The Red and the White: A Family Saga of the American West (41 page)

66
    Jennifer Brown and Theresa Schenck, “Métis, Mestizo, and Mixed Blood,” in
A Companion to American Indian History
, ed. Philip Deloria and Neal Salisbury (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2004), 329. For more on the difficulties facing such families in the period following the Mexican-American War, see Anne F. Hyde, “Hard Choices: Mixed-Race Families and Strategies of Acculturation in the U.S. West After 1848,” in
On the Borders of Love and Power: Families and Kinship in the Intercultural American Southwest,
ed. David Wallace Adams and Crista DeLuzio (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2012), 93–115.

67
    Walt Whitman, “The Half-Breed: A Tale of the Western Frontier,” in
Walt Whitman: The Early Poems and the Fiction
, ed. Thomas L. Brasher (New York: New York Univ. Press, 1963), 257–91, quoted passages on pp. 258 and 272. See also Thomas C. Gannon, “Reading Boddo’s Body: Crossing the Borders of Race and Sexuality in Whitman’s ‘Half-Breed,’”
Walt Whitman Quarterly Review
22, nos. 2–3 (Fall/Winter 2004), 87–107; Kenneth M. Price,
To Walt Whitman, America
(Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2004): 9–36; and William J. Scheick,
The Half-Blood: A Cultural Symbol in 19th-Century American Fiction
(Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1979), 36–38. Whitman’s attitude toward native-white miscegenation seems to have softened by the mid-1850s, as is suggested by the passage from “Song of Myself” that affectionately describes the marriage of the trapper and “the red girl.” See Walt Whitman,
Complete Poetry and Selected Prose,
ed. James E. Miller Jr. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959), 31. The same year that Whitman’s novella appeared, the historian Francis Parkman offered his own withering assessment of peoples of mixed ancestry in his celebrated travelogue,
The California and Oregon Trail.
Describing a group of
voyageurs
he encountered on the Platte River in eastern Wyoming, he wrote, “They were a mongrel race … in a few, indeed, might be seen the black snaky eye of the Indian half-breed, and one and all, they seemed to aim at assimilating themselves to their savage associates.” Parkman,
The Oregon Trail
(1849; New York: Penguin, 1982), 118.

68
    Two accounts of the family’s history center on the experiences of George Bent, son of William Bent and his Cheyenne wife, Owl Woman. See David Fridtjof Halaas and Andrew Edward Masich,
Halfbreed: The Remarkable True Story of George Bent, Caught between the Worlds of the Indian and the White Man
(Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2004); and George E. Hyde,
A Life of George Bent, Written from His Letters
(Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1968). See also Elliott West,
The Way to the West: Essays on the Central Plains
(Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press, 1995), 85–125.

69
    There is an extensive literature on this subject. Particularly useful are Adele Perry,
On the Edge of Empire: Gender, Race, and the Making of British Columbia, 1849–1871
(Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 2001); and Ann Laura Stoler,
Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Race and the Intimate in Colonial Rule
(Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2002). See also Sarah Carter,
The Importance of Being Monogamous: Marriage and Nation Building in Western Canada to 1915
(Edmonton: Univ. of Alberta Press, 2008).

70
    The woman was the wife of Joseph La Barge, a steamboat captain, and she came upriver on the
Martha
, piloted by her husband. See Hiram Martin Chittenden,
History of Early Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River: Life and Adventures of Joseph La Barge
(New York: Francis P. Harper, 1903), 1:183. She did not stay long, however, and Fort Benton did not have a sizable community of white women until the 1870s.

71
    Howard R. Lamar,
The Trader on the American Frontier: Myth’s Victim
(College Station: Texas A&M Univ. Press, 1977), 33.

72
    For the Great Lakes, see Lucy Eldersveld Murphy,
A Gathering of Rivers: Indians, Métis, and Mining in the Western Great Lakes, 1737–1832
(Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2000); Susan Sleeper-Smith,
Indian Women and French Men: Rethinking Cultural Encounter in the Western Great Lakes
(Amherst: Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 2001); and Richard White,
The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815
(New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1991). For the Lower Missouri, see John Mack Faragher, “‘More Motley than Mackinaw’: From Ethnic Mixing to Ethnic Cleansing on the Frontier of the Lower Missouri, 1783–1833,” in
Contact Points: American Frontiers from the Mohawk Valley to the Mississippi, 1750–1830, ed. Andrew R. L. Cayton and Fredrika J. Teute
(Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1998), 304–26; and Tanis C. Thorne,
The Many Hands of My Relations: French and Indians on the Lower Missouri
(Columbia: Univ. of Missouri Press, 1996).

73
    See Lyndel Meikle, ed.,
Very Close to Trouble: The Johnny Grant Memoir
(Pullman: Washington State Univ. Press, 1996); and Gerhard J. Ens, ed.,
A Son of the Fur Trade: The Memoirs of Johnny Grant
(Edmonton: Univ. of Alberta Press, 2008). To be sure, Grant was also leery of imminent tax increases as Montana became more populated. Author correspondence with Lyndel Meikle, 5 March 2009.

74
    There has been considerable debate among scholars concerning the most accurate way to render the term “Métis.” Some prefer the lowercase
m,
and still others choose to omit the accent mark over the
e.
For more on this discussion, see Jacqueline Peterson and Jennifer S. H. Brown, eds.,
The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Métis in North America
(1985; Winnipeg: Univ. of Manitoba Press, 2001), 3–16. I have chosen “Métis,” but preserved the spelling used by other scholars where appropriate. The literature on the Red River Métis is enormous. Two indispensable works are Sarah Carter,
Aboriginal People and Colonizers of Western Canada to 1900
(Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1999), esp. 62–82; and Gerhard J. Ens,
Homeland to Hinterland: The Changing Worlds of the Red River Metis in the Nineteenth Century
(Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1996). See also Nicole St. Onge, Carolyn Podruchny, and Brenda MacDougall, eds.,
Contours of a People: Metis Family, Mobility, and History
(Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2012). For a local study of such persons in Montana, see Martha Harroun Foster,
We Know Who We Are: Metis Identity in a Montana Community
(Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2006).

75
    Letter from Robert Morgan to Andrew Dawson, 15 March 1864, MTHS, Andrew Dawson Papers, SC 292.

76
    For more on the couple, see Isabel’s obituary in the
Great Falls Tribune,
5 April 1935.

77
    David J. Weber,
The Spanish Frontier in North America
(New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1992), 23.

78
    For statistics, see Andrew C. Isenberg,
Mining California: An Ecological History
(New York: Hill & Wang, 2005) 23. See also Albert L. Hurtado
, John Sutter: A Life on the North American Frontier
(Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2006); and Susan L. Johnson,
Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California Gold Rush
(New York: Norton, 2000).

79
    Elliott West,
The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado
(Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas, 1998).

80
    Kent Curtis argues persuasively that the Montana gold rush (like others in the West) “was not the result of gold discovery, it was produced by the efforts of national boosters and the expensive work of expansionism” that facilitated the harvesting of the metal. See his “Producing a Gold Rush: National Ambitions and the Northern Rocky Mountains, 1853–1863,”
Western Historical Quarterly
40, no. 3 (Autumn 2009): 275–97.

81
    James H. Bradley, “Bradley Manuscript—Book II: Miscellaneous Affairs at Fort Benton,”
Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana
(Boston: J. S. Canner, 1966), 8:127–28. It is hard to pinpoint the date of the first discovery of gold in Montana. Reputedly, François Finlay, a veteran of the California diggings, made the first find in 1852 at Gold Creek. Six years later, the brothers James and Granville Stuart made what is often considered the first recorded discovery of gold in Montana when they panned in the vicinity of Finlay’s strike. See Clyde A. Milner II and Carol O’Connor,
As Big as the West: The Pioneer Life of Granville Stuart
(New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2009), 56–58.

82
    W. A. Clarke, “Centennial Address: On the Origin, Growth and Resources of Montana,”
Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana
(Boston: J. S. Canner, 1966), 2:50.

83
    It is worth noting that western Montana (the portion including the Rocky Mountains) passed successively from Oregon Territory (1848–53) to Washington Territory (1853–63) and to Idaho Territory (1863–64) before becoming part of Montana Territory in 1864. For more, see Mark Stein,
How the States Got Their Shapes
(New York: Collins, 2008), 163–67.

84
    K. Ross Toole,
Montana: An Uncommon Land
(1959; Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1984), 72; Michael P. Malone, Richard B. Roeder, and William L. Lang,
Montana: A Tale of Two Centuries
(1976; Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press, 1991), 97.

85
    The vigilantes, who counted among their number some of the most important men in the territory, including the future U.S. senator Wilbur Fisk Sanders, are still revered by many in Montana today. For the best volume on the subject, see Frederick Allen,
A Decent, Orderly Lynching: The Montana Vigilantes
(Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2004).

86
    For population estimate, see
Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1860,
36th Cong., 2nd sess., 308.

87
    Author interview with Darrell Robes Kipp, Oct. 2006.

88
    
Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1859,
36th Cong., 1st sess., 487–88.

89
    For the complete text of the treaty, see the Institute for the Development of Indian Law
, Treaties and Agreements of the Pacific Northwest Indian Tribes
(Washington, D.C.: Institute for the Development of Indian Law, 1974), 51–55. For more on the treaty’s significance, see John C. Ewers,
The Blackfeet: Raiders on the Northwestern Plains
(1958; Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1983), 205–25.

90
    Albert John Partoll, ed.,
The Blackfoot Indian Peace Council: A Document of the Official Proceedings of the Treaty between the Blackfoot Nation and Other Indians and the United States, in October, 1855
(Missoula, Mont.: State Univ., 1937), 10.

91
    Kurz goes on to note that while McKenzie missed from time to time, he had little doubt that he “has the skill to shoot 12 cows in 1 mile if his runner should come up with that number.” J. N. B. Hewitt, ed.,
Journal of Rudolph Friederich Kurz
(1937; Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1970), 194.

92
    Ibid.

93
    There are numerous accounts of the episode, though none provide much detail. The most reliable is probably Sunder,
The Fur Trade,
250–51. See also Larpenteur,
Forty Years a Fur Trader,
298; Chittenden,
History of Early Steamboat Navigation,
233–34; E. W. Gould,
Fifty Years on the Mississippi
(St. Louis: Nixon-Jones, 1889), 422–25; Martha Edgerton Plassman, “The Killing of Owen McKenzie,” MTHS, Martha E. Plassman Papers, MC 78, box 3, folder 1; and
Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1863,
38th Cong., 1st Sess., 290.

94
    Chittenden,
History of Early Steamboat Navigation,
234.

95
    Clarke, “Sketch of Malcolm Clarke,” 258.

96
    In the short time between McKenzie’s murder and the establishment of his ranch, Clarke finagled an appointment as the chief government farmer at the Blackfeet Indian Agency on Sun River. However, during the extended absence of the Indian agent Henry Reed, Clarke turned the farm, which was intended to model agricultural techniques to the natives, into a hotel and trading post, capitalizing on its excellent location to provision miners and settlers disembarking at Fort Benton. According to at least one source, Clarke may even have operated a brothel at the farm location. Author interview with Carol Murray, Oct. 2006. When Reed’s successor, Gad E. Upson, arrived in Oct. 1863, he was so scandalized by the state of affairs at the farm that he promptly fired Clarke.
Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1864,
38th Cong., 2nd sess., 438.

97
    Gary E. Moulton, ed.,
The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery: The Abridgment of the Definitive Nebraska Edition
(Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2004), 153–54.

98
    Known today as the Sieben Ranch, the 75,000-acre property (nearly 120 square miles) belongs to John Baucus, the brother of U.S. Senator Max Baucus. See MTHS, Sieben Ranch, vertical file. See also MTHS, Edith Grimes Waddell Reminiscence, SC 1669. Born in Ireland to a wealthy merchant family, Meagher had immigrated to the United States in 1852. He served gallantly during the Civil War, leading the famed Irish Brigade into battle first at Antietam and then at Fredericksburg, where he suffered a serious leg wound from a cannonball. Meagher came away from his visit to Clarke’s ranch deeply impressed with the owner, whom he described as a “highly intelligent and adventurous gentleman” who possessed “some of the very best horses in Montana.” Clarke surely rose in Meagher’s estimation when he poured a nice bottle of champagne at dinner. But the acting governor reserved his most flattering remarks for Clarke’s daughter Helen—“a singularly amiable and very prepossessing young lady in appearance”—recently returned to Montana after completing her education at a Cincinnati convent. Reprinted in Thomas Francis Meagher, “A Journey to Benton,”
Montana: The Magazine of Western History
1, no. 4 (Oct. 1951): 49. For more on Meagher’s fascinating life see Paul R. Wylie,
The Irish General: Thomas Francis Meagher
(Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2007).