The Life and Adventures of James P Beckwourth

by James P Beckwourth

  Their village was closely watched by our spies; every movement made by the enemy was promptly reported to our chief. During the night they appeared to sleep soundly, probably fatigued with a late dance. But in the morning they were astir betimes, and having packed up, started forward in our direction, apparently unaware of our presence. On they came — men, women, and children — utterly unconscious of the terrible shock that awaited them. Our warriors were never better prepared for a conflict, and never more certain of victory. We were drawn up on a high table prairie, our whole force concealed from view at no greater distance than half pistol-shot.

  Their chief led the van, and with him were several young squaws, who were laughing and dancing around him, evidently to his great amusement. They were near enough to launch the thunders of war upon them, and our chief gave orders to charge. The order was instantly carried into effect. The chief who, a moment before, was so joyous, surrounded by his tawny young squaws, was the first to fall beneath my battle-axe, and his attendants scattered like chaff before the wind. We were upon the warriors so unexpectedly that they had hardly time to draw their weapons before they were overthrown and put to flight. They were encumbered with women, children, and baggage. Our attention was directed solely to the men; the women were unharmed, except those who were overturned by our horses.

  During the engagement, a powerful Black Foot aimed a blow at me with his battle-axe, which Pine Leaf deprived of its effect by piercing his body through with her lance. In a few moments the fighting was over, and after pursuing the flying enemy through the timber, we returned to collect the spoils of victory. We took one hundred and seventy scalps, over one hundred and fifty women and children, besides abundance of weapons, baggage, and horses. The Crows had twenty-nine wounded.

  This was a severe blow to the Black Feet; such a slaughter is of rare occurrence in Indian warfare. Notwithstanding this sad defeat, they rallied their broken band, and attacked us again in the afternoon; but it amounted to nothing, and they fled in gloomy confusion beyond the Crow territory.

  Pine Leaf never signalized herself more than on this occasion. She counted six coos, having killed four of the enemy with her own hand. She had but few superiors in wielding the battle-axe. My horse was killed by the blow which was aimed at my head by the Indian whom the heroine killed. I wore a superb head-dress, ornamented with eagles’ feathers and weasels’ tails — the labor of many days. Early in the action, three of these tails were severed by a bullet which grazed my head. “These Black Feet shoot close,” said the heroine, as she saw the ornaments fall; “but never fear; the Great Spirit will not let them harm us.”

  I took a very pretty young woman prisoner, but was obliged to give her up to one of the braves, who had my promise before the battle that if I took one I would give her to him, and if he took one he should give her to me. When a warrior (of the Crow tribe) takes a woman prisoner, she is considered his sister, and he can never marry her. If she marries, her husband is brother-in-law to her captor. Our prisoners soon forgot their captivity; they even seemed pleased with the change, for they joined with great alacrity in our scalp-dance over the scalps of their own people.

  All Indian women are considered by the stronger sex as menials: they are thoroughly reconciled to their degradation, and the superiority of their “lords and masters” is their chiefest subject of boast. They are patient, plodding, and unambitious, although there are instances in savage life of a woman manifesting superior talent, and making her influence felt upon the community.

  During my visit at Fort Union I engaged to build a fort for M’Kenzie to store his goods in safety at the mouth of the Big Horn River, one of the branches of the Yellow Stone. Accordingly, I repaired to the place to select a good site and commence operations. On arriving at the spot, I found the boats close by, but as there was no secure quay at the junction of the streams, I selected a site about a mile below. There were fifty men, who had arrived with the boats, hired to assist me in erecting the fort. The stipulated dimensions were one hundred and twenty yards for each front, the building to be a solid square, with a block-house at opposite corners. The fort was erected of hewn logs planted perpendicularly in the ground; the walls were eighteen feet high. As soon as the pickets were up, we built our houses inside, in order to be prepared for the approach of winter. When I had been engaged about six weeks upon its construction, four hundred lodges of Crows moved into our immediate vicinity, thus affording us plenty of company, and a sufficient force to protect us against the attacks of hostile tribes.

  When we had completed our building we unloaded the boats, and commenced trading with the Indians. During the first year the company was very unsuccessful, sinking over seventeen thousand dollars in the undertaking. This, however, was principally attributable to the outlay upon the fort (the wages of the fifty men engaged in constructing it ran for twelve months), and to the number of presents which it is customary, on such occasions, to distribute among the Indians.

  After the Crows had removed to the fort, they were repeatedly annoyed with attacks from different hostile tribes. I was engaged in two small encounters during the winter, in both of which we were completely victorious. The Crows were fully occupied in protecting their own horses, or levying contributions upon their neighbors.

  During the winter we accumulated a large amount of peltry, which in the spring I sent down to Fort Union in five Mackinaw boats, built by ourselves for the purpose. I sent a sufficient number of men to take good care of the boats, and to return up stream with a fresh supply of goods. I then left the fort in charge of Winters, leaving him thirty men for a guard. I also had provided an ample stock of dried meat, so that they might avoid the risk of hunting for provisions.

  Early in May we commenced our march in search of summer quarters. We traveled by easy stages, and on a circuitous route, so that when we finally arrived at Rosebud Creek, a branch of the Yellow Stone, we found ourselves but twenty miles distant from the fort.

  After we had remained about a week at our encampment, our village was invested by a large war-party of Black Feet. It happened very fortunately we were building a medicine lodge at the time, and our whole force was at home, which circumstance most probably preserved us from a disastrous defeat. Our enemies numbered about four thousand warriors, to oppose whom we had two thousand eight hundred practiced warriors, besides the old men, who always acted as village guards. At daybreak the enemy advanced upon our village with great impetuosity. Our war-horses being tied to our lodge doors, the first alarm found our defenders ready mounted to meet the assailants. We did not allow them to enter the village, but advanced on to the plain to meet them. The contest was severe for several minutes, and the clash of battle-axes and the fierce yells of the opposing forces made the whole prairie tremble. The two parties charged alternately, according to the Indian mode of warfare; but the Crows gained ground at every attack, for they fought with everything at stake. The fight lasted for several hours. Early in the action we discovered a manœuvre of the enemy which would probably have resulted seriously for us had we not perceived it in time. About half their force was detached to attack us in the rear, and take possession of the village. I formed from fifteen to eighteen hundred warriors into a body, and rode down to meet their detachment as it wound around the foot of a small hill. They were in quick march to gain their position, and approached in seeming security. My warriors being formed upon the brow of a hill under which the enemy was passing, I gave the order for a rush down the hill upon them. The attack was made with such irresistible force that everything in our way was overthrown, and warriors and horses were knocked into promiscuous piles. We happened to burst upon their centre, thus severing them in two, and the confusion they became involved in was so irremediable that their only hope was to get back to their main body with as little delay as possible.

  In the attack, a lance thrown by a Black Foot perforated my leggin, just grazing the calf of my leg, and entered the body of my horse, killing him on the spot. My ev
er-present friend, Pine Leaf, instantly withdrew it, releasing me from a very precarious situation, as I was pinned close to the horse, and his dying struggles rendered such proximity extremely unsafe. I sprang upon the horse of a young warrior who was wounded, and called to some of our women to convey the wounded man to a place of safety; the heroine then joined me, and we dashed into the conflict. Her horse was immediately after killed, and I discovered her in a hand-to-hand encounter with a dismounted Black Foot, her lance in one hand and her battle-axe in the other. Three or four springs of my steed brought me upon her antagonist, and, striking him with the breast of my horse when at full speed, I knocked him to the earth senseless, and before he could recover, she pinned him to the ground with her lance and scalped him. When I had overturned the warrior, Pine Leaf called to me, “Ride on; I have him safe now.”

  I rode on accordingly, but she was soon mounted again and at my side. The surviving Black Feet speedily dispersed, and they all retreated together, leaving the Crows master of the field. They left behind ninety-one killed, besides carrying off many dead with their wounded. We lost thirty-one killed, and a large number wounded. I had five horses killed under me, but received no wound. Our enemies, in their retreat, drove off sixteen hundred horses, among which were eighty of my own, but we had plenty left, and we considered these only lent to them. We had no dance, and the relatives of the slain went through their usual mourning.

  A few days after this battle a messenger arrived from the fort with a request for me to return as quickly as possible, as the Black Feet were continually harassing the men, and they were in fear of a general attack. Accordingly, I returned in the latter part of June, and found affairs in a very serious condition. The Indians had grown very bold, and it was hazardous to venture outside the fort.

  One morning seven men were sent about one mile away to cut house-logs, it being supposed there were no Indians in the vicinity. Sometime in the fore-noon I heard the report of a rifle close to our gate. I ran out, and just caught sight of the retreating Indians as they entered the bushes. They had shot and scalped one of our men as he was chopping only a few paces from the gate. The danger that the other men might be placed in then occurred to me, and, ordering the men to follow me, I mounted my horse and hastened to their rescue. I was followed by about one half the men, the remainder preferring the protection of the wooden walls. I soon discovered our men; they were surrounded by forty Indians, the chief of whom appeared to be addressing the sun, and was gesticulating with his battle-axe. On his raising his arm, I sent a ball through his body, and then shouted to the men to run to me. They started, but one of them was shot down before they reached me. The survivors were so terrified that they did not dare to stop when they reached me, but continued their course unslackened until they gained the fort. My followers, seeing their alarm, became fugitives in turn, and I was left alone within gunshot of the remaining thirty-nine Indians. Uttering deafening yells, they made a rush for me; my horse became frightened, and I could scarcely mount him. However, by running by his side a few paces, I managed to leap on his back, and retreated at full speed, while their bullets and arrows flew around me like hail. When I approached the fort, a voice near me cried, “Oh, Jim! don’t leave me here to be killed.”

  I wheeled round, and, with my double-barreled gun in my hand, made a charge toward the whole approaching party, who, seeing my resolute bearing, turned and scampered off. I rode up to the person who had called me, and found him an old man, who was unable to run, and had been abandoned by his valorous companions to the mercy of the savages. I assisted him on to my horse, and was about to spring on behind him, when the horse sprang forward, leaving the old man’s gun behind, and carried him safely to the fort. By this time the Indians had returned upon me. I ran wherever a shelter offered itself; and, when closely pressed, would face round and menace them with my guns. Within a few hundred yards of the fort I came to a small covering which had been used as a shelter by the horse-guards, and I sprang into it, with the Indians at my heels. After expending the contents of my guns, I plied them with arrows to their hearts’ content, until they gave up the fray and retired. This took place in fair view of the fort, when not one of its doughty inmates dare come to my assistance, and who even refused to resign their fire-arms to the women, who were anxious to come to my rescue.

  When at length I succeeded in reaching the fort, I favored the men with my unreserved opinion of them. I had been the means of saving their lives even after the chief of the savages had returned thanks to the sun for their scalps, which he had already deemed secure. I really believe that with Pine Leaf and three other squaws I could have stormed and taken the fort from their possession.

  These men were not mountaineers; they were nearly all Canadians, and had been hired in the East; they were unused to savage warfare, and only two of them had seen an Indian battle. If they had come out like men, we might have killed one half the Indians, and I should have been spared a great deal of hard feeling. They acknowledged, however, that I had flogged the Indians alone, and that six of them were indebted to me for their lives.

  In July, after the arrival of the boats, the Crows again returned to the fort. They came to make purchases with what small means they possessed, as they had disposed of all their peltry on their previous visit. They, however, brought in a great quantity of roots, cherries, berries, etc., which they traded for articles of necessity; they also sold sixty horses, which we sent to M’Kenzie at the lower fort (Clarke).

  It greatly charms the Indians to see new goods when they have the means to buy there is no end to their purchases. When the lances, battle-axes, and guns are spread before their eyes, glittering with their burnished steel, notwithstanding they may have a dozen serviceable weapons at home, they must infallibly purchase a new one. If one purchases, all must follow; hence there is no limit to their demand but the very important one imposed by the extent of their exchangeable commodities.

  The newly-arrived boats were manned with Canadians, all strangers in the country, nearly all having been imported for boating, as they were willing to submit to the hardships of such a life for a smaller remuneration than men hired in the States. On their arrival, their brethren related a thousand tales about the Indians, and what feats I had performed against them single-handed. They listened to the marvelous tales, and gazed at me in wondering admiration.

  When Canadians are fairly broken in, and have become familiar with Indian character, they make the best of Indian fighters, especially when put to it in defense of their own lives. They become superior trappers too, being constituted, like their native ponies, with a capacity to endure the extremest hardships and privations, and to endure starvation for an incredibly long period.

  CHAPTER XVI.

  Departure from Fort Cass. —Capture of Squaws. —Battle with the Black Feet; with the Cheyennes. —Great Success of the Crows in stealing Horses. —A successful Fall for Beaver. —Return to the Fort with Peltry.

  AFTER having arranged everything in the fort (which I have forgotten to mention we named after Mr. Cass), and given all needful instructions to Winters, who was in charge, I again left. My intention was to induce the Crows to devote their undivided attention to trapping, not alone for their own benefit, but for the interest of the company in whose service I was engaged. I well knew that if I was with them they would capture five beavers to one if left to themselves. I had obtained great influence in the medicine lodge, and could often exert it to prevent a war-party from making a useless excursion against their enemies. I would tell them in their council that my medicine told me not to go to war; that it was to their interest to employ their warriors in trapping all the beavers possible, so that they might have the means of purchasing ammunition and weapons for themselves, as well as beads, scarlet cloth, and blankets for the women; that by-and-by we should be attacked by the enemy, and be unprovided with the means of defense; that they would then kill all our warriors, and make captives of our women and children, as the Cheyennes had c
aptured my mother when I was an infant, many winters gone; that they should save all their warriors against a time of need, and only engage in war when the safety of their village was at stake.

  These representations would frequently dissuade them from their belligerent purpose, and beaver-skins would be brought into the village by the pack; but they would soon tire of their pacific occupation, and their enemies’ horses would offer them temptations which they could not resist.

  Nearly all the Crows having left the fort before I did, only a few warriors remained to bear me company. I engaged to meet them at the mouth of the Little Horn within a given number of nights, and I knew I should be expected. We arrived in safety at the place appointed, and within the time I had specified.

  Soon after our arrival, it was proposed to send out a war-party, not so much to fight as to reconnoitre; to see where horses could with least difficulty be procured, and gain a general intelligence of how matters stood. We set out, and had traveled slowly along for nearly two weeks, when our scouts returned to apprise us that there was a large crowd of women approaching toward us. We were then in a forest of plum-trees, bearing large red plums, which were fully ripe, and were very delicious. Feeling satisfied that the women were coming to gather fruit, we secreted ourselves, intending, at a given signal, to surround them while they were busily employed. Accordingly, we waited until they all set themselves about their task, they keeping up an incessant jabber among themselves like so many blackbirds or bob-o-links, and having no suspicion that the Crows would so soon come in for their share. At a sound from the whistle, they were entirely surrounded, and their merry chatter was hushed in an instant. We marched them to an open piece of ground, made them form a line, and proceeded to make selection. The aged, the ill-favored, and the matrons we withdrew from the body, telling them to return to the village, and depart without clamor. They went away in sullenness, with their eyes flashing fire. The remainder, to the number of fifty-nine, very attractive looking young women, we carried along with us; and as we were but three miles distant from their village, and could plainly see the smoke of their lodges, we deemed it prudent to lose no time in making our way home. There were three warriors in the company of the women when first descried, but they were not inclosed in our surround, and we could find no traces of them in any direction.