Omaha daily bee., 1889-05-06
MADE OF COLD.
The Prophetic Fiction of Some Early
Indian Tribes.
lRsT VISIT TO THE ROCKIES.
Explorations of the la Venendrye
Brothers and Their Tragic Fate
"reminiscences Suggested by
an Old Monument.
Claimed the Son for France.


Correspondence OF THE BEE.--"A most in
teresting relic of early days in the northwest
has been discovered by Mr.. Charles ID.
n Grifith, OF Montana, while prospecting at
the head OF Belt canyon. He discovered q
stout pillar Of stone round which was
camped sheet of copper bearing an impress
4 sion of the arms of France under the Bour
bons. The Montana Historical society is
about to take steps for the possession and
care of the metal plate which Mr.. Griffith did
not disturb. A member Of that association
suggests that this must have been placed
where 1t was found by the French explorer
Verendrye, who took possession of all the
lands IN the name of the French king in l143,
in the belief that he had come to the head
waters Of the Missouri, though in reality he
was following the Yellowstone The Sioux
massacred most of his party, and Verendrye's
account was supposed TO be chiefly fabulous,
but it is now ascertained that he really did
what he claimed to have done, and that he
was the first white man who ever planted his
foot on the soil of Montana"
/ read the above editorial in the
columns of THE BEE short time ago
and it called up remembrance of
search made while living in Montana
into the early history of that territory.
This was long time ago, but the mat
ter will be none the less interesting
now that the Land OF Mountains is to
became state.
According to the data J have the
earliest tradition Of white men in Mo
tana dates back to 1743 when two
Frenchmen named La Verendrye, with
party OF ten countrymen came from
the Lake of the Woods in the,north, to
explore the Rocky mountains and fell
in with the Snake Indians on the Wind
river in what is now Wyoming terri
tory. La Verendrye and his brother
were the sons of the chavalier Veren-
drye, who was sent in 1871 by Charles
de Beauharnois, then governor general
OF Canada, to explore the country about
Rainy lake, said to be the head of the
Missouri river, and if possible push on
y end ascend the Shining or Rocky
mountains heard of for the first time
~ in 1I2S. The Frenchman reached the
great mountains and assembled them,
bat could go no further south than
Wind river on account of great war
raging between the Snakes, Arricarees
and Sans Arcs. On the 10Th of May,
l744, they returned to the upper Mis-
souri, and in the Cherokee Cherry coun-
try on an eminence planted copper
plate of the arms of France and raised
monument OF stone which they called
Beanharnois and then returned to the
Lake of the Woods July 2, l744.
- The explorations of the Venendrye
brothers in the United States were
much more extensive and important
than they have ever been accredited
with in history.
1t appears they started with fifty men
from Montreal in 1871, and in the au-
tumn of that year reached the Rainy
Lake by the Nantowagan river, now
called the Pigeon river. AT the foot of
Rainy 1 ke a fort was erected and called
Fort St. Pierre. The next year they
crossed to Lake of the Woods and es-
tablishcd Fort st. Charles on its south
western bank. Five leagues from Lake
Winnipeg they established post on
the Assiniboiue. Here they met II band
OF Indians who called themselves As
siniboiues and said they were a band of
which, fo- want of fuel they cooked by
warming water with stones. A Jesuit
account of them written over two hun
dred years ago, says: 'As wood is very
scarce and small with them nature has
taught them to burn stone IN
place of it ana to cover their
wigwams with the skins of wild ami
mails. Some OF these have built mud
cabins nearly in the same manner as
swallows build their nests" The above
statement is made only for the purpose
Of correcting it, as it has often been as
serted and applied to the Snakes as
well as the Assiniboines. The fact is, it
- was not IA lack of fuel which caused
them to boil their hsh by putting hot
stones in the water, but a lack of yes
sells that would stand fire. Almost all
'he savage tribes, before their contract
with the whites, often cooked their fish
or game by putting it into water-tight
casiets or troughs and then put fine
hot stones into the water until it boiled.
AS to wood being scarce and small
with them nature had taught them to
burn stone in place Of it. Most proba-
bly, the error arose from war practice
of their hereditary encmies, the Chip
pcwas. Watching at distance and
seeing the Assiniboincs gather some
thing on the naked prairie which
looked like stone and making IA fire
with them. What they gathered must
have been butialo-chips, which are still
sometimes used by the Assiniboines for
fuel. In the distance the white cake OF
droppings of the buffalo looked very
much like stone, and are ofuen used by
our soldiers for cooking purposes. They
make hot fire, and are indeed very
good substitute for work. The heredi-
tary enemies of tho Assiniboincs, the
Chippcwas, lived in a tinbored coun-
try, knew nothing about the use of buf-
falo chips, and 1t was probably this tribe
who told the Jesuits the Assiniboines
burned stone.
1t was in October, l7Ss, the Vcren-
dryes built Fort La Roine, and in Ia.
reached the country OF the Montanes
(Mandans) on the upper Missouri Ac-
cording to the hest authorities they
started from Fort La Refine, on the AS
slniboine river, went up the Mouse
river in southerly direction, then
crossed over TO the Missouri little be-
low whore Fort Berthold now stands
From this point they ascopded the river
as far as the Gates of the Mountains,
where the Missouri breaks through the
belt range Mt Helena. Here they u.s.
cendcd the Shining mountains on the
~. -. - FtNt