The record-union., 1897-06-14
MISSOURI RIVER PIRATES
Narrative Of The Early Days Of the Fur
Trade.
The BIackfeet, Sioux and Pawnees
Were Not the Only Enemies En-
countered by the Boatmen.

countered by the Boatmen.
The Blackfeet, Sioux and Pawnees
were not the only enemies encountered
by the boatmen in the early days OF
the fur traffic along the Missouri.
As in every Indian-infested region
there were desperadoes and renegades
of the white race occasionally ready
TO turn their hands against their fel-
lows. And once, at least, within the
recollection Of Jean Gaspin, band OF
these carried on a series of successful
boat robberies, covering a period OF
more than two years.
1t was before the day Of steamers,
when small blockhouses and trading
stations were scattered along the river
at isolated points, where companies
of trappers and Indians traders-the
latter mostly French h-Canadians-had
their headquarters. From these remote
posts furs We're carried to and supplies
brought from the towns on the lower
river and the Mississippi. The small
fatboat or bateau-manned often by
less than half a dozen men, because
wages were high and profits must be
ulduE-QdIGu tie perm VI NhCoO JOoA
neys with a hardihood such as pioneer
enterprise has exhibited ever since the
days of the Jesuits and the Pilgrims.
These boats had always to run the
gantlet of the Sioux and other tribes,
and often met with exciting and peril
Gus adventures, and not infrequently
with disaster. But the Indians, armed
almost entirely, at that period, with
bow and arrow, were cautious ana
bushwhacking in their attacks, and,
though boatmen were shot from the
coverts of the bank in every season of
open water, the craft might usually be
relied upon to reach it's destiny and
land its freight unharmed.
But when a gang Of river pirates as
sailed one of these boats the outcome
was usually the capture Of its cargo
and the loss of some, if not all, Of its
defenders.
A DESPERATE GANG.
It was about the year 1919 or 1920
that the notorious Bill Harke, who
had been driven out of Missouri (Iis-
souri, was admitted in 1920 for law
lessness, and who had lived for some
years a vagrant, renegade life among
the Sioux, gathered a band of white
and half-breed desparadoes and began
to prey upon the boats of the traders.
This gang of outlaws numbered, at
different times, from a dozen to eigh-
teen or twenty of as villianous cut
throats as were gathered upon our
frontier. Their headquarters, if they had
any, were never discovered but that
they were harbored by the different
tribes of the Sioux scattered along the
river seems evident. Armed to the
teeth and supplied with Indian canoes,
they pounced on the up or down going
boat in the dead of night, when half
the crew were wrapped in their blan-
kets. If resistance was made the men
were shot down mercilessly; if not the
crew were tied hand and foot, the boat
relieved of its freight and it's men left
to free themselves of their bonds as
best they could. These depredations
occurred at different points along the
whole stretch Of the river from the
mouth of the Platte to the Yellow
stone. In these attacks the robbers
were invariably disguised as Indians,
painted and befeathered, and the iden-
tity of some Of them was never es-
tablished. Several of them were
known, however, and among them the
leader, Harke, or 1.-TWO Fingers" as
the Sioux called him, through the re-
ports of Indians friendly at different
trading sections.
This gang of river pirites, or most
of them, at least, met a terrible and
richly deserved fate at the hands of
few trappers who, through the lead
ership and strategy Of Sim BATHS, blew
them to Kingdom come" as Yankees
have it,
SIM BATHS, THE BOATMAN.
A company of trappers had built for
their headquarters, defense and storage
of furs blockhouse, with the usual
safe barricades, at the mouth of the
river Niobrara. This station they occu-
pied when 1.-TWO Fingers and his men
infested the river. Twice in each sea-
son of open weter their bateau descend
ed the river with the annual catch of
4urs. The craft was manned by five
or six of their number who, with the
exception of Simon BATHS, an expert
enced young boatman and pilot. took
turns in making the trip. BATHS, rear
ed on the extreme frontier. the son of a
trader, trained to the river from the
time he could handle an oar, was one of
tiiC safest anu UlOSI wary DOatInen OF
the Missouri.
He usually made his runs through
dangerous territory in the daytime.
putting his boat into the cover of
secluded and easily defended nook upon
some island selected in advance.
iwhere his men spent the night in alter
nate watch and relief. He had never
lost bale Of fur.
Up to the time of the incident here
related, his goings and comings had ap-
, parently escaped the outlook of Bill
Harke's marauders. 1t was just after
the going out of the ice, and after a
winter of successful trapping in the vi
cinity of the station, that one morning
a white man and number of Indians
Hunk-pa-pa Sioux-came to the block
house with furs, beaver and otter, to
exchange for ammunition and blankets.