French Canadian interactions with American Indians in Southwestern Montana Territory, 1805-1868

J.B. Laurin and the Effect of Enlightened French Canadian Attitudes Toward American Indians: In Southwestern Montana Territory, 1805-1868

VICTORIA STODDARD

“J.B. Laurin and the Enlightened Effect of French Canadian Attitudes Toward American Indians in Southwestern Montana Territory, 1805-1868�

Today, Laurin, Montana is an unincorporated town in southwestern Montana. Located approximately ten miles west of Virginia City, it is situated on the Ruby River with the Ruby Mountain Range as its backdrop just to the south. The Ruby River is a tributary of the Jefferson River, converging with the Madison and Gallatin Rivers to form the Missouri River approximately 90 miles to the north.

Known more broadly as the Three Forks drainage, the region contained hunting camps for the Mixed Band of Shoshone, Bannock, and Sheepeater Indians who lived alternately Figure 1 Map showing Laurin- Source: Ide’s Map of Montana, Published by Arthur Ide.

between Montana’s Three Forks and Idaho’s Lemhi Valley to the west.

The Mixed Band (also known as the Lemhi Shoshone) occupied both areas—the Three Forks drainage and the Lemhi Valley connected by the Lemhi and Bannock passes of the Beaverhead Mountains. The Lemhi Valley provided rich and plentiful supplies of spring and summer salmon, and southwestern Montana offered access to buffalo herds—in southwestern Montana and farther east. A mixed economy of salmon, buffalo, elk, deer, roots, and berries formed the basis of the Mixed Band’s subsistence through hunting, fishing, and gathering. The Mixed Band is made up of Shoshone, Sheepeater, and Bannock members. These tribes went through a series of transformations, known as ethnogenesis, to combine into being known as the Mixed Band, or Lemhi Shoshone tribe. “The multiethnic fusion of these distinct societies around the Lemhi Valley began to form a distinct tribal nation by at least the middle of the eighteenth 2

century”1 Gregory Campell explains that these tribes occupied a shared territory together in what amounted to five or more independent villages.2 David Crowder explains: “Tendoy gradually amalgamated into one tribe the Sheepeaters and other scattered Shoshoni and a small number of Bannock.”3 When Sacajawea accompanied Lewis and Clark up the Missouri in 1805, they anticipated that the Shoshone woman who was accompanying them would help them to acquire horses from her people to cross the Rocky Mountains into the region where the rivers emptied into the Pacific Ocean. When the Corps of Discovery neared the Three Forks of the Missouri River on July 16, 1805, Captain Meriwether Lewis wrote in his journal that his party had "passed about 40 little booths formed of willow bushes...we supposed that they were snake Indians." Lewis's use of the term "snake Indians" was a term used at the time to refer to Shoshone people. On July 22, some miles south of present-day Helena, Sacajawea indicated that she "recognizes the country and assures us that this is the river on which her relations live, and that the three forks are at no great distance. This piece of information," Lewis explained, “has cheered the spirits of the party who now begin to console themselves with the anticipation of shortly seeing the head of the Missouri yet unknown to the civilized world." Lewis's phrase, that this was the "river on which her relations live," indicates that the headwaters and Three Forks of the Missouri River marked lands claimed by Sacajawea's people--the Agai Dika (salmoneaters), the Lemhi Shoshone, and what

Gregory R. Campbell, “The Lemhi Shoshoni: Ethnogenesis, Sociological Transformations, and the Construction of a Tribal Nation” American Indian Quarterly Vol. 25, No. 4 (Autumn, 2001), 541.

1

2

Campbell, 541.

3

David Crowder, Tendoy: Chief of the Lemhis, (Caxton Press: Idaho, 1969), 50.

3

are today referred to as the Mixed Band of Shoshone, Bannock, and Sheepeater people.4 As Mann explains, “The arrival of the Corps of Discovery in the salmon river country in August 1805 inaugurated the Lemhi Shoshones’ interactions with non-Indian peoples.”5 On August 8, 1805, Lewis indicated that "the Indian woman recognized the point of a high plain to our right which she informed us was not very distant from the summer retreat of her nation on a river beyond the mounts which runs to the west. This hill," Lewis continued, "she says her nation calls the beaver's head from a conceived resemblance of its figure to the head of the animal." She told Lewis that "we shall either find her people on this river or on the river immediately west of its source." They advanced up the Jefferson River, seeing evidence of Shoshone people, and eventually they crossed Lemhi Pass and made contact with Shoshones under the leadership of Cameahwait.6 Finding Sacajawea’s people preparing to travel east into the Three Forks region for their annual buffalo hunt, Lewis and Clark spent several weeks with the Shoshones negotiating for horses and converting their water-borne expedition to horseback. The expedition moved west, and the Mixed Band people under Cameahweit traveled east, crossing Lemhi Pass for the fall and winter buffalo hunting camps in present-day southwestern Montana.

Meanwhile, more than fifty-five years later, prospectors discovered gold in southwestern Montana, first at Grasshopper Creek near Bannack, Montana, and then at Alder Gulch at Gary E, Moulton, ed. The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, volume 4 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987), vol 4, 386.

4

John W.W. Mann, Sacajawea’s People: The Lemhi Shoshones and the Salmon River Country, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004), 340.

5

Bernard DeVoto, The Journals of Lewis and Clark (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1953), 181.

6

4

Virginia City. Typical of mining frontiers, gold strikes attracted miners and settlers into remote, isolated locations which would otherwise have gone unnoticed and unsettled for years. But the lure of gold and riches triggered rapid political changes as well. In 1863 Idaho Territory was organized, and it included most of present-day southwestern Montana. With gold discovered in southwestern Montana in 1862 and 1863, Montana Territory was formed in 1864. As Grainville Stuart explains: “The new year saw marvelous changes in Montana: from a primeval wilderness, inhabited by a few roving bands of Indians and an occasional trader or trapper, we had emerged into a full fledged territory….”7 Its first territorial capital was Bannack, but it was moved to Virginia City in 1865 where it remained until 1875, when it was finally moved to Helena—the site of still another gold strike at Last Chance Gulch.

Within a short span of time, land which had been the traditional homeland to the Mixed Band of Shoshone, Bannock, and Sheepeater people was now filling with thousands of nonIndians: miners, settlers, merchants, and laborers. As John Mann explains: “the second half of that century… was marked by increasing white settlement in the Lemhi Valley… This resulted in the depletion of the resources on Figure 2: View of Laurin, Montana showing settlement in 1870. Photo courtesy of The Alice Flagger Scrapbook.

which the Lemhi Shoshones

Grainville Stuart, Forty Years on the Frontier as Seen in the Journals and Reminiscences of Granville Stuart, Gold-miner, Trader, Merchant, Rancher and Politician, (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1925) 20.

7

5

depended.”8 Another source, by Bringham D. Madsen, also explains the area’s depletion of resources. “They were faced with the loss of salmon, their main supply of food, when groups of white men built five weirs along the Lemhi River effectively blocking fish from swimming upstream to spawn.”9 In addition to the depletion of resources, hostilities between the Indians and non-Indians arose. An incident in the spring of 1863 just outside Bannack illustrated the dangerous frontier dynamics of Indians and non-Indians living in proximity to one another. At a creek just outside of town, Chief Snag of the Mixed Band stopped to bathe. A notorious outlaw, Buck Stinson, approached, shot, and mortally wounded the leader. Snag’s heir apparent, Tendoy escaped but not before his horse was struck by one of Stinson’s bullets. Ultimately Tendoy calmed tensions with his people; Stinson was later hanged; and Tendoy’s reputation for being a moderating influence and the friend of the white-man was established. “The day following the shooting of Snag,” Crowder explained, “Tendoy was elected chief by the Indians in accordance with the wish of the dying chief.”10 Meanwhile the population of Virginia City and its environs mushroomed, reaching 10,000 people by the mid-1860s.11 It had become a mining, economic, social, and political hub for the new territory. It was into this mix that smaller nearby settlements emerged—Nevada City immediately west of Virginia City as well as Adobetown a little farther west. And ten miles west, the small town of Cicero emerged on the Ruby River. It was that location which caught the

8

Mann, 347.

Brigham D. Madsen, The Lemhi, Sacajawea’s People, (Caxton Press, Cadwell, Idaho, 2000), 21.

9

10 11

Crowder, 45.

Stuart, 25.

6

attention of a French-Canadian trader living in the location which would become Wyoming, who was intent on venturing on his own into a trading business in Montana Territory with nearby American Indians and non-Indians. Known initially as Cicero, it was eventually renamed Laurin after its most notable citizen, Jean Baptiste Laurin.

Jean Baptiste Laurin was born on August 21, 1821, in St. Martin, Canada. His parents were Paul and Margaret Laurin, both of whom had been born in Canada. The Laurins had thirteen children, and they raised them as devout Catholics.12 His father was a merchant and a farmer, and J.B. Laurin’s early years were spent in the store with his father and on the farm.13 At age sixteen Laurin took up the tanning trade, and after three years he opened a leather supply store in Montreal, Canada, which he operated for two years. After owning his leather supply store, he ran the Serefina Hotel there for five years.14 These ventures in Canada gave him valuable experience toward operating his own trading post and hotel business in the future. After working in Canada at a tanning trade, Laurin, like other French Canadian men, moved to the American West.15 Traveling nearly fifteen hundred miles, Laurin eventually settled near Fort Bridger in the area that would become Wyoming, in a location named Little Muddy Creek.16 The

N.A., Jean Baptiste Laurin Montana’s Frontier Merchant, Finance Fame & Fortune, Montana Historical Society, Svingen Collection, 1.

12

13

Montana’s Frontier Merchant, 2.

14

Montana’s Frontier Merchant, 2.

15

Cody Pearson, “Laurin,” Svingen Collection, 4.

16

Montana’s Frontier Merchant, 2.

7

timing of Laurin’s trip to Utah coincided with the greatest migration west in the country’s history.17 After settling in the area of future Wyoming, Laurin opened a store and engaged in the livestock trade in the location of Little Muddy Creek.18 The store and his livestock operations afforded him valuable experience, as explained in the following passage from Montana’s Frontier Merchant...: “for eleven years he had a large and remunerative trade with the Indians.”

Laurin would travel and trade with the local Indians as far as Montana Territory. Montana’s Frontier Merchant continues: “The saga of the pioneer merchant and trader ‘Laurinis’ [sic] a story of Indians, Chiefs and squaws, and half breeds, some kin, all friends and pioneers.”19 The “half breeds” were Laurin’s children from his Indian “wife,” for Laurin had “married” an Indian woman there in a form known as a “Marriage of Convenience.” Alexander Kelly McClure, a contemporary observer, wrote: “Until a few years ago he [Laurin] chose his tender partners from the dusky maidens of the forest, changing them at pleasure, according to the ceremonies of the tribes”20 Arrangements such as these were beneficial for both the woman and the male. The marriage benefited the male by affording him access to trading directly with American Indians, and the woman enjoyed greater social and economic status. It was mentioned in Kevin Johnson’s book Mixed Race America and the Law: A Reader, that “in the end, just like native groups to their east such as the Mandans, Hidatas, and Arikaras, the Blackfeet accepted intermarriage with

17

Montana’s Frontier Merchant, 5.

Montana’s Frontier Merchant, 9; Alexander Kelly McClure, Three Thousand Miles Through the Rocky Mountains, (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & co., 1864), 150,http://www.archive.org/details/threethousandmil00mccl.

18

19 20

Montana’s Frontier Merchant, 5.

McClure, 148.

8

whites because of its extraordinary political and economic benefits.”21 This shows the way that the marriages had political and economic benefits. In another source, titled Women's Roles in Nineteenth-century America it was mentioned that the couple would also receive political benefits, which were that the women could be used as interpreters and negotiators.22 Johnson explained the way that marriages were done “a la facon du pays” which means according to the ceremonies of the tribes. These arrangements were common during this period. Johnson continued:. “Intermarriage between white men and native women was found everywhere throughout the continent where Europeans and their descendants sought animal skins…”23 Johnson also explained that the prevalence of fur traders marrying Indian woman was: “so pervasive…that the pattern that fur traders who did not marry Indian woman became the exception.”24 Not only did these “marriages” serve political and economical means, they also aided in assimilation. Found in the The Encyclopedia of American Indian Literature was this passage: “Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries white writers, scientists and legislators suggested that intermarriage between Indians and whites might serve as a form of biological assimilation.” It continued, “a peaceful alternative to war and removal, facilitating the transition from savagery to civilization.”25 To support this notion that the intermarriages aided in assimilation, in his book, Johnson wrote about Thomas Jefferson’s support of the idea of Kevin R. Johnson, Mixed Race America and the Law: A Reader, (New York University Press: New York, 2003), 103.

21

Tiffany K. Wayne, Women's Roles in Nineteenth-century America (Greenwood Publishing Group: California, 2007), 200.

22

23

Mixed Race America and the Law: A Reader, 104.

24

Mixed Race America and the Law: A Reader, 103.

Jennifer McClinton-Temple, Encyclopedia of American Indian Literature, (Infobase Publishing: New York, 2008), 190.

25

9

marriage between white men and Indian women. “They had an unlikely champion in Thomas Jefferson, who during his presidency viewed such unions as the key to peaceful frontier absorption as well as the eventual assimilation of Indians into Anglo-American society.”26 Assimilation, as well as the political and economic benefits afforded by this situation was what made it become so common on the frontier. Like the other fur trading men, Laurin also chose this sort of arrangement for a period of time. This “marriage” between Jean Baptiste Laurin and the Indian woman was an illustration of his good relations with the native tribes, and his reputation for good relations with American Indians served him well—in Wyoming Territory and later in Montana Territory as well.27 When hostilities in the Fort Bridger region arose, Laurin decided to make his way north to Montana Territory. “No doubt some Indians helped Laurin outfit a caravan pull up stzkes [sic] and begin a new enture that would be 500 miles further into the frontier,” the Montana’s Frontier Merchant observed.28 As Laurin left Utah, gold had already been discovered at Grasshopper Creek near Bannack but not yet in Alder Gulch.29 “Early in the spring of 1862 the rumor of new and rich discoveries on Salmon River flew through Salt Lake City, Colorado, and

26

Mixed Race America and the Law: A Reader, 103.

Scholars have come to regard “marriages” such as these as a noteworthy topic of scholarship.

American Indian women are seen as cultural bridges between Native villages and camps and newly arrived traders. For more on this topic see: Michael Lansing, “Plains Indian Women and Interracial Marriage in the Upper Missouri Trade, 1804-1868,” Western Historical Quarterly (Winter 2000), 413-33.

27

28

Montana’s Frontier Merchant, 10.

29

Montana’s Frontier Merchant, 10.

10

other places in the territories.

A great stampede was the consequence.”30 Laurin arrived just as William Fairweather and his party struck gold at Alder Gulch in the spring of 1863. Laurin immediately set Figure 3: J.B. Laurin's Store- Photo courtesy of the Svingen Collection

up a mining supply store ten miles west of Alder Gulch

region after staking his pre-emptive claim to three hundred and twenty acres.31 With the financial assistance of John Creighton, an early merchant in Virginia City, Laurin located his trading post in what was known as Cicero. The store was situated at the confluence of the Ruby River and Alder Creek. The supply store grew from a rudimentary tent to a substantial building with a stockade and trading area. This building was used as “a trading post, a store, hotel, post-office and pleasure resort combined.”32 Laurin made his money through trade and economic ventures in a place and time where gold mining dominated mostly everyone’s life. “He digs no Gold” McClure observed, “his forte is to traffic with everybody; and the result is that he owns all the stores, bridges, and most of the ranches, cattle, horses, and mules, for fifty or one hundred miles along the valley.”33

Thomas Dimsdale, The Vigilantes of Montana or Popular Justice in the Rocky Mountains, (State Publisher Co.: Helena, 1866), 12.

30

31

Mary Walter, Laurin, (1926), Svingen Collection, 1.

32

Walter, 1.

11

Once settled, Laurin met a woman named Adeline Booth in 1865—a woman who was one of the first nonIndian women to reach the area. Adeline had been traveling to Colorado with her husband when he was allegedly killed by Indians, leaving Adeline widowed.36 When Adeline’s husband was shot enroute to the west near Stage Creek, Adeline continued on to Denver.37 While stranded there, she met a woman with children and the two became friends, and “Somehow the two widows with four children pooled their recourses and continued Figure 4: J.B. and Adeline Laurin Photo courtesy of the Alice Flagger Scrapbook- Svingen Collection

west to the gold fields.”38 When Adeline and Julianne learned of the gold

strike north at Grasshopper Creek and Alder Gulch, they chose to travel north and seek employment there. When Juliane Legris died, Adeline chose to care for her surviving children.

Adeline arrived in Adobe Town just to the west of Virginia City, in 1865, and the news of her arrival reached Laurin. “He heard about that French woman who had those children to raise and was taking in washing up at Dobe Town.”39 The source continued, “At the time he had a breed or Indian squaw living with him. He went to this French woman and told her his history. He asked 33

McClure, 300.

36

Montana’s Frontier Merchant, 25.

37

Montana’s Frontier Merchant, 26.

38

Montana’s Frontier Merchant, 27.

39

Montana’s Frontier Merchant, 27.

12

if she wanted a home where her kids could be raised.”40 Adeline accepted Laurin’s proposal, and J.B. Laurin and Adeline Booth married on June 9th 1865.

J.B. Laurin’s home after his second marriage had been open to many people, including his pregnant Indian wife. As Montana’s Frontier Merchant explains: “He had established an Indian woman in his cabin to care for his personal needs…The personal living arrangement was an accommodation.”41 Sara Bickford, a black woman, was also employed by Laurin in his house.42 In addition to the employees of Laurin, his house was open to travelers and other visitors, and his home served as a something of a makeshift hotel. This hospitable atmosphere was replicated in his store where he welcomed people from all walks of life, including American Indians who came to trade.

Laurin was unlike most towns in Montana Territory due largely to the town’s high percentage of French speakers. The high number was due to J.B. Laurin’s background as a French-Canadian. Many of these French speakers were friends or relatives of J.B. Laurin.43 One observer noted that Laurin was “most unlike the early day mining towns in Montana, was that little French Canadian Village…” included “friends of Mr. and Mrs. Laurin from Canada and other French people [who] settled in town or on this rich farm lands near-by.”44 Their vernacular

40

Montana’s Frontier Merchant, 27.

41

Montana’s Frontier Merchant, 24.

Bickford remained in the area, eventually moving to Virginia City. Her white husband owned the Virginia City Water Works, and after he died Sara took over and ran the city utility for years.

42

43

Walter, 1.

44

Walter, 1.

13

was different than the average person settled in the area, making Laurin something of a small enclave of French influence in the American West.45 Keeping with the French influence, the town had strong ties to its religion. After his second marriage, J.B. Laurin built a house adjacent to the store, which was used as a home and as a community chapel. As the town’s population swelled, a church was built.46 Illustrating the spirit of Catholicism and French influence, the town held annual Church fairs which featured a popular raffle and supper that both included French influence. The church fair raffle prizes included French wax dolls, and the dinner included French cuisine.

It was common for French-Canadians such as Laurin to deal peacefully with Natives.

That tradition had its roots firmly planted in French colonial policy that preceded the French defeat in the French and Indian War between 1754-1763. Lacking numbers, military might, and economic power, French traders compensated for these deficiencies with marriage, goodwill, and peaceful cooperation with their Native trading partners. The virtues of this approach to American Indians had not been lost on J.B. Laurin, and he used them to his advantage. This phenomenon of dealing peacefully carried over to Laurin and his dealings with American Indians, first in Utah Territory and then later in Montana Territory.

The Mixed Band of Shoshone, Bannock, and Sheepeaters had frequented the area of Laurin since time immemorial. As Mary Walter explained “Mr. Laurin carried on an immense trade with the Bannack, Snake and Lemhi Indians from Idaho.…”47 There are two main reasons 45

Walter, 1.

46

Walter, 2.

47

Walter, 3.

14

for this: the first was the location of the area, and the second was the hospitality shown by J.B. Laurin. Proof of the Mixed Band’s existence near Laurin is the rock art found on mountainsides throughout the region.52 Further proof of their presence are burial grounds found outside of Twin Bridges, Montana. The burial ground contains Margret Dempsey’s remains, the Shoshone sister of Chief Tendoy.53 More evidence of the Mixed Band’s ties to the Laurin area is a February 1923 account in the Sheridan, Montana high school newspaper, The Passamari. In that 1923 account, Laurin and Tendoy came to terms in a trading transaction. “Let us watch the trading as it occurred one morning soon after this.” The Passamari Figure 5: Chief Tendoy – Photo courtesy of Smithsonian Institute Washington, DC.

described how “an Indian pounded on the heavy door, and one of Laurin’s French Canadians admitted him.”54 The

newspaper explains how Laurin and Tendoy traded together, through the use of a sign language: “Old Chief Tendoy by means of the unfailing sign language, let them know that he would trade for a thunder-stick.”55 The passage continued, and explained the way Laurin bartered with Tendoy. “…Tendoy after looking over the stock, selected an armymusket… he threw down for it twenty beaver skins.” Laurin judged twenty skins to be insufficient, so, Tendoy continued to pile 52

Leo Ariwite, interview by author, Bonanza Inn, Virginia City, Montana, May 30, 2016.

Abigail Dennis, “Virginia City Prepares to Honor Chief Tendoy,” The Madisonian, July 16, 2015.

53

54

The Passamari, (Sheridan Montana: 1923) Svingen Collection.

55

The Passamari, 1.

15

the beaver skins until Laurin was satisfied, at which point the beaver skins reached the tip of the musket. This exchange showed that both Laurin and Tendoy were comfortable with each other.56 The spirit of the exchange described in the 1923 account in The Passamari described an event that played a central role in subsequent treaty negotiations between the Mixed Band and the federal government. The killing of Chief Snag in 1863 on the outskirts of Bannack, a booming mining town, hung like a dark cloud over future dealings between the Mixed Band and non-Indian officials. The prospect of inviting Tendoy and his people to the new territorial capital, Virginia City, another booming mining town, with thousands of inhabitants was riddled with uncertainty. Enter J.B. Laurin and his trading post. Here, ten miles west of Virginia City was a peaceful enclave where Tendoy and his Mixed Band perceived no threat. A familiar trading site, Laurin’s peaceful reputation presented an ideal setting for Mixed Band representatives, federal officials, and territorial dignitaries to meet and conclude their business.

Accordingly, the hospitable location of Laurin was chosen as the site for negotiating a treaty with the Shoshone, Bannock, and Sheepeaters in 1868. David Crowder explains that treaties helped the federal government determine the appropriate amount of money that was required for “the subsistence of the Indians.”57 Congress and government officials determined that it was more advantageous to move American Indians onto reservations where they could be taught agrarianism. The 1868 Treaty with the Shoshone, Bannocks, and Sheepeaters was the first step by the government to getting the Mixed Band to move onto a reservation, and it was highly anticipated by the Indians and non-Indians. As Madsen explains: “The mountaineers and settlers

56

Ibid.

57

Crowder, 50.

16

of the area urged the governor to try to get the federal bureaucracy in motion to take care of the Lemhi.” The government, however, was slow to act. “The commissioner of Indian affairs, heeding a final report from Governor Meagher that there were no Bannock and Shoshone properly belonging in Montana disregarded the above reports.”58 Finally, in 1868 the federal government began to prepare for treaty negotiations with the Mixed Band. “In 1868, when the federal government summoned Tendoy, he was probably not eager to visit Virginia City… He was more comfortable with Laurin.”59 The Montana Post reported: “Accordingly Gov. Tufts summoned Ten-Doi’s band, which was scattered through the country from Salmon to Snake river…” “to meet the agent at Loraine’s ranch, in the Stinkingwater valley, on the 24th ult., and through him, have a talk with the great father at Washington.”60 Federal Commissioner William J. Cullen at this time was traveling and visiting various tribes in order to negotiate treaties for the federal government. Paul R. Wylie explains: “accompanied only by a mixed group of fur traders and interpreters, he was able to get marks on a treaty document with the Gros Ventures on July 15...” and “on a separate treaty with the River Crows on that same day. Moving on horseback to Virginia City, Cullen completed another treaty with the mixed tribes of Shoshones, Bannocks, and Sheepeaters.”61 The treaty signing at Laurin drew a crowd from all over the area. The Montana Post explained: “that the citizens of Virginia, with their usual aptitude for occasions of this kind, were 58

Madsen, 17.

59

“Virginia City Prepares to Honor Chief Tendoy,” The Madisonian, July 16, 2015.

60

“Treaty with the Bannacks,” Montana Post (Helena, Montana Territory), Oct. 2, 1868.

Paul R. Wylie, Blood on the Marias: The Baker Massacre, (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016), 118.

61

17

at once qui vive of excitement… for he can imagine how every horse in town was at once secured.” The reporter continued, stating: “Stage coaches, train wagons, buggies, and all the pleasure carriages of the city, we are told, were pressed into the service…”62 The article explained how every stagecoach and vehicle was secured and used to venture fourteen miles to Laurin for the treaty signing. “Meantime the scampering took place at Virginia, some on horseback, some on muleback, in stage coaches, wagons and carriages.” The front page account continued, “In couples, in cavalcades, and in trains the populations… all commenced the toilsome ride of fifteen miles, which lay between them and the place of destination.”63 The description of the events provided in the Montana Post on October 2nd 1868 indicated that over three hundred of the Mixed Band members, along with many citizens of Virginia City, visited Laurin for the treaty signing. This particular treaty signing was the first time that women were present, which made it even more remarkable. “I have made twenty or more treaties… but never one before that was honored with the presence of ladies,” remarked Commissioner Cullen.64 As a gift, and because Cullen knew “the mollifying effects of a good meal,” an oxen weighing 1200 lbs was presented to the tribe to be prepared for a meal later that day.65 “The Bannacks, some 300 in number were jolly with feasting. Never before had the poor, half starved creatures had so good a time….”66 The tribe was in a precarious situation with their hunting lands being depleted. The depletion of resources forced them to rely on the federal government 62

“Treaty with the Bannacks,” 2.

63

“Treaty with the Bannacks,” 2.

64

“Treaty with the Bannacks,” 1.

65 66

“Treaty with the Bannacks”, 2.

Ibid.

18

for support. As Madsen explains: “They were poor, cheated by the whites, and robbed of their ponies by neighboring tribes.”67 Madsen continued with a quote by Governor Meagher which stated the “truly wretched and desolate condition of the Lemhi. Eleven Lodges were…close to Virginia city and contained as much misery and filth and dire want as might be exceeded only by the huts of Terra del Fuegas.”68 Their situation was noticed by the government, which is the reason for the treaty of 1868.

After the meal on September 24th, Cullen explained the provisions of the treaty he planned to make with the Mixed Band. “That they should surrender to the Government all right, title and interest to the territory claimed by them...” and The Montana Post continued, “As a consideration of this, they should receive two townships of land on Salmon river…. they should be provided with farming implements an instructor in farming, a carpenter, a blacksmith, an engineer, a physician a Mission school and a saw mill.” The previous list of provisions was in addition to the annuities they were promised.

Cullen’s efforts were directed at securing title to Indian land. “The treaties provide for the extinguishment of the title of the Indians to a large extent of the country,” and Tendoy agreed to the provision after making a statement about the Blackfeet and Sioux. 69 “I have never fought my white brethren,” Tendoy proclaimed, but “the Blackfeet and Sioux have always done so, and have received pay from our Great Father, while I and my tribe have received nothing.”70 Tendoy’s peaceful relations with the non-Indians were not lost on many. As Bringham D. 67

Madsen, 18.

68

Madsen, 18.

69

Wylie, 119.

70

“Treaty with the Bannacks,” 3.

19

Madsen showed, using a quote from Governor Meagher that “there were less than a dozen peaceable, well-disposed Indians, except the tribe of Sheep Eaters…who…treat the whites traveling… with kindness and cordiality.”71 Tendoy continued his speech to Commissioner Cullen explaining how he would agree to the terms of the treaty if “my Grand Father keeps his faith with me.”72 Due to external circumstances this treaty was never ratified and the Mixed Band never received a treaty reservation from these provisions. Instead, eight years later, they received an executive order reservation which was less permanent. The 1875 Executive Order reservation was short-lived, however, because it was rescinded in 1905-1907. The Mixed Band was forced to relocate to its new home in Fort Hall, Idaho. This move is known as the “Lemhi Trail of Tears.”73 For some years, the Virginia City Treaty of September 24, 1868, was thought to have been negotiated and signed in Virginia City. It was not, and for good reasons. The volatility of Virginia City persuaded those who knew better to change the venue to Laurin’s trading post. By 1868, all concerned understood that treaties with American Indian tribes were essentially “American Indian give-aways,” meaning that tribal people promised to surrender land for promises of money, goods, protection, and safety provided by the federal government. These negotiations were delicate, controversial, and prone toward failure and disagreement. The lone actions of a “Buck Stinson” at the negotiations could derail negotiations. Worse yet, they could incite violence.

71

Madsen, 16.

72

“Treaty with the Bannacks,” 3.

Orlan Svingen, Sacajawea's People: Who Are the Lemhi And Where Is Their Home, (Washington State University: 2010).

73

20

Laurin’s French-Canadian settlement offered what Virginia City could not. Inculcated with values and attitudes from his birth in St. Martin, Canada, Laurin was a man whose past included an American Indian “common law wife,” children by her, and a recognition of humanity toward more than exclusively white people. He lived a safe distance from Virginia City; American Indians (including Tendoy and the Mixed Band) frequented his trading house; and his setting provided safe camp sites for tribal people crossing the Ruby Valley and trading at his establishment.

As such, towns such as Laurin which are now wide-spots in the road frequently “lose out” when it comes to contemporary historical narratives. Their stories are lost, ignored, or overshadowed by more popular accounts of mining booms and vigilante justice. What took place in Laurin in 1868 should not be overlooked because it was something of a success story involving Indian and non-Indian relations: nobody died that day.

It is important that the story of Laurin, the impact of French-Canadians, and the significance of the unratified Treaty of September 24, 1868, are incorporated into Virginia City’s history. What has been a history of the mining and vigilante justice needs to be widened to include the region’s first inhabitants.

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