1. The Bighorn River (La Grosse Corne).
2. The Little Bighorn River (La Petite Grosse Corne).
3. The Tongue River (La Rivière à la Langue).
4. The Powder River (La Rivière à la Poudre).
The Yellow Stone is called, by the Canadians, La Roche Jaune. Warden calls it Keheetsa, but I do not know where he got this name. Lewis and Clarke say it has no name. The names given it by most of the Indian nations signify Elk River.[353]
CHAPTER XV
DESCRIPTION OF FORT UNION AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD
Description of the Fort and its Vicinity—Its Inhabitants, and the Fur Trade on the Upper Missouri—The Indian Branch of the Assiniboins, the original Possessors of this Spot.
The erection of Fort Union was commenced in the autumn of 1829, by Mr. Mc Kenzie, and is now completed, except that some of the edifices which were erected in haste are under repair. The fort is situated on an alluvial eminence, on the northern bank of the Missouri, in a prairie, which extends about 1,500 paces to a chain of hills, on whose summit there are other wide-spreading plains. The river runs at a distance of scarcely fifty or sixty feet from the fort, in the direction from west to east; it is here rather broad, and the opposite bank is wooded. The fort itself forms a quadrangle, the sides of which measure about eighty paces in length, on the exterior. The ramparts consist of strong pickets, sixteen or seventeen feet high, squared, and placed close to each other, and surmounted by a chevaux-de-frise. On the south-west and north-east ends, there are block-houses, with pointed roofs, two stories high, with embrasures and some cannon, which, though small, are fit for service. In the front of the enclosure, and towards the river, is the well-defended principal entrance, with a large folding gate. Opposite the entrance, on the other side of the quadrangle, is the house of the commandant; it is one story high, and has four handsome glass windows on each side of the door. The roof is spacious, and contains a large, light loft. This house is very commodious, and, like all the buildings of the inner quadrangle, constructed of poplar wood, the staple wood for building in this neighbourhood. In the inner quadrangle are the residences of the clerks, the interpreters, and the engagés, the powder magazine, the stores, or supplies of goods and bartered skins, various workshops for the handicraftsmen, smiths, carpenters, &c., stables for the horses and cattle, rooms for receiving and entertaining the Indians; and in the centre is the flag-staff, around which several half-breed Indian hunters had erected their leathern tents. A cannon was also placed here, with its mouth towards the principal 188 entrance.[354] The fort contains about fifty or sixty horses, some mules, and an inconsiderable number of cattle, swine, goats, fowls, and domestic animals. The cattle are very fine, and the cows yield abundance of milk. The horses are driven, in the day-time, into the prairie, guarded and exercised by armed men, and, in the evening, brought back into the quadrangle of the fort, where the greater part of them pass the night in the open air. Mr. Mc Kenzie has, however, lately had a separate place, or park, provided for them.
Fort Union is one of the principal posts of the Fur Company, because it is the central point of the two other trading stations, still higher up, towards the Rocky Mountains, and having the superintendence of the whole of the trade in the interior, and in the vicinity of the mountains. One of these two trading stations, called Fort Cass, is 200 miles up the Yellow Stone River, and is confined to the trade with the Crow tribe; the other, Fort Piekann, or, as it is now called, Fort Mc Kenzie, is 850[355] miles up the Missouri, or about a day's journey from the falls of this river, and carries on the fur trade with the three tribes of the Blackfoot Indians. The latter station has been established about two years, and, as the steamers cannot often go up to Fort Union, they despatch keel-boats, to supply the various trading posts with goods for barter with the Indians. They then pass the winter at these stations, and in the spring carry the furs to Fort Union, whence they are transported, in the course of the summer, to St. Louis, by the steamers.
The Company maintains a number of agents at these different stations; during their stay they marry Indian women, but leave them, without scruple, when they are removed to another station, or are recalled to the United States. The lower class of these agents, who are called engagés, or voyageurs, have to act as steersmen, rowers, hunters, traders, &c., according to their several capabilities. They are often sent great distances, employed in perilous undertakings among the Indians, and are obliged to fight against the enemy, and many of them are killed every year by the arms with which the Whites themselves have furnished the Indians. Some of the agents of the Fur Company winter every year in the Rocky Mountains.[356]
The proprietors of the American Fur Company were Messrs. Astor, at New York, General Pratte, Chouteau, Cabanné, Mc Kenzie, Laidlow, and Lamont; the three latter had a share 189 in the fur trade on the Upper Missouri only. Wild beasts and other animals, whose skins are valuable in the fur trade, have already diminished greatly in number along this river, and it is said that, in another ten years, the fur trade will be very inconsiderable. As the supplies along the banks of the Missouri decreased, the Company gradually extended the circle of their trading posts, as well as enterprises, and thus increased their income. Above 500 of their agents are in the forts of the Upper Missouri, and at their various trading posts; and, besides these individuals, who receive considerable salaries (for it is said that the Company yearly expend 150,000 dollars in salaries), there are in these prairies, and the forests of the Rocky Mountains, beaver and fur trappers, who live at their own cost; but whose present wants, such as horses, guns, powder, ball, woollen cloths, articles of clothing, tobacco, &c. &c., are supplied by the Company, and the scores settled, after the hunting season is over, by the furs which they deliver at the different trading posts. Many of these, when not employed in hunting, live at the Company's forts. They are, for the most part, enterprising, robust men, capital riflemen, and, from their rude course of life, are able to endure the greatest hardships.