Charlevoix county herald., 1916-06-09
FEW REDSKINS LEFT OF
ONCE POWERFUL TRIBE
They Number But a Thousand
Former Life and Customs.


They Number But a Thousand
Former Life and Customs.
Watford, N. D-Only a thousand OF
the Mandan eros Ventre and Arikaree
Indians, formerly powerful tribes OF
the Upper Missouri River valley, are
now left on the Fort Berthold reser-
walton In North Dakota, the opening
OF which to homestead entry has at
tracted thousands of homeseekers
from all over the country.
1t was with the fair haired Man
dams, the race of tabled white ances-
try. that Lewis and Clark passed the
winter in 1906 in North Dakota. The
Gros Ventres and the Arikarees were
famous buffalo hunters and II was not
until the herds were killed off in the
early eighties that the government
was able to keep them shut up on the
reservation. me no eat white mans
meat" Chief Crow Fly High declared,
and valiantly kept his word until the
Duffaloes were extinct and he and his
band were threatened with starva-
ton.
The first settlers found the tribes
roaming thru all that part of the Mis-
souri, River valley which is in north
western North Dakota and eastern
Montana. Charles Shafer, the first
rancher to build his cabin in north.
western North Dakota tells of a par
ty of eros Ventres visiting him and
ordering him to leave.
Such immense numbers of the buf.
faloes pastured in the region that the
surround" similar to a modern rab-
bit drive was favorite method used
by the Indians to capture them. When
the tribe needed meat the chief gave
orders to the camp to make a Sur
round.' At the command all the men,
women and largest boys and girls
went out on foot and horseback to the
feeding grounds and formed a circle
around as many buffalo as they want
ed to kill. AS soon as the line was
completely made they all started slow
ly toward a common point AS they
closed in the slaughter began and in
a short time all the surround" were
killed. The buffaloes, as general rule
made no attempt to break thru the
circle, but ran round and round inside
the line until they dropped from their
wounds.
The squaws dressed the kill and
carried it back to camp. The skins
were taken to the trading posts along
the river and traded for blankets,
bright colored cloth, tobacco, knives,
fire steels, arrow points, files brass
wire and tacks, beads, leather belts,
silver ornaments for the hair, shells,
an Indian brought in better than the
average number of skins he was given
as special reward a spoonful Of sug
ar which he carefully put in his medi-
cine chest to use in case of sickness
when all other remedies failed.
The first of the American Fur Com
pany's trading posts to be built on
the Upper Missouri was erected by
the famous trader Kenneth Mckenzie
in eastern Montana in 1929 and called
Fort Union.
For the first three years all the sup
plies for Fort Union were drawn up
the whole length of the Missouri Riv
er from st. Louis by tow lines in the
hands of "voyageurs." The most in
cessant and exhausting labor was re-
quired to stem the swift current OF
the river and to keep the boats from
being grounded on sand bars.
In 1882 the American Fur Company
sent a steamboat the yellowstone"
up as far as Fort Union and from
that time supplies were brought up
to Fort Union and trading posts low
er down on the Missouri by steam
boat. For many years afterward
however the "voyageurs" worked the
tow line for 700 miles on the Upper
Missouri west of Fort Union, that the
traders might have trinkets to pay
the Indians for their valuable furs and
the Astor millions might accumulate.