The Red Cloud chief., 1911-08-17

| one Is toucned ny an lndian.
81 impose upon myself great priva.
| tions; ten months in a year ! am bur.
led in the forest. at vast distance
from my own house. appear as the
benefactor, and not as the pillager, of
the Indians. I carried among them
the seed Of the pompion pumpkin }
from which have seen in their pos
session the fruit weighing 100 pounds.
Also the large bean, the potato. the
turnip; and these vegetables ncw make
a comfortable part of their subsistence,
and this year have promised to carry
the plough Besides, my blacksmiths
work incessantly for them, charging
nothing. lend them traps, only de.
manding preference in their trade.
My establishments are the refuge of
the weak and of the old men no longer
able TO follow their lodges: and by
these means have acquired the con
iidencc and friendship of these nations.
and the consequent choice of their
trade
Agriculture in Nebraska was first
carried on by Americans IN that beau
tiful breadth of rich second bottom "
ing about two miles southeast of the
present town of TT. Calhoun, in Wash.
ington county. on the bluif above
the river where Lewis and Clark held
their first council with Nebraska In.
dians on August 3. 1904, the United
States government established fort
in 1919. For the next eight years this
fort was the metropolis of the trans
Missouri region Its garrison included
several hundred men of the Rifles and
Sixth infantry regiments Besides
these there were teamsters, fur traders
and the other usual hangers-on of u
frontier fort. All the plains tribes
came here to trade. A Spanish en-
bassy came here from Santa Fe to
make treaty with the Pawnee ma.
tion. The population of this first city
in Nebraska was from 500 to /, 900 peo
pie. Food for this population was pro
duced on the rich Hat land adjacent to
the fort and lying about IA little lake
Oh bench slightly elevated above the
first Missouri bottom. Several hundred
acres of land were in cultivation. The
official reports and regimental records
show that in one year several thousand
bushels of corn and wheat were raised,
with potatoes and vegetables in abund.
ance to supply the garrison. Several
hundred head Of beef cattle also were
kept.
The reports of the farming opera.
tions carried on here uniformly speak
IN the highest praise of the agricul.
tural possibilities of this region in
that distant day nearly one hundred
years ago The first war known in
Nebraska annals. the Arikara war OF
1923, came on. 1t was brought on by
the Arikara tribe, then living Oh the
Missouri river a little above the pres.
ent site of Pierre, $. d., attacking a
party of fur traders. Large reinforce.
men.s of men, horses, cannon, steam.
boats and keel boats were rushed up
the river from st. Louis. Ft. Atkin.
son, on the old Council bluffs, adjoin.
ing the present town of Fort Calhoun
was the rendezvous and base of sup
plies. The rich black land of Wash
ington county furnished the food. The
expedition besieged and capnonaded
the Arikara village, killed Gray
Eyes, chief Of the Ariksras, compellei
the tribe to sue for peace, and then re
, turned down the river in the fall.
Four years later, in 1897, Ft. Atkin
son was abandoned upon orders from
, the war department, its garrison
, transferred to Fl. Leavenwortb, III
, buildings dismantled and the fertile
!. Nebraska fields which had been thu
!. grsnary, vegetable garden and meadow
for the first city In our stste-the field
which had been the scene Of the frs
agricultural experiment station in tn
entire Transmissouri region-wer
a abandoned, and 30 quickly and thor
oughly does kindly nature restor
primitive conditions, that thirty year
Q later these same fields were taken b
the first settlers in Washington count
without comment or apparent motto
u of the fact that they had been farme
~ a generation before. The reports an
II records of these first farming oper,
:, tions in Nebraska lay forgotten in tn
=" files ut Washington, but it must new.
"a be forgotten by the agricultural histo
y ian that the first successful farming
;" Nebraska on a large scale was carrie
!" on by the military near the old fort 9
IT the Council bluffs in Washingto
'e county as far back as 1920.
J" Prince Macmillan Won Wied, Il
70 great German traveller, came up Il
'e Missouri river in the steamer Yello
10 stone in 1893. From his book, pu