[240] For the Potawatomi mission see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 156, note 26. Its first site in Kansas was as here stated; later (1848) it was removed to Kansas River, and during the early settlement was well known as St. Mary’s Mission—afterwards, simply St. Mary’s. The mission school was continued until 1869. A town of this name is in the southeastern corner of Pottawatomie County.—Ed.
[241] Several posts of the Hudson’s Bay Company were known as the Rocky Mountain House; but this one, upon the North Saskatchewan, had no other name. It was founded in 1802 by the North West Company, and David Thompson was in charge 1806-07, making thence his first expedition west of the mountains. It was located about a mile and a half above the mouth of the Clearwater, on the south bank of the Saskatchewan. See Explorations by Captain John Palliser (London, 1863), pp. 74-77, descriptive of the expedition sent by the government in 1857-59.—Ed.
[242] For the Sauteux see J. Long’s Voyages, in our volume ii, p. 79, note 38. The Chippewa are the most numerous tribe of the Algonquian stock, large numbers being still found in both Canada and the United States, with a range nearly as wide as De Smet here gives them. In the United States, however, their habitat never extended much beyond Minnesota, where they were met by their hereditary enemies, the Dakota (or Sioux). In Canada, their alliance with the Cree gave them a farther westward range, and they occasionally traded at Fort Edmonton on the upper Saskatchewan.—Ed.
[243] George A. de Belcourt arrived in the Red River country in 1831, and spent twenty-eight years as a missionary in this territory, officiating also at Pembina under commission from Bishop Loras of Dubuque. The Chippewa mission here mentioned was situated on Winnipeg River, at a place whose native name was Wabassimong. In 1846, the Oblate Father Aubert was placed in charge; but lack of success rendered it necessary to abandon the mission the following year. The log church which had been erected was used some years later by Protestant missionaries. See Alexandre Taché, Vingt Années de Missions dans le Nord-Ouest de l’Amérique (Montreal, 1866).—Ed.
[244] This was the half-breed known as Bird, whose treachery toward Antoine Godin at Fort Hall, Idaho, is narrated by Townsend in our volume xxi, pp. 353, 354; see also our volume xxiii, pp. 135, 145, 153.—Ed.
[245] This band of Blackfeet, which took its name from an important chief, was mentioned by George Catlin in 1832, being said to consist of two hundred and fifty lodges. Father de Smet says that they were almost entirely destroyed. Charles Larpenteur, however, mentions this band as on the war path against the Flatheads in 1848; see his Forty Years a Fur Trader (New York, 1898), ii, pp. 259-261.—Ed.
[246] John Rowand was born at Montreal and entered the North West Company as a clerk in 1800. He was in charge at Fort Augustus for many years and there was born his son who became widely known in Northwest annals. Educated at Montreal and Edinburgh, he travelled abroad before returning to the Northwest, where he was for many years a chief factor of the company. He accompanied Sir George Simpson on his journey of 1841, and in 1848 retired from active service, settling in Quebec, where he died in 1889. See Henry-Thompson Journals, ii, pp. 602, 603; and Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, iv. pp. 1559-1561.—Ed.
[247] For Fort Edmonton (or Fort Augustus) see our volume vi, p. 364, note 177. A nearly contemporary description may be found in Simpson, Narrative, i, pp. 101, 102.—Ed.
[248] For Fort Jasper see our volume vi, p. 357, note 167.
Assiniboine House was built in 1825 on the north side of Athabasca River, in northern Alberta; the place is now abandoned and ruined. See Alexander Ross, Fur Hunters of the Far West (London, 1855), ii, p. 204.