Thanks also to Renee Meade, for her help with research on John Clarke; to Bunny McBride, for sharing with me the curatorial materials for her exhibit “Journeys West: The David & Peggy Rockefeller American Indian Art Collection”; to Harry Palmer, for use of his beautiful and haunting photograph of a commemoration at the site of the Marias Massacre; and to Ezra Zeitler, mapmaker extraordinaire. I want also to acknowledge my debt to Stan Gibson, with whom I never met or corresponded, but whose fascination with the Marias Massacre (as well as his indignation at its obscurity) led him to collect a trove of material now housed in Calgary. I am, moreover, deeply grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities, which provided me with a faculty fellowship that I used to make great progress on the manuscript during the 2010–11 academic year.
I spent nearly a decade at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which treated me exceptionally well, measured in no small part by the generous grants in support of this project that I received from the history department and the UNL Office of Research. And I could not have invented better colleagues, among them Lloyd Ambrosius, Barb Bullington, David Cahan, Parks Coble, Vanessa Gorman, Cindy Hilsabeck, Jeannette Jones, Patrick Jones, Jim Le Sueur, Tim Mahoney, Sandra Pershing, Will Thomas, and Ken Winkle. Thanks especially to my fellow westerners at UNL: James Garza, Margaret Jacobs, Doug Seefeldt, and the godfather himself, John Wunder. Perhaps I would have finished the book faster if not for the hours I passed talking shop (read: Cornhusker football) with Pete Maslowski. But I am much the richer for the time I spent as a visitor to 624 Oldfather Hall, and so is this book—Pete read every word of it, making trenchant suggestions throughout. Deb Hope was an exceptionally kind and patient listener. And Tim Borstelmann kept me grounded—and chuckling—while churning out countless reference letters on my behalf. Grazie mille, amico.
I have been lucky indeed to find such a welcoming new home in the Clements Department of History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Thanks to Jeremy Adams, Kenneth Andrien, Sabri Ates, John Chávez, Dennis Cordell, Ed Countryman, Crista DeLuzio, Melissa Dowling, Jeff Engel, Neil Foley, Kenneth Hamilton, Erin Hochman, Jim Hopkins, Jill Kelly, Tom Knock, Alexis McCrossen, John Mears, Azfar Moin, Dan Orlovsky, Mildred Pinkston, Sharron Pierson, Ling Shiao, and especially Kathleen Wellman, who as chair offered generous financial support to offset some of the costs of book production.
At SMU it is a singular privilege to work at the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, established in 1996 by its visionary founding director, David J. Weber, and serving ever since as an incubator of first-rate research and publication about Texas and the U.S.–Mexico borderlands. I owe special thanks to my wonderful colleagues at the Center, Ruth Ann Elmore and Sherry Smith, and to Andrea Boardman, who retired in 2012 after more than a decade in Dallas Hall.
Fellow scholars and writers from numerous academic disciplines and endeavors have offered me their expert assistance, among them Steve Aron, Bridget Barry, George Black, Susan Burch, Cathleen Cahill, Sarah Carter, Phil Deloria, John Demos, Brian Dippie, Alec Dun, Bill Farr, Brian Frehner, Tom Gannon, James Haley, Rodger Henderson, Tucker Hentz, Michel Hogue, Fred Hoxie, Paul Hutton, Drew Isenberg, Karl Jacoby, Ari Kelman, Fran Kaye, Shepard Krech, David Leonhardt, Carolyn Merchant, Clyde Milner, Gary Moulton, Laura Mielke, Tice Miller, Ken Price, Sam Ratcliffe, John Reiger, Paul Rosier, Claudio Saunt, John Sunder, William Swagerty, Guy Vanderhaeghe, Elliott West, Laura White, Andy Wilson, David Wishart, Steve Witte, and Don Worster. And a very special thanks to the five hardy souls who so generously read the entire manuscript, saving me from errors big and small (those that remain are squarely on me): Anne Hyde, Ben Johnson, Ken Robison, Sherry Smith, and Lesley Wischmann. Nick Guyatt, mensch that he is, read it several times, and often in piecemeal installments—I know of few better historians, and no finer critics. Thanks also to Kelly Lytle Hernandez, for the invitation to present my work at UCLA, and to Gregg Cantrell and Stephanie Cole, for a similar opportunity at a meeting of the Dallas Area Social Historians (DASH). I am grateful, too, for the attentiveness and consideration of audience members at a variety of conferences and lectures.
Thanks to my good friends Jacob Buchdahl, Josh Galper, David Leonhardt, Greg Raskin, and Brett Zbar, for twenty-three years of “humiliating acts of loving kindness” (not to mention unswerving loyalty).
One of the great pleasures of writing this book has been the opportunity to work again with Bob Weil. Many years ago I was Bob’s editorial assistant at St. Martin’s Press, and in the short time I spent in the Flatiron Building I learned a lifetime’s worth about the business of publishing, from bellybands to tip ins and so much in between. Still more important, however, were the standards Bob set for intellectual commitment and professional conduct, which I have tried ever since to emulate. These lessons have served me in ways I could not possibly have imagined when I was in my midtwenties, and I am thus as grateful for Bob’s mentorship as for his unrivaled editorial ability, which has improved this book in more ways than I can count. Thanks also to his terrific assistants, past and present, who have worked with me in bringing this project to completion: Phil Marino, Tom Mayer, Will Menaker, and Lucas Wittman. I am deeply indebted to the copyeditor Otto Sonntag, for his inaugural foray into Montana history.
Of course, I owe the most to my family, starting with my parents, who impressed upon me when I was young the idea that I should choose a path that interested me, and then made that possible in every imaginable way; I have come to understand just how rare and generous a gift that was. My sister, Lisa, inspires me with her activism even as she keeps me in my proverbial shoes. And one of the many benefits in marrying Jennifer Ebinger in 1999 was becoming a part of her family: hugs to Chuck, Lynn, Brad, and Margaret, as well as the wider Ebinger and Makkonen clans. And a sad goodbye to my wonderful sister-in-law, Sara Ebinger, who passed away most unexpectedly just as this book was going to press.
Compelling as I have found the history of the Clarkes, I doubt that the subject would have appealed to me nearly as much if I were not a father and husband myself. My wife, Jennifer, and our children, Fiona and Gavin, are the best parts of every day, the ones who give my life meaning, purpose, and direction. I do not have the words to adequately express my love for them, so perhaps it is best to leave those things—which are so indelibly felt—largely unsaid.
Index
Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.
Page numbers beginning with 247 refer to endnotes.
Abercrombie and Fitch, 221
abolitionists, 137–41, 275
Academy of Music, 156
Adams, John Quincy, 45
adultery, punishment for among Blackfeet, 47
African Americans:
in intermarriage, 81
Jefferson’s views on, 49
suffrage movement for, 162
African colonization, 137
Akseniski (Good Singing), 92–93
à la façon du pays marriages, 48
Alamo, fall of, 69, 259
Albany and Schenectady Railroad, 65
alcohol use:
of Baker, 119, 119, 122, 141, 150
of E. Booth, 155
in fur trade, 73, 76, 81
of G. Bent, 4
among Indians, 40, 41, 45, 82, 109, 120, 123, 144–45, 146, 185
of Kipp, 38
medicinal, 44
in military, 118, 122
of Poe, 55
temperance movement and, 42
allotment policy, 6, 166–81, 186, 188, 227, 284
Indian resistance to, 173–76, 175, 179–80
“American Alps,” 183
American Fur Company (AFC), 8–9, 33–39, 41–43, 62, 73–76, 78–79, 89, 91, 201, 252, 262
American Notes (Dickens), 54
American Revolution, 19, 33, 58, 59
American School for the Deaf, 201, 220
American Sign Language (ASL), 203–4, 214
American Temperance Society, 42
Anadarko, Okla., 231
Anglos, see white Americans
Ann Arbor, Mich., 80
Antietam, Battle of, 86, 267
“Appeal for the Indians, An” (Child), 138
Arapahos, 122, 134
Army, U.S.:
campaign against the Indians by, 113–30
defeats of, 122
Fifth Infantry of, 58–60, 61
hardships of, 118, 121–23
Missouri Division of, 111, 113, 116
Second Cavalry of, 2, 109, 117–30, 130, 145, 161
Seventh Cavalry of, 115, 162
Thirteenth Infantry of, 119
Army and Navy Journal, 136
Aspasia, 165
Assiniboines, 1–3, 24, 26, 37, 39, 43–45, 44, 89
Astor, John Jacob, 32–34
Audubon, John James, 38, 71–73, 181
Audubon, Victor, 71
Aztecs, 85
Baker, Eugene M., 130, 272
accolades for, 129, 131
alcoholism of, 119, 119, 122, 141, 150
attack on Piegans by, 107, 109, 117, 118–32, 119, 147; see also Marias Massacre
condemnation of, 132–33, 136, 144
decline, death, and burial of, 141
surprise strategy of, 120, 122–23
Baker Massacre, see Marias Massacre
Bannack, Mont., 86, 88
Barrymore, Maurice, 156
Bar X Six ranch, 213
Bear Chief, 100
Bear Head, 124–28, 148, 272
Bear in a Trap (J. L. Clarke), 218
Bear Mountain, 54
bears:
carvings of, 211, 212, 216, 217, 218, 219, 221, 225, 238, 239, 240
hunting of, 52, 257
Beauregard, P. G. T., 67
Beecher, Lyman Ward, 42
Bent, Charles, 4, 83
Bent, George, 4
Bent, William, 4, 83
Benton, Fort, 78, 80, 86, 90, 91, 92, 93–94, 95, 96, 129, 159, 193, 206, 279
Benton, Thomas Hart, 78
Berger, Jacob, 37, 77–78
Bernard Pratte & Company, 34
Bernhardt, Sarah, 6, 158
Big Bend, massacre at, see Marias Massacre
Big Horn, 123
Birds of America (J. J. Audubon), 71
Bismarck, N.Dak., 202
bison, see buffalo
Black Bear, 45, 47–48, 51, 101–2
Blackfeet, 142
allotment of, 186–87
deleterious effect of gold rush on, 88–89
eras of hardship for, 143, 177, 185, 242
Ewers’s anthropological record of, 233–35
first encounter between whites and, 28
in fur trade, 35, 48, 76
horses of, 22–24, 23, 229
as hostile and warlike, 25–26, 30, 94
McFee’s anthropological study of, 242–44
novel about, 1–2
original territory of, 15, 21, 26, 37, 40
religious beliefs and customs of, 21, 26, 47
reputation of M. Clarke among, 60, 79–80, 96
as resistant to expansionism, 12–13, 15, 89, 251
Rockefellers’ visit to, 217
smallpox among, 43
spurning of tradition by, 41
Sully’s diplomatic mission to, 107–9
traditional culture and daily life of, 21–22
transformational changes for, 23–25
warrior image of, 25–26, 25
“white-oriented” vs. “Indianoriented,” 242–43
see also Piegans
Blackfeet, The: Raiders on the Northwestern Plains (Ewers), 235
Blackfeet Community College, 152, 152
Blackfeet Community Hospital, J. L. Clarke’s three grand friezes for, 227–31, 230, 232, 234
Blackfeet Encampment (J. L. Clarke), 195–97, 196, 241
Blackfeet Reservation, 6, 146, 177–78, 184, 186, 188, 197, 207, 213, 231, 241, 244, 279
Blackfoot Confederacy, 9, 14–15
Blackfoot Indian Pe-Toh-Pee-Kiss, The Eagle Ribs (Catlin), 25
Black Hawk War, 67
Black Kettle, 115, 133
Black Weasel (Shanghai), 100
“blood-ism,” 245
Bloods, 14, 24, 25, 32, 39, 43, 51, 77, 89, 94–95, 108, 257, 279
Boddo (character), 82–83
Bodmer, Karl, 35, 40, 44, 45, 74
Boone, Daniel, 19, 29
Booth, Edwin, 155–56, 278
Booth, John Wilkes, 153
Booth’s Theatre, 156, 158, 278
Boston City Hospital, 199
Boulder, Mont., 205–8, 222
Boulder School for the Deaf, see Montana Deaf and Dumb Asylum
bourgeois (fur trade field agent), 36–37, 38, 40, 50, 72, 75
Bozeman, John, 110
“breeds,” use of term, 82, 163
Brooks, Preston, 166, 281–82
Browning, Daniel M., 175–76
Browning, Mont., 222, 227, 231, 233, 234, 241–42
Browning High School, 222
buffalo (bison):
in Blackfeet culture, 21–23, 23
carvings of, 212, 217–18
dwindling herds of, 88–89, 91, 181
hunting of, 21–23, 23, 90, 233, 234
tanning hides of, 8, 22, 46–47, 233
Buffalo Hunt, Chase—No. 6 (Catlin), 23
buffalo jump (piskun), 22, 228–29, 230
buffalo nickel, Piegan model for Indian head on, 222
buffalo robes, 37, 39–40, 46, 78, 92
buffalo skull icon, 210, 215
Buford, John, 118
Bull Run, First Battle of, 67
bull trains, 95
Burgoyne, John, 58
Burke Act (1906), 284
Calf Shirt, 80, 95
California:
gold rush in, 85–86
Helen Clarke in, 184, 193
Calthorpe, Hal (character), 154–55, 158
camas root, 21
“Came Running Back Lake,” 194
Camp Disappointment, 15
Canada, 20, 27, 143
as safe haven for Indians, 84, 109, 112, 116, 122, 128, 132, 162
U.S. border with, 1, 3, 121
Carlisle Indian School, 167–70, 169, 200, 212, 282
Carter, Thomas H., 179
Cass, Lewis, 59, 66
Castor canadensis, 27
Catch-for-Nothing, 92
Catholicism, 78–79, 192, 208–9
Catlin, George, 23, 25, 38, 41
as artist of Indian customs, 36
description of McKenzie, 36–37
Champlain, Samuel de, 27
Charbonneau, Jean Baptiste, 243
Charbonneau, Toussaint, 14, 243
Chardon, Fort, 77
Chardon, Francis, 76, 81
Charles II, King of England, 27
Cherokees, 137
Chewing Black Bones, 235
Cheyennes, 4, 83, 115, 122, 134
Child, Lydia Maria, 138–39
children:
in Indian culture, 45–48, 64
scarlet fever in, 198–200
Chinese, bias against, 159
Chivington, John, 134
Chouteau, Pierre, Jr. “Cadet,” 34, 41, 73, 76
Christianity, as goal in Indian reform, 114, 134, 168
Cincinnati, Ohio, 70
Civil War, 3, 4, 41, 67, 68, 86, 93, 95–96, 103, 104, 111, 116, 118, 132, 134, 137, 138, 139, 141, 156, 159, 167, 209, 237, 274
Clark, William, 13–19
Clarke, Agnes, 146
Clarke, Charlotte Ouisconsin, see Van Cleve, Charlotte Ouisconsin
Clarke, Charlotte Seymour, 58–59, 70, 103
Clarke, E. Malcolm, xx, 55, 198, 236, 238, 244, 260, 267
allegations of rape against, 99–100
attempted murder charge against, 78
birth of, 9, 59
bravery of, 57
burial and gravesite of, 103–4, 151–52
, 194
charm and charisma of, 9, 55, 80
as clerk at Fort McKenzie, 74–75
competitive nature of, 90
East Coast trip of, 65–66
Four Bears moniker of, 48, 51–52, 99–100
in fur trade, 2, 8, 73–75, 78–79, 90, 91
as good husband and father, 80–81
and Hagler feud, 55–56, 70–71, 75
handsome appearance of, 9, 51
and Harvey feud, 75–78, 89, 91, 260
Indian relationships of, 60, 62–63, 79–80, 102–3
marriage of Coth-co-co-na and, 2, 4, 8, 48, 51–53, 80–81, 83, 110, 262
marriage of Good Singing and, 92–93
military family heritage of, 57–59
monikers of, 48, 51–52, 79, 99
murder of, 2–3, 5–6, 55, 57, 97–104, 107–8, 110, 130, 142, 142, 157, 160, 161, 200
and O. McKenzie murder, 89–91
penchant for violence of, 5–6, 52, 55, 56–57, 62, 71, 75, 77, 89–93, 262
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