CHAPTER XXXII

MARCH TO FORT BENTON.--MARSHALING THE TRIBES

Before the close of the council, agents Tappan and Craig arrived with the proposed delegation of Nez Perces under Looking Glass, Spotted Eagle, Eagle-from-the-Light, and other chiefs. It was agreed that they and the Flatheads and Pend Oreilles, under their chiefs Victor and Alexander, and accompanied by agent Thomas Adams and interpreter Ben Kiser, should cross the mountains to the buffalo country, and hunt on the plains south of the Missouri, until the time came for holding the great peace council at Fort Benton, of which they would be notified. Their agents were instructed to keep the governor informed of their whereabouts by frequent expresses, and to guard against collisions with the Blackfoot war-parties, and also to communicate with the Crow Indians and induce them to attend the council. Dr. Lansdale, agent for the Flathead nation, remained, and during the summer made extensive examinations of the reservation on the Flathead River and the surrounding country.

These arrangements completed, on Wednesday, July 18, the second day after the close of the council, the governor dispatched Pearson, who had just returned to the party after his rapid trip to Olympia from the Walla Walla council, with full reports of the council just held, and letters to the Indian and territorial officers in Olympia, and resumed the march to Fort Benton, crossing for six miles the broad level valley here known as the Hell Gate Ronde, and passing the deep, dark portal of that name,[9] and, six miles beyond it, encamped on the Hell Gate River. During the next five days and one hundred miles the party traversed the broad plateau of the great mountain chain over a beautiful rolling country of wide grassy valleys and gently rolling prairies, interspersed with low wooded hills and spurs, and well watered by clear, cold, rapid mountain streams. It was hard to realize that this beautiful and diversified prairie country was the top of the Rocky Mountains, the backbone of the continent. At the second day's camp the Indian hunter and guide, a Pend Oreille furnished by Alexander, brought in a fine string of mountain trout, and, not content with this, started out again, and soon returned with an elk, and after this the messes were rarely out of game,--elk, deer, antelope, and mountain trout. The trail followed up the Hell Gate and its chief tributary, the Big Blackfoot, the route of 1853, and crossed the divide by Lewis and Clark's Pass. From the summit the governor obtained a magnificent and beautiful view of the country about an hour before sunset, the main chain stretching far to the north, and the broad plains, broken by many streams and coulees, extending eastward as far as the eye could reach, like an illimitable sea.

He spent the whole day, with Doty and Sohon, examining the approaches to the summit pass, and those to Cadotte's Pass, ten miles farther south, and determining altitudes and grades, and reached camp long after dark, well fatigued with the day's work. Throughout the expedition the governor was constantly examining the topographical features of the country. He would frequently ride ahead of the train, and, sitting on a log or on the ground, would write up his notes or journal until it came up. He was accustomed to start the train rather late in the morning, about eight o'clock, move at a steady, brisk walk, without stopping for noon rest or meal, and make camp early in the afternoon, and by this management plenty of time was afforded the animals to feed mornings and evenings. Twenty miles was the average day's journey, but thirty or forty miles were made with ease whenever expedient, as often happened. No better equipped or manned train ever traversed the plains and mountains.

It always moved in fine order, without delays, confusion, or friction. A worn-down or sore-backed mule or horse was a rarity. At the first symptom of need of rest, a fresh animal from the loose herd relieved the distressed one. The packers worked in couples, each two packing and caring for ten pack-mules. The riding animals were picked Indian horses. The mules were of large American stock, mostly those of the exploration of 1853. Thorough discipline and the best feeling prevailed among the party. There was scarcely a quarrel during the whole nine months the expedition lasted. This judicious care of the animals was characteristic of the governor, and it is noticeable that on his arduous expeditions, though hard-worked and only grass-fed, they actually improved in condition,--a unique experience on the plains.

Leaving behind the prairies, groves, and sparkling, rippling streams of the mountain plateau, the party entered upon the vast rolling plains, gray and arid, and, traveling over them one hundred and thirty miles, camping one night on the Dearborn River, one on the Sun, and three on the Teton, reached the vicinity of Fort Benton on the fifth day, and went into camp on the last-named river four miles from the fort. The governor, riding ahead, reached it a day sooner, on the 26th, and was disappointed in not finding or hearing from his co-commissioner, Superintendent Alfred Cumming. During this march the party were rarely out of sight of game. Large herds of graceful, fleet antelopes would come scouring across the plains, and circle around the slowly moving train, now abruptly halting to gaze with erect heads and distended eyes at the strange procession, and now dashing on again in full career, and presently, their curiosity satisfied, turning away and scampering out of sight. Deer and elk were constantly seen by the river banks and under the cottonwood groves. Buffalo trails crossed the country in every direction, and their skulls and bones were frequent. Thus far the party followed well-marked trails, but on entering the plains the guide directed his course by some distant butte or landmark, or by the sun, for there was no trail leading in a given course, and the buffalo trails lacing the plains in every direction were very misleading. The plains were covered with the short, fine, curly buffalo grass, very different from the luxuriant, waving bunch grass of the Columbia, but equally nutritious.

Learning of Mr. Cumming's approach, the governor, accompanied by Doty and Sohon and a small party, made a three days' trip to Milk River, August 11-13, a distance of eighty miles, where the commissioners met and formally organized the commission, appointing Mr. Doty secretary, and Mr. H. Kennedy, who came with Mr. Cumming, assistant secretary, and returned together to Fort Benton. The governor was seriously concerned to learn that the treaty goods and supplies were greatly delayed. Commissioner Cumming had been specially charged with the duty of transporting them to Fort Benton; but under his dilatory management the steamboat, which carried them with himself up the Missouri, did not reach Fort Union until late in the season, and, instead of continuing up the river as far as possible, discharged her cargo and returned to St. Louis. The goods were then loaded into boats, which were now slowly proceeding up the river by cordeling, or towing by a force of men walking along the bank and pulling on a long tow-rope. This unexpected and inexcusable delay seriously imperiled the holding of the council. Governor Stevens had brought with him only sufficient supplies to carry his small party to Fort Benton, expecting to find there ample stores sent up by the government under charge of Cumming. The western Indians, who at his invitation had come so far to attend the council, could not find subsistence for a long wait; and it was necessary for them, as well as for the governor and party, to start home before winter set in and blocked the return journey. The great numbers of the Blackfeet made it difficult to keep them in hand and assemble them late in the season, for they were accustomed, and indeed were obliged, to spread over a wide territory in order to hunt buffalo, and lay in their winter robes, lodge-skins, and food.

While in Washington the preceding summer Governor Stevens had urged upon the Indian Department the importance of the early arrival of the goods at Fort Benton, and on reaching Olympia in December, repeated his recommendations in writing. Moreover, he wrote a personal letter to the President urging the necessity of having a steamer start with them at the earliest moment in the spring, and push up the Missouri above Fort Union as far as possible, and especially recommended that a boat be chartered expressly for the trip. He added a prophetic caution, or warning, against relying upon the American Fur Company to transport the goods, as they could not be depended upon to make the necessary early start and vigorous push up the river, which would entail some extra expense and risk, but would surely pursue their usual methods, and in the end sacrifice the public interests to their own. Notwithstanding these wise and urgent recommendations, the whole matter was left to Cumming, who late in the spring wrote the commissioner, proposing that the council be postponed to another year. Being thereupon informed that Governor Stevens was probably already on his way with the western Indians too far to be recalled, and instructed to proceed, he contracted with the fur company to transport the goods, with the predicted result. In this and other ways he manifested a perfect willingness to play into the hands of the fur company, a willingness which, whatever the motive, affords the only rational explanation of this transaction, of his entire indifference to the success of the council, and of his opposition to making adequate provision in the way of farms and annuities for civilizing the Indians. Of course, the American Fur Company, like the Hudson Bay Company, was averse to having its trade impaired and eventually destroyed by the government's giving goods to, and civilizing, the Indians.

At the governor's instance, messengers were immediately dispatched to the boats to ascertain how long before they would probably arrive, and to the different bands of Indians to advise them that they must wait longer than was expected, and to ascertain and regulate their movements, so that they might readily reach the council ground when notified, and meantime find sufficient buffalo and other game to support them.

Provisions for his own party, now nearly out, were sought at the fort, but the traders were also destitute, not having yet received their annual supply from below, and could furnish nothing but a few hundred pounds of old jerked buffalo meat, exactly like worn-out boot-leather in appearance,--so black, dry, tough, and dirty was it. It seems that all the jerked meat, when first obtained, was piled up loose in one of the store-rooms, and free access to it given the cooks and Indian wives of the employees. They naturally picked out the best first, so that, after the winter's use, only the dryest and toughest pieces and scraps remained. However, two parfleches of pemmican of one hundred pounds each were found among the goods left by the exploring party two years before. This pemmican was put up by the Red River half-breeds, and consisted of jerked buffalo meat pounded fine and mixed with buffalo fat and dried berries, and then packed in large bags of rawhide called parfleches. It had become so hardened by age that it had to be chopped out of the parfleches with an axe, but it was perfectly sweet and good, and afforded a very palatable and nourishing hash.

The governor now fitted out a hunting party under Hugh Robie, with a pack-train, and sent them with a party of Gros Ventre Indians to the Judith River, some eighty miles south of the fort, after buffalo. These noble game animals were found there in great numbers and very fat. The hunters, white and red, killed hundreds of them, stripping off the hides and flesh, which they brought into camp, where the squaws jerked the meat by cutting it into thin slices and strips and drying it on scaffolds in the sun, and dressed the skins for lodges. In three weeks Robie and his party returned with his pack-mules and riding animals loaded down with fat, juicy buffalo meat,--a two months' supply for the whole party. Metsic, an Indian hunter, was kept busy hunting in the vicinity of the fort, and brought in many deer and antelope, and small parties were from time to time sent to the Citadel Rock, a noted landmark twenty miles down the river, after bighorn, which were so abundant there that the hunters would load their animals in a day's hunt. The governor was desirous that his son should see and experience all the aspects of the trip, and believed in throwing a boy on his own resources, without too close supervision, as the proper way of developing his judgment and capacity; so Hazard, who was now well hardened to riding and the fatigues of the field, and sufficiently adventurous, accompanied the buffalo and big-horn hunting parties. There was no danger of starving, but the governor remarks:--

"As we had very little bread, sugar, or coffee, the bighorn of Citadel Rock were exceedingly delightful as an article of food, and are generally preferred by the mountain men to any other game except buffalo; so between buffalo, bighorn, and the smaller game we fared very well. The parties who extended our information of the country in conveying messages to the Indians, etc., invariably lived either on the dried meat they took with them, or on the game which they killed from day to day. They had no flour, no sugar, no coffee, and yet there was not a word of complaint from one of them; but we made it the subject of a good deal of merriment when we were able to reach the boats and have a sufficiency of those articles which in civilized life are deemed indispensable to comfort."

Meanwhile the Indians were all well in hand, ready and anxious for the council, which nothing delayed but the unfortunate backwardness of the boats. The Blackfeet were mostly north of the Missouri, the western Indians south of it, and the governor by his expresses kept himself informed of and guided their movements. The reports from the agents with the latter were especially encouraging. The Nez Perces, 108 lodges; Flatheads and Pend Oreilles, 68 lodges; and 40 lodges of the Snakes, numbering all told 216 lodges, or over 2000 souls,--were in one camp on the Muscle Shell River, awaiting the call to the council. The whole camp of the Gros Ventres, and Low Horn's band of the Piegans of 54 lodges, were in the vicinity. The hereditary enemies were visiting and hunting together on most friendly terms, their minds all attuned to peace and friendship, and all anxious for the council.

An incident now occurred well calculated to test the good faith of the Blackfeet. When making arrangements in the Bitter Root valley for the western Indians to attend the council, and they had objected that the Blackfeet would steal their horses, Governor Stevens assured them of his belief that the Blackfeet would receive them with kindness and hospitality, using this expression: "I guarantee that when you pull in your lariat in the morning, you will find a horse at the end of it." Relying on his assurance, four young Pend Oreille braves visited the governor at Fort Benton, and on his invitation turned their horses into his band, which grazed two miles above the fort. Next morning they were gone. Two young warriors of the northern Blackfeet had picked them out from over a hundred animals, and made off with them. The governor immediately put Little Dog, a prominent chief of the Bloods, to search for the trail of the raiders, and at the same time dispatched Doty with one attendant and a guide to the northern camps, judging that the thieves would seek refuge in that quarter. Little Dog returned unsuccessful, not finding a hoof-print of the missing horses in one hundred miles and thirty hours' hard riding, and was sent north to follow Doty. The latter pushed on fifty miles a day for two hundred and thirty miles to Bow River in British territory, a tributary of the Saskatchewan, where he struck a large Blackfoot camp only two hours after the arrival there of the stolen horses. He immediately called together the chiefs, and demanded the surrender of the animals. The head chief, Lame Bull, returned three of them, but stated that one of the scamps had gotten off with the fourth. He expressed great regret at the theft, and offered two of his own horses in place of the one not recovered. Doty placed the rescued animals in charge of Little Dog, who had overtaken him, and resuming the pursuit of the remaining one, rode seventy miles to Elk River, another branch of the Saskatchewan, where he found another large camp of Blackfeet, and where the chief, Bull's Head, delivered to him the last horse with expressions of regret at the misconduct of his young men, and the offer of another horse by way of amends. On the sixteenth day after the horses were taken they were returned to the Pend Oreille braves at the fort. This was the first and last instance of horse-stealing by the Blackfeet pending the council, and afforded most gratifying proof of their good faith. Thus a depredation which might have led to disastrous results was made the means of demonstrating the sincerity and strengthening the friendship of the Indians.

All these Indians professed great willingness to make friends with the western tribes and the Crows, and agreed to meet them at the council and conclude a treaty. They arranged with Mr. Doty to so direct their movements as to bring them within reach of Fort Benton at the proper time. He also secured James Bird as interpreter, an intelligent half-breed, said to be the best interpreter in the country, who was then visiting Low Horn's band.

On August 27 Pearson arrived with letters from Olympia, and reported that everything was quiet and favorable west of the mountains, and that many miners and settlers were going into the upper country, gold having recently been discovered on the Columbia, near Colville.

"Pearson rode seventeen hundred and fifty miles by the route he took from the Bitter Root valley to Olympia, and back to Benton, in twenty-eight days, during some of which he did not travel. He was less than three days going from Fort Owen to Fort Benton, a distance, by the route he pursued, of some two hundred and sixty miles, which he traveled without a change of animals, having no food but the berries of the country, except a little fish, which he killed on Travelers' Rest Creek of Lewis and Clark on the morning of starting from Fort Owen, which served him for a single meal," as the governor says in his final report.

On his trips Pearson usually drove two extra horses ahead of him, and, when the one he was riding became tired, changed his saddle to a fresh one. He could "ride anything that wore hair," and was equally expert with the lariat which he carried at the horn of his saddle. He always contrived, too, to procure fresh horses at certain points on his long trips, as at Walla Walla, Lapwai, and the Bitter Root valley, sometimes having previously left them, and sometimes by trading with the Indians. Imagine this little man of steel, insensible to cold, hunger, and fatigue, galloping like a centaur, day after day, across the vast, lonely plains, driving before him his two loose horses!

The messenger dispatched to the boats returned with the report that they would probably reach the mouth of the Judith in twenty days, and Fort Benton in thirty or thirty-five, or on the 5th to the 10th of October. The governor proposed that one of the boats be loaded with the most necessary goods and forced up faster by an extra crew, in order to hasten the opening of the council, leaving the others to follow; but Commissioner Cumming refused to consent to this expedient. He was a large, portly man, pompous, and full of his own importance, and having been named first as commissioner, and charged with bringing up the goods and the disbursements for the council, now attempted to arrogate to himself practically sole and exclusive authority. He even attempted to dismiss Doty as secretary, and claimed the right to appoint all the officers for the council; and this was the more unreasonable because he had not brought with him a single efficient man, and the whole work of holding and collecting the Indians, furnishing interpreters, and in short carrying the council through successfully, had to be done, and was done, by Governor Stevens and the trained force he had provided for the purpose. But the governor firmly insisted that nothing could be done except by the act of the commission; sternly informed his colleague that he would not permit him to repudiate his own action in organizing it, appointing the secretary, etc.; submitted a series of rules regulating its proceedings, and required all official communications between them to be in writing and made a matter of record. Under this firm and decided treatment Cumming was forced to abate his pretensions and subside into his proper place; but he opposed most of the governor's suggestions, disagreed with him on all points, and exhibited a degree of arrogance, ignorance, and childish petulance hard to be believed, were they not so plainly shown by the official record.

In framing the treaty the governor proposed that farms be opened for the Blackfeet on the upper waters of the Sun River, and that $50,000 a year be allowed the Indians for twenty years, the greater part to be expended in carrying on the farms, instructing the Indians, etc. This amount was authorized by their instructions, and did not seem very extravagant for teaching twelve thousand Indians the ways of civilization, and leading them to abandon their life-long hostilities and predatory raids, being only about four dollars per capita. But Cumming flatly refused to agree to more than $35,000, and objected to the farms as "affording opportunities for speculating under the guise of philanthropy." As the Blackfeet were within his superintendency, this was really a reflection upon himself and his agents not intended by the self-sufficient official. The commissioners were instructed to report generally on the Indians and the country. Cumming stigmatized the Blackfeet as utter savages, bloodthirsty and depraved, and declared that they would use goods that might be furnished them as the means of buying rum at the British trading-posts, and, therefore, that annuities of goods, etc., would only aid in demoralizing them. As to the country, he adopted, _con amore_, the Jefferson Davis theory, asserting that "it is a vast and sterile region, which could not sustain the animals required for even a limited emigration, and altogether unfitted for cultivation. Every part of this barren region must forever be closed against all modern improvements in the way of transportation, with the exception of the Missouri River." He was as unable to appreciate the philanthropic views of Governor Stevens, and his earnest desire to improve the Indians, as he was ignorant of them and of the country.

The governor's views are given at length, and have been remarkably sustained by the subsequent settlement of the country. The following extracts will be found interesting, particularly his calculation that a million and a half buffalo grazed over the region:--

"It is in the main an exceedingly fine grazing country, of great salubrity of climate, much arable land of good quality, with abundant cottonwood on the streams, and many localities abound in pine of the finest quality. A portion of the country is scantily watered, but not seriously to affect its capabilities as a grazing country, or to interfere with emigration. At the base of the mountains, throughout nearly the whole length of the Blackfoot country, the soil is good, in many places exceedingly rich, and the grasses abundant and of the finest quality. At the heads of Milk and Marias rivers, and at the heads of all the southern tributaries of the south branch of the Saskatchewan, between latitudes 48° 30´ and 49°, there are abundant forests of pine, large tracts of arable land, and lakes well stocked with fish. On the Highwood alone, there are at least fifteen thousand acres of arable land.

"So far from this country not being able to supply the wants of even a limited emigration, an emigration could not possibly take place which would exhaust its capabilities.

"The quantities of buffalo which these plains subsist, not to take into account the vast herds of elk, deer, bighorn, antelope, and other game, will alone carry conviction that the territory inhabited by the Blackfeet is a good grazing country.

"The Blackfeet live almost exclusively on the buffalo. They number above ten thousand souls. They make twenty thousand robes a year. They require nearly twenty thousand skins for their renewal of lodges annually and other purposes. All these are the skins of cows. For several months they live entirely on bulls, and many bulls are killed at all seasons of the year. Making the proper allowance for animals that die of disease, are killed by wolves, or other causes, and for the known improvidence of Indians, it is believed that one hundred and fifty thousand buffalo of three years old and upward are required each year to subsist, clothe, and house these Indians. This number must be added each year to the herds of grown animals to prevent a decrease. Estimating that three quarters of the cows bear young, and that one half of these come to maturity, eight hundred thousand buffalo of and above three years, and one million and a half buffalo of all ages must be roaming on these plains to enable the Indians to live. Yet, on a large portion of this region the grass is hardly touched from one year's end to another.

"The whole of the Gros Ventres and nearly three fourths of the Piegans, Bloods, and Blackfeet winter on the Milk, Marias, and Teton, finding subsistence for their animals in the bottoms, and food from the buffalo which frequent the groves of cottonwood.

"THE CHARACTER OF THE BLACKFEET.

"They are called savages, yet their four tribes have lived together many years on terms of amity, making war only on the neighboring tribes. The chiefs, who promised the undersigned two years' since to use their influence to prevent their people from warring on the neighboring tribes, have been true to their word, and have in some cases incurred the displeasure of their wild young men for their persistency. These chiefs, and all the Blackfoot chiefs, have sent word to their hereditary enemies, the Flatheads, the Nez Perces, and the Crows: 'Come to the council without fear. Your persons and your horses shall be under our protection, and if a horse be taken by some of our wild young men, his place shall at once be made good.' The undersigned looks forward to no disturbance at the council, for he believes the Blackfeet will keep their word.

"The Blackfeet have expressed a strong desire for farms, schools, mills, and shops. They are quick to learn, have a great curiosity to handle tools and implements, and are excellent herders of animals. The women are proverbially industrious, many of them expert in the use of the needle, and persons of both sexes seem to fall readily into the ways of the whites."

FOOTNOTES:

[9] Now occupied by the thriving town, Missoula.