[278] The second Fort Teton was built about 1828; it has been contended by several authorities that its site was south of or below Teton River; but in the light of Maximilian's testimony, this appears improbable. The first Fort Teton was probably that built by Joseph La Framboise in 1817. Maximilian does not state that Fort Tecumseh was the successor of Fort Teton, and the predecessor of Fort Pierre, although alluding to the former—see note 278, post. On the entire subject see "Fort Pierre and its Neighbors," in South Dakota Historical Collections (Aberdeen, 1902), i, pp. 263-379.—Ed.
[279] Fort Pierre was built by the American Fur Company in 1831-32 to replace Fort Tecumseh, which had begun to be undermined by the river. The site chosen was three miles above the mouth of the Teton, about one thousand yards back from the river. The post was christened in June, 1832, upon the visit of Pierre Chouteau, jr., in whose honor it was named. Fort Pierre continued to be the entrepôt of the upper Missouri until 1855, when the company sold the post to the United States, then engaged in a campaign against the hostile Sioux. General Harney wintered here (1855-56) with one thousand two hundred men. The following year (1857), Fort Pierre was abandoned for Fort Randall, a hundred miles farther down the river; the old post was demolished, the best of its fittings transferred to the new post, and the rest allowed to fall into the hands of the Indians. The same year a trader built a new post, also popularly called Fort Pierre, three miles above the old one. New Fort Pierre, a company trading post, was built in 1859 about two miles above the original stockade. This was abandoned in the Sioux outbreak of 1863, and the goods removed to the neighborhood of Fort Sully, a government post established on an island below the city of Pierre, South Dakota.—Ed.
[280] Fort Tecumseh was the principal establishment on this part of the river for the Columbia Fur Company, being built about 1822. When this concern was consolidated with the American Fur Company, the latter made headquarters at Fort Tecumseh until the building of the original Fort Pierre (1831-32). Its site has been thought, by a misreading of authorities, to have been on the east bank; but it was probably only a short distance below old Fort Pierre, on the western bank.—Ed.
[281] William Laidlaw was a Scotchman who had been trained in the British fur companies, and came to the Missouri with the Columbia Fur Company. He was for several years the factor of Forts Tecumseh and Pierre, and was then promoted to the charge of Fort Union, where he was as late as 1845—probably for some time after. When he finally retired, it was to settle near Liberty, Missouri, where he died a poor man. He was an able trader, but of quick, irascible temper, and unpopular with his subordinates.—Ed.
[282] See p. [319], for plan of Fort Pierre.—Ed.
[283] For Pierre Dorion, see our volume v, p. 38, note 7. Although Maximilian speaks of him as "old Dorion," it is probable that this was another son of Pierre, sr.; for Pierre, jr., was a grown man at the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and his father was a Frenchman, not a half-breed.—Ed.
[284] See the portrait of the Dakota woman, Plate 42, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.—Ed.
[285] The red pipe-clay is found chiefly on a lateral stream of the Big Sioux River, but also in other places, for instance, on St. Peter's River; and it is said, that the several Indian tribes behave peaceably towards each other while they are digging up the stone in that place, but again treat each other as enemies as soon as they have left it. Persons who have visited the quarries on the Big Sioux River have given me the following description of them: the red stone occurs in large beds or strata, where the perpendicular sides of the stream show divers alternating layers. The strata of red stone, which are at the most a foot thick, alternate with yellow, blue, white, and other kinds of clay. The green turf on the surface, and the upper stratum, are removed, and the red-brown colour of the stone is generally more lively and beautiful the deeper you go down. It is possible to obtain large pieces, and to make beautiful slabs of them. The Indians make not only pipe-heads of this stone, but likewise war-clubs, which, however, are only carried in their hands for show.—Maximilian.
Comment by Ed. The first white person to visit the Pipestone quarries in southwest Minnesota was the artist George Catlin, who in 1836 obtained permission from the Indians to inspect this sacred spot. The mineral has since been called "catlinite," from his name. There are, however, other quarries in Dakota, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
[286] See Plate 81, figure 12, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv, for a figure of a Dakota pipe; also illustration on opposite [page] of Dakota pipes.—Ed.