Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 3/"The American Fur Trade in the Far West"
"THE AMERICAN FUR TRADE IN THE FAR WEST."
This work, by Capt. Hiram M. Chittenden of the United States Corps of Engineers, is a departure from the old methods in history. We have in the past been satisfied to know the main incidents in human progress and their results without inquiry into the personal motives and technical features of our founders and builders. If we ever learned more, it was through the researches of an occasional biographer, who in his admiration for, or condemnation of, an individual character, brought to light hitherto unknown, often unsuspected facts. Inspired by emulation a rival biographer gave an opposite view, and in the course of time the true history was dragged to light. Thus, in the passing of centuries, by adding to and taking from, we get what we are satisfied to believe is a correct general account of our beginnings and progress.
In the book before us readers are saved this tedious method of getting at an understanding of events in the first century of American occupation of the Pacific Northwest. To accomplish such a result Captain Chittenden has, of course, been compelled to avail himself of the work previously done by others. But he has so carefully collected his material, and so artistically brought it together, that it has in effect the realistic features of the cyclorama, and we see all the participants in the action, which continues to go on.
The history of Oregon, subsequent to the navigator period, began with the Lewis and Clark expedition. Already there were fur traders in what was then the far west. For two thirds of a generation after that, all the vast territory between the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, and also a border-land about the Great Lakes, and the headwaters of the Mississippi was every-man's land, where the French and the English hunted, and made war upon Americans, while the Indians made war upon each in turn.
After our war of 1812, which although brought on by an abuse of maritime rights by the English, was made the excuse by English fur traders for the abuse of American rights on land, the United States congress passed an "exclusion act' compelling the British traders to remove their posts to British territory. This they did as to their posts, but as to their hunting they still for several years continued to gather furs on American rivers and in American forests.
These unsettled conditions bred a class of men whose "double" will never again be seen on American soil, if anywhere on the globe. For brain and brawn, for courage and generalship, their leaders stand unrivaled . Their battlefields were scattered over the interior of America from the Missouri to the Columbia, and beyond, to the headwaters of the great Oregon River, even to the Umpqua, near the California boundary.
Unfortunately, the wars were not always with Indians, but quite as often between rival trading companies. Commerce has always been a relentless pioneer, as it is the most successful civilizer. Except for trade there would be "open doors" nowhere on the earth. It has always required b]ood to make fertile the soil of its most productive regions—the more productive, the more blood.
Beginning with a sketch of the condition of the Mississippi frontier, and the founding of St. Louis, Captain Chittenden gives us the story of the Astor enterprise, following pretty closely Irving's narratives, which, however, he amplifies with proofs and opinions which establish its credibility as against certain authors of nearly an even date. He makes plain Astor's claim to be considered a genius of the highest order as a promoter, although sometimes failing from overzeal or overconfidence in his associates. Of his influence on the fate of Oregon, he says:
In exploiting his schemes of commercial conquest Mr. Astor was early led to entertain views regarding- the expansion of American territory altogether in advance of those of our own statesmen. He believed not only in the desirability but the practicability of our taking possession of the whole Pacific coast from the Spanish to the Russian possessions, and he clearly saw in that distant region the germ of a mighty future empire. He took the only view which a man accustomed to look at things on a broad scale yet in a plain matter of fact way, could take, that it would be better for this territory to be in the possession of a single power than to be parceled out among several. There can be no doubt as to what power Mr. Astor thought that this should be. His project of commerce led him into relations with his government which, it seems, heartily applauded his views, but could lend him no other aid than tacit encouragement. It is ever to be lamented that President Madison did not see his way to adopt as bold a course in regard to Mr. Astor's enterprise as did his illustrious predecessor in office in regard to the purchase of Louisiana. Had he done so the political map of North America would not be what it is to day.
Captain Chittenden explains Astor's unfortunate connection with the Northwest Company of Montreal, which had declined to join him in his commercial schemes, and says that they "resolved to anticipate him in his own plans," and acknowledged that he erred in organizing his company largely from the Northwest Company's men. This was certainly, on either side, meant to be a counterplot. The Northwest Company preferred to undertake to beat Mr. Astor at his own game. Astor thought by taking into the Pacific Fur Company men from the Northwest Company to prevent such an achievement. But circumstances were all against him; disasters by land and sea, wars and rumors of wars, bloodless so far as the two companies were concerned, but decisive in their effect, joined to defeat him in his so nearly realized conquest of the trade of the world.
Although beaten at the time it can not be said that Mr. Astor failed to leave a great legacy to the United States. He secured a trade with the Russian establishments in the North which has played no insignificant part in American history for the last century. Beside the benefit derived from trade, Russia acted as an ally in the defense of the coast from other foreign powers. It is true that Great Britain enjoyed for over thirty years this legacy along with the possession of the Oregon territory on the Pacific, and obtained (from the Russians) privileges of trade in California; but in one respect English traders were crippled, in the Pacific seas, where the East India Company had a monopoly. They could not ship direct to their best market, China, but were forced to send their costly cargoes across the continent and across the Atlantic to be reshipped from London via the East Indian route. That this hardship, which kept open interior American routes worked a final benefit to the American trade, and the commerce of the West is true. It is true also that since the United States was not yet able, through its youth, and lack of means, to contend with any great power, it was fortunate that its joint occupancy was with the English nation rather than with a people of another tongue, and other ideas of civilization.
It was fortunate again that the orderly and strictly organized Hudson Bay Company finally absorbed the brave but wild Northwesters. Had the latter been in occupation at the period when American traders first ventured west of the Rocky Mountains, it might have fared worse with them. In criticizing Captain Chittenden, I should "stick a pin there." The Northwest leaders, while they were trained athletes, often scholars, thoroughly versed in the tactics of their warlike business, entertaining socially, and hospitable, were rapacious and merciless in their dealings with rival traders. The story of the fur trade runs very differently after George Simpson became their head in America by the union of the two great English companies of Canada, and John McLoughlin took charge of affairs on the Columbia River in Oregon. The early prejudices of Oregon pioneers were chiefly an inheritance from their grandfathers, who had fought "Northwesters" and Indians of a previous generation on the Canada frontier, and finding some of that stock among the Columbia River traders were fain to fall to fighting them without much if any provocation. What would have become of the first missionaries and settlers had the British fur company with its stores of goods and its farm products not been found here? The fate of the overland expedition of Astor would have been theirs. It is true McLoughlin, who was practically the governor of Oregon, had been an officer of the Northwest Company, but he was one who on occasion could safely set at defiance his superiors in rank by shaming them into more civilized practices. The historian of Oregon should, I think, discriminate between the men who ousted Astor, and their successors, the Hudson Bay Company.
The losses and discouragements of Mr. Astor on the Pacific Slope were not permitted to interfere with his plans concerning the interior. Out of the wreck of several early trade organizations he created the Great American Fur Company, a part of whose history is the story told by Irving, Franchere, Cox, and others. The English-Canadian companies' system was one of forts. These they found necessary not only for the storage of their goods and furs, but for protection in case of attack. Fort Union, on the Upper Missouri, erected in 1828, was the chief establishment, the capital it may be said, of the American company. There were many more at places favorable for trade on the Missouri and its branches.
Other fur companies competing with the American were kept away from the great rivers by the tribes in alliance with this company and were forced, or found it to their advantage, to adopt the wandering habits of the Indians, having only a general rendezvous from which parties were sent out in different directions for the season's hunt. Instead of permanent storehouses they resorted to caches, burying their furs until the annual caravan set out for Saint Louis. When the trade was at its height, about 1834, there were half a dozen organized companies in the field from the United States, besides many lone traders like Wyeth, Bonneville, Pilcher, Fontenelle, and others.
It does not require any great stretch of imagination to picture, rudely, what fur hunting life must have been in and about the Rocky Mountains from 1821 to 1840, when it had ceased as a great business, only the American company still occupying the field a few years longer. It does require, however, something more than imagination to picture it as it was. This, Captain Chittenden has successfully accomplished, and unveiling the greedy brood of fortune hunters in a lawless and comfortless country, has shown us how the Far West was despoiled of its natural riches, and depopulated of its wild men and wild animals. The loss of life in the business, in proportion to the number of men employed, was large; while the profits, on account of losses by Indian raids and robberies, as well as by the raids of the rival parties, were not so enormous as from the small prices paid for furs and small wages to trappers, might be expected. "Judged by the volume of business, also, "says Chittenden, "the fur trade was of relatively insignificant proportions; but its importance and historic interest depend upon other and quite different considerations."
The "other considerations," which included the one first mentioned—the saving of Oregon to the United States—were numerous, even after deducting the fortunes which were made by the few at the expense of the many. Allowing that there were, in the service of the American fur companies in the Oregon Territory during the twenty years of their existence, 2,000 men, which is probably a fair estimate, the results of their labors are remarkable. To their presence in the country, and the protection it afforded, the various sciences of geography, natural history (animal life), botany, ethnology, meteorology, geology, and mineralogy are greatly indebted. Government expeditions, fitted out though they may be with every possible instrument and apparatus, through the very perfection of their equipment fail to effect the discoveries which the lonely hunter and trapper made in his annual wanderings.
Exploring expeditions by the government in the Pacific Northwest began about the time the fur trade period closed, in the early '40s; but before that time there were books upon the physical sciences whose authors had traveled over the far West under the escort of the fur companies, being entertained at forts and made welcome at camp and rendezvous. There was hardly a stream or lake in the Rocky-mountain region, now comprising several great states, that had not been named, and to which some incident of history attached. A trapper (American) although he could not quote Shakespeare (as some of them could), was able to make a map of the region he roamed over which the reader of explorers' reports would be glad to possess to-day. During the period between 1843 and 1860, when mining began to be developed—the discoveries being made by old mountain men who still lingered on the borders of former hunting grounds—many of these unsung heroes had become settlers among immigrants of the coast region, and in this new life of members of orderly communities had proven themselves patriotic and law-abiding citizens. They were the "hearts of oak" on whose firm loyalty the young empire when in peril always depended.
I have not space without monopolizing too many pages of this magazine to express my conception of the country's debt to the hunters and trappers as well as to leaders in the fur companies. Such, I believe, is the sentiment under whose influence Captain Chittenden wrote his History of the Fur Trade; and for the faithful pen pictures he has given us of all sides of the subject he deserves our praises.
As a narrative the book is a storehouse of adventure and biography. Dates and descriptions of forts is another interesting feature, these "ancient" structures being among those first things which always seem of so much greater importance than any that follow. But it is in the men who built, occupied, and defended them that we find the chief interest. Their lives and their aims are a problem; but then, so are all lives.
Let me not omit to mention the part played in the history of the fur trade by that demoralizing fluid which, taking possession of a man's stomach, "steals away his brains." A century ago the fathers of our republic, patterning after their British sires, thought no ill of a wine cellar or a sideboard with a variety of liquors upon it. Whether it was climate or science or the Indian question or experience whatever it was a change in sentiment was developed, and the bottle in the closet was considered more in the light of a questionable indulgence than a social necessity. This opinion invaded the Indian Department of the government, and the laws of the United States forbade the sale of liquor to Indians. It was also forbidden to manufacture whiskey in the Indian country.
This regulation of the department was alike for the good of the native man, who, when intoxicated, sold his furs for a fishhook, and for the welfare of the white trapper who did the same. It was intended also to save lives of both races. That was plain enough; but that the sale or gift of liquor on the British side of our boundary should have the effect to ruin the rich and powerful American company on our side, was not at the first glance so apparent to every one. That was the danger that threatened the company, however, when the tribes near the line were drawn away from their allegiance to the Americans by the rum allowed them on the British side. Driven to despair, the agent at Fort Union erected a still, but being betrayed by an employee was compelled to resort to fiction of the most yellow complexion and finally to abandon his manufacture.
The other companies south of the Missouri who carried their goods in trains from the mouth of the Platte, and who had no headquarters, experienced the same, or even greater difficulties, having to outwit the keen-eyed agents at Fort Leavenworth, where their cargoes underwent inspection.
The companies' chiefs, while they honestly admitted and deplored the evil that liquor worked to white men and Indians, could not prevent traders from the British territory bringing it across the line, nor could they resist the temptation to use the stuff to get the better of a rival of their own nationality. Hence, the trapper went about his business with his alcohol bottle as regularly as the soldier with his canteen, to the horror and indignation of the missionary traveler in the mountains. In time the British traders were instructed by the London board of management to stop the sale of liquor to Indians, and the practice was abolished. It is a curious fact, however, that the first successful application of a prohibitory liquor law was in the Indian country and among fur traders.
Captain Chittenden has given a very good catalogue of Indian tribal names, but I more than suspect that it would be impossible at this date to obtain from any source a perfectly correct notion of these family names or of their significance, least of all of their spelling and pronunciation. Observe the spelling of Lewis and Clark and the endless variations from their standard by subsequent travelers and writers. Observe, also, how frequently the Indians on the Clearwater River, in Idaho, are divided and subdivided, passing usually under the name of Nez Perces, but answering to Flathead, Sahaptin, and Chopunnish about equally well. The Snake or Shoshone tribe has also several names, one, that of Les Serpents, evidently French.
Let me close by mentioning in the American fur trade some of the most familiar names after Astor. Saint Louis being the starting point of trading expeditions furnished most of the leaders and partners, among whom were Choteau, Henry, Lisa, Pratt, Ashley, Fontenelle, Bent, St. Vrain, Sarpy, Smith, Sublette, Jackson, Campbell, Farnham, Fitzpatrick, Bridger, Pilcher, Carson, Walker, Williams, Tulloch, Vanderburg, with many others; and Wyeth and Bonneville. The work, which is in three volumes, with map and illustrations, is rich in biographies. As an introduction to, or an accompaniment of the history of the settlement of the Northwest, Captain Chittenden's book is invaluable.