The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume], July 20, 1934, Page PAGE FIVE, Image 5

About The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973

Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

                
Friday, July 20, 1934.
Darid Hilger, State Librarian, Gires Government
Report on History of Old Fort Peck; It Was a Fur
Trading Post and Not Military Fort, So No Records
Construction work on old Fort Feck,
for which the great federal project
near Glasgow is named, began in 1867,
according to a sketch received at the
United States engineer’s office, Glas
gow from David Hilger, librarian of
the state historical library at Helena.
A sketch prepared by Mr. Hilger def
initely fixes the time as the fall of 1867.
The work was done, he says, by Abel
Farwell for the firm of Durfee & Peck,
who in that year made their entrance
into the trade on the upper Missouri.
Farwell was a white man who married
an Indian woman and was familiar with
fur trade business, and on friendly
terms with his wife's people.
Army engineers at Glasgow wrote to
Mr. Hilger for the information as part
of a narrative of the old fort, which
will be incorporated in a history of the
project.
E. H. Durfee was a resident of Leav
enworth, Kan., and C. K. Peck lived in
Keokuk, la., the sketch continues. The
firm owned a number of steamboats
and, probably through the Influence of
■William W. Belknap, secretary of war,
and a former resident of Keokuk, got
valuable contracts to trade with In
dians.
‘‘The government shipped great
amounts of goods and equipment for
soldiers and Indians up the river,” Mr.
Hilger continues. “Boats going down
would take great loads of furs from
trading posts. All trading posts were
dignified with the title of fort, and
this one was named for C. K. Peck,
while Fort Belknap, built in 1871 near
the present site of Chinook, was nam
ed for Secretary Belknap. The firm
sold Fort Belknap a year or so after
it was built to another trading com
pany.
Indian Comes to Rescue of Sign
Code Feared Lost With Passing
of General Scott, Indian Linguist
When Maj. Gen. Hugh L. Scott,
doughty Indian fighter, died several
weeks ago, scientists feared that a great
study in American Indian lore never
was to be completed.
For Mole-I-Gu-Op, “the man who
talks with his hands,” as the white
haired army officer was known among
his red friends, was said to have been
the only white man to master the In
dian sign language, that most obscure
system of communication among the
tribes on the continent.
From 1877, when Scott, who had been
adopted by over a score of admiring
tribes, nbarked on his military career
on the c-e?t plain borders, he made a
special hobby and study of the sign
language. He used It afterwards with
such success that enemy braves often
refused to fight when the “man who
talks with his hands” appeared before
their council circles to plead with them
to refrain from going on the warpath.
At an early date General Scott de
cided that the Sioux sign language
was the most used, since that tribe
was considered the most powderful.
Gradually he learned that each tribe
had its personal variation and so he
began to tabulate all the systems. I
In the main, the one sign method,
was a universal language from coast
to coast, handed down from one gen-i
eration to the next. It consisted of
symbols made by moving the hands and I
fingers, though having no resemblance
to the present deaf and dumb method
of speech.
His compilation of cards, at death,
numbered more than 2,000, each con
taining a word and its equivalent sign
language symbol. But many of the no
tations were incomplete. Pending com
pletion of his work, he had made a
movie of some of the signs and com
piled a dictionary.
When the Smithsonian institution,
which had been bequeathed Scott’s col
lection, wondered how it could carry the
work to completion, it began to search
for some Indian who still knew the
sign code.
Fortunately, officials soon found
Now! Prices Reduced
ON
Genuine Bayer Aspirin
Tins of 12 Tablets
NOW if r Bottles of 24
1 kP Tablets
I u u NOW
wfe fill 25c
Price of the 100-Tablet
Bottles Also Reduced I ' ' *■ n
ALWAYS SAY "BAYER ASPIRIN" NOW WHIN YOU BUY
“Fort Peck was about two and one
half miles above the Big Dry on the
north side of the Missouri river, near
Spread Eagle bar. It was built on a
high bank, the ledge of the bluff at that
place being so narrow the rear of the
stockade was against the hill and there
was barely enough room in front to
turn a team and wagon. One observer
said it looked as though the locaters
were searching for a place where the
steamboat could go to the fort without
any trouble.”
The fort. Mr. Hilger adds, was con
structed after the usual plan for the
trading post of that era. There was a
stockade of wooden logs set side by side,
two bastons and a number of log
buildings set Inside the stockade, in
cluding cabins for men, warehouses,
stables and a blacksmith shop.
The personnel consisted of the trader,
clerk, interpreters and other employes.
There were probably not more than 15
or 20 men at the most.
The country of the Big Dry, across the
river and south of the fort, was a great
game territory, especially for buffaloes.
At one time in the late sixties and early
seventies as many as 1,000 men hunted
in this section. However, Mr. Hilger
points out, the “rich” thing was the
Indian trade, perhaps because the red
man’s goods could be purchased cheap
ly and he, in turn, would pay high
prices for goods regarded as of little
value to the white man.
Milk River agency, on Milk river at
the mouth of People's creek, was the
nearest Indian agency to Fort Peck. It
was moved to Fort Peck in 1871 and in
creased trade at the post a hundredfold.
The new owners of Fort Belknap prob
ably made complaint about this, for a
special agency was established at Bel-
A' ' BP?
« 9 . wp
a \
t Si
mm ■ wEBMBkUiII -. ‘
' Chief Whit* Hone in a sign language gesture, j,
<■. WB--,
General Scott presenting the peace pipe to an old Indian friend.
Richard Sandervllle, 70-year-old Black
feet brave and a close friend of Scott.
He has been induced to come to Wash
ington to clarify the intricate motions
THE HARDIN TRIBUNE-HERALD
DAVID HILGER
Librarian, State Historical Library
knap in 1873, with Major Fanton in
charge. Maj. W. W. Alderson was agent
at Fort Peck from 1873 to 1875, when he
was succeeded by Thomas J. Mitchell,
who was followed by Maj. N. E. Porter
in 1877. All Indian agents, for some
reason, were given the title of major.
Mitchell, in his annual report of Sept.
26, 1876, found fault with the location
of the post as an Indian agency, no
doubt a well-founded complaint.
"A more unsuitable location could
that for hundreds of years have been
made around camp fires and over peace
pipes.
Greatly different from the oral
speech of the Indians, the sign langu
age was believed so difficult that with
the passing of time, fewer and fewer
redmen bothered to learn it. Accord
ing to ethnologists, it is one of the most
remarkable systems of communication
ever employed by mankind, and was
used over a greater area than any other
system.
In the early days, before the coming
of the white man to North America,
Cape Cod redmen were able to converse
easily with the Pueblo builders of the
southwest, almost 2,000 miles away,
with the sign language.
And with the Indian a slowly pass-;
ing race, scientists desire to hang on;
to the visible shreds of his traditions'
and civilization, so that in future cen-i
turies, the North American Indian!
language will not have become the ex
tinct speech of an obscure people, such
as the famed Etruscas of Roman, Italy,
whose writings to this day have never
been deciphered.
$
IMPROVING HIGH SCHOOL
Necessary alternations of the interior
of the Billings high school are to be
made before school begins in order to
minimize Interference with classes
when work is started on the addition
to the structure, probably early in the
fall.
$
Pleasant Incidents of history do not
fill so many pages as the distressing
ones. ।
scarcely have been selected,” Mitchell
wrote. “The buildings stand on a nar
row bench bottom at the base of a bluff
probably 100 feet in height, and, if the
river should cut away its banks at this
point as rapidly the coming as it has
the past season, both ground and build
ings will have been washed away. The
country, too, surrounding us is not
adapted to the purposes for which it
was selected (farming). The bottom
lands for miles above and below are
marshy and liable to overflow . . there
is not any land at this point under
cultivation or suitable for farming pur
poses.”
Major Mitchell was in favor of mov
ing the agency to Wolf Point or Poplar
river, which was later done. His de
clarations regarding the farming pos
sibilities of the section may be disput
ed by some present residents.
In 1874, Mr. Hilger’s sketch contin
ues, Arvil Grant, brother of Ulysses S.
Grant, had been given a monopoly of
the Indian trade, and it may have been
about this time that Durfee & Peck sold
their trading pest to the government
for an Indian agency.
Fort Peck had two periods of use
fulness. The first was as a trading post
from 1867 to 1871 and the second as an
Indian agency from 1873 to 1879. The
agency was moved to Poplar river July
14, 1879. The period of 12 years was
without any unusual events.
Mr. Hilger reiterates the statement
that Fort Peck was never a military
pest, although an occasional detach
ment of soldiers guarding a freight out
fit may have stopped there. The fam
ous chief and strategist, Sitting Bull,
came to the fort when he returned from
Canada with his tribe to make his home
once more on this side of the line.
Granville Stuart’s brother, James,
died at the fort Sept. 30, 1873. James
Stuart was among the earliest white
men in the territory and, one of the
party that discovered gold in the sum
mer of 1862 at Gold creek, in western
Montana.
“He was known to everyone in thej
territory at the time of his death and;
was probably more highly regarded than
any other resident,” Mr. Hilger says.
“He was in charge of the agency dur
ing the absence of Major Simmons. He
was taken ill, but he diagnosed his ail
ment and kept notes on his symptoms'
until he died, sitting at a table with
his head on his arms.”
His brother, Granville, heard of the
illness and was on his way to him from
Deer Lodge with another brother and 1
several friends. When they reached l
Fort Peck, Potte-has-ka, or Long Hair,
as the Indians called him, had died.
His brothers had the body placed in a
metal casket, and it was returned hun
dreds of miles to his home in Deer
Lodge.
Historians also tell that at one time
Lost Child Is Found
Asleep in Woods
News of a frantic search for a lost)
child through the forest north of Plains;
only to find her asleep after a night
alone in the woods, reached Plains a;
few days ago.
Patsy Eggleston, 4, of Paradise, wan
dered away from her parents, Mr. and
Mrs. Fred Eggleston, while her elders
were making camp.
Defeated in their own attempt to!
find the child, Eggleston enlisted the
aid of forest workers and woodsmen, I
who carried on an all night search.
Just as the sun was shooting shafts
through the towering pines the morn
ing of the Fourth, the party came up
on Patsy, asleep. She was cold and
stiS, but when awakened her first call,
was for food.
I
GAME COMMISSION MEETS
The Montana fish and game commis-!
slon met at Livingston July 12 to con- [
duct a hearing on the petition of the;
Park County Rod and Gun club re
questing creation of a game preserve
near Mountain View cemetery.
MOISTURE RECORD SHATTERED
Precipitation records for June were
shattered in Yellowstone park. It was;
the wettest June on record, the prev-!
ious record having been made in June
of 1908, said W; T. Lathrop, meteorolo-i
gist. i
■ mg
MR If aSgSSi .
Courtesy at Orest Northern Railway.
Mount Rockwell at upper end of Two Medicine lake, Glacier National park.
people put up ice at the post during the!
winter and the following summer they
served the Indians with a new and
novel drink, ice water, which brought
them in great numbers to the fort.
At the time of the division of
Fort Peck, the Assinniboines were as
signed to the former and the various
agencies between Fort Belknap and
Sioux tribes, the Brules, Ogallalas, Te
tons, Uncpapas and Yanktonais to the
latter.
When the Fort Peck reservation was
created in 1886, the name of the agency.
Scenes in Glacier Park,
Going-to-the-Sun Highway
MMM
z
Courtesy of Great Northern Railway.
Heaven’s peak in Glacier National park, as seen from Going-to-the-Sun
highway which was completed last summer. This new motor road, de
scribed as the most scenic in America, conducts the tourist through
long, sky-high tunnels, which are lighted and ventilated by side portals.
It is through one of these that the above picture was taken.
SgW.Wfc • •• •
s.-v
ft
Courtesy ol Great Northern Railway.
The Knife-Edged Continental Divide in Glacier National Park, as
seen from the new Going-to-the-Sun highway at Crystal Point.
PAGE FIVE
: Fort Peck, was given to the agency and
thus perpetuated.
Today, no trace remains of the fort
and its location is almost across the
river at a point opposite where the in
take for the new Fort Peck water sys
tem is under construction. The only
indication that there was human life
at the fort is in death. Often, recently,
bones and rotten blankets are observed
in a cutbank next to the river. This
was the location of the old Fort Peck
cemetery, land which is now being
washed foot by foot into the Missouri.