Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri / Edited with Notes and Biographical Sketch

by Edwin Thompson Denig

The traders of the Columbia Fur Co. and after them those of the American Fur Co. were men of ability, honesty, and truth. In the course of their dealings, intermarriages, and conversations with the Indians, the minds of the latter were enlarged, a different train of thought and action engendered, new desires created which gave a stimulus to industry, which raised the Indian from the level of the brute to the standing of an intellectual being.

The enmities formerly existing between different bands of the same nations, arising from the petty jealousies of chiefs or private family animosities, were soldered up by the traders. To be sure their object in this was personal gain, but that is immaterial, the beneficial results arising from their traffic, etc., were consolidation of force and interest of the Indians, unity of purpose and action, entailing order in their government, a great diminution of family feuds and private quarrels, and an application of their time to the comfort and welfare of their families instead of its being spent in bloody contention or domestic idleness or discord.

The introduction of firearms, metallic cooking utensils, and other tools gave them a greater reliance on their own powers, increased their hunting operations, and with them their domestic comfort, by these means withdrawing their attention from their barbarous practices and opening a new field for their exertions. With the substituting of European instruments and clothing arose a different kind of pride than that of olden time. The distinguishing features of the original savage were fierceness, obstinate will, and bloody determination, leading to barbarous and disgusting practices. Their women were worse than slaves, the extent of their labor was more than they could bear. With the stone ax, the bone awl, the clay pot, the rib knife, and all their primitive tools, even their most pressing wants were met with great difficulty. The process of procuring fuel alone was one of much toil, and occupied most of the time of one female to a lodge. On account of their inadequate instruments for dressing hides their clothing was wretched, often insufficient to protect from cold or to cover with decency.

Commerce has changed all this by facilitating their means, and the character of their women has risen from a state of intolerable slavery to one of ordinary labor scarcely more servile than that of European female operatives. Their persons are cleanly dressed, combed, and adorned, a desire to appear genteel is manifested, a neatness in their lodges and domestic arrangements perceptible, proving the transfer of their time and ideas to these ends from those of original filth and savage recklessness.

In former times the trade was carried on in their different camps by paying a number of desperate men (Indians) to restrain the populace from robbing the trader. This force was effective and necessary at the time, because the wants of the Indians were so numerous and pressing, their cupidity so great, that it was impossible for the trader publicly to display his goods or deal with them on anything like fair terms. And the Indians thus employed considered it an honorable station; it flattered their pride to rely for protection on their bravery, and no robberies could be committed nor the traders insulted without killing these men at the door of the lodge, which was never attempted. This gave rise to a body of men called soldiers, and the power first invested in them by the traders formed a nucleus around which collected a superior and coercive force, which, in the course of time, was applied to their own civil organization, producing order in their government, unity of action, and rendering effective the decisions by council.

The original natural authority was centered in the chiefs of small bands, supported only by their family connections, who could not or would not enforce decrees for general welfare nor interfere in any public differences not touching their private interests. Power being thus confined and circumscribed, separations into small camps took place and minor subdivisions into heads of families, resembling in this elementary form of government that of the ancient patriarchs who as their interests jarred or covetousness increased made war upon each other and were insufficient for any general purpose. But when the body of soldiers was established and their efforts united to support the chief and council, they soon collected in large bands, from two to four or six hundred lodges each, entered into effective measures of defense from the surrounding tribes, regulated their hunts to advantage, and by this consolidation of interest extinguished the principal sources of private discord. This was a great step in advancement produced by the traders and their commerce, for through the chief and council as the organ of public opinion and soldiers as its support the nation could be spoken to, their interest consulted, their feelings known, and the mass made to advance toward a further point of improvement.

Property by means of commerce having been acquired, rates of exchanges established, and hunting operations enlarged and facilitated, other things besides scalps became valuable in the eyes of the Indians. Each having something to lose, perceived the necessity of respecting the rights of others, giving rise to a spirit of compromise in difficulties, so that arms were less resorted to in settling disputes, payment in most cases superseding that ancient and barbarous custom; also they evinced a disposition to aid each other in times of need, which minor obligations bound still closer their hitherto feeble bonds of society.

These were some of the effects of the introduction of commerce. A still further improvement is visible in their expansion of ideas arising from association with white traders, exhibited in their amelioration of manners, desire for knowledge, doubts of their own superstitions, increase of their vocabulary and modes for expressing thought, reason supplying the place of passion, and the general usefulness of the whole, resulting in their minds having been made capable of comprehending religious or scientific instruction and their time and talents to be applied to either their moral or spiritual welfare.

This is the point to which these wild tribes are supposed by us to have arrived, but no further. Their future condition depends more upon their white allies than themselves. Traders have instilled education enough to serve their purposes and let them alone. It would be inexpedient for them to do more.

It is also apparent, if their present attainments be not improved upon by those in power, that they must recede, and in case of a discontinuance of trade or a worse influx of whites, their now to them useful organization must dissolve. In this event they must become more miserable than at first, because the desires and necessities induced by their partial elevation can not be satisfied from their original resources, these having been lost and abandoned during their advancement, consequently their present support withdrawn, their hunting ruined, distress, famine, and dissolution as nations must certainly follow.