Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-05-28
NE day in June, 1919, a
war party of Pawnee In
~, - A.

to see coming around a bend OF
the stream what appeared to
be some sort of huge water
monster ascending against the
current, carrying on it's back a
boat containing white men. AS
it drew close they saw the
neck and head, black and scaly,
of a great serpent, which rose
out of the water from beneath
the front of the boat, its head
as high as the boats deck, and
stretched forward. From its
open mouth smoke belched
forth in clouds, while from be-
meath the boats stern the
churning water gave the effect
of the creature lashing the
waves with violent exertion.
The savages halted for a few
minutes, transfixed with fear,
wondering what sort of fearful
creature the white men had
harnessed and had pressed into
their service to carry them up
the river. Then, unable to
control their frightened horses,
they turned and fled, carrying
back to their tribe a tale of the
amazing thing they had wit
messed.
This strange river craft was built
Mt Pittsburg for the government the
previous winter and in the spring sent
TO st. Louis for the noted Yellowstone
expedition of 1S19-20. an ambitious
undertaking WHICH was expected to
make a formidable showing of national
authority against British aggression
and Indian hostility in the Upper
Missouri river country as far west as
the Rocky Mountains. and which. it
was hoped, might be carried across the
mountains to the Columbia to sweep
English traders from that section of
the Pacific coast. restoring American
rights. as the Treaty of Client re-
quired. to the status existing before the
war of 1872.
This enterprise. popular the nation
over. was a measure much favored by
President Monroe and his secretary of
war. John G. Calhoun. who desired 10
build a fortified military establishment
on the Missouri river where that
stream crosses the present boundary
line between Montana and North
Dakota to break up intercourse between
the British traders and the Indians.
1t was intended by this means to pre-
serve the peace of the frontier and to
make the United States dominant in
the great northwest. /
Planned Upper Missouri Port
To what extent the project appealed
TO popular imagination may be gather
ed from an editorial published by the
st. Louis Enquirer in October, 1918.
which follows in part:
The establishment of this post at
the mouth of the Yellowstone will be
an epochal event in the history of the
west. 1t will go to the source and roo
of the fatal British influence which has
for so many years armed the Indian
nations against our western frontier. ,
1t carries the arms and power of the
United States to the ground which has
hitherto been exclusively occupied by
the British Northwest and Hudson's
Bay Companies. Now American arms
anu american polltN VIII De UlSpIdtpu /
upon the same theater. The Northwest
and Hudson's Bay companies will be
shut ont from commerce of the Mis-
souri, and Mississippi river Indians:
American traders will penetrate with
safety the recesses of the Rocky Noun
taine in search of rich furs: a COM
mcrce yielding q million per annum
will descend the Missouri river. The
name Of the Yellowstone river will
hereafter be familiar to the American
ear"
Bat in the mind of the public the
ultimate possibilities Of the movement
did not stop here. One writer asserted
that the expedition would open a safe
and easy communication to China,
which would give such a spur to com
mercial enterprise that ten years shall
not have elapsed before we shall have
the rich products of that country trans
ported from Canton to the Columbia. !
up that river to the mountains and
down the Missouri and Mississippi, all
the way mountains and ALI by the
potent power of steam The predic-
tons of this optimist were. in reality. !,
fulfilled something over half a century
later. but not until the wi~ldernesses
of the west had claimed the lives of
unnumbered thousands of pioneers and
many bloody Indian wars had been
fought.
Toll of Hundred Lives.
The new use of steam upon the ma
vigable waters of the country had so
inspired in the minds of Americans
visions of western conquest that even
the most conservative business men
of the nation were carried away with
the widest ideas of what was to be
Immediately accomplished. They saw
the western wilds Transformed almost
overnight into vast agricultural areas
interspersed with thriving cities. They
expected to see within a decade what
it took almost a century to accom-
plish. One man with "A distinguished
record of public service. speaking of
the Yellowstone expedition, said:
"See those vessels, with the agency
of steam. advancing against the power
full currents of the Mississippi and the
Missouri! Their course is marked by
volumes of smoke and fire. which the
civilized man observes with admira-
ton and the savage with establishment.
mineralogists, chemists, /
artisans, cultivators. scholars. soldiers;
the love of peace. the capacity for war;
philosophical apparatus and military
supplies; telescopes and cannon: gar
den seeds and gun powder: the arts Of
civil life and the force to defend them
all arc seen aboard The banner of