Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1906-02-26

OF mind and person. M. Chaboneau
had purchased her for wife giving
all his little store of skins and ponies
for her. And he had brought her to
live among the less savage Mandans,
where she soon won affection, and
was looked upon as a superior Wo-
man. M. Chaboneau appreciated his
good fortune in getting such a wife
in that wild country, and he treated
her with courtesy and affection to
which Indian women were unused.
White men she trusted absolutely
for from the one she knew best she
had had only chiEalry and conrad
ship. =.
The Longing for the Home Nest.
Until these explorers arrived she
had no hope of ever returning to visit
her own people, but no sooner did
she learn that the party intended
pushing across the mountains to the
Pacific in the spring than she had a
plan in her small, wise head.
''The white men will need guide,
my husband" she said in the broken
French she had learned to speak.
"Who so good voyager on the plains
as Chaboneau; so now to the fort they
have built below the mouth of the
Big Knife river and say you will be
! guide"
i 10 not yy
even the big river to the Great Falls.
know only the plains, ma petite
9ss I3nt & know The mountains. Have
not hunted with my brothers? Did
not come by that path down to the
plains a captive, and note every
thing on the way so 1 could climb
back again to my people?''
"Bird Woman, you had not a pap
poose to carry then.e There must
be some hostile tribes and diff
cult roads and scanty food You
and the baby would perish of the long
march and hardship
Look at me; am mountain
! woman, strong, light on my feet and
! sure-footed as the big horns; and the
pappoose has mountain mother. He
is strong, he will not die. And a
squaw with her pappoose is a pro-
lection to men. When they see us,
hostile Indians will know it is a
peace party"
There was a long frozen winter at
Fort Mandan to think it over. To
every objection Bird Woman had her
answer. She could march, she could
row, she could swim, she could load
canoe, catch fish, shoot game, set
up a tent, dress skin, cook, make
moccasins. She knew the course of
the mountain rivers and passes, the
habits of mountain animals, where to
lind food in barren land. water In.
alkali desserts. Oh; she would ba
useful. She would make no trouble
nor ask privileges. And the little
pappoose should be no cause Of
anxiety to any one. He would 60 all
the way on her back.
In the end she prevailed. No one
could resist her eloquence and be-
sides, in all the plains country there
was no other person, man or woman,
to be found that had seen the Great
Falls of the Missouri or come across
the snowy passes of the mountains.
The First Stage o. the Flight.
So, at five o'clock one evening liz
April, 1906, Bird Woman set her small
moccasined foot in one of the six
canoes that were push ed out on the
turgid waters of the Missouri. Two
fiat boats followed. Sails were hoist
ed, flags unfurled, salItes fred. The
Indians and voyagers and trappers
on the bank cheered as the little
barks gliied away on the muddy cur
rent. Few believed the brave ex-
plorers would ever come back. But
Bird Woman's eyes were bright with
hope. She hooked eagerly toward the
setting sun. She had set out on her
long flight homeWard.
Now, as night came on she rested
in the canoe as mother bird iii
swinging nest, and croened to the
Ichnbby brown baby who kneH not
that he was to q gure III the history Of
Confined ON page 4.