The Snow Was Deep,
The White Men Sank Into It At Every Step; But The Red Men, With
Their Snow-Shoes, Passed Over The Surface Like Birds, And Drove
Off Many Of The Horses In Sight Of Their Owners.
With those that
remained we resumed our journey.
At length words took place
between the leader of the party and my husband. He took away our
horses, which had escaped in the battle, and turned us from his
camp. My husband had one good friend among the trappers. That is
he (pointing to the man who had asked assistance for them). He is
a good man. His heart is big. When he came in from hunting, and
found that we had been driven away, he gave up all his wages, and
followed us, that he might speak good words for us to the white
captain."
49.
Rendezvous at Wind River Campaign of Montero and his brigade in
the Crow country Wars between the Crows and Blackfeet Death
of Arapooish Blackfeet lurkers Sagacity of the horse
Dependence of the hunter on his horse Return to the
settlements.
ON the 22d of June Captain Bonneville raised his camp, and moved
to the forks of Wind River; the appointed place of rendezvous.
In a few days he was joined there by the brigade of Montero,
which had been sent, in the preceding year, to beat up the Crow
country, and afterward proceed to the Arkansas. Montero had
followed the early part of his instructions; after trapping upon
some of the upper streams, he proceeded to Powder River. Here he
fell in with the Crow villages or bands, who treated him with
unusual kindness, and prevailed upon him to take up his winter
quarters among them.
The Crows at that time were struggling almost for existence with
their old enemies, the Blackfeet; who, in the past year, had
picked off the flower of their warriors in various engagements,
and among the rest, Arapooish, the friend of the white men. That
sagacious and magnanimous chief had beheld, with grief, the
ravages which war was making in his tribe, and that it was
declining in force, and must eventually be destroyed unless some
signal blow could be struck to retrieve its fortunes. In a
pitched battle of the two tribes, he made a speech to his
warriors, urging them to set everything at hazard in one furious
charge; which done, he led the way into the thickest of the foe.
He was soon separated from his men, and fell covered with wounds,
but his self-devotion was not in vain. The Blackfeet were
defeated; and from that time the Crows plucked up fresh heart,
and were frequently successful.
Montero had not been long encamped among them, when he discovered
that the Blackfeet were hovering about the neighborhood. One day
the hunters came galloping into the camp, and proclaimed that a
band of the enemy was at hand. The Crows flew to arms, leaped on
their horses, and dashed out in squadrons in pursuit. They
overtook the retreating enemy in the midst of a plain. A
desperate fight ensued. The Crows had the advantage of numbers,
and of fighting on horseback. The greater part of the Blackfeet
were slain; the remnant took shelter in a close thicket of
willows, where the horse could not enter; whence they plied their
bows vigorously.
The Crows drew off out of bow-shot, and endeavored, by taunts and
bravadoes, to draw the warriors Out of their retreat. A few of
the best mounted among them rode apart from the rest. One of
their number then advanced alone, with that martial air and
equestrian grace for which the tribe is noted. When within an
arrow's flight of the thicket, he loosened his rein, urged his
horse to full speed, threw his body on the opposite side, so as
to hang by one leg, and present no mark to the foe; in this way
he swept along in front of the thicket, launching his arrows from
under the neck of his steed. Then regaining his seat in the
saddle, he wheeled round and returned whooping and scoffing to
his companions, who received him with yells of applause.
Another and another horseman repeated this exploit; but the
Blackfeet were not to be taunted out of their safe shelter. The
victors feared to drive desperate men to extremities, so they
forbore to attempt the thicket. Toward night they gave over the
attack, and returned all-glorious with the scalps of the slain.
Then came on the usual feasts and triumphs, the scalp-dance of
warriors round the ghastly trophies, and all the other fierce
revelry of barbarous warfare. When the braves had finished with
the scalps, they were, as usual, given up to the women and
children, and made the objects of new parades and dances. They
were then treasured up as invaluable trophies and decorations by
the braves who had won them.
It is worthy of note, that the scalp of a white man, either
through policy or fear, is treated with more charity than that of
an Indian. The warrior who won it is entitled to his triumph if
he demands it. In such case, the war party alone dance round the
scalp. It is then taken down, and the shagged frontlet of a
buffalo substituted in its place, and abandoned to the triumph
and insults of the million.
To avoid being involved in these guerillas, as well as to escape
from the extremely social intercourse of the Crows, which began
to be oppressive, Montero moved to the distance of several miles
from their camps, and there formed a winter cantonment of huts.
He now maintained a vigilant watch at night. Their horses, which
were turned loose to graze during the day, under heedful eyes,
were brought in at night, and shut up in strong pens, built of
large logs of cotton-wood. The snows, during a portion of the
winter, were so deep that the poor animals could find but little
sustenance.
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