Historical highlights of Bottineau County

• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: North Dakota State Library 2014
• Subjects: Canada; Indian; Spence; Minot; Mouse River; Beaver Creek
• Online Access: http://cdm16921.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/ndsl-books/id/11015

THE ERA OF THE FUR TRADERS For today's population, the most significant feature of the fur trade is political. It is claimed that settlement determined the major boundaries. That is true. But not until the fur traders proved how liveable the region might become. The Hudson's Bay Company, organized in England in 1670, the first of many fur companies, controlled all the land whose rivers drained into Hudson's Bay. This included the Souris (Mouse) River in present-day Bottineau County. A portion of that huge parcel of land claimed by the French was relinquished in 1713, by the Treaty of Utrecht and in 1763, at the close of the French and Indian Wars, all claim to territory in Canada was relinquished by France. Opening up this enormous territory stimulated the fur business and competition became keen. It was no uncharted region that the traders penetrated. Pierre de la Verendrye of Three Rivers, Canada, had sketched a crude map on his way to the Mandans in 1738; somehow word got around that furs were to be found in the hub of the continent. Verendrye was delayed almost two weeks during October in the southwestern slopes of the Turtle Mountains while his Indian guide searched for a native village of 102 huts. From these Indians it was learned that Verendrye had need of an escort, because of frequent attacks by the Sioux. Forty years later, a scourge of smallpox spread throughout the Northwest. Of one band of 400 lodges, only ten persons survived, and of the large number of traders, only a dozen remained. In 1783, some dissatisfied Hudson's Bay stockholders formed a rival organization, the Northwest Company of Montreal. They took undisputed control of the trade south of the border until 1801 when yet another rival outfit called the X Y Company developed within the Northwest concern. Then followed a period of rivalry unmatched in fur trade history. Wherever the Nor'westers built a trading post, the H.B. and X.Y. were sure to follow. Ardent spirits became the chief medium of trade. The natives, pawns of the traders, gave up their ancient customs and yielded to degredation. When in 1818 Thomas Douglas Selkirk, a Scotch nobleman, received his land grant, surrounding the Mouse and Red Rivers, the trading companies lost their best territory. In that year, Great Britain and the United States entered into an agreement which determined the northern boundary of the United States. England gave back the territory in North Dakota which drained into Hudson's Bay. The Mouse River and the ancient trails through Bottineau County were no longer open to the traders of the north. Francois Jeanotte FRANCOIS JEANOTTE Denizen of the Mouse River Region Few of the early dwellers left a record of their lives in the wilderness. One exception is Francois Jeanotte. He was born in 1806 on the Mouse River in Bottineau County to Assiwenotok of the Turtle Mountain band and a French Canadian named Justras Jeanotte who had been many years in the country. Life for the elder Jeanotte was filled with adventures with the war parties hostile to the Chippewa. His first wife and his son were killed and he himself badly wounded on one occasion by a party of Grosventres, while descending the Qu'Appelle River with a boatload of furs. At age 6, Francois lived for a short time on Beaver Creek, across the border. There his twin sister was waylaid by a party of Grosventres and left lying where she was later found, still alive but scalped and having fourteen wounds. At this time, the Grosventres had a village at the junction of the South Antlers and the Mouse River. The two sons of the chief were White Cow Buffalo Robe and Four Bears. In 1818, Francois accompanied his mother to the Pembina River, his father having returned to Montreal. At this time several trading posts owned by the Hudson's Bay and Northwest companies were stationed along the Pembina, and Lord Selkirk's colonists — Swiss, German, Italian and Orkney — were attempting to establish farms there. Francois and his mother, having been abandoned by the father, as was often the case with country marriages, made their way back to the Mouse River about 1820. During the winter it was reported that a Chippewa war party traveling to the Rocky Mountains found an American trading post not far from the present city of Minot, in charge of a man named "Gravelle." By 1822 the Assiniboines, Crees and Chippewa had driven the Grosventres from their old village. There Francois met a travelling civil engineer from Europe in company with two halfbreed guides, Jack Spence and Jack Anderson. Francois, whose memories included the great star shower of 1833, lived out his long life in the Turtle Mountains. He resided on the reservation during the last years, where he died in 1905. THE LAST GREAT BUFFALO HUNT The last great buffalo hunt enjoyed in the Bottineau Region took place in 1864, and nearly all the half-blood population then in Manitoba engaged in the chase. In the fall of 1864, immense herds had congregated south of the Turtle Mountains on the plains east of the Mouse River. The hunting party was large, consisting of men, women, and children with nearly a thousand carts and hundreds of Indian ponies. As the hostile Sioux were abroad, the party had to keep well together while outriders were stationed at different points for the purpose of watching the movements of the herds and to give notice if danger should appear. The buffalo hunter of the plains possessed a peculiar character: he was a skillful rider, a good shot, hardy, strong, watchful, and courageous. He usually rode a horse possessed of great speed, strength and wind. Like his master, the horse enjoyed the excitement of the chase and would strain every nerve to bring his master alongside the buffalo. In those days the hunter was usually armed with a smooth bore muzzle- loading gun. His supply of powder was contained in a horn that hung from the shoulders by a strap; the hunter kept several bullets in his mouth for the sake of speed in loading his gun. When a drove of buffalo were to be approached the advance was made by the hunters in great silence, the leader of the party a little in advance, his chief duty was that of restraining the impetuosity of the overly eager hunters and to get his band as near the herd as possible. At length, when (9) Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.