2. These were primitive carts constructed of two pieces of timber ten or twelve feet long, framed together by two or more crosspieces, upon one end of which the wickerwork body was placed. The front ends were rounded to serve as the shaft, and the whole arrangement was set on the crosspieces connecting opposite wheels. These were used to carry baggage, clothing, food, and supplies.
3. This route runs parallel with the present-day line of the Union Pacific Railroad.
CHAPTER 52 Bridger’s Fort
1. The fort was built by James Bridger and Louis Vasquez on the trail that led to Oregon and California. Bridger had no saloon nor gambling at this fort. At first there were only a few log houses inside a log wall, eight feet high. Gray, pp. 80–1, quotes one of the early travelers who stopped there:
It was built of poles and daubed with mud; it is a shabby concern. Here are about twenty-five lodges of Indians, or rather white trappers’ lodges occupied by their Indian wives. They have a good supply of deer, elk, and antelope skins, coats, pants, moccasins, andother Indian fixens, which they trade low for flour, pork, powder, lead, blankets, butcher-knives, spirits, hats, ready-made clothes, coffee, sugar, etc. They ask for a horse from twenty-five to fifty dollars in trade. Their wives are mostly Pyentes and Snake Indians. They have a herd of cattle, twenty-five to thirty goats, and some sheep. They generally abandon this fort during the winter months. At this place the bottoms are wide and covered with good grass. Cotton wood timber is plenty. The streams abound with trout.
Arthur Amos Gray, Men Who Built the West. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers Ltd., 1945.
Ten years after the fort was built, Bridger found the Mormons wanted it for a supply station. They put a stone wall around the fort, and paid Bridger eight thousand dollars for the buildings plus a tenth of his thirty-mile-square tract of land. Vera Kelsy, Young Men So Daring: Fur Traders Who Carried the Frontier West. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1956, pp. 254–55, 266.
2. In the spring of 1832 Jim Bridger and Tom Fitzpatrick had a skirmish with the Blackfeet in the area of the Missouri’s Three Forks. Bridger was shot in the back with two iron-headed arrows. Fitzpatrick pulled one out, but the shaft of the other broke, so that even probing with a knife, he could not get the three-inch-long piece of iron out of Bridger’s back. For three years the arrowhead caused Bridger great pain. Kelsey, pp. 202–3.; Across the Wide Missouri, by Bernard DeVoto, p. 90. Copyright 1947 by Houghton Mifflin Co.
Dr. Marcus Whitman removed the arrowhead in 1835. Afterwards Bridger had Reverend Samuel Parker perform his Presbyterian wedding ceremony. Bridger married the daughter of a Flathead chief, whom Parker christened Emma. Kelsey, pp. 205–7; DeVoto, 1947, pp. 230–31.
3. Bridger’s first child was a girl, named Mary Ann after his sister. Mary Ann was sent to the Whitman’s in Oregon after the death of Emma. Bridger then married a Ute woman, whom he called Belle. They had three children. Two years later, in 1846, Mary Ann was dead. DeVoto, 1947, p. 372.
Bridger was heartbroken and took his family to his farm on the outskirts of Westport, Missouri. Next to Bridger’s farm was the Bent farm and Vasquez farm. The Vasquez children were white, the Bridger and Bent children were half-breeds, and they were all friends and playmates. From Bent’s Fort by David Lavender, p. 325. Copyright 1954 by Doubleday and Co., Inc.
Finally, Bridger tired of farming and put his children in a St. Louis Catholic school and brought his wife, Belle, back to his Wyoming fort in 1850. Belle died, leaving a baby girl called Virginia. Bridger found himself a Shoshoni wife to care for the baby. Kelsey, pp. 250–51. Grace Raymond Hebard, Sacajawea, A Guide and Interpreter of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Glendale, CA: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1957, pp. 187, 241.
CHAPTER 53 The Mormons
1. Washakie’s name is interpreted as Rawhide Rattle, Shoots Straight, Shoots-on-the-Fly, Sure Shot, or Gambler’s Gourd. The Shoshoni story of how he acquired this name states that when he killed his first buffalo, he skinned the head, scraped the hair off, puckered it up, and tied it around a stick with a hole in it, so that it could be blown up like a bladder. He put stones in it and dried it so that it would rattle. When he went to war against the Sioux he rode among them, shook the rattle, and scared their horses. They called him The Rattle or Wash-a-ki. From The Shoshonis, Sentinels of the Rockies, by Virginia Trenholm and Maurine Carley, p. 98. Copyright 1964 by the University of Oklahoma Press.
When young he lived with his father’s band of Flatheads. When his father was killed by Blackfeet, his mother and her five small children found a band of her people, the Shoshonis, on the banks of the Salmon River. As he grew older, Washakie was distinguished for his friendship to the white man. Trenholm and Carley, p. 99.
2. That map was so exact and practical that it became the route of the Overland Stage, the Pony Express, and later the Union Pacific Railroad.
3. The Mormon sheriff seemed convinced Bridger’swife did not know where he was, but stationed men at several points to watch the fort and for the return of Bridger. In the spring of 1854, Governor Brigham Young of the Utah Territory ordered Mormon forces to take over Fort Bridger. The Mormons added several new buildings and replaced the logs of the stockade with fireproof concrete. Vera Kelsey, Young Men So Daring: Fur Traders Who Carried the Frontier West. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1956, pp. 251–55.
4. Jim Bridger filed this claim on March 9, 1854.
CHAPTER 54 The Great Treaty Council
1. This is a reference to the cash accounts book kept by William Clark from 1825 to 1828. The book’s front cover contains the record Clark kept of most of the people on the expedition. After Sacajawea’s name he wrote: Dead. The book is now at the Newberry Library, Chicago. See page 821.
CHAPTER 55 The Jefferson Peace Medal
1. Personal letter to A.W.L. from Dr. Kenneth O. Leonard, Garrison Clinic, Garrison, North Dakota, February 18, 1968: “ … as to the Medal (the one Sacajawea supposedly wore at Wind River Reservation) it obviously wouldn’t have been one Lewis and Clark handed out as they were silver. It could have been an early English one with a copper rim as many did come down from Canada. It was also highly unlikely that a woman would have been wearing a peace medal. Lewis and Clark didn’t give any to women as far as I can remember—and they were highly selective in which chief they did give them to.” Another letter from Dr. Leonard on February 29, 1968, states, “ … it could have been a religious medal which the missionaries handed out by the car loads. These seemed to be very common and all descriptions from crosses to medals.”
2. The stagecoach most generally used was the Concord, which was made in New Hampshire. Blacksmith and repair shops were at the western division points. These points were also the main replacement places for the drivers and horses. Dick, pp. 234–36.
3. A possibles bag was a small purse made from leather or cloth, carried by women. The name camefrom the white women, who carried all possible necessities, such as comb, handkerchief, coins, hair pins, etc. in the small, decorated bag.
CHAPTER 56 I Could Cry All Night
1. Young, Vol. I, Parts 3 to 6, p. 207.
2. Thwaites, Vol. 28, 1816, 1904–7, pp. 176–79.
3. Rufus B. Sage, Rufus B. Sage, His Letters and Papers, ed. by LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Glendale, CA: The Arthur H. Clark Co., Vol. II, 1956, pp. 155–56, 192–93.
4. Fremont, pp. 30–1.
5. Sage, pp. 52–4.
6. From Persimmon Hill, by William Clark Kennerly, pp. 144, 158, 187, 258. Copyright 1948 by the University of Oklahoma Press; Porter and Davenport, 1963, Chap. 23.
7. L. R. Hafen, 1930, pp. 66–7.
8. Sublette Papers and Letters by Solomon Sublette, May 5 and June 6, 1844, in the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.
9. Abert, Sen. ex. doc. 438, 29 Cong. 1 Sess.
10. Ruxton, p. 713.
11. Cooke, 1878, pp. 131–34.
12. Sen. doc., no. 2, 31 Cong. Special Session, p. 69.
13. Bancroft, p. 568.
14. San Luis Rey, California’s Mission.
15. Bandini Documents, San Diego Archives and Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, pp. 328–33.
16. C. H. Porter, 1961, p. 8.
17. Anderson, pp. 260–61.
18. Anderson, p. 261.
19. Bandini Documents, p. 333.
20. Angel and Fairchild, p. 71; Bonner, pp. 353–64.
According to T. D. Bonner, who wrote the story of
Jim Beckwourth in 1856, the “wife of a Canadian named Chapineau, who acted as interpreter and guide to Lewis and Clarke during their explorations of the Rocky Mountains … gave birth to a son.” The “Redheaded Chief (Clarke) adopted …” him, and “on his return to St. Louis took the infant with him, and baptized it John Baptiste Clarke Chapineau. After a careful culture of his mind, the boy was sent to Europe to complete his education.” Bonner, p. 528.
21. A personal letter to A.L.W. from Merle W. Wells, historian and archivist, the Idaho Historical Society, Boise, Idaho, September 18, 1967, says that the probable grave of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau is at the edge of a road not far from the old stage station, near Danner, Oregon, which no longer exists as a town.
22. Moore, sec. 2.
23. Anderson, p. 264.
24. Anderson, p. 246.
25. Schroer, p. 26.
26. Rocky Mountain spotted fever is caused by a rickettsia microorganism found in certain wood ticks (Dermacentor). The tick is sometimes found on gophers. Therefore the Shoshonis believed that the gopher caused the disease of fever, muscular pains and skin eruptions, rather than the tick. From The Shoshonis, Sentinels of the Rockies, by Virginia Trenholm and Maurine Carley, p. 282. Copyright 1964 by the University of Oklahoma Press. Also see Chuinard, p. 221.
27. Quantan Quay, a Shoshoni living on the Wind River Reservation in 1929, remembered Shoogan (named Bazil by the Mormons) as a man of fine character, physically splendid, gentle in speech and never loud or boisterous. He also remembered Toussaint (who, he said, was called Baptiste by the Mormons and others) as “a treacherous man, because he liked his firewater and used it often.” Grace Raymond Hebard, Sacajawea, A Guide and Interpreter of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Glendale, CA: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1957, p. 178.
28. Washakie purchased the casket plate from the son of a furniture dealer for the price of a bow and arrow. Grace Raymond Hebard, Washakie. Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1930, pp. 233–34.
29. Washakie was said to have a “’fine open countenance’ which became so animated and expressive when he spoke that it was a real pleasure to look at him.” He had great dignity and pride in his simple possessions. On the walls of his reservation cabin were pictures of his warring exploits, drawn by himself and his son Charlie. Trenholm and Carley, pp. 285–86.
30. This was Chief Washakie’s most famous statement. After Washakie’s death in 1900, his son Dick presented the saddle to Jakie Moore (J. K. Moore, at the Fort Washakie store), who was a great friend. Jakie’s son, J. K. Moore, Jr., of Lander, Wyoming, recalls seeing the saddle, but has no knowledge of its whereabouts now.
31. “Mrs. Irwin wrote, from Sacajawea’s description, a history of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the part that Sacajawea had taken in the expedition.” Hebard, 1957, p. 232.
32. These field glasses were later given to Washakie by General Crook.
33. This was the Battle of the Little Big Horn, in Montana, June 25, 1876. Linderman, 1930, pp. 154–77; Kuhlman, 1951; U.S. Govt. Printing Office, Custer Battlefield. Custer Battlefield Historical and Museum Assoc., Entrenchment Trail.
CHAPTER 57 Nothing Is Lost
1. An important personality problem for the males was finding a suitable substitute for the ancient goals. With the buffalo gone and warfare a thing of the past, they found it very hard to discover any objectives that made life worth living. “Some strongly expressed sentiment that they preferred the old existence with all its hazards, but with the chance for glory, to the pedestrian career of a farmer or mechanic.” From Indians of the Plains, by Robert H. Lowie, pp. 221–22. Natural History Press. Copyright 1954 by the American Museum of Natural History.
2. Some ration days—which took place once a week, every two weeks, or once a month—they were given bacon or salt pork, dried beans, flour, rice, or hominy. Each family was given a card with their family name and number of persons in the family. The card was punched when rations were issued by a military officer who was required to be present. From The Comanches, Lords of the South Plains, by Ernest Wallace and E. Adamson Hoebel, pp. 330, 338. Copyright 1952 by the University of Oklahoma Press.
3. Andrew Bazil, Shoogan’s son, said that Sacajawea introduced the Sun Dance among the Lemhi Shoshonisand that his father was leader of the dance. Grace Raymond Hebard, Sacajawea, A Guide and Interpreter of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Glendale, CA: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1957, pp. 259–60, 275.
4. In the old days, in each tribe there was at least one whip holder. The whip was a wooden, serrated blade with carved scalp symbols of the owner’s victims. Tied at one end were two short otter-skin lashes. The owners of the whip were always the bravest men of the tribe. The man that owned a whip could stop any dance and recite one of his coups. In the end he was required to bring the sun curse upon himself if he stated any untruth. He could dance up to any lounging spectator, point his whip, and that person was obligated to jump right in and dance, or be whipped. No brave could be excused from the dance for any reason, if the whip were pointed at him. The man had to recite his strongest deed and then the whip holder countered with his strongest deed. If the whip holder’s deed was as good as the brave’s, the brave had to dance the rest of the time. If it was not, then the brave was excused from dancing and the whip owner had to dance. Wallace and Hoebel 1952, p. 271.
5. Dr. James Irwin studied and practiced naturopathy, a method of treating diseases with natural agencies.
6. In 1870 the government urged and invited the Northern Arapahos to make a treaty with the Shoshonis and locate permanently with them. Chief Washakie was angered by these demands and refused to allow them to settle on his reservation, and “he also accused them of all of the murders that had taken place in the Wind River Valley and at the mining camps the summer before.” He said the Arapahos were storing ammunition and planned to act with the Sioux to make war against his camp. Eight years later Washakie allowed the Arapahos to be placed temporarily on his reservation. Some believe he was away hunting at the time and actually had no say in the matter, and other historians say that he did not object because he himself did not want to be moved from his “beloved Wind River Mountains, home of Tamapah, the Sun-Father.” From The Shoshonis, Sentinels of the Rockies, by Virginia
Trenholm and Maurine Carley, pp. 276–8. Copyright 1964 by the University of Oklahoma Press.
7. The Arapahos were broken people even before they were given a permanent place on the Wind River Reservation. Colonel John M. Chivington killed many of their warriors, women, and children when he attacked a camp of Cheyennes and Arapahos on Sand Creek, near Fort Lupton, Colorado, on November 29, 1864. Then they suffered a loss of hunting territories and food supply, broken treaties by the whites, first free access to liquor, prostitution, disease, and a general harassing that led to placement on the Pine Ridge Reservation. By then the Arapahos had nothing left but their dreams. The Peyote Cult was accepted by the Arapahos at Wind River a decade before it found its way into the Shoshoni tribe. Trenholm and Carley, pp. 277, 281–82.
8. Friday, the adopted Arapaho son of Thomas Fitzpatrick, who was Washakie’s friend, may have talked him into holding a council with the Arapahos. Trenholm and Carley, p. 276.
9. Later this boy became an Episcopal minister at Fort Washakie and then a canon of a cathedral in Denver, Colorado.
10. When the Arapahos came to the reservation they were “in such indigent circumstances as to be wholly unable, without generous assistance from the government to speedily emerge from their present state
of mendicity.” The once proud tribe was reduced to 198 warriors, the rest women, children, and old men. Trenholm and Carley, p. 279.
11. Even today the Shoshoni young people are embarrassed when one of their elders spitefully calls an Arapaho “Dog-Eater” to his face. Trenholm and Carley, p. 281.
EPILOGUE
1. Personal letters to A.L.W. from the Commission of Indian Affairs, December 14,1968, January 18,1969, and March 5, 1969.
2. Grace Raymond Hebard, Sacajawea, A Guide and Intrepreter of the Lewis and Clark Expidition. Glendale, CA: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1957, pp. 232–33.
3. Hebard, 1957, pp. 205–17.
4. Wind River Reservation Church Register of Burials, no. 114.
5. Hebard, 1957, p. 208.
6. Schroer, p. 21.
7. Hebard, 1957, p. 213.
8. Robert Beebe David, Finn Burnett, Frontiersman, Glendale, CA: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1937.
9. Hebard, 1957, p. 151.
10. Hebard, 1957, p. 188.
Personal letter to A.L.W. from P. D. Riley, Nebraska State Historical Society, February 9,1968, says, “I would hesitate to use his [Rivington’s] information-he was a tall-tale spinner of the first class.”
A personal letter from Warren C. Wood, editor, Gering Courier, February 19,1968: “I sincerely regret that Tom Rivington, who had a lot of people fooled for a time, when he lived here, was pretty much of a fake. He had just enough semi-factual data to fool a casual historian. I liked old Tom, but he wasn’t a pioneer and doubt he ever lived with the Indians, let alone the Bird Woman.”
Personal letter to A.L.W. from Merrill J. Mattes, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, San Francisco, March 6,1968: “… the woman he claims he [Rivington] knew as Sacajawea was actually someone else with an assumed name.” The Rivington letters to Dr. Hebard and typed interviews of 1929 are in a collection called “The Hebard Papers” at the University of California, Berkeley, where they were once in the possession of Dr. C. L. Camp in the Department of Paleontology.
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