhabitants, encouraging American traverses the entire northern part of Virginia, emanating settlement, and establishing his home in St. Louis where from the Blue Ridge Mountains, and crosses the Piedmont he lived the remainder of his life.1 before emptying into the Chesapeake Bay just south of As Territorial Governor of Missouri, Clark played a the Potomac River. The Clarks also had the good fortune vital role helping to create the State of Missouri, which to be located near the Southern or Ridge Road as well as joined the union on August 10, 1821, as the twenty- the stage line between Richmond and Washington City. fourth state. By Clark’s death in 1838, thirteen new states This proximity to major land and water thoroughfares had joined the original thirteen, doubling the number of brought notable travelers, of!cials, military of!cers, and states in the Union. Clark’s encounters and interactions merchants to William’s childhood home.2 with family and friends, Indian Nations, and the lands and With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 rivers of the trans-Appalachian and trans-Mississippi West ending the Revolutionary War, Britain yielded its claims represent the driving factors that in4uenced and sustained to 250,000 square miles of land north of the Ohio him. He often looked for examples in the East to solve River and east of the Mississippi River. States including problems he encountered in the West. Virginia eventually agreed to relinquish some western May 2013 We Proceeded On " 25 land claims to the new republic. Thomas Jefferson penned a Land Ordinance in 1784 that provided a rationale whereby new land could Y be surveyed and sold to the public. CK The Continental Congress passed the Land Ordinance of 1785 and OUISVILLE, KENTU OUISVILLE, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 L IETY, IETY, C O that enacted the aforementioned S AL C I measures, provided for surveying, R ISTO selling, and settling the land, H ILSON and formulated a pathway to F HE statehood. Since Congress did not T TESY OF TESY raise revenue through taxation, but R rather through a high trade tariff, COU This photo of the Clark family’s two-story log cabin was taken by Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston in the they sought to raise additional 1890s. It measured forty feet by twenty feet and was considered one of the finest cabins of its time. monies by surveying and selling western lands, a stroke of the pen that simultaneously By 1799, the two-story cabin was expanded to forty feet fueled western expansion into the Indian domain and by twenty feet. It faced northwestward toward Louisville brought the 4edgling nation into direct con4ict with and represented one of the !nest Kentucky log cabins of its Indian nations. Adding to the potential for dif!culties, time. William Clark inherited the Clarks’ Kentucky estate war veterans received land grants as a reward for their in 1799 following the death of his parents and perhaps due military service, which were usually located adjacent to to the legal turmoil that precluded his brother George Indian land on the frontier’s fringe. from inheriting it.3 Instead of serving as a buffer between America’s Clark gained valuable experience traveling on the expanding settlement and Indian nations defending Ohio and Mississippi rivers, especially on journeys to Ft. their homelands, these military grants also brought in Massac, Kaskaskia, Cahokia, St. Louis, and New Orleans. land speculators who enticed and encouraged other His Ohio River years contributed to his education Americans to immigrate to the Ohio country. The trickle because he copied some excellent aphorisms from things of individuals and families into the trans-Allegheny and he had read, such as: “Man cannot make principles; he trans-Appalachian regions quickly swelled into a 4ood can only discover them.” “The Most formidable weapon that carried the Clark family with it. On October 30, against errors of every kind is Reason.” “I believe that 1784, the Clarks, including 14-year-old William, packed religious duties consist in doing justice, loveing mercy, their belongings, left their eldest son Jonathan in charge of and endeavoring to make our fellow creatures happy.”4 the Virginia estate and traveled north to the Ohio River. After making journal notations on the circumference of They wintered at Redstone Fort on a mound overlooking the earth, the tilt of its axis, and the distance of the six the Monongahela River adjacent to the Indian route planets from the sun, Clark lapsed into a discussion of between the Potomac and Ohio rivers used by the Lenapes trigonometry and concluded that the content “of its uses (Delawares), Shawnees, Mingos, and other tribes. After are unknown.” He agreed with Thomas Paine’s Age of waiting for the spring thaw, the Clarks boarded a 4atboat Reason: “Learning does not consist in the knowledge and descended the Monongahela to its junction with the of Languages, but in the knowledge of things to which Allegheny where together the rivers form the Ohio River at language gives names—science and philosophy.” Clark Pittsburgh. After narrowly escaping death from an Indian summarized his thoughts with this poignant gem: “Every attack, the Clarks arrived safely at the Falls of the Ohio in person of learning is !nally his own teacher.”5 the spring. They moved into their new Kentucky home, a At the Falls of the Ohio in the summer of 1803, two-story log cabin on a 256-acre plantation, “Mulberry William Clark received a letter from Meriwether Lewis Hill,” located a few miles southeast of Louisville. They inviting him to help co-command an expedition to explore also built two mills on the south fork of Beargrass Creek. the Louisiana territory: “Thus my friend … you have a Clark lived at this family homestead from 1785 to 1803. summary view of the plan, the means and the objects of
26 ! We Proceeded On May 2013 this expedition. If therefore there is anything under those for western tribes, and brigadier general of the militia the circumstances, in this enterprise, which would induce you following spring. In 1813, Clark was appointed Missouri’s to participate with me in it’s fatiegues, it’s dangers and it’s Territorial Governor and ex-of!cio Superintendent of honors, believe me there is no man on earth with whom Indian Affairs. In 1822, Clark accepted a presidential I should feel equal pleasure in sharing them as with appointment as the Superintendent of Indian Affairs yourself.” Lewis asked Clark to: “!nd out and at St. Louis. During his time as soldier, explorer, engage some good hunters, stout, healthy, Indian agent, territorial governor, and federal unmarried men, accustomed to the woods, superintendent, Clark met with hundreds and capable of bearing bodily fatigue in a of individual American Indians including pretty considerable degree: should any Little Turtle, Sacagawea, Sheheke- young men answering this description shote, Cameahwait, Coboway, Black be found in your neighborhood I Buffalo, Rabbit’s Skin Leggings, Black would thank you to give information Hawk, and Keokuk, and negotiated of them on my arivall at the falls of with dozens of Indian tribes. Clark the Ohio.”6 conducted more treaties with Indian Clark responded to Lewis’s nations than any other American. invitation from Clarksville in mid-July Thirty-seven of the 370 Indian treaties with a letter of acceptance. “[I] cheerfully rati!ed by the U.S. Senate bear his name.9 join in an ‘of!cial character’ as mentioned The Mississippi River became Clark’s in your letter and partake of all the Dangers new home, as well as a major transportation Dif!culties & fatigues, and I anticipate the honors thoroughfare that propelled St. Louis to gain the & rewards of the result of such an enterprise should moniker Gateway to the West. The fur business, of we be successful in accomplishing it.”7 While which Clark became a principal player, centered he waited for Lewis’s arrival, Clark searched on the river and its tributaries. Emigrants such for healthy, strong, unmarried men who as Daniel Boone settled along its banks. were accustomed to the outdoors and a Clark’s personal diary from 1826 to 1831 strenuous life. reveals how large a role the river played On October 14, 1803, Lewis in his life. He chronicled in his diary the arrived in Louisville, joining Clark and daily height and condition of the river, forming the famous Lewis and Clark the weather, the names of the steamboats duo. The keelboat was piloted through and vessels arriving or departing, and the Falls to Clarksville and a camp the comings and goings of Indian established at the nearby Clark cabin delegations and family and friends.10 on the eastern edge of town where Clark resided in or near St. Louis William and George Rogers lived. They from 1807 until his death in 1838. He spent almost two weeks going back and shared his time there with two of the forth between Louisville and Clarksville most important people in his life. On making !nal preparations. On October 26, Julia Hancock Clark (top) and Harriet January 5, 1808, he married Judith or 1803, Lewis and Clark, together with the Kennerly Radford Clark (bottom). “Julia” Hancock. They had !ve children nucleus of the Corps of Discovery, including Pencil sketches by together: Meriwether Lewis, William Preston, Kerry D. Soper. York and the “Nine Young Men from Kentucky,” Mary Margaret, George Rogers Hancock, and John set off down the Ohio River from Clarksville, Indiana, on Julius. Two years after Julia’s death in 1820, Clark married a journey into the chronicles of history. The Lewis and her cousin, the widowed Harriet Kennerly Radford, Clark Expedition traveled the Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, who had three small children. Together they had three and Columbia rivers, as well as some of their tributaries. children, Jefferson Kearny, Edmond, and Harriett. Over Of the 10,624 miles they traveled, 85 percent of their the course of three decades, Clark and his growing family journey was via rivers, roughly 9,046 miles.8 made numerous journeys from St. Louis to Louisville and Upon Clark’s safe return in September 1806, Thomas Fincastle, the county seat of Botetourt County, Virginia, to Jefferson soon appointed him the principal Indian agent visit family and friends. These numerous trips to Fincastle, May 2013 We Proceeded On " 27 nestled near the headwaters of the James River in the William followed George Rogers’ example a half foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in addition to his century later when he founded a Kentucky town on the correspondence with of!cials in Washington, constantly south bank of the Ohio River at the con4uence of the kept William Clark apprised of national events and assisted Tennessee River. Many years prior, George Rogers had in maintaining his close connection to the East Coast.11 chosen the location for a settlement. Although a few William Clark was truly a man astride a continent. His settlers arrived after 1820, William platted 100 acres in travels took him from the Atlantic Ocean to the Paci!c 1827 and named the town Paducah. In a letter to his son Ocean and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Lewis, who was attending West Point, Clark wrote, “I Residing near the country’s geographic center in St. Louis, expect to go to the mouth of [the] Tennessee the 26th of he had advanced American claims westward to the Paci!c next month and be absent about two weeks. I have laid out while retaining his associations and contacts along the a town there and intend to sell some lots [in] it, the name Atlantic seaboard. is Pa-du-cah once the largest Nation During the American Revolution, William Clark was truly a man of Indians know[n] in this Country, General George Rogers Clark built and now almost forgotten.”14 It is Fort Nelson in Louisville to provide astride a continent. His travels took important to note that Clark chose protection for the settlers against the the name of an Indian tribe (not Indians’ defense of their land. He used him from the Atlantic Ocean to the the legendary Chickasaw Chief the area as a base of operations during Pacific Ocean and from the Great Paduke) as the name for his town, the Revolutionary War. In 1778, he just as the residents of Kentucky, constructed a post on Corn Island Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana had on the Ohio River where he trained given native names to their states. his 175-man regiment for the western Clark paid for an advertisement theater of the war. After the war was over, the general and in the Missouri Republican to drum up publicity to attract the men of his Illinois regiment received a tract of 150,000 settlers. He wrote: “At the mouth of the Tennessee River, acres for their wartime services. General Clark founded situated on the bluff on the Ohio river, opposite the lower two cities along the Ohio River, one on the sunnyside end of Tennessee Island. This place affords a perfect safe and one on the bluegrass side. He founded Louisville in steam boat land, and can be visited by steam boats from 1778—named after King Louis XVI of France—which New Orleans at all seasons of the year, is well situated represented one of the oldest American cities west of the for houses for the storage of the exports from, and the Appalachian Mountains. In 1783, he platted Clarksville imports to the states of Tennessee and Alabama, at such across the river in Indiana on a thousand acres of the times as the Tennessee River cannot be navigated by steam southwestern corner of the large grant. Clarksville was boats, and possesses numerous other advantages which located opposite the lower Falls of the Ohio, and it was it is deemed unnecessary here to enumerate.”15 Paducah here that Clark eventually established his residence near was incorporated in 1830 and two years later became the a large bluff called Point of Rocks (present-day Clark’s McCracken County seat. Twelve miles from the mouth of Point) overlooking the town and the river. He also built the Cumberland River, 165 miles from Memphis, and 225 a sawmill and gristmill. Clarksville represented one of the miles from Louisville, the city became known for its port !rst American settlements in the Northwest Territory.12 on the river, which serviced steamboats, towboats, and Louisville and Clarksville were situated at about mile barges. The city also served as an industrial center, making 600 on the thousand-mile-long Ohio River. A buffalo red bricks and specializing in water and rail transportation. trace led from the Kentucky salt licks to the Kentucky Later it became a hub for the Illinois Central Railroad, the plains where Iroquoian and Shawnee hunting parties main north-south railway connecting Chicago and East St. accessed bison. The trace crossed the Ohio River at Louis to the north and providing a link to the Burlington the falls and emerged on the west side of Clarksville in Northern Railroad and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Floyd County. Emigration to southern Indiana after the Fe Railway lines. Louisville currently is the largest town revolution consisted principally of settlers from Virginia and Paducah is the !fth or sixth largest town in Kentucky.16 and Kentucky. It was another decade before Congress One of the most significant results of Paducah’s admitted the “Land of the Indians,” or Indiana, to the settlement may be that it is in an area known as the Jackson Union as the nineteenth state on December 11, 1816.13 Purchase—a region in the state of Kentucky bounded by the
28 ! We Proceeded On May 2013 HY P A GR TO R CA BYU , CK E B ENT ENT BR AND G AN RYTTIN G Y ME B
Mississippi River to the west, the Ohio River to the north, to treat with the Chickasaws in 1818. They exchanged and Tennessee River to the east. Although it was included $300,000 for 8,500 square miles west of the Tennessee as part of Kentucky in 1792, it came under national and River. Article 1 of the treaty reaffirmed that “Peace state control in 1819. The 2,100 square miles included seven and friendship are hereby !rmly established and made counties in western Kentucky: Ballard, Hickman, Fulton, perpetual, between the United States of America and the Graves, McCracken, Marshall, and Calloway. The purchase Chickesaw nation of Indians.” Article 2 indicated that also included all of West Tennessee, the region between the the Chickasaws ceded all claim or title to the “land lying Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, which includes all or part north of the south boundary of the state of Tennessee … of twenty counties.17 thence, due west, with said degree of north latitude, to The purchase was necessitated because the Chickasaws where it cuts the Mississippi river at or near the Chickasaw retained their traditional title to the land. Moreover, Bluffs; thence, up the said Mississippi river, to the mouth Thomas Walker’s 1780 survey line of the border between of the Ohio; thence, up the Ohio river, to the mouth of Virginia and North Carolina had been extended to the Tennessee river; thence, up the Tennessee river, to the place Mississippi, supposedly along the 36°30’ parallel, but of beginning.”18 apparently his line was too far north. To remedy the In return, the Chickasaws received $20,000 a year situation, President James Monroe authorized General for !fteen years. Some of their leaders received signing Andrew Jackson and Kentucky Governor Isaac Shelby bonuses with assurances of assistance against the Creek May 2013 We Proceeded On " 29 Nation. A Chickasaw reservation of four square miles Nation.20 Clark extinguished all Osage claims east of a line was established near the Sandy River, a tributary of the extending south from Fort Osage to the Arkansas River Tennessee. The treaty was signed by the signatories, (most of present-day Missouri and half of Arkansas) and rati!ed by the U.S. Senate and proclaimed law on January south of a line between Fort Osage and Fort Madison. 7, 1819. On February 11, 1820, the legislature of Kentucky The Great and Little Osages ceded nearly three hundred approved the report of the commissioners designating the square miles or in Clark’s words, “Thirty Million of state boundary. acres of excellent country” for the Meanwhile, next door in In September 1836, Clark made paltry sum of $1,500 annually, plus Missouri in January 1820, Missouri some additional considerations was petitioning for statehood. his last journey up the and presents. Later, after years of Southerners linked Maine’s efforts experience, a more re4ective Clark to enter the Union as a free state with Missouri River, this time to Fort opined that this !rst treaty he made Missouri’s admission as a slave state. Leavenworth, where he treated “was the hardest treaty on Indians As part of the compromise, slavery he ever made and that if he was to was supposed to be excluded from with the Ioways, Sauks, and Foxes. be damned hereafter it would be for the rest of the Louisiana Purchase making that treaty.”21 north of the southern boundary of Fifteen years after statehood, Missouri or the 36°30’ parallel. Speaker of the House Henry Missourians wanted to expand the northwestern borders Clay represented Kentucky, which had just established its of Missouri to the banks of the Missouri River. Clark of!cial western boundary in 1820. Clay’s eloquence carried may have remembered how Kentucky had extended its the day and on February 26, 1821, the U.S. House voted to boundaries to the Mississippi with the Jackson Purchase, admit Missouri as a slave state.19 which he replicated somewhat with a similar purchase Missouri’s western boundary had always remained in Missouri. Clark’s last Indian treaty, just as his !rst, somewhat elusive. The state’s western edge had been set, involved extracting extensive land cessions from Missouri in part, by Clark’s 1808 and 1809 treaties with the Osage tribes. In September 1836, Clark made his last journey up the Missouri River, this time to Fort Leavenworth, where he treated with the Ioways, Sauks, and Foxes. He argued that extending the Missouri state line to the Missouri River would provide a “natural boundary between whites and Indians.” The Indian delegations agreed to an annual payment of $7,500, a greatly reduced reservation, and other considerations.22 These treaties he conducted at Fort Leavenworth have collectively become known as the Platte Purchase. The Indian cession added 3,149 square miles to the northwestern corner of Missouri and was carved into Andrew, Atchison, Buchanan, Holt, Nodaway, and Platte counties. Clark’s !rst and last Indian treaties, then, had extinguished Indian title to virtually all the land in Missouri. Missouri followed the examples of Kentucky
HY and Virginia, replicating their choice of closely following P A
GR the 36°30’ parallel when they formed and extending their TO R
CA southern and western borders, as well as their penchant for BYU ,
CK seeking to remove most of the Indians from within their E B
ENT ENT borders. Moreover, like the Jackson Purchase, wherein BR Paducah emerged as an important river port and railroad AND G hub, the Platte Purchase included Kansas City and St.
AN RYTTIN Joseph, two of the main departure points for the westward G Y ME
B overland migration of the mid-nineteenth century.
30 ! We Proceeded On May 2013 . T S E W TH R O N OF THE S NDIAN I ITH THE W
G EDITION MEETIN P X E K R LA C EXAS. T TH, AND R S I W E L T. WO T. F , M K OF THE R LA C
M DSON MUSEU R HA C ID RI TAIN WILLIA TAIN S P A C
TESY OF THE OF TESY R C.M. RUSSELL, COU Clark conducted more treaties with Indian nations than any other American. Thirty-seven of the 370 Indian treaties ratified by the U.S. Senate bear his name.
Clark’s immediate and extended family stretched in a with honor in the Revolutionary War, even spending the line from St. Louis to Louisville to Fincastle. William Clark winter with General George Washington at Valley Forge. made numerous visits to Louisville. He visited Jonathan Jonathan became the caretaker of the Clarks’ Virginia at Trough Spring; Edmund at Mulberry Hill or in town; estate when his family moved to Louisville. After both George Rogers at Point of Rocks and later at his sister parents died near the turn of the century, Jonathan became Lucy Clark Croghan’s home at Locust Grove after George the patriarch of the family and was looked to for advice Rogers’s leg was amputated in 1809. He visited his brother- and counsel. William continually turned to Jonathan for in-law Richard C. Anderson (Elizabeth’s widower) at advice throughout his life, usually through letters.24 Soldier’s Retreat, and sister Frances or “Fanny” (O’Fallon, The letters covered topics including military service, Thruston, Fitzhugh) at a number of locations, including the expedition, the Burr Conspiracy, reuniting at the falls, brother-in-law Dennis Fitzhugh’s store, as well as family money and property matters, fossil excavations at Big members buried at Mulberry Hill. In his journeys to Bone Lick, William’s activities in St. Louis, and William’s Fincastle, Virginia, to see his friend William Preston or reaction to the death of his dear friend Meriwether Lewis. his Hancock in-laws, Clark’s roots ran deep in Kentucky Clark also wrote about York and his other slaves. Nearly and Virginia.23 12 letters speci!cally mention York. They reveal that York William admired Jonathan and George Rogers. was married before he joined the expedition and that, after Jonathan received the most attention from his parents, their return, he wanted to rejoin his wife and family in who tried to ensure that his education and station in life Kentucky. Initially Clark resisted, which caused a great rift would make him worthy of inheriting the family estate between the two. York’s persistence eventually paid off. and caring for them in their old age. Jonathan was a After serving some time with severe masters, he was sent dutiful son, and ful!lled his parents’ expectations, serving back to Louisville to serve William’s extended family. Clark May 2013 We Proceeded On " 31 eventually freed York and set him up in his own drayage Missouri Compromise in 1820, also played a decisive role business hauling freight. York was not the only slave who in the Compromise of 1850, which simultaneously delayed caused William to question the institution of slavery and yet ensured the impending con4ict. Abraham Lincoln and consider liquidating his property in exchange for cash. A Jefferson Davis, the respective presidents of the North and personal or private pro!le of William emerges through South, both hailed from Kentucky. Residents of Indiana these letters that is not as apparent in his other writings. and Kentucky divided over the issue, as did Abraham William expressed his gratitude saying, “I received your Lincoln and his Todd in-laws. Nevertheless, the motto on kind letters … with greater pleasure that you can amagine. the Kentucky state 4ag and seal reads, “United We Stand, I do assure you that advice was never given to one who Divided We Fall.”26 receved it with more Satisfaction, As profound an influence as and red the letters of another with George Rogers Clark conceived Jonathan had on William, perhaps more real pleasure than I do yours his brother George Rogers had an … I have in all Cases Sought your and commanded the campaign that even greater impact. George Rogers advice and good Councils words Clark conceived and commanded Cannot express the pleasure which secured the entire Old Northwest the campaign that secured the entire I feel in receving it unasked.”25 Old Northwest Territory for the Clark was not the !rst Kentuckian Territory for the new United States future United States; William co- to have conflicted feelings over commanded the transcontinental slavery, and he would not be the last. One of Clark’s Indian expedition that helped secure the entire New Northwest agents, John Sanford, represented his sister in the court Territory of the Oregon Country for the United States. case over what was to become of her late husband’s slaves. George founded Clarksville, one of the oldest towns in the The Dred Scott Decision was one of the principal causes of Northwest Territory; William helped put St. Louis on the the Civil War. Kentuckian Henry Clay, the author of the map as the principal city of the upper half of the Louisiana Purchase. George led volunteer soldiers to capture Vincennes, only to have to do it again; the same thing happened to William during the War of 1812 when he captured Prairie du Chien, only to lose it again to the British and their Indian allies. Both brothers met and treated with Chickasaws, Shawnees, and other nations. George Rogers Clark called upon Patrick Henry in Williamsburg to elicit support for the new Virginia county named Kentucky. He endured great hardships during the Revolutionary War, This map illustrates the comparative area of the free and slave states and the territory open to slavery or freedom by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. c. 1856
32 ! We Proceeded On May 2013 Jay H. Buckley, Associate Professor of History at Brigham Young University, served as President of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation in 2011-2012. This essay was adapted from his Presidential Address at the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation’s 44th Annual Meeting in Clarksville, Indiana, in August 2012.
N".0+ 1 Major books dealing with Clark’s life include: Jay H. Buckley, William Clark: Indian Diplomat (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press); William Foley, Wilderness Journey: The Life of William Clark (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, Y
CK George 2004); James J. Holmberg, ed., Dear Brother: Letters of William Rogers Clark Clark to Jonathan Clark (New Haven: Yale University Press, (left) and 2002); Landon Y. Jones, William Clark and the Shaping of the West (New York: Hill and Wang, 2004); Peter J. Kastor,
OUISVILLE, KENTU OUISVILLE, his younger L brother, William Clark’s World: Describing America in the Age of IETY, IETY, C
O Unknowns (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011); and S William, AL C
I Jerome O. Steffen, William Clark: Jeffersonian Man on the
R shared many Frontier (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977). The ISTO similar H experiences. author thanks reviewers Jim Holmberg and Gary Moulton, and ILSON F Image proofreaders Carl Camp and Jerry Garrett for their assistance HE T attributed to with this article. 2 TESY OF TESY Matthew H. R Robert E. Gatten, Jr., “The Birthplace of William Clark,” We
COU Jouett. Proceeded On, 19:2 (May 1993), 6-11; Robert E. Gatten, Jr., “Clark Land in Virginia and the Birthplace of William Clark,” but eventually he and his men were awarded land grants. We Proceeded On, 25:2 (May 1999), 6-11; and Christy Hawes Bond, Gateway Families: Ancestors and Descendants of Richard William Clark received Thomas Jefferson’s blessing to Simrall Hawes, III, and Marie Christy Johnson (Concord, MA: accompany Lewis on the expedition, receiving equal pay, C. Hawes Bond, 1994). secured land grants, and land for the members of the 3 John (1725-1799) and Ann (Rogers) Clark (1728-1798) and expedition. Both brothers recruited some of their !nest men their four youngest children: Lucy (1765-1838), Elizabeth (1768- from the Ohio River region and both dealt with river falls: 1795), William (1770-1838), and Frances (1773-1825) arrived at the Falls of the Ohio in March 1785. Ludie J. Kinkead, “How George Rogers at the Falls of the Ohio, and William at the the Parents of George Rogers Clark Came to Kentucky,” The Great Falls of the Missouri and The Dalles of the Columbia. History Quarterly of the Filson Club, 3 (October 1928), 1-4; Brotherly example and advice were not lost on James J. Holmberg, “Mulberry Hill,” in John E. Kleber, The Encyclopedia of Louisville (Lexington: University Press of William. Later, while in General Anthony Wayne’s Kentucky, 2001); Ernest M. Ellison, Mulberry Hill Plantation: campaign, Clark employed Indian scouts, kept a journal, The Clark Family Home in Louisville, Kentucky (Louisville: drew maps, constructed forts, managed men and supplies, Privately printed, 1991); and Alfred Pirtle, “Mulberry Hill: The prepared for dangers, dealt with logistics, fended off attack, First Home of George Rogers Clark in Kentucky,” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, 15 (September 1917), 49-54. and developed skills as a leader and diplomat, lessons Ann Clark died on Christmas Eve, 1798, and her husband, John, from his youth and early manhood in Kentucky. All of passed away on July 29, 1799. Douglas C. Harrison, The Clarks these skills served him well a decade later while on the of Kentucky (Bloomington: iUniverse, Inc., 2011). expedition and in his lifelong career as an Indian agent 4 William Clark, “William Clark’s Notebook, 1798-1801,” and militia general. Following his famous expedition, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. William Clark remained in the West, yet his western 5 William Clark, “Memorandum Notebook, 1798-1801,” legacy is intrinsically tied to his eastern legacy, especially Breckenridge Collection, C 1075, State Historical Society of his relationships and encounters with family and friends, Missouri; and William Clark Papers, Missouri Historical Society, American Indian nations, and the rivers and streams of St. Louis, Missouri. the trans-Appalachian and trans-Mississippian wests. His 6 Lewis to Clark, June 19, 1803, in Donald Jackson, ed., Letters of expedition with Lewis across the continent took them the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents, 1783- 1854, 2 vols. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 1:57-60. across many rivers, through many Indian nations, and 7 forged the Corps of Discovery into a family. Clark to Lewis, July 29, 1803, in Letters, 1:112-13. 8 The de!nitive source of the expedition is Gary E. Moulton, May 2013 We Proceeded On " 33 ed., The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, 13 vols. 57.5 feet by 173 feet deep, with 24 smaller lots lying along the (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001). For an river. J.H. Battle, W.H. Perrin, and G.C. Knif!n, Kentucky: analysis of Clark’s interactions with rivers, including the Corps A History of the State (1885; Rev. ed., Easley, SC: Southern of Discovery’s use of a keelboat, two pirogues, and more than Historical Press, 1979), part 2:1-7. a dozen canoes, bull boats, catamarans, and rafts, see Vern 18 Charles J. Kappler, ed., “Treaty with the Chickasaw, 1818,” Huser, On the River with Lewis and Clark (College Station: Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, 7 vols. (Washington: Texas A & M University Press, 2004). Jonathan Clark diary, Government Printing Of!ce, 1904), 2:174-77. October 26, 1803, “Capt. Lewis and Capt. Wm. Clark sot [set] of[f] on a Western tour - went in their boat to Mr. Temple’s.” 19 Robert Pierce Forbes, The Missouri Compromise and Its Benjamin Temple was Jonathan’s son-in-law who had a farm Aftermath: Slavery & the Meaning of America (Chapel Hill: along the Ohio River in the area of present-day Lake Dreamland University of North Carolina Press, 2007). neighborhood in western Louisville. Jonathan Clark Diary, 20 Thomas Jefferson and Henry Dearborn, “Commission of Clark-Hite Collection, and John Clark Papers – Temple Bodley William Clark as Brigadier General of the Militia of Louisiana Collection, The Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky. Territory, March 12, 1807,” William Clark Papers. President An October 29, 1803, report datelined “Louisville” noted that Thomas Jefferson had appointed Clark as brigadier general of “Capt. Clark and Mr. Lewis left this place on Wednesday last the militia and principal Indian agent for all tribes west of the [October 26], on their expedition to the Westward.” Kentucky Mississippi (except the Osages) as part of the Of!ce of Indian Gazette, November 8, 1803. Trade on March 12, 1807. The president already had appointed 9 Buckley, William Clark: Indian Diplomat. Pierre Chouteau as Indian agent for the Great and Little Osages. 10 Louise Barry, ed., “William Clark’s Diary, May 1826-February 21 Buckley, William Clark: Indian Diplomat, 77. 1831,” Kansas Historical Quarterly, 16 (1948), 1-39. 22 “Treaty negotiated by General William Clark with the Ioway, 11 Eldon G. Chuinard, “Fincastle—Santillane and William and Sac, and Fox Tribes,” dated September 17, 1836, Superintendency Judith Clark,” We Proceeded On, 14:1 (February 1988), 10-15; Records, Kansas State Historical Society. Raymond P. Barnes, “George Hancock,” Virginia Cavalcade, 23 20:2 (1970), 34-39; Stella M. Drumm, “The Kennerlys of Trough Spring was Jonathan Clark’s home near Louisville, Virginia,” Missouri Historical Collections, 6 (1928), 98-123; and just east of Mulberry Hill. The core of the house still stands Gene Crotty, The Visits of Lewis and Clark to Fincastle, Virginia but has signi!cantly changed since the Clarks lived there. (Roanoke: History Museum and Historical Society of Western George Rogers selected the location and William supervised Virginia, 2003). its building. Locust Grove was the home of William and Lucy 12 Clark Croghan, about six miles upstream from Louisville. Still The map of the grant, the Virginia patent, and the names of extant today as a historic home, it is a beautiful brick Georgian those receiving land (mostly veterans from Pennsylvania and style house. George Rogers spent the last nine years of his life Virginia) are in William H. English, Conquest of the Country there after his leg was amputated. After Jonathan died in 1811, Northwest of the River Ohio, 1778-1783: And Life of Gen. William shifted his base of operations while visiting Louisville George Rogers Clark, 2 vols. (Indianapolis: Bowen-Merrill to Locust Grove, and Julia and their children spent months Co., 1897), 2:834-35, 839-50, 852-53, 1117-19; Margaret M. there at a time while he traveled or was in St. Louis. Soldier’s Harding, comp., George Rogers Clark and His Men: Military Retreat was the home of Richard C. Anderson, about ten miles Records, 1778-1784 (Frankfort: Kentucky Historical Society, east of Louisville. After his wife Elizabeth Clark Anderson died 1981); and James A. James, George Rogers Clark Papers, 1771- in 1795, the families remained close. Soldier’s Retreat usually 1784, 2 vols. (Spring!eld: Indiana State Historical Society, was the jumping off place for Clarks heading east via the road 1912-1926). See also John D. Barnhart and Dorothy L. Riker, to Frankfort, which William did in October 1809. Some of the Indiana to 1816: The Colonial Period (Indianapolis: Indiana original outbuildings remain and a replica of the original stone Historical Society, 1971), 254; Andrew R. L. Cayton, Frontier house was built in the 1970s and 1980s. These houses can be Indiana (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996), 103, viewed at www.lewisandclarkinkentucky.org. 178; and James H. Madison, The Indiana Way: A State History (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), 29. 24 Jim Holmberg, curator at the Filson Historical Society, edited nearly 50 letters between William and Jonathan that were 13 For a more detailed history of the county, see Lewis C. Baird, discovered in 1988. Holmberg’s book is the culmination of more Baird’s History of Clark County Indiana (Indianapolis: B.F. than a decade of work piecing together the people, places, and Bowen & Co., 1909); and John Bakeless, Background to Glory: events mentioned in this correspondence where William sought The Life of George Rogers Clark (Philadelphia: Lippincott, the advice and approval of his oldest brother. See Holmberg, 1957). Dear Brother: Letters of William Clark to Jonathan Clark. 14 William Clark to Meriwether Lewis Clark, April 27, 1827, in 25 William Clark Papers. Jonathan Clark Diary, Clark-Hite Collection, The Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky.; Jonathan Clark Papers 15 “PA-DU-CAH,” Missouri Republican, April 26, 1827. - Temple Bodley Collection, The Filson Historical Society. 16 John P. Dyson, “The Naming of Paducah,” Register of the Quoted in Jim Holmberg, “I Wish You to See & Know All,” We Kentucky Historical Society, 92:2 (1994), 149-74; and F. Kevin Proceeded On, 18:4 (November 1992), 5; and Holmberg, Dear Simon, ed., The WPA Guide to Kentucky (1939; reprint, Brother: Letters of William Clark to Jonathan Clark. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996), 221-29. 26 James A. Ramage and Andrea S. Watkins, Kentucky Rising: 17 Robert Fletcher, as agent for William Clark, recorded the plan Democracy, Slavery, and Culture from the Early Republic to June 18, 1830. The 12 blocks of 12 lots each, lot fronts measuring the Civil War (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2011).
34 ! We Proceeded On May 2013 Reviews
and repair of the !rearms (in particular have astonished the Indians, as well as Weapons of the Lewis & Clark by John Shields); and trade in arms with anyone in America in 1804. Expedition the Indians. Indians knew how guns worked. +JN(BSSZ He reminds us that Lewis wrote First you pour a measured charge of The Arthur H. Clark Company on July 12, 1805, “we eat an emensity blackpowder down the muzzle, then $32.95 / 208 pp. of meat; it requires 4 deer, [or] an ram a lead ball down the bore, return the Elk and a deer, or one Buffaloe, to ram rod to the sleeves under the barrel, supply us plentifully 24 hours.” This put some blackpowder in the 4ash pan, demonstrates the importance of guns be sure your 4int is OK, cock the gun, for the survival of the mission. pull the trigger and a loud noise results The author devotes a chapter to along with a 4ash of !re and a large each !rearm, the edged weapons (knives, quantity of smoke. tomahawks, swords, and spontoons), With the repeating air ri4e, Lewis the ammunition, and John Shields, the could put a target on a tree and !re 20 extraordinary gunsmith/blacksmith. shots in a minute without smoke or loud On April 8, 1806, Clark wrote, “John noise, and no preparation for each shot. Shields cut out my ri4e & brought hir They were astonished! You can read to shoot very well. The party owes much in Chapter 6 the details of acceptance to the injinuity of this man, by whome by historians of the certainty of Lewis their guns are repaired when they get out having this repeating air ri4e. of order—which is very often.” The controversy of the origin of the Historians generally agree on “short” ri4es is ongoing. Garry gives the types of weapons carried on the both positions in Chapter 3. Everyone expedition. There are only two guns agrees that Lewis picked up 15 ri4es that engender controversy, the air ri4e at Harpers Ferry, and that they were eapons of the Lewis & Clark and the Harpers Ferry “short” ri4e. prepared at the same time his iron boat W Expedition is a book that I have Lewis mentions his air ri4e several was being constructed there. Were they wanted to write. In my heart, I know times in his journals, but does not give of new construction, or were the 15 my version of this book would be dry, any particulars on it. He demonstrated ri4es taken from a 1792 sub-contractor’s technical, and interesting shipment in storage only to the specialist. at the armory? My Jim Garry’s book covers position is that the the subject fully and is a 15 rifles were pre- Girandoni Model 1780 repeating air rifle. pleasure to read. It will production examples satisfy the advanced arms of the Harpers Ferry collector and educate the Model 1803 ri4e. non-technical historian. J i m G a r r y T h e m e n o f Harpers Ferry Model 1803 rifle. has written a very the Lewis and Clark readable book on Expedition carried a relatively small it during meetings with Indian chiefs the important subject of the weapons assortment of weapons. All had ri4es and usually wrote that the Indians were of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. or muskets for hunting and defense. astonished at its performance. He presents technical aspects of the Lewis had an air ri4e and a shotgun in For many decades historians firearms couched in language the addition to his ri4e. There were a few were convinced that Lewis’s air ri4e casual reader will understand, and pistols, two swivel-blunderbusses, and was a single-shot air rifle made by he covers the controversial subjects one small swivel-cannon. The of!cers Isaiah Lukens in Philadelphia. I was in an impartial manner. There is carried swords and spontoons, and all the recipient of a spirited series of misinformation on this subject in carried tomahawks and knives. denouncements and feisty letters-to- several publications and on the Internet. Jim Garry does much more than the-editor when I published articles With this book in your library, you will just describe the weapons. He provides (WPO, November 2002 and May have current information from a trusted historical background on the expedition 2011) debunking the Lukens’ air gun and knowledgeable author. and how it was armed; how the Indians and proposing that Lewis carried a that Lewis and Clark met were armed; repeating, .46 caliber, Austrian Military —Michael F. Carrick use of the weapons for hunting, Model 1780 air ri4e capable of !ring Note: This book includes 23 illustrations specimen gathering, and defense; care 20 shots in a minute. Now that would provided by the reviewer. May 2013 We Proceeded On " 35 Soundings
Make New Discoveries and Plan Your Next Adventure
B5 R5%$ C""201 Geographer, National Park Service
he National Park Service is proud Tto announce and share a new in- teractive Web map of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. Per- sonalize your exploration by dis- covering exciting trail themes with this portal into the geography of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. This interactive map allows you to instantly travel to Lewis and Clark campsites, learn about the historic rivers encountered on the expedition, and dynamically display different map layers and backgrounds of your choice. The information is organized themati- cally in a table of contents and you An overview of what map users see when they first visit the map site. can choose to view map layers that show recreation and visitor sites, historic information, natural and cultural resources, land cover, public lands, and much more. The interactive map site also contains a variety of clickable links to Web sites that provide a wealth of infor- mation about the trail, including the online journals of Lewis and Clark. Unlike traditional paper maps, which are static and contain a lim- ited number of geographic layers printed at a set scale, the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail interactive map site allows you to zoom in and out of areas of interest and choose the geographic extent A detailed, “zoomed-in” view of the Fort Mandan area, showing the historic Missouri River, the course of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, campsites, and historic overlooks, as well as some of and scale at which you wish to the “pop-ups” a map user can view to find more information. view the trail. Users can turn lay- ers of information on and off in the table of contents and more data layers and tools will be added. The National display different map backgrounds, such as aerial photos, Park Service hopes this interactive Web map will be used by topographic maps, street maps, and terrain. The site allows people not only to help plan their trips along the trail, but you to create, export, and print your own custom maps by also to educate future generations about the historic journey drawing and adding text. Toolbars are available to allow of the Corps of Discovery and the importance of protecting you to measure distance and area, add your own GPS data, the trail’s vital resources. To learn more, visit the Lewis and !nd latitude and longitude coordinates, and open and view Clark National Historic Trail’s website at http://www.nps. locations in Google Maps and Google Earth Street View. gov/lecl or access the interactive web map directly at http:// The interactive Web map will continue to be enhanced and imgis.nps.gov/DSC/Viewer/?Viewer=LECL.
36 ! We Proceeded On May 2013