FootNote
The new kid on the block, FootNote is known for digitizing historical
documents... many of which are genealogical gems. With naturalizations,
city directories, war records, newspapers, town records, etc... this new
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While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
In speaking of the Indians,
I have almost forgotten two bold adventurers
of another race, the trappers Rouleau and
Saraphin. These men were bent on a most
hazardous enterprise. A day's journey to the
westward was the country over which the
Arapahoes are accustomed to range, and for
which the two trappers were on the point of
setting out. These Arapahoes, of whom Shaw
and I afterward fell in with a large
village, are ferocious barbarians, of a most
brutal and wolfish aspect, and of late they
had declared themselves enemies to the
whites, and threatened death to the first
who should venture within their territory.
The occasion of the declaration was as
follows:
In the previous spring, 1845, Colonel Kearny
left Fort Leavenworth with several companies
of dragoons, and marching with extraordinary
celerity reached Fort Laramie, whence he
passed along the foot of the mountains to
Bent's Fort and then, turning eastward
again, returned to the point from whence he
set out. While at Fort Larantie, he sent a
part of his command as far westward as
Sweetwater, while he himself remained at the
fort, and dispatched messages to the
surrounding Indians to meet him there in
council. Then for the first time the tribes
of that vicinity saw the white warriors,
and, as might have been expected, they were
lost in astonishment at their regular order,
their gay attire, the completeness of their
martial equipment, and the great size and
power of their horses. Among the rest, the
Arapahoes came in considerable numbers to
the fort. They had lately committed numerous
acts of outrage, and Colonel Kearny
threatened that if they killed any more
white men he would turn loose his dragoons
upon them, and annihilate their whole
nation. In the evening, to add effect to his
speech, he ordered a howitzer to be fired
and a rocket to be thrown up. Many of the
Arapahoes fell prostrate on the ground,
while others ran screaming with amazement
and terror. On the following day they
withdrew to their mountains, confounded with
awe at the appearance of the dragoons, at
their big gun which went off twice at one
shot, and the fiery messenger which they had
sent up to the Great Spirit. For many months
they remained quiet, and did no further
mischief. At length, just before we came
into the country, one of them, by an act of
the basest treachery, killed two white men,
Boot and May, who were trapping among the
mountains. For this act it was impossible to
discover a motive. It seemed to spring from
one of those inexplicable impulses which
often actuate Indians and appear no better
than the mere outbreaks of native ferocity.
No sooner was the murder committed than the
whole tribe were in extreme consternation.
They expected every day that the avenging
dragoons would arrive, little thinking that
a desert of nine hundred miles in extent lay
between the latter and their mountain
fastnesses. A large deputation of them came
to Fort Laramie, bringing a valuable present
of horses, in compensation for the lives of
the murdered men. These Bordeaux refused to
accept. They then asked him if he would be
satisfied with their delivering up the
murderer himself; but he declined this offer
also. The Arapahoes went back more terrified
than ever. Weeks passed away, and still no
dragoons appeared. A result followed which
all those best acquainted with Indians had
predicted. They conceived that fear had
prevented Bordeaux from accepting their
gifts, and that they had nothing to
apprehend from the vengeance of the whites.
From terror they rose to the height of
insolence and presumption. They called the
white men cowards and old women; and a
friendly Dakota came to Fort Laramie and
reported that they were determined to kill
the first of the white dogs whom they could
lay hands on.
Had a military officer, intrusted with
suitable powers, been stationed at Fort
Laramie, and having accepted the offer of
the Arapahoes to deliver up the murderer,
had ordered him to be immediately led out
and shot, in presence of his tribe, they
would have been awed into tranquillity, and
much danger and calamity averted; but now
the neighborhood of the Medicine-Bow
Mountain and the region beyond it was a
scene of extreme peril. Old Mene-Seela, a
true friend of the whites, and many other of
the Indians gathered about the two trappers,
and vainly endeavored to turn them from
their purpose; but Rouleau and Saraphin only
laughed at the danger. On the morning
preceding that on which they were to leave
the camp, we could all discern faint white
columns of smoke rising against the dark
base of the Medicine-Bow. Scouts were out
immediately, and reported that these
proceeded from an Arapahoe camp, abandoned
only a few hours before. Still the two
trappers continued their preparations for
departure.
Saraphin was a tall, powerful fellow, with a
sullen and sinister countenance. His rifle
had very probably drawn other blood than
that of buffalo or even Indians. Rouleau had
a broad ruddy face marked with as few traces
of thought or care as a child's. His figure
was remarkably square and strong, but the
first joints of both his feet were frozen
off, and his horse had lately thrown and
trampled upon him, by which he had been
severely injured in the chest. But nothing
could check his inveterate propensity for
laughter and gayety. He went all day rolling
about the camp on his stumps of feet,
talking and singing and frolicking with the
Indian women, as they were engaged at their
work. In fact Rouleau had an unlucky
partiality for squaws. He always had one
whom he must needs bedizen with beads,
ribbons, and all the finery of an Indian
wardrobe; and though he was of course
obliged to leave her behind him during his
expeditions, yet this hazardous necessity
did not at all trouble him, for his
disposition was the very reverse of jealous.
If at any time he had not lavished the whole
of the precarious profits of his vocation
upon his dark favorite, he always devoted
the rest to feasting his comrades. If liquor
was not to be had—and this was usually the
case—strong coffee was substituted. As the
men of that region are by no means
remarkable for providence or self-restraint,
whatever was set before them on these
occasions, however extravagant in price, or
enormous in quantity, was sure to be
disposed of at one sitting. Like other
trappers, Rouleau's life was one of contrast
and variety. It was only at certain seasons,
and for a limited time, that he was absent
on his expeditions. For the rest of the year
he would be lounging about the fort, or
encamped with his friends in its vicinity,
lazily hunting or enjoying all the luxury of
inaction; but when once in pursuit of
beaver, he was involved in extreme
privations and desperate perils. When in the
midst of his game and his enemies, hand and
foot, eye and ear, are incessantly active.
Frequently he must content himself with
devouring his evening meal uncooked, lest
the light of his fire should attract the
eyes of some wandering Indian; and sometimes
having made his rude repast, he must leave
his fire still blazing, and withdraw to a
distance under cover of the darkness, that
his disappointed enemy, drawn thither by the
light, may find his victim gone, and be
unable to trace his footsteps in the gloom.
This is the life led by scores of men in the
Rocky Mountains and their vicinity. I once
met a trapper whose breast was marked with
the scars of six bullets and arrows, one of
his arms broken by a shot and one of his
knees shattered; yet still, with the
undaunted mettle of New England, from which
part of the country he had come, he
continued to follow his perilous occupation.
To some of the children of cities it may
seem strange that men with no object in view
should continue to follow a life of such
hardship and desperate adventure; yet there
is a mysterious, restless charm in the
basilisk eye of danger, and few men perhaps
remain long in that wild region without
learning to love peril for its own sake, and
to laugh carelessly in the face of death.
On the last day of our stay in this camp,
the trappers were ready for departure. When
in the Black Hills they had caught seven
beaver, and they now left their skins in
charge of Reynal, to be kept until their
return. Their strong, gaunt horses were
equipped with rusty Spanish bits and rude
Mexican saddles, to which wooden stirrups
were attached, while a buffalo robe was
rolled up behind them, and a bundle of
beaver traps slung at the pommel. These,
together with their rifles, their knives,
their powder-horns and bullet-pouches, flint
and steel and a tincup, composed their whole
traveling equipment. They shook hands with
us and rode away; Saraphin with his grim
countenance, like a surly bulldog's, was in
advance; but Rouleau, clambering gayly into
his seat, kicked his horse's sides,
flourished his whip in the air, and trotted
briskly over the prairie, trolling forth a
Canadian song at the top of his lungs.
Reynal looked after them with his face of
brutal selfishness.
"Well," he said, "if they are killed, I
shall have the beaver. They'll fetch me
fifty dollars at the fort, anyhow."
This was the last I saw of them.
We had been for five days in the hunting
camp, and the meat, which all this time had
hung drying in the sun, was now fit for
transportation. Buffalo hides also had been
procured in sufficient quantities for making
the next season's lodges; but it remained to
provide the long slender poles on which they
were to be supported. These were only to be
had among the tall pine woods of the Black
Hills, and in that direction therefore our
next move was to be made. It is worthy of
notice that amid the general abundance which
during this time had prevailed in the camp
there were no instances of individual
privation; for although the hide and the
tongue of the buffalo belong by exclusive
right to the hunter who has killed it, yet
anyone else is equally entitled to help
himself from the rest of the carcass. Thus,
the weak, the aged, and even the indolent
come in for a share of the spoils, and many
a helpless old woman, who would otherwise
perish from starvation, is sustained in
profuse abundance.
On the 25th of July, late in the afternoon,
the camp broke up, with the usual tumult and
confusion, and we were all moving once more,
on horseback and on foot, over the plains.
We advanced, however, but a few miles. The
old men, who during the whole march had been
stoutly striding along on foot in front of
the people, now seated themselves in a
circle on the ground, while all the
families, erecting their lodges in the
prescribed order around them, formed the
usual great circle of the camp; meanwhile
these village patriarchs sat smoking and
talking. I threw my bridle to Raymond, and
sat down as usual along with them. There was
none of that reserve and apparent dignity
which an Indian always assumes when in
council, or in the presence of white men
whom he distrusts. The party, on the
contrary, was an extremely merry one; and as
in a social circle of a quite different
character, "if there was not much wit, there
was at least a great deal of laughter."
When the first pipe was smoked out, I rose
and withdrew to the lodge of my host. Here I
was stooping, in the act of taking off my
powder-horn and bullet-pouch, when suddenly,
and close at hand, pealing loud and shrill,
and in right good earnest, came the terrific
yell of the war-whoop. Kongra-Tonga's squaw
snatched up her youngest child, and ran out
of the lodge. I followed, and found the
whole village in confusion, resounding with
cries and yells. The circle of old men in
the center had vanished. The warriors with
glittering eyes came darting, their weapons
in their hands, out of the low opening of
the lodges, and running with wild yells
toward the farther end of the village.
Advancing a few rods in that direction, I
saw a crowd in furious agitation, while
others ran up on every side to add to the
confusion. Just then I distinguished the
voices of Raymond and Reynal, shouting to me
from a distance, and looking back, I saw the
latter with his rifle in his hand, standing
on the farther bank of a little stream that
ran along the outskirts of the camp. He was
calling to Raymond and myself to come over
and join him, and Raymond, with his usual
deliberate gait and stolid countenance, was
already moving in that direction.
This was clearly the wisest course, unless
we wished to involve ourselves in the fray;
so I turned to go, but just then a pair of
eyes, gleaming like a snake's, and an aged
familiar countenance was thrust from the
opening of a neighboring lodge, and out
bolted old Mene-Seela, full of fight,
clutching his bow and arrows in one hand and
his knife in the other. At that instant he
tripped and fell sprawling on his face,
while his weapons flew scattering away in
every direction. The women with loud screams
were hurrying with their children in their
arms to place them out of danger, and I
observed some hastening to prevent mischief,
by carrying away all the weapons they could
lay hands on. On a rising ground close to
the camp stood a line of old women singing a
medicine song to allay the tumult. As I
approached the side of the brook I heard
gun-shots behind me, and turning back, I saw
that the crowd had separated into two lines
of naked warriors confronting each other at
a respectful distance, and yelling and
jumping about to dodge the shot of their
adversaries, while they discharged bullets
and arrows against each other. At the same
time certain sharp, humming sounds in the
air over my head, like the flight of beetles
on a summer evening, warned me that the
danger was not wholly confined to the
immediate scene of the fray. So wading
through the brook, I joined Reynal and
Raymond, and we sat down on the grass, in
the posture of an armed neutrality, to watch
the result.
Happily it may be for ourselves, though
quite contrary to our expectation, the
disturbance was quelled almost as soon as it
had commenced. When I looked again, the
combatants were once more mingled together
in a mass. Though yells sounded,
occasionally from the throng, the firing had
entirely ceased, and I observed five or six
persons moving busily about, as if acting
the part of peacemakers. One of the village
heralds or criers proclaimed in a loud voice
something which my two companions were too
much engrossed in their own observations to
translate for me. The crowd began to
disperse, though many a deep-set black eye
still glittered with an unnatural luster, as
the warriors slowly withdrew to their
lodges. This fortunate suppression of the
disturbance was owing to a few of the old
men, less pugnacious than Mene-Seela, who
boldly ran in between the combatants and
aided by some of the "soldiers," or Indian
police, succeeded in effecting their object.
It seemed very strange to me that although
many arrows and bullets were discharged, no
one was mortally hurt, and I could only
account for this by the fact that both the
marksman and the object of his aim were
leaping about incessantly during the whole
time. By far the greater part of the
villagers had joined in the fray, for
although there were not more than a dozen
guns in the whole camp, I heard at least
eight or ten shots fired.
In a quarter of an hour all was
comparatively quiet. A large circle of
warriors were again seated in the center of
the village, but this time I did not venture
to join them, because I could see that the
pipe, contrary to the usual order, was
passing from the left hand to the right
around the circle, a sure sign that a
"medicine-smoke" of reconciliation was going
forward, and that a white man would be an
unwelcome intruder. When I again entered the
still agitated camp it was nearly dark, and
mournful cries, howls and wailings resounded
from many female voices. Whether these had
any connection with the late disturbance, or
were merely lamentations for relatives slain
in some former war expeditions, I could not
distinctly ascertain.
To inquire too closely into the cause of the
quarrel was by no means prudent, and it was
not until some time after that I discovered
what had given rise to it. Among the Dakota
there are many associations, or
fraternities, connected with the purposes of
their superstitions, their warfare, or their
social life. There was one called "The
Arrow-Breakers," now in a great measure
disbanded and dispersed. In the village
there were, however, four men belonging to
it, distinguished by the peculiar
arrangement of their hair, which rose in a
high bristling mass above their foreheads,
adding greatly to their apparent height, and
giving them a most ferocious appearance. The
principal among them was the Mad Wolf, a
warrior of remarkable size and strength,
great courage, and the fierceness of a
demon. I had always looked upon him as the
most dangerous man in the village; and
though he often invited me to feasts, I
never entered his lodge unarmed. The Mad
Wolf had taken a fancy to a fine horse
belonging to another Indian, who was called
the Tall Bear; and anxious to get the animal
into his possession, he made the owner a
present of another horse nearly equal in
value. According to the customs of the
Dakota, the acceptance of this gift involved
a sort of obligation to make an equitable
return; and the Tall Bear well understood
that the other had in view the obtaining of
his favorite buffalo horse. He however
accepted the present without a word of
thanks, and having picketed the horse before
his lodge, he suffered day after day to pass
without making the expected return. The Mad
Wolf grew impatient and angry; and at last,
seeing that his bounty was not likely to
produce the desired return, he resolved to
reclaim it. So this evening, as soon as the
village was encamped, he went to the lodge
of the Tall Bear, seized upon the horse that
he had given him, and led him away. At this
the Tall Bear broke into one of those fits
of sullen rage not uncommon among the
Indians. He ran up to the unfortunate horse,
and gave him three mortals stabs with his
knife. Quick as lightning the Mad Wolf drew
his bow to its utmost tension, and held the
arrow quivering close to the breast of his
adversary. The Tall Bear, as the Indians who
were near him said, stood with his bloody
knife in his hand, facing the assailant with
the utmost calmness. Some of his friends and
relatives, seeing his danger, ran hastily to
his assistance. The remaining three
Arrow-Breakers, on the other hand, came to
the aid of their associate. Many of their
friends joined them, the war-cry was raised
on a sudden, and the tumult became general.
The "soldiers," who lent their timely aid in
putting it down, are by far the most
important executive functionaries in an
Indian village. The office is one of
considerable honor, being confided only to
men of courage and repute. They derive their
authority from the old men and chief
warriors of the village, who elect them in
councils occasionally convened for the
purpose, and thus can exercise a degree of
authority which no one else in the village
would dare to assume. While very few
Ogallalla chiefs could venture without
instant jeopardy of their lives to strike or
lay hands upon the meanest of their people,
the "soldiers" in the discharge of their
appropriate functions, have full license to
make use of these and similar acts of
coercion.
