Is It Necessary To Know Much Of
Human Nature To Know How These Men Treated The Indians?
The trappers not
only began the lucrative fur trade of the West, that laid the foundation
for several vast
American fortunes, but they also laid the foundation for a
series of Indian wars that have cost the United States more lives and
treasure than all the furs ever gathered on earth were worth. And not only
did they take the furs from the animals they trapped. The agents of the Fur
Companies (whether British or American) took them from the Indians. Read
Jim Beckwourth's accounts of how he traded with the Indians, and listen to
his own comments upon his actions. As Dellenbaugh vividly says: "Roughshod
the trapper broke the wilderness, fathomed its secret places, traversed its
trails and passes, marking them with his own blood and more vividly with
that of the natives."
The Ashley Fur Camp Is Established. Early in the last century, the trappers
were operating on the head waters of the Colorado River. Green River Valley
was discovered, and in 1822 one of the most brilliant men of the West of
that period, General William Henry Ashley (born in Virginia in 1778, went
to Missouri in 1802, and in 1820 was its first governor), went into the fur
trade with Andrew Henry, an expert trapper. Two years later, with a band of
such men as Henry, Ashley established a camp in Green River Valley, and,
with his men, set out on expeditions for furs and pelts.
Inscription at Red Canyon. When in June, 1869, Powell and his party were
passing through the fourth canyon after leaving Green River, now known as
Red Canyon, they saw an inscription on one of the huge rocks above the
river, done in black letters, sheltered by a slight projection of the rock
which acted as a cornice, reading:
"Ashley 18...5"
The third figure was obscure and some of the party read in 1835, some 1855.
Ashley Expedition Unsuccessful. It should have been read 1825. Powell was
not familiar with the history of the fur traders. Ashley was an unknown
name to him, but as Chittenden has so vividly pointed out, he, in his way,
left his impress upon our Western civilization as strongly as did Powell.
Would that it had been as nobly, as grandly beneficent. Ashley fitted up a
trapping expedition to go down Green River, in spite of its known dangers,
and, expecting to find beaver in plenty, took but little provisions along
with them. At first they did fairly well. Then, as the canyons narrowed, to
their horror and distress, as well as surprise, - for they had kept none of
the meat of the beavers they had killed, - the animals ceased to appear, and
starvation stared them in the face. For six days they were without food.
The precipitous walls of the Canyon forbade escape, and at length they
became so demoralized that Beckwourth declares they actually proposed to
cast lots as to which should be killed to make food for the others.
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