Early history of North Dakota: essential outlines of American history

• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Cornell University Library
• Subjects: Bourgeois; assiniboine
• Online Access: http://cdm16921.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/ndsl-books/id/52822

EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 19 York, 1897. Doctor Coues was a surgeon in the United States army and the medical officer on the boundary survey of 1872-1876, and was familiar with m.uch of the country of which Thompson and Henry wrote. Thompson, learned in mathematics and astronomy, was in charge of the location of the boundary line on behalf of the North-West Company of which he was the geographer. THE EMBARKATION After a portage of nine miles from Lake Superior to a point on Pigeon River, Alexander Henry and his party left for the mouth of the Assiniboine, on the Red River, July 19, 1800, where they arrived on the 17th day of August. On starting from Lake Superior the men were each given a two-gallon keg of liquor, and on the fifth day they reached the height of land where they "finished their small kegs and fight many a battle."—Henry's Journal. At the first stop three leading Indians accompanying the expedition were each given various articles of merchandise, including a scarlet-faced coat and hat, a red, round feather, a white linen shirt, a pair of leggings, a, breech clout, a flag, a fathom of tobacco, and a nine-gallon keg of mixed liquors—two gallons of alcohol to nine gallons of water being the usual mixture. After giving them their presents, Henry made a formal address to the Indians, encouraging them to be good and follow him to Turtle River, and not to be afraid of the Sioux, but just as he was giving them their farewell glass, before their return to their tents to enjoy their liquor, some of the women reported that they had heard several shots fired in the meadow. A council was immediately held. Henry ordered them to leave their liquor with him and put off their drinking until the next day, but they had tasted the liquor and must drink, even at the risk of their lives. They requested Henry to order his men to ' mount guard during the night. Tobacco, beads and wampum, the shell currency of the early fur trade, were measured by the fathom. Six feet of the cured and twisted tobacco plants, cut in suitable lengths, was called one . fathom and had a value equal to one beaver skin. Beads in number having a current value of 60 pence were called one fathom; six strings of wampum—one foot in lengtli—whether in bunch, bundle or belt, or in the form of loose shells sufficient to make that much were called a fathom.* Canoes were also sold by the fathom, according to their length. Having reached the Assiniboine August 17th, on the i8th the party divided, and that portion intended for the Red River embarked on the 20th. There were four canoes in this party, carrying a total of twenty-one persons. Two horses were led along the shore, and Henry claimed that these were the first introduced into the Red River Valley by the whites. Such an assemblage of canoes was called a "brigade," and the master, standing between the proprietors and the men, was called the "bourgeois." Each canoe was loaded with twenty-six packages of merchandise, or an equiv-alent in baggage, each package weighing 90 pounds. The packages were so * See "Exchange, Commerce and Wampum Hand Book, American Indians," "Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 30." Internet Archive