The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-06-07
PIRATES OF MISSOURI.
A Narrative of the Early Days of
the Fur Trade.


Frank W. Calkins in The MIDLAND
Monthly: The Blackfeet. Sioux anC
Pawnees were not the only enemies en-
countered by the boatmen in the early
days of the fur traffic along the Mis-
souri,
AS in every Indian-infestsd region
there were desperadoes and renegades
of the white race occasionally ready tG
turn their hands against their fellows
And once, at least, within the recollec-
ton of Jean GasDin, band of those
robberies, covering 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 Indian tradersEtne latter
mostly French-Canadians- their
headquarters. From these remote posts
furs were carried to and supplies
brought from the towns on the lower
river and the Mississippi. The small
flatboat or b6teau-nanned often by
less than half a dozen men, because
wages were high and profits must be
made dared the peril of these Jour
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
gauntlet 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 this PERIOD with the
bow and arrow, were cautious and
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 its destiny and
land its freight unframed
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 de-
tenders.
A DESPERATE GANG.
1t was about the year 1919 or 1920 that
the notorious Bill Harke, who had been
driven out of Missouri (Mssouri was
admitted in 1920 for lawlessness, and
who had lived for some years avagrant,
renegade life among the Sioux. gather
ed a band Of white and half-breed
desperadoes and began to prey upon
the boats of the traders.
This gang of outlaws numbered, at
different times, from a dozen TO
eighteen or twenty of as villanous cut
threats as were gathered upon our
frontier. Their headquarters, if they
had any, were never discovered, but
that they were harbored by the diff
ferent tribes of the Sioux scattered
along the river seems evident. Armed
to the teeth and supplied with Indian
canoes, they pounced upon the up or
down going boat in the dead of night,
when half the crew were wrapped in
their blankets. 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 depre-
dations occurred at different points
along the whole stretch OF the river
from the mouth of the Platte to the
Yellowstone. In these attacks the rob-
bers We're invariably disguised as In
dams, painted and befeathered, and
the identity of some of them was never
Several of them were
known, however, and among them the
leader, Harlxe, or 1.-TWO Fingers" as
the Sioux called him, through the re-
ports of Indians friendly at different
trading stations.
This gang of river pirates, OF most of
them. at. least, met a terrible and rich
ly deserved fate at the hands of a few
trappers who, through the leadership
and strategy of Sim BATHS, blew them
to Kingdom come" as Yankees have
it. !
SIM BATHS, THE BOAT MAN.
A company of trappers had built for
their headquarters, defence and storage
Of furs blockhouse. with the usual
safe barbados. at the mouth OF the
river Niobrara. This station they occu- .
pied when Two Fingers and his men
infested the river. Twice in each sea-
son of open water their bateau de- /
scended the river with the annual catch I
IF furs. The craft was manned by I'VE 1
)r six of their number who, with the |
exception of Simon BATHS, an expert /
enced young boatnan and pilot, took !
urns in making the trip. BATHS, reared /
IN the extreme frontier, the son of a
raider. trained to the river from the
line ne could handle an oar, was one
If the safest and nose wary boatmen
Il the Missouri.
He usually made his runs through
dangerous territory in the daytime.
putting his boat into the cover Of a
secluded and easily defended nook
lpon some island selected in advance,
where his men spent the night in alter
late watch and relief. He had never
ost a bale Of fur
Up to the time of the incident here
elated, his goings and comings had
apparently escaped the outlook of Bill
5arke'S marauders. 1t was just after
he going out of the ice, and after a
winter of successful trapping in the
gcinity of the station, that one morn
ng a white man and q number of In
ians-Hunk- papa Sioux-came to the
lockhouse for furs, beaver and otter,
0 exchange for ammunition and
blankets.
BATHS, with two or three of the men
rho were going down the river with
i'm, was busy at the time overhauling,
aulking and putting the bateau in re
air NO suspicion would have been
reused against the trading party, per-
APPS, but while the Indians were
antering with the blockhouse trader /
ne white man sauntered down to the
oat and hung around the workrnen.
lie talked carelesSly, giving informa- ,
on freely of himself and his COM |
anions, the Hunk-pa-pas; said he had !
ut in the winter at their village on the /
ad river, that he had made a good |
atch Of beaver and otter, and had +,
lore buffalo pelts at the Hunk papa {
own than the Indians had ponies TO =
ack in. &
A spy DETECTED.
He then aske dwhen the boat would
art down the river. whether the