Agreeably to instructions, Mr. Culbertson, immediately on reaching Fort Union, dispatched expresses to the chiefs of the Blackfoot nation with presents of tobacco and goods, and Governor Stevens’s message:—
“I desire to meet you on the way, and assure you of the fatherly care and beneficence of the government. I wish to meet the Blackfeet in a general council at Fort Benton. Do not make war upon your neighbors. Remain at peace, and the Great Father will see that you do not lose by it.”
The Blackfeet at this time numbered 12,000, divided into four great bands,—Blackfeet proper, Bloods, Piegans, and Gros Ventres. Pressing down from the north over a century before, they drove back the Crows, Shoshones, and Flatheads, and took possession of all the country about the headwaters of the Missouri from above the boundary line to the Yellowstone, and from the Rocky Mountains eastward to Fort Union. True Ishmaelites, they waged perpetual war upon all other tribes, and cherished special and inveterate hostility against the whites ever since one of their number was slain by Captain Lewis, of Lewis and Clark’s expedition, in 1807. They suffered, indeed, two rival trading-posts on the upper Missouri, three hundred miles above Fort Union, namely, Fort Benton and Fort Campbell, for it was indispensable for them to exchange their peltries for arms, ammunition, blankets, and goods; but the traders never dared admit them within the forts.
War was their sole business, the only means by which the young braves acquired influence, gained wealth, and found favor in the eyes of the maidens. Their war parties invariably started out on foot, each warrior trailing a long lariat, and bearing a bundle of moccasins with rawhide soles. It was a point of honor never to return unless mounted, and war parties were sometimes absent over a year before they succeeded in capturing their steeds. Penetrating thus on foot from three hundred to a thousand miles into the country of their foes, they would patiently lurk in the mountains, or some hidden resort, until an opportunity offered, when, running off the horses, and perhaps lifting a few scalps, they would retreat home at full speed, mounted and triumphant. Thus they raided the Crows and Assiniboines on the east and south, the Shoshones, Snakes, and Flatheads on the west, and even beset the emigrant trail of the Platte and South Pass, eight hundred miles distant; and many a lonely trapper and emigrant had fallen victim to their cunning and ferocity. Yet the chiefs and elders plainly saw that this incessant warfare was slowly but surely cutting off their warriors in detail, and threatened the ultimate extinction of the tribe, and were not unwilling to relinquish it for a more peaceful mode of life, but ever found it impossible to restrain the young braves.
With these powerful and intractable savages Governor Stevens undertook to make a lasting peace, not only between them and the whites, but also between them and their hereditary enemies, the other Indian tribes. He early realized that the establishment of peace and the cessation of Blackfoot war parties were indispensable to the exploration and settlement of the country, and the passage of emigrants through it, and characteristically set to work to effect it, without waiting for orders. He took every opportunity to meet and confer with the chiefs and parties of the Blackfeet, urging them to make peace, and proposing a great council for the next year, at which they and the whites and the other Indian tribes were to meet together and unite in bonds of lasting friendship. From Fort Benton the governor reported his views and action to the government, and in the strongest manner recommended the holding of the council. He sent Mr. Culbertson expressly to carry his report to Washington, and impress his policy upon the government. It is remarkable how Governor Stevens, although eminently loyal and subordinate to authority, always impressed his own views upon the government, and caused them to be adopted, instead of waiting for instructions to be given him. With his sagacious foresight and ardent patriotism, he was quick to discern needed measures, which always appeared to him as duties to be undertaken, and moreover he had such courage and force of character that he never hesitated to take the responsibility of any action that he deemed necessary for the public welfare.
Thus far the expedition had met with most gratifying success. Lieutenant Donelson made a satisfactory examination of the Missouri to a point one hundred and twenty-five miles above Fort Union, and an extended reconnoissance of the country north of that point. The main party surveyed two routes westward from Pike Lake, and ascertained the topographical features on both flanks for a wide scope, while Lander, during the stay at Fort Union, examined the Mouse River country northward to the 49th parallel. Dr. Evans was at work geologizing in the Bad Lands on the other side of the Missouri. The force was now hardened to field work and in fine spirits, and the animals were toughened, thoroughly broken, and in fine condition.
“From the 2d to the 9th of August we were closely occupied in preparing for the continuation of the survey. The men were engaged in making Pembina carts, and additional transportation was purchased of the fur companies. Our experience thus far had shown how well adapted ox-trains were to transportation, and accordingly two additional teams were added at Fort Union. In all these arrangements both the fur companies zealously coöperated, placing at my disposal not only all the animals they could spare, but guides, hunters, and their information in regard to the country. We were much pleased and benefited by the good offices of the Indian women at the two posts, the wives of the officers, who fitted us out with a good assortment of moccasins, gloves, and other guards against the severity of the weather in the fall and winter.
“The voyageurs belonging to the fur companies’ posts thought it a good practical joke to spread bugbear stories about the immense snows to be expected early in the season, and many of the men got to believe that they would find snow knee-deep before they reached Fort Benton, and that it would be twenty feet deep in the passes of the Rocky Mountains in October, and the men became exceedingly alarmed. Fortunately I had with me some books of travel in that country, particularly De Smet’s ‘Oregon Missions,’ and had carefully investigated the climates of the country west of the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Culbertson and the officers of the companies also gave me reliable information in reference to the lightness and lateness of the snow this side of the mountains, and therefore little difficulty was found in satisfying the men that they had been trifled with in this matter.”
Advancing the expedition westward again in two parties under Lieutenants Grover and Donelson on the 9th of August, the governor, to quote from his final report,
started on the 10th from Fort Union at about twelve o’clock, followed by a war party of the Blackfeet, consisting of twenty Blood Indians and forty Piegan Indians, who arrived at Fort Union on the 8th on a visit to my party, and with whom I had had the most friendly interchange of civilities. I desired their company for two or three days in order to impress them fully with the beneficent policy of our government towards the Indians, and with the peaceable character of my own duties and objects, intending then to dispatch them on their way to their several tribes, and to make generally known to the Blackfoot nation our objects in passing through their country. I camped that evening with Lieutenant Grover on the Little Muddy River, when, towards night, a serious difficulty came near happening between them and our party. Mr. Culbertson and myself, however, succeeded in arranging the matter, and we spent a most interesting evening with the principal men in conversing about the Blackfeet and the Indian policy of our government. On this occasion I presented the subject of a general council to be held at Fort Benton the ensuing year, to make peace between the Blackfoot Indians and the hunting tribes west of the mountains, and to preserve peace with the white children of the Great Father. On this as on previous occasions, Mrs. Culbertson, a native of the Blood tribe of the Blackfeet, was unwearied and efficient in her good offices.