The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis and Clark

  XIII

  _PORTAGE DES SIOUX_

  "Come and make treaties of friendship."

  As his brother had done at the close of the Revolution, so now WilliamClark sent to the tribes to make peace after the War of 1812.

  "No person ought to be lazy to be de bearer of such good news," saidold Antoine Le Claire, the interpreter.

  Up the rivers and toward the Lakes, runners carried the word of theRed Head Chief, "Come, come to St. Louis!"

  To the clay huts of the sable Pawnees of the Platte, to the reedwigwams of the giant Osages, to the painted lodges of the Omahas, andto the bark tents of the Chippewas, went "peace talks" and gifts andinvitations.

  "De Iowas are haughty an' insolent!" St. Vrain, first back, laid theiranswer on the table.

  "De Kickapoo are glad of de peace, but de Sauk an' Winnebago insist onwar! De Sauk haf murdered deir messenger!"

  That was Black Hawk. With a war party from Prairie du Chien he was metby the news of peace.

  "Peace?" Black Hawk wept when he heard it. He had been at the battleof the Thames.

  "De messenger to de Sioux are held at Rock River!"

  One by one came runners into the Council Hall, and, cap in hand, stoodwaiting. Outside, their horses pawed on the Rue, their boats were tiedat the river.

  "Some one must pass Rock River, to the Sioux, Chippewas, andMenomonees," said Clark. Not an interpreter stirred.

  "We dare not go into dose hostile countrie," said Antoine Le Claire,spokesman for the rest.

  "What? With an armed boat?"

  The silence was painful as the Governor looked over the council room.

  "I will go."

  Every eye was turned toward the speaker, James Kennerly, theGovernor's private secretary, the cousin of Julia and brother ofHarriet of Fincastle. The same spirit was there that led a wholegeneration of his people to perish in the Revolution. His father hadbeen dragged from the field of Cowpens wrapped in the flag he hadrescued.

  At the risk of his life, when no one else would venture, the faithfulsecretary went up the Mississippi to bring in the absent tribes.Black-eyed Elise, the daughter of Dr. Saugrain, wept all night tothink of it. Governor Clark himself had introduced Elise to hissecretary. How she counted the days!

  "The Chippewas would have murdered me but for the timely arrival ofthe Sioux," said Kennerly, on his safe return with the band of RisingMoose.

  "The Red Coats are gone!" said Rising Moose. "I rush in. I put out thefire. I save the fort."

  Without waiting for troops from St. Louis, forty-eight hours after thenews of peace the British had evacuated Prairie du Chien. A day or twolater they returned, took the cannon, and set fire to the fort withthe American flag flying.

  Into the burning fort went Rising Moose, secured the flag and anAmerican medal, and brought them down to St. Louis.

  While interpreters were speeding by horse and boat over half a hundredtrails, Manuel Lisa, sleepless warden of the plains, arrived withforty-three chiefs and head men of the Missouri Sioux. Wild Indianswho never before had tasted bread, brought down in barges camped onthe margin of the Mississippi, the great council chiefs of theirtribes, moody, unjoyous, from the Stony Mountains. For weeks otherdeputations followed, to the number of two thousand, to make treatiesand settle troubles arising out of the War of 1812.

  Whether even yet a council could be held was a query in GovernorClark's mind. Across the neighbouring Mississippi, Sacs, Foxes, Iowaswere raiding still, capturing horses and attacking people. That wasBlack Hawk.

  The eyes of the Missouri Sioux flashed. "Let us go and fight thoseSacs and Iowas. They shall trouble us no more." With difficulty werethey held to the council.

  There was a steady and unalterable gloom of countenance, a melancholy,sullen musing among the gathered tribes, as they camped on the councilground at Portage des Sioux on the neck of land between the two riversat St. Charles. Over this neck crossed Sioux war parties in timespast, avoiding a long detour, bringing home their scalps.

  Resplendent with oriental colour were the bluffs and the prairies.Chiefs and warriors had brought their squaws and children,--Sioux fromthe Lakes and the high points of the Mississippi in canoes of whitebirch, light and bounding as cork upon the water; Sioux of theMissouri in clumsy pirogues; Mandans in skin coracles, barges,dug-outs, and cinnamon-brown fleets of last year's bark.

  The panorama of forest and prairie was there,--Sioux of the Leaf,Sioux of the Broad Leaf, and Sioux Who Shoot in the Pine Tops, inhoods of feathers, Chinese featured Sioux, of smooth skins and Romannoses, the ideal Indian stalking to and fro with forehead banded ingreen and scarlet and eagle plumes.

  For Wabasha, Little Crow, and Red Wing had come, great sachems of theSioux nation. The British officers at Drummond's Island in Lake Huronhad sent for Little Crow and Wabasha.

  "I would thank you in the name of George III. for your services in thewar."

  "My father," said Wabasha, "what is this I see on the floor before me?A few knives and blankets! Is this all you promised at the beginningof the war? Where are those promises you made? You told us you wouldnever let fall the hatchet until the Americans were driven beyond themountains. Will these presents pay for the men we lost? I have alwaysbeen able to make a living and can do so still."

  "After we have fought for you," cried Little Crow, "endured manyhardships, lost some of our people, and awakened the vengeance of ourpowerful neighbours, you make a peace and leave us to obtain suchterms as we can! You no longer need us and offer these goods forhaving deserted us. We will not take them."

  Kicking the presents contemptuously with his foot, Little Crow turnedaway.

  "Arise, let us go down to the Red Head Parshasha!" In handsome barkcanoes propelled by sails alone, the Sioux came down to St. Louis.

  Walking among their elliptical tents, lounging on panther skins attheir wigwam doors, waited the redmen, watching, lynx-eyed, losingnothing of the scene before them. Beaded buckskin glittered in thesun, tiny bells tinkled from elbow to ankle, and sashes outrivalledLouisiana sunsets.

  Half-naked Osages with helmet-crests and eagle-quills, full-dressed inbreech-clouts and leggings fringed with scalp-locks, the tallest menin North America, from their warm south hills, mingled withPottawattamies of the Illinois, makers of fire, Shawnees withvermilion around their eyes, Sacs, of the red badge, and Foxes,adroitest of thieves, all drumming on their tambourines. Winnebagoes,fish eaters, had left their nets on the northern lakes, Omahas theirgardens on the Platte, and Ojibway arrow makers sat chipping, chippingas the curious crowds walked by. For all the neighbouring country hadgathered to view the Indian camp of 1815.

  Oblivious, contemptuous perhaps, of staring crowds, the industriouswomen skinned and roasted dogs on sticks, the warriors gambled withone another, staking their tents, skins, rifles, dogs, and squaws.Here and there sachems were mending rifles, princesses carrying water,children playing ball.

  About the first of July, Governor Clark of Missouri, Governor NinianEdwards of Illinois, and Auguste Chouteau of St. Louis, opened thecouncil,--one of the greatest ever held in the Mississippi Valley.

  Auguste Chouteau, prime vizier of all the old Spanish commandants,now naturally slipped into the same office with Clark, and GovernorEdwards of Illinois, who as a father had guarded the frontier againstthe wiles of Tecumseh, and had risked his entire fortune to arm themilitia,--all in queues, high collared coats, and ruffled shirts,faced each other and the chiefs.

  In front of their neatly arranged tents sat the tawny warriors inimposing array, with dignified attention to the interpretation of eachsentence.

  "The long and bloody war is over. The British have gone back over theBig Water," said Governor Clark, "and now we have sent for you, mybrothers, to conclude a treaty of peace."

  "Heigh!" cried all the Indians in deep-toned resonance that rolledlike a Greek chorus to the bluffs beyond. The sky smiled down as onthe old Areopagus, the leaves of the forest rustled, the river sweptlaughing by.

  "Every inju
ry or act of hostility by one or either of us against theother, shall be mutually forgiven and forgot."

  "Heigh! heigh! heig-h!"

  "There shall be perpetual peace and friendship between us."

  "Heigh!"

  "You will acknowledge yourselves under the protection of the UnitedStates, and of no other nation, power, or sovereign whatsoever."

  "Heigh!"

  A Teton Sioux who had come down with Lisa struggled to his feet,approached, shook hands with the commissioners, then retreated andfixed his keen eye on the Governor. His voice rang clear over theassembled thousands,--

  "We have come down expressly to notify you, our father, that we willassist in chastising those nations hostile to our government."

  The two factions faced each other. Scowls of lightning hate flashedover the council. But the wisdom and tact of Clark were equal toregiments. "The fighting has ended," he said. "The peace has come."

  "Heigh!" shouted all the Indians. "Heig-h!"

  Partisan was there, the Teton chief, who with Black Buffalo had madean attempt to capture Clark on the way to the Pacific. And nowPartisan was bristling to fight for Clark.

  Wabasha arose, like a figure out of one of Catlin's pictures, in achief's costume, with bullock horns and eagle feathers. There was astir. With a profile like the great Conde, followed by his pipebearers with much ceremony, the hereditary chief from the Falls of St.Anthony walked up to Governor Clark.

  "I shake hands," he said.

  Every neck was craned. When before had Wabasha stood? In theirnorthern councils he spoke sitting. "I am called upon to stand only inthe presence of my Great Father at Washington or Governor Clark at St.Louis. But I am not a warrior," said Wabasha. "My people can prosperonly at peace with one another and the whites. Against my advice someof my young men went into the war."

  The fiery eyes of Little Crow flashed, the aquiline curve of his noselifted, like the beak of an eagle. He had come down from hisbark-covered cabin near St. Paul.

  "I am a _war chief_!" said Little Crow. "But I am willing to concludea peace."

  "I alone was an American," said Rising Moose, "when all my peoplefought with the British." All the rest of his life Tammaha, RisingMoose, wore a tall silk hat and carried Governor Clark's commission inhis bosom.

  Big Elk, the Omaha, successor of Blackbird, spoke with actionenergetic and graceful.

  "Last Winter when you sent your word by Captain Manuel Lisa, in thenight one of the whites wanted my young men to rise. He told them ifthey wanted good presents, to cross to the British. This man wasBaptiste Dorion. When I was at the Pawnees I wanted to bring some ofthem down, but the whites who live among them told them not to go,that no good came from the Americans, that good only came from theBritish. I have told Captain Manuel to keep those men away from us.Take care of the Sioux. Take care. They will fly from under yourwing."

  Sacs who had been hostile engaged in the debate. Noble looking chiefs,with blanket thrown around the body in graceful folds, the right arm,muscular and brawny, bare to the shoulder, spoke as Cato might havespoken to the Roman Senate.

  "My father, it is the request of my people to keep the British tradersamong us." As he went on eloquently enumerating their advantages inpleading tone and voice and glance and gesture,--hah! the wildrhetoric of the savage! how it thrilled the assembled concourse ofIndians and Americans!

  Clark shook his head. "It cannot be. We can administer law, order, andjustice ourselves. Come to us for goods,--the British traders belongbeyond the border."

  The Indians gave a grunt of anger.

  "It has been promised already," cried another chief. "The Americanshave double tongues!"

  "Heigh!" ran among the Indians. Many a one touched his tongue and heldup two fingers, "You lie!"

  With stern and awful look Clark immediately dismissed the council. Theastonished chiefs covered their mouths with their hands as they sawthe commissioners turn their backs to go out.

  That afternoon a detachment of United States artillery arrived andcamped in full view of the Indians. They had been ordered to the Saccountry. Colonel Dodge's regiment of dragoons, each company of a solidcolour, blacks and bays, whites, sorrels, grays and creams, wentthrough the manoeuvres of battle, charge and repulse, in splendidprecision. It was enough. The Sac chiefs, cowed, requested the renewalof the council.

  "My father," observed the offending chief of the day before, "youmisunderstood me. I only meant to say we have always understood fromour fathers that the Americans used two languages, the French and theEnglish!"

  Clark smiled and the council proceeded.

  But by night, July 11, the Sacs, Foxes, and Kickapoos secretly leftthe council. At the same time came reports of great commotion atPrairie du Chien where the northern tribes were divided by the Britishtraders.

  Head bent, linked arm in arm with Paul Louise, his little interpreter,the giant Osage chief, White Hair, gave strict attention. White Hairhad been in St. Clair's defeat, and in seeking to scalp a victim hadgrasped--his wig! This he ever after wore upon his own head, a crownof white hair. He said, "I felt a fire within me,--it drove me to thefight of St. Clair. His army scattered. I returned to my own people.But the fire still burned, and I went over the mountains toward thewestern sea."

  Every morning the Osages set up their matutinal wail, dolefullylamenting, weeping as if their hearts would break.

  "What is the matter?" inquired Governor Clark, riding out in concern.

  "We are mourning for our ancestors," answered the chief, sheddingcopious tears and sobbing anew, for ages the custom of his people.

  "They are dead long ago,--let them rest!" said the Governor.

  Brightening up, White Hair slipped on his wig and followed him to thecouncil.

  Houseless now and impoverished Black Partridge and his people clung toColonel George Davenport as to a father. Poor helpless Pottawattamies!

  "Come with me," said Davenport, "I will take you to St. Louis."

  So down in a flotilla of canoes had come Davenport with thirteenchiefs, all wreathed in turkey feathers, emblems of thePottawattamies. No more they narrated their heroic exploits infighting with Tecumseh.

  Grave, morose, brooding over his wrongs, Black Partridge was seventynow, his long coarse unkempt hair in matted clusters on his shoulders,but figure still erect and firm. "I would be a friend to the whites,"he said. "I was compelled to go with my tribe." The silver medallionof George Washington was gone from his breast. Many and sad had beenthe vicissitudes since that day, when, in a flood of tears, he hadthrown it down at the feet of the commander at Fort Dearborn. Tall,slim, with a high forehead, large nose and piercing black eyes, withhoops of gold in his ears, Black Partridge was a typicalsavage,--asking for civilisation. But it rolled over him. Here andthere a missionary tarried to talk, but commerce, commerce, the greatciviliser, arose like a flood, drowning the redmen.

  "The settlements are crowding our border," Black Partridge spoke forhis people on their fairy lake, Peoria. "And whom shall we callFather, the British at Malden or the Americans at St. Louis? Who shallrelieve our distresses?"

  "Put it in your mind," said Auguste Chouteau, the shrewd old Frenchfounder of St. Louis, "put it in your mind, that when de British madepeace with us, dey left you in de middle of de prairie without a shadeagainst sun or rain. Left you in de middle of de prairie, a sight topity. We Americans have a large umbrella; keeps off de sun and rain.You come under our umbrella."

  And they did.

  The Indian has a fine sense of justice. The situation was evident.Abandoned by the British who had led him into the war, he stood readyat last to return to the friends on whom he was most dependent.

  One by one the chiefs came forward and put their mark to the treaty ofpeace and friendship. Clark brought the peace pipes,--every neck wascraned to scan them.

  Sioux pipes sometimes cost as much as forty horses,--finely wroughtpipes of variegated red and white from the Minnesota quarries,Shoshone pipes of green, and pipes of purple from Quee
n Charlottes,were sold for skins and slaves,--but these, Clark's pipes of silverbowls and decorated stems, these were worth a hundred horses!

  Puffing its fragrant aroma, the fierce wild eye of the savagesoftened. Twenty thousand dollars' worth of goods was distributed inpresents, flags, blankets, and rifles, ornaments and clothing.

  "Ah, ha! Great Medicine!" whispered the Indians as the beautiful giftscame one by one into their hands.

  "We need traders," said Red Wing, sliding his hand along the soft napof the blankets. "That made us go into the war. Without traders wehave to clothe ourselves in grass and eat the earth."

  "You shall have traders," answered Clark. "I shall not let you travelfive or six hundred miles to a British post."

  Every September thereafter he sent them up a few presents to begintheir fall hunting, and counselled his agents to listen to theircomplaints and render them justice.

  "We must depend on policy rather than arms," said the Governor. "Forthey are our children, the wards of the nation."

  The Indians were dined in St. Louis and entertained with music anddancing. By their dignity, moderation, and untiring forbearance, theCommissioners of Portage des Sioux exemplified the paternalbenevolence of the Government.

  At the end of the council Lisa started back with his chiefs, on athree months' voyage to their northern home, and on the last day ofSeptember Clark dismissed the rest.

  Thus making history, the summer had stolen away. All next summer andthe next were spent in making treaties, until at last there was peacealong the border.

  "Did you sign?" finally asked some one of Black Hawk of the Britishband.

  "I touched the goose quill," answered the haughty chief.

  So ended the War of 1812.