[85] For a sketch of the Cheyenne, see Bradbury"s _Travels_, in our volume v, p. 140, note 88.--ED.
[86] The rendezvous in 1840 was held in the upper valley of Green River, near Fort Bonneville, in western Wyoming. Near the headwaters of the Missouri, Columbia, and Colorado rivers, this place was a natural and well-known meeting point. For a description of Green River, see Wyeth"s _Oregon_, in our volume xxi, p. 60, note 38; for the rendezvous at this place in 1834, see Townsend"s _Narrative_, in the same volume, p. 192, note 40.--ED.
[87] For a sketch of the Snake Indians, see Bradbury"s _Travels_, in our volume v, p. 227, note 123.--ED.
[88] In the _Voyages aux Montagnes Rocheuses_, De Smet says, "on the 4th of July, I resumed my travels, with my Flatheads."--ED.
[89] Flathead was a term applied to various tribes of Indians who were supposed to practice the custom of flattening the heads of their infants. A division of the Choctaw was known by this name. The tribe here referred to belonged to the Salishan stock; see Franchere"s _Narrative_, in our volume vi, p. 340, note 145. They were not in the habit of flattening the head, and the origin of their cognomen is unknown. The specific tribe visited by De Smet dwelt along the lake and river which bear their name, with their chief centre in the Bitterroot Valley. By the treaty of 1855 they ceded to the government an extensive tract of land in this region, being nearly two degrees in width and extending from near the forty-second parallel to the British line. In November, 1871, the president issued an order for their removal from Bitterroot Valley to the Jocko reservation. Arrangements were further completed by the article of agreement of August 27, 1872.
After considerable delay they removed thither, and together with the Pend d"Oreille and Kutenai, kindred tribes, still inhabit the reservation. See Peter Ronan, _Historical Sketch of the Flathead Indian Nation_ (Helena, 1890).
The Pend d"Oreille (Ear-ring) Indians, whose native name was Kalispel, were kindred to the Flathead, speaking a similar dialect. Their habitat lay northwest of the Flathead proper, upon the Idaho lake and its tributary river bearing their name.--ED.
[90] The Bishop.--DE SMET.
[91] Evidently a misprint for 27th of August. Consult the succeeding letter.--ED.
[92] For sketches of the Blackfeet and the Crows, see Bradbury"s _Travels_, in our volume v, pp. 225 and 226, notes 120, 121 respectively. In _Voyages aux Montagnes Rocheuses_, De Smet says that this camp of Crows consisted of one thousand souls.
The Big Horn River, so called from the Rocky Mountain sheep, rises in the Wind River range, near the centre of Wyoming, flows north through the Big Horn Mountains into Montana, and bending toward the northeast joins the Yellowstone as its princ.i.p.al tributary. South of the Big Horn Mountains, the stream is usually called Wind River. The Big Horn Valley, the home of the Crows, was a rich fur-bearing region and frequently visited by trappers and traders.--ED.
[93] The post visited by Father de Smet was Fort Van Buren, located on the south bank of the Yellowstone, at the mouth of the Rosebud. It was built in 1835 by A. J. Tulloch for the American Fur Company, and stood until 1842, when it was burned by instructions from Charles J.
Larpenteur, who at once ordered the erection of Fort Alexander, on the north side of the Yellowstone, twenty miles higher up. De Smet was mistaken when he said that Fort Van Buren was the first fort of the Yellowstone erected by the American Fur Company. Fort Ca.s.s was built by A. J. Tulloch in 1832 at the mouth of the Big Horn, but three years later was abandoned. The fourth and last fort erected in this region by the American Fur Company was Fort Sarpy, on the south side of this river, twenty-five miles below the old site of Fort Ca.s.s. Consult Major Frederick T. Wilson, "Old Fort Pierre and its Neighbors," with editorial notes by Charles E. De Land, in _South Dakota Hist. Colls._ (Aberdeen, S. D., 1902), i, pp. 259-379.--ED.
[94] Ensyla (Insula), sometimes called Little Chief because of his station, also named Red Feather from his official emblem, and christened Michael because of his faithfulness, was one of the most influential of the Flathead chiefs, and figures prominently in De Smet"s work among the Indians of his tribe. In 1835 he had visited the rendezvous in Green River Valley, in the hope of securing missionary aid, and there met Samuel Parker and Marcus Whitman. See Samuel Parker, _Journal of an Exploring Tour among the Rocky Mountains_ (Ithaca, 1838), p. 77.
According to L. B. Palladino, _Indian and White in the Northwest_ (Baltimore, 1894), Insula was disappointed not to find a "black robe,"
and preserved his tribe for Catholic missionaries. His integrity, judgment, and bravery made him highly esteemed.--ED.
[95] For sketches of the Arikara and Sioux, see Bradbury"s _Travels_, in our volume v, pp. 113 and 90, notes 76 and 55 respectively; for the a.s.siniboin, see Maximilian"s _Travels_, in our volume xxii, p. 370, note 346; for the Gros Ventres, see Bradbury"s _Travels_, in our volume v, p. 114, note 76.--ED.
[96] For a more complete account of John de Velder, see succeeding letter.--ED.
[97] For sketches of Fort Union and James Kipp (not Kipps), see Maximilian"s _Travels_, in our volume xxii, pp. 373, 345, notes 349, 319 respectively.--ED.
[98] "He has given his angels charge of thee, that they guard thee in all thy ways."--DE SMET.
[99] For a sketch of the Mandan Indians, see Bradbury"s _Travels_, in our volume v, p. 114, note 76; for an account of their burial customs, see p. 160, in the same volume; and for the location of their villages, see Maximilian"s _Travels_, in our volume xxiii, p. 234, note 192. The smallpox scourge occurred in 1837.
In reference to buffalo-boats or skin-boats, see Maximilian"s _Travels_, in our volume xxiii, p. 279, note 246.--ED.
[100] For the original location of the Arikara villages, see our volume xxii, pp. 335, 336, notes 299, 300. At the time of the great small-pox scourge (1837), the Arikara were encamped near the Mandan village. The latter tribe abandoned their villages, and the small remnant moved some three miles up the Missouri, where they erected fifteen or twenty new huts; while the Arikara took possession of their old villages, where De Smet found them. For their location see our volume xxiii, pp. 254, 255.
When the missionary in the succeeding sentence speaks of starting from the "Mandan village," he means the former Mandan village, now inhabited by the Arikara. The latter tribe remained at this site until their removal to Fort Berthold, about 1862.--ED.
[101] In reference to Fort Pierre, see Maximilian"s _Travels_, in our volume xxii, p. 315, note 277. For a description of the Little Missouri River, more frequently known as Teton or Bad, see our volume xxiii, p. 94, note 81.--ED.
[102] The reference is to the various divisions of the Dakota or Sioux; but the cla.s.sification is unsatisfactory. For recent cla.s.sification, see J. W. Powell, U. S. Bureau of Ethnology _Report_, 1885-86, pp. 111-113; also Maximilian"s _Travels_, in our volume xxii, p. 326, note 287. By the "Jantonnais" and "Jantons," De Smet intends the modern Yanktonai and Yankton.--ED.
[103] Vermillion Post, established for trading with the lower Sioux tribes, was located on the east bank of the Missouri, ten miles below the mouth of the Vermillion. The shifting of the stream has since 1881 rendered difficult the locating of the old post, which was described by Audubon, who pa.s.sed there in 1843; see M. R. Audubon, _Audubon and his Journals_ (New York, 1897), i, pp. 493, 494. Also consult _South Dakota Historical Collections_, i, pp. 376, 377. d.i.c.kson"s post, also called Fort Vermillion, was some miles above the river of that name.
See our volume xxiv, p. 97, note 73. It is uncertain which post is intended.--ED.
[104] By the treaty made at Chicago in September, 1833, the Potawatomi, Ottawa, and Chippewa ceded to the United States government about five million acres of land, whereupon the Potawatomi were a.s.signed to a reservation between the western borders of the state of Missouri and the Missouri River, in what was later known as the Platte purchase. This tract was incorporated with Missouri in 1836, and the Indian tribe was transferred to a reservation in southwestern Iowa, with Council Bluffs as their chief village. Here in 1838 Father Verreydt, with Father de Smet and two lay brothers, laid the foundation of a mission dedicated to the "Blessed Virgin and St.
Joseph," where De Smet served until his departure for the Flathead country (1840). Father Christian Hoecken succeeded him. By the treaty of 1846 the Potawatomi were transferred from Iowa to Kansas, where another Catholic mission was begun among them, frequently visited by De Smet in his later life.--ED.
[105] In 1839 Father de Smet undertook a journey from St. Joseph"s mission, at Council Bluffs, into the Sioux territory for the purpose of effecting a treaty between these tribes and the Potawatomi. He ascended the Missouri in the steamer of the American Fur Company, on which J. N. Nicollet, the famous geographer, was likewise a pa.s.senger.
See Chittenden and Richardson, _De Smet_, i, pp. 179-192.--ED.
LETTER II
TO THE REV. FATHER ROOTHAAN, GENERAL OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS[106]
University of St. Louis, 7th Feb. 1841.
Very Rev. Father:
In a letter, which I suppose has been communicated to you, I informed the Bishop of St. Louis of the results, as far as they bear on religion, of my journey to the _Rocky Mountains_. But that letter, though lengthy, could give you but a very imperfect idea of the desert which I pa.s.sed six months in traversing, and of the tribes who make it the scene of their perpetual and sanguinary rivalship. It will, therefore, I think, be useful to resume the history of my mission; and I repeat it the more willingly, since I am called to penetrate again into those deep solitudes, from which, I may, perhaps, never return.
To my brethren, who take an interest in my dear Indians, I owe an account of all my observations upon their character and customs, upon the aspect and resources of the country they inhabit, and upon their dispositions, that they may know how far they are favorable to the propagation of the Gospel.[107]
We arrived the 18th of May upon the banks of the _Nebraska_, or _Big Horn_, which is called by the French by the less suitable name of the _Flat River_.[108] It is one of the most magnificent rivers of North America. From its source, which is hidden among the remotest mountains of this vast continent, to the river Missouri, of which it is a tributary, it receives a number of torrents descending from the [XXIX]
Rocky Mountains; it refreshes and fertilizes immense vallies, and forms at its mouth the two great geographical divisions of the upper and lower Missouri. As we proceeded up this river, scenes more or less picturesque opened upon our view. In the middle of the Nebraska, thousands of islands, under various aspects, presented nearly every form of lovely scenery. I have seen some of those isles, which, at a distance, might be taken for flotillas, mingling their full sails with verdant garlands, or festoons of flowers; and as the current flowed rapidly around them, they seemed, as it were, flying on the waters, thus completing the charming illusion, by this apparent motion. The tree which the soil of these islands produces in the greatest abundance, is a species of white poplar, called cotton tree; the savages cut it in winter, and make of the bark, which appears to have a good taste, food for their horses.
Along the banks of the river, vast plains extend, where we saw, from time to time, innumerable herds of wild Antelopes. Further on, we met with a quant.i.ty of buffaloes" skulls and bones, regularly arranged in a semicircular form, and painted in different colors. It was a monument raised by superst.i.tion, for the p.a.w.nees never undertake an expedition against the savages who may be hostile to their tribe, or against the wild beasts of the forest, without commencing the chase, or war, by some religious ceremony, performed amidst these heaps of bones. At the sight of them our huntsmen raised a cry of joy; they well knew that the plain of the buffaloes was not far off, and they expressed by these shouts the antic.i.p.ated pleasure of spreading havoc among the peaceful herds.
Wishing to obtain a commanding view of the hunt, I got up early in the morning and quitted the camp alone, in order to ascend a hillock near our tents, from which I might [x.x.x] fully view the widely extended pasturages. After crossing some ravines, I reached an eminence, whence I descried a plain, whose radius was about twelve miles, entirely covered with wild oxen. You could not form, from any thing in your European markets, an idea of their movement and mult.i.tude. Just as I was beginning to view them, I heard shouts near me; it was our huntsmen, who rapidly rushed down upon the affrighted herd--the buffalos fell in great numbers beneath their weapons. When they were tired with killing them, each cut up his prey, put behind him his favorite part, and retired, leaving the rest for the voracity of the wolves, which are exceedingly numerous in these places, and they did not fail to enjoy the repast. On the following night I was awakened by a confused noise, which, in the fear of the moment, I mistook for impending danger. I imagined, in my first terror, that the p.a.w.nees, conspiring to dispute with us the pa.s.sage over their lands, had a.s.sembled around our camp, and that these lugubrious cries were their signal of attack.--"Where are we," said I, abruptly, to my guide.
"Hark ye!--Rest easy," he replied, laying down again in his bed; "we have nothing to fear; it is the wolves that are howling with joy, after their long winter"s hunger: they are making a great meal to-night on the carca.s.ses of the buffalos, which our huntsmen have left after them on the plain."
On the 28th, we forded the southern arm of the river Platte.[109] All the land lying between this river and the great mountains is only a heath, almost universally covered with lava and other volcanic substances. This sterile country, says a modern traveller,[110]
resembles, in nakedness and the monotonous undulations of its soil, the sandy deserts of Asia. Here no permanent dwelling has ever been erected, and even the huntsman seldom appears in the best seasons of the year. At all other times the gra.s.s is withered, the [x.x.xI] streams dried up; the buffalo, the stag, and the antelope, desert these dreary plains, and retire with the expiring verdure, leaving behind them a vast solitude completely uninhabited. Deep ravines formerly the beds of impetuous torrents, intersect it in every direction, but now-a-days the sight of them only adds to the painful thirst which tortures the traveller. Here and there are heaps of stones, piled confusedly like ruins; ridges of rock, which rise up before you like impa.s.sible barriers, and which interrupt, without embellishing, the wearisome sameness of these solitudes. Such are the Black Hills; beyond these rise the Rocky Mountains, the imposing land-marks of the Atlantic world. The pa.s.ses and vallies of this vast chain of mountains afford an asylum to a great number of savage tribes, many of whom are only the miserable remnants of different people, who were formerly in the peaceable possession of the land, but are now driven back by war into almost inaccessible defiles, where spoliation can pursue them no further.
This desert of the West, such as I have just described it, seems to defy the industry of civilized man. Some lands, more advantageously situated upon the banks of rivers, might, perhaps, be successfully reduced to cultivation; others might be turned into pastures as fertile as those of the East--but it is to be feared that this immense region forms a limit between civilization and barbarism, and that bands of malefactors, organised like the Caravans of the Arabs, may here practise their depredations with impunity. This country will, perhaps, one day, be the cradle of a new people, composed of the ancient savage races, and of that cla.s.s of adventurers, fugitives and exiles, that society has cast forth from its bosom--a heterogeneous and dangerous population, which the American Union has collected like a [x.x.xII] portentous cloud upon its frontiers, and whose force and irritation it is constantly increasing, by transporting entire tribes of Indians from the banks of the Mississippi, where they were born, into the solitudes of the West, which are a.s.signed as their place of exile. These savages carry with them an implacable hatred towards the whites, for having, they say, unjustly driven them from their country, far from the tombs of their fathers, in order to take possession of their inheritance. Should some of these tribes hereafter form themselves into hordes, similar to the wandering people, partly shepherds, and partly warriors, who traverse with their flocks the plains of Upper Asia, is there not reason to fear, that in process of time, they with others, may organize themselves into bands of pillagers and a.s.sa.s.sins, having the fleet horses of the prairies to carry them; with the desert as the scene of their outrages, and inaccessible rocks to secure their lives and plunder?
On the 4th of June we crossed the Ramee, a tributary river of the Platte.[111] About forty tents erected on its banks, served as dwellings for a part of the tribe of the Sheyennes. These Indians are distinguishable for their civility, their cleanly and decent habits.
The men, in general, are of good stature, and of great strength; their nose is aquiline, and their chin strongly developed. The neighboring nations consider them the most courageous warriors of the prairies.
Their history is the same as that of all the savages who have been driven back into the West--they are only the shadow of the once powerful nation of the Shaways, who formerly lived upon the banks of the Red River. The Scioux, their irreconcilable enemies, forced them, after a dreadful war, to pa.s.s over the Missouri, and to retreat behind the Warrican, where they fortified themselves; but the conquerors again attacked them, and drove them from [x.x.xIII] post to post, into the midst of the Black Coasts, situate upon the waters of the Great Sheyenne River.[112] In consequence of these reverses, their tribe, reduced to two thousand souls, has lost even its name, being now called Sheyennes, from the name of the river that protects the remnant of the tribe. The Sheyennes have not since sought to form any fixed establishment, lest the Scioux should come again to dispute with them the lands which they might have chosen for their country. They live by hunting, and follow the buffalo in his various migrations.
The princ.i.p.al warriors of the nation invited me to a solemn banquet, in which three of the great chief"s best dogs were served up to do me honor. I had half a one for my share. You may judge of my embarra.s.sment, when I tell you that I attended one of those feasts at which every one is to eat all that is offered to him. Fortunately, one may call to his aid another guest, provided that the request to perform the kind office be accompanied by a present of tobacco.
In our way from Ramee, the sojourn of the Sheyennes, to the Green River, where the Flat Heads were waiting for me, we successively pa.s.sed the Black Hills, which owe this name not to the color of the soil and rocks that form them, but to the sombre verdure of the cedars and pines that shadow their sides; the Red Bute,[113] a central point by which the savages are continually crossing, when emigrating to the West, or going up towards the North; and the famous rock, Independence, which is detached, like an outwork, from the immense chain of mountains that divide North America. It might be called the great registry of the desert, for on it may be read in large characters the names of the several travellers who have visited the Rocky Mountains. My name figures amongst so many others, as [x.x.xIV]
that of the first priest who has visited these solitary regions.[114]
These mountains have been designated the _back-bone_ of the world. In fact a fitter appellation could not be given to these enormous ma.s.ses of granite, whose summit is elevated nearly twenty-four thousand feet above the level of the sea; they are but rocks piled upon rocks. One might think that he beheld the ruins of a world covered, if I may so speak, with a winding-sheet of everlasting snow.
I shall here interrupt the recital of my journey, to give a short account of the different tribes of the mountains, and of the territory they inhabit. I will join with my own personal observations the most correct information that I could possibly obtain.
The Soshonees, or Root-diggers, appeared in great numbers at the common rendezvous, where the deputations from all the tribes a.s.semble every year, to exchange the products of their rude industry. They inhabit the southern part of the Oregon, in the vicinity of California. Their population, consisting of about ten thousand souls, is divided into several parties, scattered up and down in the most uncultivated quarter of the West. They are called Snakes, because in their indigence they are reduced, like such reptiles, to burrow in the earth and live upon roots. They would have no other food if some hunting parties did not occasionally pa.s.s beyond the mountains in pursuit of the buffalo, while a part of the tribe proceeds along the banks of the Salmon River, to make provision for the winter, at the season when the fish come up from the sea.[115] Three hundred of their warriors wished, in honor of the whites, to go through a sort of military parade: they were hideously painted, armed with their clubs, and covered over with feathers, pearls, wolves" tails, the teeth and claws of animals and similar strange ornaments, with which each of them [x.x.xV] had decked himself, according to his caprice. Such as had received wounds in battle, or slain the enemies of their tribe, showed ostentatiously their scars, and had floating, in the form of a standard, the scalps which they won from the conquered. After having rushed in good order, and at full gallop, upon our camp, as if to take it by a.s.sault, they went several times round it, uttering at intervals cries of joy. They at length dismounted, and came and gave their hands to all the whites in token of union and friendship.
Whilst I was at the rendezvous, the Snakes were preparing for an expedition against the Black-Feet. When a chief is about to wage war, he announces his intention to his young warriors in the following manner. On the evening before his departure, he makes his farewell dance before each cabin; and everywhere receives tobacco, or some other present. His friends wish him great success, scalps, horses, and a speedy return. If he brings back women as prisoners, he delivers them as a prey to the wives, mothers, and sisters of his soldiers, who kill them with the hatchet or knife, after having vented against their unhappy captives the most outrageous insults: "Why are we unable,"