The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-28
A CAUSE OF INDIAN RUIN
EFFECTS WROUGHT BY WHISKEY
 TRADE IN THE NORTHJVEST.

Enormus Profits of Exchanging Whis
 key for rFurs--Traders Had to be Read,
 so Fight ht-MortaIity Caused by tn
 Traffic.
 Long before the Louisiana purchase
 before the memorable expedition of
 Lewis and Clarke, the Hudson Bay company had established it's posts on
 the Saskatchewan river at the foot of
 the Canadian Rockies. From there the
 frappers and traders of the great cor
 poraton made annual excursions south
 to the headWaters of the Missouri river
 and even to the Yellowstone all of
 which they pronounced British terri
 tory. When, in 1882 the American Fur
 company built some forts on the upper
 Missouri, the older concern at once sent several expeditions of Blackfeet warriors to demolish the forts and
 murder the intruders. But these forays resulted so disastrously, hundreds of
 the Indians being killed by the cannon of the Long Knives, that the field was
 
 ish company confined it's efforts to the southern tributaries of the Saskatche-
 wan In time the forty-ninth degree of north latitude became the international boundary, but as no survey was made, no one knew it's exact location. The English saying that it would strike the Rockies upon the headwaters of MIX river, while the Americans asserted that Chief Mountain, some thirty miles further north, would be on the southern side of the line when the survey was made.
 Both of these great companies traded liquor to the Indians, but with such re- strictions that it did them no harm. Only the great chiefs could obtain it, and that at rare intervals. These in turn did hot give it to their warriors, but drank 1t among themselves, envied and admired by all the tribe, who gath cred to watch with absorbing interest the antics of their leaders as the pow erful spirits clouded their brains. In those days drunkenness caused no quarrels; the more they drank the more friendly the chiefs became to each oth- CT. and when, finally, the liquor com pletely overcame them, they lay down to sleep side by side, like brothers. They believed that this strange white mans water" was a gift of the gods; that their drunken dreams were visions granted them by the unseen spirits, en- abling them to see into the future and regulate their actions accordingly On the American side this condition of af- fairs was not destined to last. In the early sos independent traders, whose sole stock of goods consisted of liquor. began to divide the Indian trade, and soon forced the great fur company to wind up it's affairs. They began the whiskey trade among the Indians of the northwest which was appalling in its effects upon the simple red men; 1t ruined them physically and morally thousands of them died from the ef- fleets of their drunken quarrels
 At this time all the country in Mon tana between the Missouri river and the Canadian line was an Indian reser- vation. and the government prescribed severe penalties for any one found trading liquor upon such land, or for even having 1t in his possession in the Indian country In looking about for a place to carry on their business be- yond the reach of the United States marshals, the whiskey traders deter mined to invade Hudson Bay company territory. Accordingly, during the years 1S70-1, 73-73, they built forts on the St. Mary's BeelIy and Old Mans rivers, named Whoopup, Standoff and Fort Tripp, where they carried on an immense trade with the Blackfeet and Blood Indians The Hudson Bay com ,,or tc x.r;+I traders and saw with dismay it's an- nual take of robes and furs dwindle to | almost nothing. It urgently requested | its government to make negotiations i for an international survey of the line. There was, of course, a lot of red tape to such an undertaking, but in 1873 the line was surveyed to the Rocky Noun tans, and in 1874 a detachment of the Canadian mounted police came west ward, caught some of the whiskey traders red-handed and put a stop to the illegal business.
 It seems surprising that few men could have gone into a wild country, built forts, and carried on a successful trade with a horde of Indians who were constantly on the watch to take their lives, and who, when frenzied with bad Whiskey, were uncomfortable But this is just what the whiskey trad CTS did, and they accomplished their ends because they were as brave set of men as ever lived. It was in the fall of 1870 that Joe Tripp, l.. Spearson and several others arrived at the St Marys river a short distance above it's Junction with the Beelly. Their wag- ons were heavily loaded with liquor for the winters trade, news which quick y spread among the Indians far and near. Several of the redskins had been allowed to come into camp, and had to buy a quantity of the { much prized fire water, but the traders l 'efused to sell a drop until they had l built a fort. Enraged at this, and for the aiquor, the Indians $ began a siege of the place, and the I raders were obliged to work with ri- le in one hand, and axe or saw in the s other. Time and again night attacks C were made upon them, but they al- ways repulsed the enemy without loss f o themselves In the daytime a band S # the Indians would come sweeping I own, and bullets would rattle like hail f n the logs they were laying up. A