By Topic: NATIVE AMERICAN

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Ioway Chief Hard Heart’s Trading Posts in Omaha-Council Bluffs: A Lewis and Clark Day Trip

Ioway Chief Hard Heart was an ally of the United States during the War of 1812. He was a distinguished war chief, who had fought in 50 battles and commanded in seven.The War of 1812 was very much an Indian war, with many Indians in the Upper Midwest fighting on the side of the British who supplied them with arms and ammunition.The Ioway mostly sided with the British, with whom they had been trading for many years; but Chief Hard Heart, who had been awarded a peace medal by President James Madison, sided with the Americans.

Hard Heart came with 50 or 60 of his warriors and their families to the Omaha-Council Bluffs area to live near the Otoe and Missouria, during the War of 1812.The Ioway were kin to the Otoe and Missouria, speaking the Chiwere Sioux dialect. It seems likely that Hard Heart may have been following orders from William Clark, who as Brigadier General of the Militia, was in command of the area’s military defense. Clark was moving Indian groups around the region, separating out those who remained neutral or friendly to the American cause.  Afterwards, Heart remained in the area until his death in 1823, and established trading posts on both sides of the river.

Fort Atkinson Heart, who spoke English, told Colonel Henry Atkinson, the commander of the military post established near the site of the original Council Bluff, about an old Indian trail to Chariton, Missouri. He showed Sgt. Gabriel Field the trail, who marked it out, and the trail then became known as “Field’s Trace.” Fort Atkinson was in existence from 1820-1827.The reconstructed fort is now a Nebraska State Historical Park, with living history weekends on the first weekends of the month from Memorial Day through October.
Heart’s daughter Nicomi married Surgeon John Gale of Fort Atkinson. After Dr. Gale left the area when the fort closed in 1827, Nicomi married fur trader Peter Sarpy, who ran the American Fur Company post in Bellevue. Sarpy helped raise Nicomi’s daughter Mary Gale, who married Joseph La Flesche, Jr., the Chief of the Omaha Indians. Two of their children became the famous La Flesche sisters: Susette La Flesche Tibbles , the Indian Rights activitist who toured the U. S. and Europe with Ponca Chief Standing Bear; and Susan La Flesche Picotte, who became the first Native American woman medical doctor.  Several books have been written about the La Flesche sisters, but their famous great-grandfather, Hard Heart, has been lost to history. 
The original Council Bluff Lewis and Clark met with the Otoe and Missouria on August 3, 1804 at the site of today’s Fort Atkinson State Historical Park, about ten miles north of Omaha, Nebraska. This site on the west side of the river was called “Council Bluff.”  In the following years, both sides of the river became known as “Council Bluffs.” In 1853, the Mormon town of Kanesville changed its name to Council Bluffs, Iowa. The naming of the town on the east side of the river has somewhat confused the idea of where the original council with Indians took place. It took place in Nebraska, and was the first council of the United States government with Indians living west of the Missouri River. It was commemorated as a Bicentennial Signature Event at Fort Atkinson in 2004. 
The Ancient Villages of the Otoe and Ioway William Clark noted on July 28th, the remains of ancient villages of the Otoes and Ioways in the modern cities of Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa which are situated across the Missouri River from each other. The village sites dated to the 1750’s-1770’s. After that time, the Otoe moved to the junction of the Platte and Elkhorn Rivers, where the Missouria joined them; and the Ioway moved back to the Mississippi River area of eastern Iowa.
Heart’s Trading Post in Omaha  Sometime during the War of 1812, Hard Heart established a defensive outpost on the Omaha plateau. Clark had described the area as “well situated for defense” when he explored mounds covering 2 to 300 acres in today’s downtown Omaha. The mounds were the collapsed earth lodges of the Otoe village which had been abandoned in the 1770’s. The first postmaster of Omaha, Alfred D. Jones, wrote an article about the mounds in the 1892 Nebraska State Historical Society Journal; explaining that they were not burial mounds, but rather old earth lodges. He was the first surveyor of Omaha and laid out the city streets in 1854.  Jones described the remains of an old fort that was located between 9th and 10th Street and Dodge and Capitol Streets, the location today of Omaha’s Qwest Convention Center. He wrote:  “The probabilities are that the old fort was that of Hart’s trading establishment, and the Indian village that of the Otoes, who occupied this part of the country at the same time, and who were here as late as 1835. Hart’s trading house, the fort, and Otoe village was located here about 1817, when Hart moved over to Iowa, above what is now the city of Council Bluffs.” 
The Stephen H. Long Report  Hard Heart was present at the Otoe Council held on October 3, 1819 at Engineer Cantonment about five miles south of Fort Atkinson. The dozen engineers, scientists and artists accompanying the more than 1,000 soldiers stationed at Fort Atkinson established their own winter camp, or cantonment, where they lived for about eight months. The site is now the subject of an archeology dig by the Nebraska State Historical Society.  Hard Heart was discussed in the 1823 Stephen H. Long Expedition Report, which stated that:  “During our late contest with Great Britain, he turned his back upon his nation, in consequence of their raising the tomahawk upon our citizens, and crossing the Missouri, united his destiny with the Otoes, who treated him with distinguished respect. Last autumn his nation joined him, and submitted to his guidance, so that the Otoes, Missouries, and Ioways were then united.” 
It is most likely that he was the subject of a portrait drawn by artist Titian Peale, the youngest son of artist Charles Willson Peale. The drawing was discovered in the collection of the Iowa State Historical Society in 1993 and is shown here. 
Heart’s Trading Post at the Lewis and Clark Monument Bluff The Ioway had formerly lived in a village south of today’s Lewis and Clark Monument Bluff and Big Lake in Council Bluffs, Iowa for a period of years up until the 1770’s. When Heart’s tribe rejoined him after the war in 1817-18, they moved back to their old village site. A U. S. census of 1821 reported 400 Ioway living there.  Big Lake is now a very small pond. It is a “cut-off” lake created from a former bend of the Missouri River, which was made when the river cut a new channel for its flow. This lake used to be called “Heart’s Cut-Off,”  and the bluff was called “Heart’s Bluff.” 
Father Pierre-Jean De Smet established his first Indian mission in Council Bluffs in 1838. He wrote in a letter to Alfred Jones in 1867 stating:  “The remains alluded to must be the site of the old trading post of Mr. Heart. When it was in existence the Missouri River ran up to the trading post. In 1832 the river left it, and since that time it goes by the name of ‘Heart’s Cut-Off,’ leaving a large lake above Council Bluffs.” 
Hard Heart was also called “Grand Batture” or “Big Sandbar.” On May 4, 1833 the Yellowstone steamboat collided with a big sandbar, and artist Karl Bodmer had the opportunity to sketch “Ard’s Hills.” Prince Maximilian noted in his journals “Ard’s Hills, also incorrectly called Hard’s Hills….Here was once situated a trading house which has gone out of business….someone showed us a green prairie ridge a site where an Ayaway village once stood; the chief died and the people returned to their kin.” 
The site of Heart’s trading post was marked on a plat map prepared by Charles Babbitt, who published Early Days in Council Bluffs in 1916. Babbitt’s father was the first register of deeds in Council Bluffs.  He took his young son duck hunting at Heart’s Cut-Off Lake during the 1850’s and showed him the site of an “old Indian trading post.” Babbitt described the site as: “remains of buildings of considerable size, surrounded, or partly so then, by what appeared to have been a sod fence…The area of land embraced in the original enclosure had been two or more acres.”  This site is located about half a mile north of the Lewis and Clark Monument. It is a beautiful large valley, now enclosed by a chain link fence. 
Lewis and Clark Day Trips On July 5, 2008 I led a tour of Hard Heart’s Trading Post sites. We toured the Lewis and Clark Monument Bluff,  the Pioneer Courage and Spirit of Nebraska Wilderness outdoor sculpture parks of First National Bank, and visited Joslyn Art Museum, where we viewed the eastern watercolors of artist Karl Bodmer and a portrait of Otoe Chief I-etan by Charles Bird King. The First National Bank sculpture parks are located a few blocks from the site of Heart’s old trading post and on the land where the Otoe Village once stood. 
Earlier today I went by myself to take photos of the Independence Day living history celebration at Fort Atkinson. I am preparing to give a PowerPoint slide talk on Lewis and Clark Day Trips at the annual White Catfish Camp Festival at the Western Historic Trails Center in Council Bluffs. My talk will be at 10 AM on Sunday morning, July 27th.  I will post a few photos taken this weekend.
Shown here scenes from Fort Atkinson’s Fourth of July weekend:  the Council House, Grand Parade, soldiers and musicians, the marker for the site of Council Bluffs, and Surgeon Gale’s office at the fort.  Florence Clouse is petting the buffalo at First National Bank’s Spirit of Nebraska Wilderness, and the wagon train is part of the Pioneer Courage outdoor sculptures. This is one of the world’s largest outdoor sculpture gardens. The loess hills cliff is located south Big Lake near 8th Street. It is the site of the old Ioway village.  The view from the Lewis and Clark Monument shows Big Lake, which is no longer very big.

            




            


     

     





   

Posted by Kira Gale on 07/06/2008 at 09:33 PM

GEOGRAPHY/PLACES • Omaha-Council Bluffs • War of 1812 • NATIVE AMERICAN • (0) Comments • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us

Friday, May 30, 2008

Aaron Burr, Meriwether Lewis and the Burr-Wilkinson Conspiracy, Part 3

Lewis and Clark receive new appointments
In March, 1807, President Jefferson appointed Meriwether Lewis to be Governor of Louisiana Territory and Superintendent of Indian Affairs; and William Clark to be Brigadier General of the Upper Louisiana Militia and principal Indian Agent for all tribes west of the Mississippi River (except for the Osage, who were handled by Pierre Chouteau).

Clark went immediately to St. Louis, arriving there in April, 1807 to take up his duties. They were all concerned about having a dependable military officer in charge of the region, in light of the recent Burr conspiracy and threats of war. Lewis remained in the east, while Frederick Bates, the new Territorial Secretary, assumed Lewis’s duties as Acting Governor.

1807: Returning to the Upper Missouri
That month, in April, an expedition of 50-60 men, under the leadership of Manuel Lisa and George Drouillard, left St. Louis to establish a fur trade fort at the mouth of the Yellowstone and Bighorn Rivers in Montana. The expedition included several former members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: George Drouillard, John Colter, Peter Weiser, and John Potts.

In June, a joint military-commercial expedition of 102-108 people started up river under the command of Sgt. Nathaniel Pryor and Auguste Pierre Chouteau to deliver the Mandan Chief Sheheke, his wife and child, and the family of interpreter Rene Jessaume back home to their villages on the Knife River in North Dakota. (Sheheke: Mandan Indian Diplomat by Tracy Potter, pp 138-150)

They were attacked by about 650 Arikara warriors in South Dakota on September 9th. Four men were killed and nine wounded; George Shannon, a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, ultimately lost his leg from this battle. The expedition turned back and another attempt wouldn’t be made until 1809.

Clark at Big Bone Lick
Clark left for Fincastle in August, 1807 but he stopped at Big Bone Lick in Kentucky on an urgent mission for President Jefferson—to provide him with fossil bones. He spent the month of September digging up mastodon and mammoth bones, sending ten crates of bones to the delighted president.

Lewis seeks a wife: the drawbacks of St. Louis
During the months he was back east, Lewis courted several young women. He was from one of the great families of Virginia, seeking a wife of his own background, who would become the wife of the Governor of Louisiana Territory, one of the highest governmental posts in the United States. But any sensible woman would have doubts about moving to St. Louis.

St. Louis was a town of about one thousand residents, which for years it had been under the rule of French and Spanish governments. For the last two years it had been under the corrupt administrations of General Wilkinson and Aaron Burr’s brother-in-law, Joseph Brown, the Secretary of the Territory. It was not only a center of intrigue regarding conspiracies to invade Spanish territories, it was also a center of land speculation and quarreling factions.  It was almost the only American or French town in all of Louisiana Territory, a land which encompassed hundreds of miles of Indian Country, from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains and the Canadian border. In the event of war with Britain, France or Spain and their Indian allies—wars which were routinely predicted in the newspapers of that time—St Louis would be attacked. In short it was a dangerous place to live, on the edge of a great frontier.

Lewis in Philadelphia (April-June)
At the end of March, 1807 Lewis announced in the newspapers that he would be publishing a map and the first of three volumes of his narrative account of the expedition in January, 1808. This didn’t happen. Sgt. Patrick Gass was the first to get a book out: Gass’s Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery was published in 1807.

Lewis was concerned about presenting the scientific information and discoveries accurately. He spent the months of April, May and June in Philadelphia working on his field notes, and attending the monthly meetings of the American Philosophical Society. He made arrangements with horticulturists, botanists, and artists regarding the seeds and dried plant specimens he had brought back. He discussed his numerous scientific findings with experts.

He sat for his portraits by Charles Willson Peale and Charles St. Memin.

He was still settling accounts with the War Department accountant, providing receipts and explanations of expenses, and running errands for Jefferson at local stores.

He was also having fun attending parties, being with friends, and looking for a wife.

Lewis writes a policy paper
In preparation for his duties as Governor of Louisiana Territory and perhaps in clearing his mind for writing a narrative of the expedition, Lewis wrote a long document, a policy paper on Indian relations and the fur trade, which Donald Jackson, editor of the Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, states was completed by August of 1807. (The report is included in the Letters, pp. 696-719.)

It was called “Observations and reflections on the present and future state of Upper Louisiana, in relation to the government of the Indian nations inhabiting that country, and the trade and intercourse with the same. By Captain Lewis.” It was included in Biddle’s edition of the Lewis and Clark Journals, published in 1814. Lewis also later used parts of it in a letter to the Secretary of War and as an article in The Missouri Gazette.

The Burr Treason Trial (July-October)
From July-October, 1807 there are almost no records of Meriwether Lewis’s whereabouts. Several authors and biographers have said that Meriwether Lewis attended the Burr treason trial proceedings as a personal observer for Thomas Jefferson, but they do not cite sources. Thomas Danisi, the author of a forthcoming biography of Meriwether Lewis, (Of High Destiny: A Biography of Meriwether Lewis due out in January, 2009) reports that he has found a letter written by Wilkinson mentioning Lewis’s presence at the trial. Authors Stephen Ambrose (Undaunted Courage p. 439), Jonathan Daniels (Ordeal of Ambition, p. 366), and John Bakeless (Lewis and Clark: Partners in Discovery, pp. 389-90) state that Lewis attended the trial, which extended over a period of months, ending on October 20, 1807.

Wilkinson himself narrowly escaped indictment for treason, by a 7 to 9 vote of the grand jury (The Burr Conspiracy by Thomas Abernathy, page 241). He was a witness in the trial, and was less than credible according to all accounts.

Jefferson was passionately interested in convicting Aaron Burr for treason. In the end, the verdict delivered by the Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall, concluded that Burr was not guilty of treason—that is, of levying of war against the United States—although he was probably guilty of planning to invade Spanish territory. The government lost heart in pursuing the lesser charge, and the matter was dropped. 

En route to his new life in St Louis
By late October Lewis was back in Albemarle at his mother’s home at Ivy Creek. He wrote to his friend Mahlon Dickerson in Philadelphia, on November 3rd, “What may be my next adventure, God knows, but on this I am determined, to get a wife.”

By late November Meriwether and his brother Reuben were in Fincastle. Reuben was moving to St. Louis also. Another traveling companion was Meriwether Lewis’s personal valet, John Pernier, a free mulatto. Pernier had been a servant in Jefferson’s White House. Wages for him were noted in Jefferson’s financial records for parts of 1804 and 1805. (“On the Death of Meriwether Lewis’s Servant” by Donald Jackson published in the The William and Mary Quarterly in July, 1964, pp 445-448). Pernier was present at the scene of Lewis’s death on October 11, 1809, as they were traveling together back to Washington on the Natchez Trace.

Lewis wrote his mother on February 15th, 1808 that he was in Louisville and that Reuben was already en route to St Louis “in a flat bottomed boat with my baggage and carriage.” He wrote “I have for near two months been traversing this state in various directions in order to seek for and secure by every necessary arrangement the lands belonging to myself and Mary & John Markes.” [his mother’s children by her second husband]

Lewis Starts a Newspaper
Lewis after his arrival in Louisville found a printer, and placed an advertisement which appeared in the Louisville newspaper on January 5, 1808:

“Those who wish to subscribe to the MISSOURI GAZETTE, are respectively informed that a subscription book is open at this Office. A capable Editor is employed, and a number of Gentlemen have volunteered to devote their leasure hours in writing on such subjects as will enrich its columns. Essays on Indian antiquity, Mines, Minerals, and an account of the Fur-Trade, with Topographical Scetches will be diligently sought after.
TERMS, THREE Dollars per annum, paid in advance, or FOUR on the expiration of the year. Advertisements not exceeding a square, will be inserted one week for One Dollar and Fifty Cents for every continuance; those of greatest length in proportion.”

Lewis had hired a Louisville printer, Joseph Charless, to go to St. Louis and start the first newspaper to be published west of the Missouri River.

To be continued…

Posted by Kira Gale on 05/30/2008 at 10:24 AM

GEOGRAPHY/PLACES • Missouri • PEOPLE • Aaron Burr • James Wilkinson • Meriwether Lewis • William Clark • NATIVE AMERICAN • (1) Comments • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us

Aaron Burr, Meriwether Lewis and the Burr-Wilkinson Conspiracy, Part 2

The “missing months” of 1806-07
Some people believe Meriwether Lewis committed suicide because there are times in his life when Lewis is thought to have been “dysfunctional.” One example is the 18 month period following the expedition’s return to St. Louis in September, 1806 until Lewis returned to St. Louis to assume his duties as Governor of Louisiana Territory in March, 1808. President Jefferson appointed him to his post in March, 1807 and yet it took him a full year to return to St. Louis. What was he doing during this time? He was doing a lot, as Parts 2 and 3 of this blog series will show.

After the expedition members arrived in St. Louis on September 23, 1806, looking like “Robinson Crusoes in buckskin” as one observer put it, there was a round of parties and celebrations as Lewis and Clark began making their way back east to Washington, D.C.. But soon their paths separated as Clark pursued personal matters, and Lewis continued to perform his duties as a government official.

Meriwether Lewis now emerges from the historical record as the true commander of the expedition, because all of the post-expedition responsibilities fell upon him. It was up to him to make the official report to the President; to escort the Mandan Chief Big White and his entourage to Washington; to settle the expedition’s financial accounts with the government, and to arrange for the men to be paid in cash and land. It was also his responsibility to publish their journals, maps, and scientific observations.

It is easy to forget that he was a young man, 32 years old, who had just returned from a three and a half year grand adventure and that he was anxious to get back to his home in Charlottesville,Virginia, to see if his mother was still alive, and to be reunited with his family and friends.

The last part of the return journey
The journey to Washington soon got underway. The group consisted of Lewis and Clark, Clark’s slave York, Sgt John Ordway, Private Francis Labiche, the Mandan Interpreter Rene Jessaume, his wife and their two children, the Mandan Chief Sheheke (White Coyote or Big White), his wife,Yellow Corn, and their baby, and undoubtedly, Seaman the dog. The St. Louis fur trader and Indian Agent Pierre Chouteau was also traveling with them, escorting a group of six Osage Chiefs of the Arkansas Band to meet President Jefferson.

On October 30th they were in Vincennes, Indiana visiting William Henry Harrison, the Governor of Indiana Territory. When they reached Louisville, Kentucky, they celebrated their return at a dinner party on November 8th at Locust Grove, the home of William Clark’s sister Lucy and her husband William Croghan. Clark and York remained behind in Louisville visiting family and friends, while the rest of the group continued on to Washington by two different routes. Chouteau and the Osages traveled east to Lexington, Kentucky, and from there to Washington; while Lewis’s party headed south towards the Cumberland Gap.  (All of the places mentioned in this blog are featured in my book, Lewis and Clark Road Trips, which has195 destinations east of St Louis.)
Lewis returns home
Lewis, Ordway, Labiche, and the Mandan Chief with his entourage took the Old Wilderness Road south to the Gap, where they entered southwest corner of Virginia. Lewis arrived in his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, where he was relieved to find his mother alive and well. There was a letter from President Jefferson in Washington, inviting the group to tour Jefferson’s nearby home at Monticello. He wanted them to visit his Indian Hall, where Indian artifacts sent back by Lewis and Clark were on exhibit.

A gift to Virginia
Lewis was asked to do some surveying work, in order to settle a boundary line dispute along the Virginia-North Carolina border. In late November, his survey added ten miles to the state of Virginia—not a bad gift to his home state!

Clark visits his girlfriend in Fincastle
Clark and York also took the Wilderness Road through the Gap, traveling to the home of Clark’s girlfriend, Julia (Judith) Hancock in Fincastle,Virginia. Julia (born November 21, 1791) had just turned 15. Their engagement was announced in March, and they were married on January 8, 1808. Clark had met Julia, who came from a distinguished Virginia family, before leaving on the expedition. He named the Judith River in Montana for her. On January 8, 1807, the citizens of Fincastle held a banquet honoring William Clark and Meriwether Lewis (in absentia).

Turmoil in Washington and New Orleans
The fall and winter months of 1806-07 were a time of great scandal and uproar involving the Burr-Wilkinson Conspiracy. Jefferson had been receiving alarming reports for over a year about Aaron Burr’s planned filibustering (non-authorized) expedition to invade Texas and Mexico where he planned to set up a Mexican empire, in case of a war with Spain.

On November 27, 1806 Jefferson finally issued an order for the arrest of his former Vice-President and his allies, after receiving a hysterical letter from Wilkinson warning of the filibuster. Wilkinson estimated Burr’s force at 1,000-1,500 men, while it was actually between 60-100 men. Wilkinson and Burr and many others had been plotting the invasion of the Spanish Southwest for months (if not decades), but Wilkinson turned on his colleagues and switched sides.

The Neutral Ground Agreement
General James Wilkinson was both the civilian and military commander in Louisiana Territory: he was the Commanding General of the United States Army (1800-1812), and was appointed by Jefferson to be the first Governor of Louisiana Territory in 1805. After complaints of Wilkinson’s involvement in fraudulent land dealings in St Louis mounted, Jefferson removed him from his post as Governor in June, 1806, and ordered him to the Sabine River, where Spanish troops had crossed over the disputed boundary line between Mexican and U. S. Territory (today’s Texas-Louisiana border).

In October, 1806 Wilkinson avoided a war with Spain by making a private deal with General Simon Herrera, to withdraw his Mexican troops back across the Sabine River. Their “Neutral Ground Agreement,” signed on November 5, 1806, established a no-man’s land between the two countries. The 40 mile wide strip of land subsequently became a haven for outlaws, pirates and filibustering expeditions until the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 settled the boundary issues. Wilkinson thus managed to please both his Spanish paymasters and the President, while sacrificing his friend and fellow conspirator, Aaron Burr.

Years later it was proven that Wilkinson had been receiving payments from the Spanish Government since 1787. Although charges of secret payments were widely alleged at the time, it was never conclusively proven until the Spanish archives were opened. After betraying Burr, Wilkinson sent a representative to the Spanish Viceroy of Mexico asking for payment of 121,000 pesos for stopping the invasion, but the request was refused. He did, however,—in typical Wilkinson fashion—manage to sell a report and maps of his messenger’s trip to the American government for $1,750.

Wilkinson betrays Burr and his fellow conspirators
In November, Wilkinson unlawfully seized control in New Orleans, despite the refusals of the Governor of New Orleans Territory William Claiborne and the New Orleans legislature to declare martial law and suspend habeus corpus. Wilkinson ordered the arrest of five of his friends and fellow conspirators and sent them by naval ship to Washington and Baltimore. He jailed a New Orleans judge and the New Orleans Gazette newspaper editor when they protested.

The eventful year of 1807
In a Special Message to Congress on January 12, 1807, Jefferson revealed Burr’s plot, characterizing it both as a plot to separate the western states from the American Union and to invade Mexico. This is where matters stood in January, 1807 when Lewis and Clark were receiving a heroes’ welcome in Washington. A presidential banquet was held on January 14th, even though Clark was still absent. Lewis and the Mandan Chief had arrived on December 28th, but the celebration had been postponed in anticipation of Clark’s arrival. Clark finally arrived after the party, on January 18th, and wrote to his brother Jonathan on the 22nd that the “Expedition of Mr. B. has excted the greatest allarm” in Washington.

Aaron Burr, meanwhile, had been arrested at Bayou Pierre near Natchez, Mississippi on January 10th. Several balls were given in his honor as he awaited trial in the Mississippi territorial court at Washington, Mississippi. No one believed that Burr planned to separate the western states, and many local citizens were in favor of invading Spanish territories. On February 4, 1807 the grand jury refused to indict him.

The next day, fearing for his life, Burr fled from arrest by Wilkinson’s men. A $2,000 reward was offered for his capture. He was caught on February 13th and brought to Richmond, Virginia in March, where he stood trial for treason on August 7, 1807.

To be continued…

Posted by Kira Gale on 05/30/2008 at 09:53 AM

GEOGRAPHY/PLACES • Mexico • Missouri • New Orleans • Virginia • PEOPLE • Aaron Burr • James Wilkinson • Meriwether Lewis • William Clark • NATIVE AMERICAN • (6) Comments • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us

Monday, April 28, 2008

The New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-12

The New Madrid earthquakes were the biggest earthquakes in American history. They occurred in the central Mississippi Valley, but were felt as far away as New York City, Boston, Montreal, and Washington D. C. President James Madison and his wife Dolly felt them in the White House. Church bells rang in Boston. From December 16, 1811 through March of 1812 there were over 2,000 earthquakes in the central Midwest, and between 6,000-10,000 earthquakes in the Bootheel of Missouri where New Madrid is located near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

The Mississippi ran backwards After the February 7th earthquake, boatmen reported that the Mississippi actually ran backwards for several hours. The force of the land upheaval 15 miles south of New Madrid created Reelfoot lake, drowned the inhabitants of an Indian village; turned the river against itself to flow backwards; devastated thousands of acres of virgin forest; and created two temporary waterfalls in the Mississippi. Boatmen on flatboats actually survived this experience and lived to tell the tale.

Getting over cracks As the general area experienced more than 2,000 earthquakes in five months, people discovered that most of crevices opening up during an earthquake ran from north to south, and when the earth began moving, they would chop down trees in an east- west direction and hold on using the tree as a bridge. There were “missing people” who were most likely swallowed up by the earth. Some earthquake fissures were as long as five miles.

Strange Earthquake Phenonema Sand boils: The world’s largest sand boil was created by the New Madrid earthquake. It is 1.4 miles long and 136 acres in extent, located in the Bootheel of Missouri, about 8 miles west of Hayti, Missouri. Locals call it “The Beach.” Other, much smaller, sand boils are found throughout the area. Seismic tar balls: Small pellets up to golf ball sized tar balls are found in sand boils and fissures. They are petroleum that has been solidified, or “petroliferous nodules.” Earthquake lights: Lights flashed from the ground, caused by quartz crystals being squeezed. The phenomena is called “seismoluminescence.” Warm water: Water thrown up by an earthquake was lukewarm. The authors speculate that shaking caused the water to heat up and/or quartz light heated the water. Earthquake smog: The skies turned dark during an earthquake, so dark that lighted lamps didn’t help. The air smelled bad, and it was hard to breathe. The authors speculate it was a smog containing dust particles caused by the eruption of warm water into cold air. Loud thunder: Sounds of distant thunder and loud explosions accompanied earthquakes. Animal warnings: People reported strange behavior by animals before the earthquakes. They were nervous and excited. Domestic animals became wild, and wild animals became tame. Snakes came out of the ground from hibernation. Flocks of ducks and geese landed near people.

Tecumseh’s Comet and the Battle of Tippecanoe

The earthquakes were preceded by the appearance of a great comet, which was visible around the globe for seventeen months, and was at its brightest during the earthquakes. The comet, with an orbit of 3,065 years, was last seen during the time of Ramses II in Egypt. In 1811-1812, it was called “Tecumseh’s Comet” (or “Napoleon’s Comet” in Europe). Tecumseh was a Shawnee Indian leader whose name meant “Shooting Star” or “He who walks across the sky.” He was given this name at birth. A great orator and military leader, Tecumseh organized a confederation of Indian tribes to oppose the takeover of 3 million acres of Indian lands, which were obtained by the Treaty of Fort Wayne in 1809. His brother, a religious leader called “The Prophet,” had gained fame when he foretold the total eclipse of the sun on June 16, 1806. (They had learned about it in advance from a team of visiting astronomers.) During this time, the Governor of Indiana Territory William Henry Harrison—worried about The Prophet’s popularity—had challenged him to produce a miracle. After the day of the “Black Sun” the brothers had no trouble attracting followers. A Black Sun was said to predict a future war. On September 17, 1811 there was another solar eclipse—which, again, was predicted by The Prophet. The brothers’ center of operations was at Prophet’s Town, located near the junction of the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers in northern Indiana. Tecumseh was traveling and recruiting warriors among the southeastern tribes, when Governor Harrison attacked Prophet’s Town with over a 1,000 men on November 6, 1811, a pre-emptive strike by the U. S., which marked the beginning of “Tecumseh’s War.” On December 16th, when the earthquakes began, Tecumseh was at the Shawnee and Delaware Indian villages near Cape Girardeau, 50 miles north of the epicenter at New Madrid. The earthquakes continued as he traveled back to Prophet’s Town, arriving there in February, 1812. Tecumseh’s followers lost the Battle of Tippecanoe, but they continued to fight as allies of the British during the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. Tecumseh was killed in battle in Canada in 1813. He is honored as one of the greatest of Indian leaders, both in the United States, and in Canada, where he is considered a national hero.

The first steamboat on the western waters survived the earthquakes

The first steamboat travel on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers took place during the New Madrid earthquakes. The New Orleans set out from Pittsburgh on October 20, 1811 bound for New Orleans. Captain Nicholas Roosevelt had brought along his young wife, their 2 year old daughter, and a Labrador dog. Ten days after leaving Pittsburgh, his wife Lydia gave birth to a son in Louisville, Kentucky. They waited a while for her to recover, and for the water to rise prior to crossing the dangerous waters and coral reef at the Falls of the Ohio. On the night before the day of the earthquake, December 16th, the steamboat was anchored near Owensboro, Kentucky, about 200 miles east of New Madrid, Missouri. Their dog, Tiger, insisted on staying in the cabin with them instead of sleeping on the deck. Without realizing it, they were heading straight towards the epicenter of the greatest earthquake in American history. Their steamboat, intended to be an advertisement for steam travel, was thought instead to be the cause of the earthquake by many who saw it. At Henderson, Kentucky, where no chimneys were left standing, they stopped to visit their friends, the painter John James Audubon and his wife Lucy. Floating in the middle of the Ohio River they were protected from the earthquake tremors shaking the land, but not from the hazards of falling trees, disappearing islands, and collapsing river banks. After entering Indian Territory on December 18th, they were chased by Indians who figured the “fire canoe” had caused the earthquake, but they managed to escape capture by outrunning them. They even had a small cabin fire that night which they managed to put out. Thousands of trees were floating on the waters of the Mississippi as they approached New Madrid on December 19th, three days after the earthquake. They found that the town of New Madrid had been destroyed. They didn’t dare to stop and pick up a few survivors, for fear of being overrun, and they were without supplies. Most alarming was the fact that they had not seen a boat ascending the river in three days. They saw wrecked and abandoned boats. It was undoubtedly a miracle that they survived and kept on going. They tied up at one island, and the island sank during the night. Their dog, Tiger, alerted them to oncoming tremors. On December 22nd, they encountered the British naturalist John Bradbury on a boat at the mouth of the St. Francis River, who told them the town of Big Prairie was gone. They arrived at Natchez, Mississippi on December 30th and celebrated the first marriage aboard a steamboat on December 31st, when the steamboat engineer married Lydia’s maid! They arrived at New Orleans on January 10th, 1812, safe and sound, after traveling 1,900 miles from Pittsburgh on the first steamboat to travel the western waters. Highly Recommended Reading The source of most of this material is from The Earthquake America Forgot: 2,000 Temblors in Five Months…And It Will Happen Again! by Dr. David Stewart and Dr. Ray Knox. (1995, Gutenberg-Richter Publications, 375 pages). The authors are geoscientists, specializing in earthquakes. The book is one of the most fascinating I have ever read; it is factual and entertaining, and crammed with every imaginable bit of relevant information, great stories, photos, maps and illustrations. Call the publishers at 1-800-758-8629 to order this and The New Madrid Fault Finders Guide by the authors.

Posted by Kira Gale on 04/28/2008 at 09:00 PM

GEOGRAPHY/PLACES • Missouri • New Madrid Earthquakes • PEOPLE • NATIVE AMERICAN • Tecumseh • War of 1812 • (4) Comments • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us

Monday, January 28, 2008

What happened to Sacagawea’s children?

“The court appoints William Clark Guardian to the infant children of Toussaint Charbonneau deceased, to wit, Toussaint Charbonneau a boy about the age of ten years old and Lisette Charbonneau a girl about one year old.”—Orphans Court record, St Louis, August 11, 1813

The earliest probate court records of St. Louis were discovered in an old safe at the courthouse last fall, containing guardianship proceedings regarding Sacagawea’s children.The story made the Fox News broadcast in St Louis on January 21, 2008. The record, shown here, is of an Orphans Court hearing held on August 11, 1813. William Clark’s name is added to the document, substituted for the name of the original guardian, John Luttig, who was the company clerk of the Missouri Fur Company.

What’s the story behind this? Lewis and Clark fans know that Toussaint, also known by his nickname “Pompey,” or as Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, was born on February 11, 1805 at Fort Mandan near Bismarck, North Dakota. This would make him 8 ½ years old. However, William Clark was not in St Louis at the time the hearing was held. He would have known the precise age of his adopted son, who was already living in St Louis and attending a boarding school.The father, Toussaint Charbonneau, Sr. was also not “deceased” though he was believed to be so at the time. He lived until about 1840.

Toussaint and Sacagawea and their son Pompey came to St. Louis in 1809 with Manuel Lisa and Pierre Chouteau, who had successfully delivered the Mandan Chief, Sheheke, or Big White, back to his village in North Dakota where the Charbonneau family was living. William Clark had requested they bring Pompey to St Louis where he would provide for his education when he was old enough to go to school. The Charbonneau family lived in Florissant, the town next to St Charles, for a year or more before returning home. They went back up river with Manuel Lisa in 1811, leaving their six year old son in William’s Clark’s care.

Sacagawea’s Death at Fort Manuel in 1812

Sacagawea died on Fort Manuel in Kenel, South Dakota on December 20, 1812. The Orphan Court record confirms that it was Sacagawea, rather than Charbonneau’s other Shoshone wife, who died at Fort Manuel. John Luttig wrote in his journal on Sunday, December 20, 1812: "this evening the wife of Charbonneau a Snake Squar, died of a putrid fever, she was a good and the best Women in the fort, aged abt 25 years she left a fine infant girl."

The little baby girl, Lisette, and an Indian woman to care for her, must have been brought down to St Louis by Lisa’s men as they retreated back to St Louis after Fort Manuel was attacked by Indians allies of the British during the War of 1812.The attack occurred sometime after March 5, 1813, the last date of entry in Luttig’s Journal. According to Richard Oglesby’s biography of Manuel Lisa, fifteen men of the Missouri Fur Company died in the attack. Was Lisette named for Manuel Lisa? It’s a possibility.

Luttig’s Journal of a Fur Trading Expedition 1812-13 is very interesting to read. The 1920 version is available on the internet. Here’s the link:

http://www.xmission.com/~drudy/mtman/html/Luttig/

The Missouri Fur Company expedition retreated down river to St Louis, stopping to build Fort Lisa near the site of Council Bluffs, where Fort Atkinson was later built, north of Omaha, Nebraska. Fort Lisa became the westernmost fort defending the American frontier during the War of 1812. Lisa returned and made his headquarters there in 1814, appointed as a special Indian Agent by William Clark.

I published a booklet, Defending the Western Frontier: Manuel Lisa and the War of 1812 in the Omaha-Council Bluffs Area, based on a paper I gave at the Missouri Valley History Conference in 1999. I will blog at other times about the children, and also about the War of 1812 out west.

Posted by Kira Gale on 01/28/2008 at 04:51 PM

GEOGRAPHY/PLACES • Forts/Trading Posts • Missouri • North Dakota • PEOPLE • NATIVE AMERICAN • Pomp/Jean Baptiste Charbonneau • Sacagawea • Sheheke/Big White • War of 1812 • (5) Comments • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us

Friday, April 13, 2007

Escape from Death and a Sister’s Revenge: the Daughters of Omaha Chief Big Elk

The illustration shows the trading posts of the American Fur Company on the banks of the Missouri River in Bellevue, Nebraska. The double log cabin on the left is the original trading post, where young Peter Abadie Sarpy was first employed in the early 1820’s. Sarpy was the great grandson of Madame Chouteau, who founded St Louis. In 1829 Lucien Fontenelle built the two story hewed log house, where he and his wife, Meumbane, one of the daughters of Omaha Chief Big Elk and their young family lived. Fontenelle worked for the American Fur Company, the Wal-Mart of its day.

Another daughter of Big Elk, Mitahne, married Manuel Lisa. Manuel Lisa, the head of the Missouri Fur Company, established Fort Lisa in 1813, about 20 miles north of Bellevue, as a defensive outpost on the western frontier during the War of 1812. He married Mitahne in 1814. They had two children, Rosalie and Christopher. Lisa took Rosalie back to St Louis to be educated by Mother Duchesne. Mitane successfully managed to keep Christopher at Council Bluffs.

William Clark was president of the Missouri Fur Company. Meriwether Lewis’s brother Reuben was a partner. The Missouri Fur Company employed several members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, including John Colter and George Drouillard. Lisa died in 1820, and his employees continued as independent fur traders, moving down to Bellevue.  Lucien Fontenelle, Joshua Pilcher, John Dougherty, Andrew Drips all became famous names in the fur trade. They established another trading post about half a mile north of the Sarpy/Fontenelle trading post.

The artist Karl Bodmer immortalized this post in his famous watercolor of 1833, Major Dougherty’s Indian Agency. The site of this trading post is located in today’s Fontenelle Forest.  The Bodmer painting is part of the Joslyn Art Museum’s outstanding collection of early American Western art. Joslyn also owns the journals of Prince Maximilian and copies of the maps provided by William Clark for Prince Max; maps which were used in the Atlas of the Lewis and Clark Journals. Scholars and western history buffs have long waited for a modern edition of the Prince Maximilian Journals to be published. The first in a series of volumes will be published by the University of Oklahoma this summer. Prince Max and Bodmer journeyed all the way up to Fort Union at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers in 1833-34. Bodmer’s paintings are the finest visual and documentary resource for the Indian tribes and landscape seen by Lewis and Clark thirty years earlier.

When Maximilian made a journal entry for May 3, 1833, he provided part of the evidence for the story of  "Escape from Death and a Sister’s Revenge." (Nebraska History, fall, 1983, vol. 64:3). The prince wrote about visiting the trading post in Fontenelle Forest, which Bodmer painted. As they left the Bellevue Agency they saw  "Omawhah Indians, 3 in number, who were creeping along the beach. An older and a younger man, and a woman. They were wrapped in buffalo ropes. They young man had a bow in his hands and quiver with arrows, of hide. on his back. He was painted white about his eyes and the nose. The woman is the well-known Mitain ("n" as in French) of whom Say relates in Long’s journey that her white man left her and took her child with him, whereupon she followed him quite a distance and showed much loyalty. She was recently stabbed in the chest by the Ayawas and by chance was not scalped; her son, likewise wounded, is also on the path of recovery."

Henry Fontenelle, a son of Lucien Fontenelle wrote a letter to the editor of the Bellevue newspaper about what happened next (Nov. 19, 1875, letter on file at Historical Society of Douglas County). He wrote: "In writing of the former place and within a few steps of where Logan’s grave is reminds me of an incident happened when I was but an infant.  The Omahs and Iowa Indians were at war to about the year 1833 or 4. a small party of the Iowas laid in ambush waiting when my mother’s sister with her son and a few others going home to the Omaha village on the Elkhorn river and four miles from the first Bellvue, on the road now to Omaha City, were attacked by the Ioways some of them killed my mothers sister pinioned with lances to the ground with her son and left to die, but where found next day and relieved on their torture, were cared for and made well again. soon after the cruel assaults, peace was made between the omahs + Iowas some of the Iowas during a friendly visit to the omahas were furnished whiskey became intoxicated and made boasts of their assault on my mothers sister and her son in her presence. it so enraged my mother she picked up a small handaxe and buried the (?) of one of the Iowa, the others fled in dismay.

Another version of this story was related by Mrs. E Anderson in "At Bellevue in the Thirties" (Nebraska State Historical Society, vol 19, 1918). She remembered: "One morning shortly after school was called, the two Fontenelle brothers were conning over their lessons, when the mother and a negro man dashed to the door and caught the little boys in their arms and ran out at the southwest corner of the fort across the bluffs to the trading post. And the news in the fort was that Fontenelle’s wife was killed by an Iowa Indian who was at the fort. There were a great many Iowa Indians there at that time; and they were for getting away from there in a hurry. In a short time they found it was right to the reverse. The woman had killed the man. The men ran out at the southeast corner of the fort; ran down the river road to the trading post; but she got there first. She and the children were locked up in the upper story. That night Mr. Fontenelle put her and her two children about of a boat and sent them up the river to her people. She came back the next summer. While up there a little girl was added to the family…."

This is what I find fascinating about history, trying to establish something of the truth from a variety of accounts. I recently gave a talk on Omaha Chief Big Elk at Sarpy County Museum in Bellevue, and then had the privilege of attending a day long event honoring Omaha Chief Big Elk and the present day Logan Fontenelle and members of his family, who are descended from Henry Fontenelle. Cousins Joyce Kramer and  Wayne Fontenelle are in the process of writing a history of their family. Joyce has published a paper on their history already. The Fontenelle children were: Logan (b. 1825), Albert (b. 1827), Tecumseh (b. 1829), Henry (b.1831) and Susan (b. 1833).  Lucien Fontenelle, their father, was the factor or manager of Fort Laramie in 1837-38, and took his family there to live with him. Fort Laramie is the subject of another famous painting by Alfred Jacob Miller, who painted it in 1837.

Wynema Morris and her mother were also present. They are descendants of Manuel Lisa and Mitahne’s son Christopher. Wynema requested the sources for the story I have just told, so I thought I would write it up in honor of Big Elk and all of his descendants, and share it with others on this blog.

During the day long event on April 11, 2007, a group of us visited three Bellevue Public Schools: Logan Fontenelle Middle School, Mission Middle School and Bellevue East High School.  Representatives from the Omaha Tribe, the Strategic Air Command, the City of Bellevue, Bellevue Public Schools and Omaha Public Schools gave talks. Omaha Indian students came down from the reservation in Macy, Nebraska and partnered with Bellevue students to attend classes with them. Later we all went out in the rain and snow to dedicate a new bench and markers at the cemetery where Big Elk is buried. Bellevue students raised $3,000 for a beautiful granite bench and other grave site markers. They also cleaned up and restored headstones in the old Bellevue Cemetery overlooking the banks of the Missouri River where these long ago events took place.

Big Elk, Ongpatonga, was a famous Indian Chief and orator. Born in 1755, he ruled his tribe from 1811 until his death in  1846.  I will write at another time of his famous funeral oration "On the Death of Black Buffalo" at the treaty signings at Portage des Sioux in July, 1815. He visited Washington, DC in 1821 with a delegation of Indians from the Council Bluffs area who were the first Indians to be painted by the official government painter, Charles Bird King. Dr Herman Viola, who is shown in a photo on my blog when I wrote about visiting DC last year and attending the Book Expo of America, is the author of a book called Diplomats in Buckskins about these Indian delegations.

The historic attractions of Bellevue are among some of the 800 destinations in my book Lewis and Clark Road Trips. Visit the Trip Planner on the Lewis and Clark Road Trips website to find links to websites and MapQuest maps.

Posted by Kira Gale on 04/13/2007 at 11:29 PM

Museums • NATIVE AMERICAN • (1) Comments • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us

Thursday, November 23, 2006

ITs WOOT Chinook Canoe Comes to Clarksville, Indiana

In honor of Thanksgiving, I thought I would share these photos taken by Betty Kluesner of the Discovery Expedition of St Charles in early November, 2006 at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville, Indiana. Dick Brumley, the builder of the Chinook Canoe, ITs WOOT, which means "Black Bear" is showing it to schoolchildren during the "Lewis and Clark Homecoming" at Clarksville. The canoe was blessed in Chinook ceremonies at Long Beach, Washington. Members of the DESC wrote about it in their modern online journal on March 20, 2006.  Bud Clark, the leader of DESC, and great-great-great grandson of William Clark wrote:  Our relationship with the Chinook has taken us outside the realm of living history and into a very personal relationship, where perhaps in terms of healing and reconciliation, we are making history! To everyone’s knowledge this is the first time in 200 years permission was granted to replicate a Chinook canoe and subsequently receive a tribal blessing to use it in our journey. The special bond we have made with the Chinook is very real and meaningful, and we in the Discovery Expedition know it represents the very essence of our Bicentennial Legacy.

 Members of the Discovery Expedition of St Charles sleep in replicas of the same army tents used by members of the Corps of Volunteers for Northwestern Discovery.  When Meriwether Lewis joined William Clark at the Falls of the Ohio, they conducted ceremonies enlisting the "Nine Young Men from Kentucky" into the United States Army. Two of the men had accompanied Meriwether Lewis from the east: 18 year old George Shannon who joined him at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and John Colter, at Maysville, Ohio. The other seven were from the local area of Clarksville and Louisville, Kentucky. They were: cousins Charles Floyd and Nathaniel Pryor; brothers Joseph and Reuben Field; William Bratton; John Shields and George Gibson. Lewis had asked Clark to find "some good hunters, stout, healthy, unmarried men, accustomed to the woods, and capable of bearing bodily fatigue in a pretty considerable degree."

The George Rogers Clark Cabin at the Falls of the Ohio State Park overlooks the Ohio River with a view  of Louisville, Kentucky across the river. General General George Rogers Clark founded both Louisville, Kentucky and Clarksville, Indiana. He was the older brother of William Clark, and second only to George Washington in the respect of his countrymen for the services he performed during the Revolutionary War. Due to his military victories, Britain ceded the Northwest Territory to the United States at the end of the Revolutionary War, doubling the size of the new country. In 1783 George Rogers Clark had been asked by Thomas Jefferson to lead an expedition across the continent to the Pacific Northwest. Twenty years later, his younger brother would fulfill his dream. William Clark was living with his brother at his home when he joined the expedition.  To read more about George Rogers Clark, visit the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park website.

Posted by Kira Gale on 11/23/2006 at 10:58 AM

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Friday, November 10, 2006

Best Books on Sacagawea

Sacagawea’s life story has been often misrepresented in fiction, fact, and oral history. The real story is much more interesting. These four books are the ones I have chosen for inclusion in the Top 50 Lewis and Clark Books for adults, and Lewis and Clark for Young Readers.

Top 50 Lewis and Clark Books

Sacagawea’s Child: The Life and Times of Jean-Baptiste (Pomp) Charbonneau by Susan Colby (2005).

The author has thoroughly researched her subject, and presents a fascinating, well written account of Sacagawea and her family, filled with colorful insights. One of the finest books ever written on this time period. It includes many dramatic events and famous personalities of the early American West, beginning with the story of Sacagawea, her husband Toussaint Charbonneau, and their baby as members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It then focuses on the life of their son: Pomp’s adoption by William Clark and subsequent schooling in St Louis; six years exploring Europe with a German prince; years as a mountain man and guide in the Rocky Mountains; scout services for the Mormon Battalion during the Mexican-American War; appointment as a government official at the San Luis Mission north of San Diego after the war; and later years as a prospector for gold and inn keeper of "Murderer’s Inn" during the California Gold Rush. Published in the Western Frontiersmen Series of the Arthur H. Clark Company.

Sacagawea Speaks: Beyond the Shining Mountains with Lewis and Clark by Joyce Badgley Hunsaker (2001)

The book is based on a program presented by one of America’s most respected and popular living history story tellers, Joyce Hunsaker. It is beautifully illustrated, and can be enjoyed for its illustrations as well as its lyrical story telling. It includes extensive notes, Shoshone vocabulary, timeline, and biographies of expedition members. The author is part Indian in her ancestry, and has been honored by several tribes as well as giving performances at the Smithsonian and National Geographic in Washington, DC.

Lewis and Clark Books for Young Readers

Sacagawea by Stack DeKeyser (2004)

Grades 3-6. One of a series of Books About Exploration published by Scholastic. It’s a lovely book with fine illustrations and presents information in a way that will interest young readers.

Sacagawea’s Son: The Life of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau by Marion Tinling (2001)

Suitable for adult readers as well as ages 10 and up. Focuses on Jean Baptiste’s life after the expedition: his travels to Europe and adventures as a mountain man, scout in the Mexican-American War, and gold rush prospector. Well illustrated with photos and historic drawings.

Posted by Kira Gale on 11/10/2006 at 07:23 AM

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Saturday, November 04, 2006

Sakakawea Country, New Town, North Dakota

Sakakawea, Sacajawea, Sacagawea—how do you spell her name? It depends on who’s doing it. In North Dakota, they spell it with two k’s. In the Hidatsa language, her name means "Bird Woman" and it is "Tsakaka-wias." The Hidatsa were the ones who kidnapped Sacagawea as a young girl from her Shoshone homelands in the area of Lemhi Pass (Salmon, Idaho and Dillon, Montana). At the time of Lewis and Clark, the Hidatsas lived with the Mandan Indians in the Knife River Indian Villages, northwest of Bismarck, North Dakota. Today, the Hidatsa, Mandan and Arikara live together on the Fort Berthold Reservation in the northwestern corner of North Dakota, and are known as the Three Affiliated Tribes, or MHA Nation.  New Town, the headquarters town for the reservation, is located on Lake Sakakawea. The annual New Town Pow Wow takes place on the second weekend in August. This photo was taken at the 14th Lewis and Clark National Signature Event, hosted by the Three Affiliated Tribes in August , 2006.

New Town’s Reunion Bay is the place where all the members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition came together, after they split up to explore Montana on their return journey during the summer of 1806. This photo shows members of the Discovery Expedition of St Charles reenacting the journey at the New Town Signature Event. The expedition used dugout canoes joined together for traveling. This was the type of canoe they were making at Park City, Montana on the Yellowstone River, when the Crow Indians stole their horses.

 Accomodations at New Town are available at the 4 Bears Casino (motel and RV Park) and local motels. The Three Tribes Museum is located near the casino. Other attractions include Lewis & Clark Jet Boat rides, golfing, hiking, biking and horseback riding, fishing and hunting. Lodging includes cabins, ranch vacations, motels, RV and tent campgrounds in New Town and the surrounding area on the reservation.

To return to the matter of Sakakawea/Sacajawea/Sacagawea. The Shoshone spelling is "Sacajawea"  with a "j"; the name means "Boat Launcher"  in the Shoshone language. Two interpretive centers spell it with a "j": the Sacajewea Interpretive, Cultural and Education Center in Salmon, Idaho and the Sacajawea Interpretive Center in Pasco, Washington.  However, the most accepted spelling is "Sacagawea"  with a "g" which has been the choice of almost all contemporary writers and journal editors. William Clark spelled her name as "Sah-kah-gar-we-a" when the expedition departed from Fort Mandan on April 7, 1805; and as "Se car ja we au Dead" in noting the fate of expedition members in a journal entry made  sometime between 1825-28. 

Read more about Sacagawea and the New Town area in my Lewis and Clark Road Trips book. In the next blog, Best Books on Sacagawea, I recommend two books on Sacagawea for adults among my "Top 50 Lewis and Clark Books" and two books on Sacagawea written for young readers available through our Amazon Associate bookstore.

Posted by Kira Gale on 11/04/2006 at 02:32 PM

Lewis and Clark Trail • TRAVEL • NATIVE AMERICAN • Sacagawea • North Dakota • (0) Comments • (2) Trackbacks • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Crow Indians, Lewis and Clark, and the Battle of Little Bighorn,  Montana

The Crow Indians met William Clark’s party exploring the Yellowstone River in the summer of 1806 near Billings, Montana, but the expedition never saw them—they just had all of their horses stolen in two nighttime raids. Clark’s party of 12 were bringing back a large group of horses to use for trade at the Mandan Villages in North Dakota. 24 horses were stolen while they were building dugout canoes near Park City. The remaining 17 were stolen from Nathaniel Pryor and his party while he was proceeding overland near Hardin, Montana. Today, the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Refuge is located along the BigHorn River near Lovell, Wyoming along the Montana border.

Two hundred years later the Parade of the Crow People was one of the highlights of the 13th National Lewis and Clark Signature Event held at Pompey’s Pillar National Monument in July, 2006.  This parade is also performed  at the great Crow Fair held annually on the 3rd weekend in August at the Crow Agency near the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.  The Crow Fair is one of the largest pow wows in the country. More than 45,000 spectators attend.  The Crow tribal college offers  van tours of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument through Apsaalooke Tours, in partnership with the National Park Service. The battlefield was the site of "Custer’s Last Stand," the 1876 defeat of Lt. Colonel George Custer and his men by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. An Indian Memorial was finally installed at the Battlefield in 2003.

Crow veterans who served in United States Armed Forces were the color guard at opening ceremonies at Pompey’s Pillar. Seven Montana Indian tribes participated in the National Signature Event. The seven tribes—Assiniboine, Gros Ventre, Blackfeet, Crow, Northern Cheyenne, Sioux, Chippewa-Cree, Salish, Kootenai and Pend O’reille—are members of the Montana Tribal Tourism Alliance.

Posted by Kira Gale on 11/01/2006 at 09:11 PM

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Signing at the Signature Rock, Pompey’s Pillar near Billings, Montana

Pompey’s Pillar was named by William Clark for Sacagawea’s little boy, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, who was called "Pomp" or "Pompey."  The toddler, who was born on February 11, 1805 at Fort Mandan near Bismarck, North Dakota, got a giant graffiti rock, a distinctive outcropping about 150 feet high, named after him when he was 17 months old. William Clark climbed to near the top of the rock, carved "William Clark  July 25 1806" in the soft sandstone, and named it "Pompey’s Tower." The editor of his published journal, Nicholas Biddle, renamed  it "Pompey’s Pillar." Located near a natural crossing of the Yellowstone River, the Crown Indians called the butte, Iishbiiammaache, or "the place where the mountain lion dwelled." For centuries Native Americans made hundreds of their own carvings (petroglyphs) and paintings (pictographs) on the rock. 

I signed Lewis and Clark Road Trips books in the Stephen A Ambrose Authors Tent  in 106 degree heat at Pompey’s Pillar. Despite the heat over 25,000 people attended the the 13th Lewis and Clark National Signature Event which was held 30 miles east of Billings, Montana in late July, 2006.  

 Peyton "Bud" Clark, the great, great, great grandson of William Clark reenacted his ancestor’s carving of his name and date on an outdoor stage at Pompey’s Pillar in that terrible heat, but he’s as tough as William Clark and got it done. Bud  has shown all the leadership skills, endurance and enjoyment of people, adventure, and the great outdoors that William Clark had. His participation in the bicentennial observances as the leader of the Discovery Expedition of St Charles has been one of the most important and lasting memories of these special years.

 Not to worry about climbing  the boardwalk if you are visiting. There is a brand new Visitor Center, which was dedicated at the Signature Event, where you can enjoy a view of the Pillar in comfort and use a telescope to get a close up view. The Visitor Center is open from the last weekend in May to the first weekend in September. There is year round access to the rock itself. It’s just a coincidence that this was called a "Signature Event" as this was the name given to all fifteen places around the country who hosted National Signature Events in the bicentennial years.

Pompey’s Pillar became a National Historic Landmark in 1965, and a National Historic Monument in 2001. William Clark’s signature today is enclosed in a protective glass frame, first put there by the local family who leased the land in the 1950’s and later bought it to preserve this remarkable piece of history. Read about Don and Stella Foote on the web’s great Lewis and Clark history website, Discovering Lewis & Clark.

Posted by Kira Gale on 11/01/2006 at 12:19 PM

BOOKS/AUTHORS • Lewis and Clark Trail • Montana • TRAVEL • NATIVE AMERICAN • Sacagawea • National Historic Landmark/ Monument • (1) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us