The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1924-05-02
SEVENTY YEAR OLD
DIARY UNEARTHED
RECORD OF DAILY DOINGS AT
FORT SARPY BY JAMES
III. CHAMBERS
Winter of 1855 Was Mild, and Came
Late in January; Fort Was Con-
stantly Crowded With Hungry
Indians; Indian Wars.

One of the colorfuI histories of
early days of Montana, document
that obviously never was intended
for publication, is the diary of
James lei. Chambers, copy of
which is in possession of the Mon
tana historical library. Chambers
wrote his diary over period of
years, the fifth being started ON
New Years day, 1855, at Fort
Sarpy, Montana. The language he
employed and the candor with
which he expressed himself and
the nakedness of his expressions
of opinions of others prove con-
cIusively that he had no idea that
his writings would ever see the in
side of print shop.
1t would be well for the gentle
reader to be prepared to skip sudden
ly entire paragraphs and pages, yet
in between such passages are sci
down picturesque descriptions of life
in the territory that afterward be-
came Montana.
Part of Diary
Here is part of the entry for Jan.
/, 1856:
God grant that it may be prosper
GUS one: not only to the natives of
the prairies but the white men that
are in this country, as also all others.
"Our little band of brothers are
celebrating the day with vengeance.
They are cooped up in the fort wait
ing for the Dawes heads party to
start and be killed and captured by
the Sioux"
Continuing the writer makes it
plain that the party that had been
guests at the fort and who were
about to leave at the risk of their
lives, were Crow Indians, who great
ly feared the Sioux. Chambers at
times expressed considerable con-
tempt for the Crows, calling them
towards, loafers and thieves. He de-
clared that they were the worst of
of the begging tribes and he saw in
them no virtues at all.
"Six Ca Blackfeet Indian) asserts
that a Crow can smell coffee five
miles wrote the keeper of the diary,
who then expressed indignation be-
cause the cook at the fort had de-
clined to start the noon meal until
another party of visitors which had
departed had gotten six miles away
from the camp. If the departing
braves should smell coffee, he in
ferred, they would abandon their
march to war and return to the fort.
A Mild Winter
The winter Of 1855 seemingly was
mild. On the first day of the year
Chambers wrote, $50 far we have had
no snow and but a few cold days
river still open but think it may
close up tonight"
Chambers frequently took to task
in his diary, the officer in charge
of the fort because of his generous
feeding of the begging Indian tribes.
On the 18th of January that year
after having complained of the loaf
ing Indians about the fort for week
previous, he contented himself with
this terse entry: Saturday, January
10 Hardly room to breathe. oh!
you pests" "Fort full of Indians"
was his frequent plant.
Slang phrases that were popular in
Montana in 1855 were not so numer-
Gus as the expressions of today but |
there was one phrase that appears
several times in Chambers writings |
and also in another diary or log book
that was kept at Fort Benton about
The same time, author unknown. This
was "You can take my hat"
The diary shows that winter "came
1t LAST on January FL but that Feb.
[ was "a beautiful day" and the ice
broke in the river again on Febru-
Try z.
"The Crows and Blackfeet were
bitter and constant enemies and
here was almost perpetual war be-
.ween other tribes, among which
we're the Piegans, Bloods, and Nez
9erces. The Indians seldom bother
ID the whites except to steal their
clothing and horses but the writer
ellis of seeing squaw killed and
calped just at shutdown by hostile
indian band a few rods away from
he fort.