Beyond the Old Frontier: Adventures of Indian-Fighters, Hunters, and Fur-Traders

by George Bird Grinnell

Those Indians did go to Benton, and Jack, knowing them, introduced me to them. They laughed at the idea of the two of us being able to put all of them to sleep; that nettled Jack, and he asked me to show them what I could do with my “medicine gun,” as he called my Henry rifle. At this place the Missouri River is about two hundred and fifty yards wide, and on the farther, or south, side near the water there stood a stone about one foot in diameter. There were about one hundred and fifty Indians present at the time. I had practised at that rock more than once. I fired seven shots at it in rapid succession, and each shot would have hit an Indian. All the Indians put their hands over their mouths—a sign of astonishment. They wished to examine the rifle, but I refused to let them touch it, let alone examine it. I was determined to keep them mystified about the Henry rifle as long as I could. I was offered four times the price I paid for it—one hundred and six dollars, as already stated.

When I reported to the commissioners, they were somewhat disappointed that the Crows were not coming to the council. I notified the commissioners that the Gros Ventres would be here in two days, and that two of their chiefs had come here with us. The commissioners requested me to take care of these chiefs until the village arrived. I did so, charging the commissioners one dollar a meal for each Indian, the same price that I charged the white men; but I ought to have had two dollars, as one of these Indians could get away with as much grub as two white men.

Some northern Indians were now beginning to come in. Three days after our return the steamboat got to Benton. Two days after the arrival of that boat fully thirty-five hundred Indians were in camp on Benton Bottom. The Piegans and the Bloods had about three hundred and fifty lodges. Father-of-all-Children,[10] the Blackfeet chief, had fifty lodges, but doubled up; that is to say, two families in one lodge. The total number of Indians, big and little, was about four thousand, and more parties were constantly arriving, swelling the number. The other Blackfeet Indians were too far away to attend the council, and besides that, they had no right to be there to receive presents from the United States, as they belonged to Canada. The people from the north pitched their lodges mostly on the upper end of the Bottom, but the Gros Ventres pitched theirs on the lower end, some three hundred yards east of the old fort. Formerly they had been friends with the Piegans and the Bloods, but for the last four years they had been at war, and there was the bitterest hatred between them. Hence this wide separation of their lodges. The council-chamber had been put in order. The American flag was handsomely displayed, with other decorations. The steamboat had been unloaded and the goods stored. This was about the 20th of September, 1865.

[10] Měn ěs tō´ kōs, literally, All are his children, but commonly spoken of as Father of all children.

As stated in the earlier part of this narrative, I had been appointed deputy marshal, though I knew nothing about the duties of the office. I asked General Meagher what was expected of me as marshal, and he replied: “Keep order, see that the chiefs are seated in their allotted places, and that the interpreters are ordered to bring all chiefs and principal warriors to the council.”

At the appointed time, all had come except the Gros Ventres. Tunica, the interpreter, returned from the camp, saying that the Gros Ventres chiefs were afraid to come. The commissioners commanded me, as sergeant-at-arms, to bring the chiefs and headmen of the tribe to the council. I was armed at all points. Dick was saddled, and I went to the village. I got six of the leading chiefs, who wanted to bring their arms with them, but I gave them to understand that this would not be permitted by the white chiefs in council, that no one could enter the council-chamber armed, except myself. I gave them assurance that no harm would come to them in council, and soon returned with the chiefs, and placed them on the left of the Piegans. They had been acquainted with each other before the war, and had been good friends.

It was one P. M. when the clerk produced a roll of closely written sheets of paper. It looked to me to be two quires, the treaty which came from the Indian Commissioner at Washington. The clerk began reading it by sections, and then waited to have it interpreted. The Piegans, Bloods, and Blackfeet needed but one interpreter, but the Gros Ventres had to have their own interpreter. It took fifteen to twenty minutes to get through with one sentence, and even then neither interpreter nor Indians understood one-tenth of its meaning. I saw that it would take forty days to get through if a change was not brought about. Little Dog, the Piegan chief, told his interpreter to inform the commissioners that the council would be adjourned until next day in order to consult on the mode of procedure to be used thereafter and the language to be employed in carrying through a treaty with a wild, untamed lot of Indians, ninety per cent of whom had no desire to mix with or deal with any whites, except to trade for certain commodities which they stood in need of. The commissioners knew as little of how to proceed to make those Indians understand their meaning as an Apache would know of Latin.

My eating-house now did a rushing business, for that evening I was asked to give supper to all the chiefs. It would have been amusing to any one with a knowledge of Indian character to see the warriors who, when they heard I was going to give all the chiefs their supper, came to me and claimed to be chiefs. We did feed perhaps a dozen leading warriors besides the chiefs. I notified the cook to be prepared to feed about forty Indians. We had plenty to eat, but no fancy dishes. The cook was well up in his business.

After supper, the commissioners called the interpreter and me to council with them, for they saw that some change must be made in the proceedings. We told them that they must condense, must leave out “party of the first part,” “party of the second part,” “for and in consideration of, etc.,” and must state in as few words as possible what they desired of the Indians. The clerk got to work, and in half an hour had the forty closely written sheets of paper condensed to less than one, which contained the meaning of the whole.

At nine o’clock next morning the council met again, all the chiefs being in their seats. The Small Robe band of Piegans claimed the land on the south side of the Missouri River as far as Musselshell River. They ceded in the treaty all their rights to this territory. Other Piegans and the Blood Indians claimed territory along the summit of the Rocky Mountains south to the Little Blackfoot River, and thence southeast to the Missouri River. In the treaty they ceded all the territory from the mouth of the Marias River up the Marias to the Teton River, following the middle of the stream to its source, for a stipulated sum to be given them for twenty years. The Gros Ventres had no land to cede. The Blackfeet also had no land to cede, and according to the views of many they had no business in this treaty, because they lived in, and claimed to belong to, what they called Red Coat Land, namely, that belonging to King George. Some of them wore King George’s medals, and showed that they felt proud of them. All the country east of the Teton River was set apart for a Piegan and Blood reserve. The treaty was concluded by five P. M. All the Indians understood what was wanted of them, and the preliminaries were thus shortened by at least thirty-nine days. The treaty was not satisfactory to all the Indians, but they had to abide by it. Without the influence of some of the mountaineers—who never received any credit for the part they took in bringing it about—that treaty would not have been made at that time.