Mountain Man by David Weston Marshall

Author:David Weston Marshall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Countryman Press
Published: 2017-11-19T16:00:00+00:00

AFTER A FEW weeks at Manuel’s Fort, Colter must have grown bored and restless. Early summer arrived, and the grasses and trees turned a deep green. Fish jumped in the streams, birds sang in the trees, and the mountains called him back.

Obedient to nature’s irresistible charms, he rolled up his pack, grabbed his gun, and turned his gaze westward again. As before, he followed the Yellowstone River past Shannon’s Creek and Pompey’s Tower to the mouth of Pryor’s Fork.

But this time he continued to ascend the Yellowstone. Soon he crossed its juncture with the Clark’s Fork—the river whose headwaters he knew so well. Several days later he came to a point where the Yellowstone bends south toward the Lamar River valley, Hot Spring Brimstone, and the headwaters at Lake Eustis.

Colter left the river at the bend and continued his westward trek. Crossing the mountains at Bozeman Pass, he followed the flow of the Gallatin River’s east fork to arrive at the bountiful, game-rich basin of Three Forks of the Missouri. Somewhere nearby he came across a large band of Flathead Indians.

Three years earlier, in the autumn of 1805, Colter had encountered three Flatheads while hunting near Traveler’s Rest. By making a peaceful approach he had assured their friendship. He must have done the same this time.

Soon he and hundreds of the Flathead tribe were on the move eastward together. The trail up the Gallatin east fork and back through Bozeman Pass would lead them to the Yellowstone River. From here, they could follow an easy route to the bison hunting grounds and to trade at Manuel’s Fort.

But the party did not make it that far. This was Blackfoot country. The Blackfoot had become a powerful nation through trade with the British—a trade that brought them guns and dominion over the weaker tribes around them.

The Blackfoot, like the Sioux nation of the middle Missouri River, made frequent forays against neighboring bands and attacked any newcomers who befriended them. Edwin Denig explained that, among the Crow,

Traffic is carried on with the Flat Heads in St. Mary’s Valley, or with the Snake and Nez Perce Indians on the headwaters of the Yellowstone. With the natives named, the Crows have been at peace for a long time. . . . But their natural and eternal enemies are the Blackfeet on the west and the Sioux on the east, with both of whom war has continued from time immemorial without being varied by even a transient peace.

In the early nineteenth century, much of Blackfoot hostility toward traders and trappers from the United States was incited by British fur companies attempting to frighten off competition. In 1818, John C. Calhoun addressed the problem:

It is expected the English traders will take unusual pains to make a contrary impression. They have great advantages in controlling the savages through their commanding station on Red River [of the North], and as our contemplated establishment at Yellowstone, will greatly curtail their trade towards the head of the Missouri, we must expect every opposition from them.

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