by Terry Grosz
“I also did so because if that first trapper, whoever he is, forcefully took her away from her people and they found out that was what had been done by a white man, I figured there might be a bloodbath for all us trappers clear across the Northern Plains by irate, white men-hating Indians. So I leave what happens to her up to your good graces and wisdom. But if the surrounding tribes you trade with on a daily basis discover what has happened to her by some evil white trappers, that may cost all of us our lives, and you and Mr. Astor the loss of a damn good fur and trade business here at Fort Union,” continued Tom, with an ‘I am glad this decision is up to you’ twinkle in his dark eyes.
“So, Mr. McKenzie, it is up to your good judgement as to what to do with her. But I will tell you this, if you decide to give her back to John Pierre, I will be forced to kill him and bodily take all our furs down to St. Louis in the future to sell, instead of selling them to you here at the fort,” said Tom, with more than just a touch of finality in the tone and tenor of his voice and a decided lack of ‘twinkle’ now showing in his eyes upon uttering those words just spoken...
“Well, Tom,” said McKenzie, “that does not leave me much latitude as to my decision now, does it? You know, when I first saw you that day so long ago when I was signing up help for Mr. Astor’s American Fur Company to come upriver and build this trading post, I saw in you something that I did not see in any of the other rough frontier types who were also signing up for the adventure of a lifetime. I don’t mean to pry into your personal life but on that day so long ago, I saw a lot of sadness in your eyes, along with a certain touch of steel and yet a tenderness that matched all of what I figured factored into your other qualities. That was one of the reasons as to why I hired you, even though you wanted to be released as a Free Trapper once we arrived at the Missouri’s headwaters. Well, that and you were so damn big, I figured you could kill a grizzly with a switch and make it on your own anyway no matter whatever came your way.”
“All of those personal judgments I made about you that day so long ago came flooding back to me today, when I saw just how tenderly you removed that Indian woman from her horse and set her down so gently onto the grounds inside the fort. I will tell you right now, I have no plans on turning Sinopa over to that brute John Pierre, just so he and his friends can do with her as they please. I am not that kind of a man. Ever since I signed John Pierre on as a Company Trapper, he has been nothing but pure trouble and lazy to the letter of the law on any and all work around here at the fort. Oh, don’t get me wrong regarding the man. He is a damn good trapper but he has a touch of snake running throughout his soul and if I were you, I would be very careful in everything you did around him in the future. You crossed him when you took away ‘his woman’ Sinopa, and he and his ‘snakes’ den’ of fellow trappers will kill you by either shooting you in the back or a knife to the guts when you are not looking and least expect it. With that personal assessment of what you are facing from him and his kind, that you can rest assured. Knowing him as I do, he means to have her back. So I would stay clear of him or at least watch your back all hours of the day as long as he and his kind are in country or here at the fort. Those words of caution go for the rest of your party as well,” coldly advised McKenzie, “because ‘what is good for the goose is also good for the gander’ to their twisted and evil way of thinking.”
“Tom, Sinopa is yours to watch over and keep as you see fit. I have made that decision because I know you will treat her right and care for her if you decide to keep her as yours. But mind yourself, full well knowing that John means to get her back, ‘come hell or high water’. Now, I will let John and his cohorts know of my decision and also let them know that if they cause any trouble over this issue, on the fort’s grounds now or hereafter, I will have them removed without any chance of re-supplying their provisions at this fort, much less sell their furs. That, plus they will never be allowed on these grounds ever again for any reason as long as I am the fort’s Factor. But that will not stop him from cold tracking you down and killing you and your kind if he gets just half a chance…” quietly advised McKenzie.
“Now, after my Clerks get through counting and grading your furs, I would be honored if you and your Free Trapper friends would have supper with me this evening. And when you do, I am dying to hear how the four of you came into possession of all those mules, riding horses and extra packs of furs over and above what a successful trapper can acquire through normal trapping in a season. Especially since I saw several marks on those packs that clearly indicated they came from the Hudson Bay Fur Company. Knowing the likes of that bunch of scoundrels, I am sure they did not just up and give them to you,” said McKenzie with a suspicious and yet telling grin...
“Oh, by the way. Please bring Sinopa, or Fox Kitten as you call her, with you and your fellows for supper tonight. I aim to show her that not all white men are evil. And by the way, I will ask her once again, in English this time, if she would like to sit on my porch in the shade and in so doing, I will also let her know that you said it would be alright...”
“Oh, one other thing. Keep Sinopa close to you at all times. As I said, knowing Pierre as I do, he aims to get her back. He and his cohorts stole her once before and they will do so again if the opportunity arises,” said McKenzie over his shoulder, as he walked over to the Indian woman with thoughts of inviting her to sit on his porch in the shade while the business of fur counting and grading at hand was occurring…
That evening, Old Potts, Big Foot, Crooked Hand, Tom and Sinopa were honored guests at Factor McKenzie’s supper table. There they were served buffalo steak, fresh potatoes fried with onions from the fort’s garden with real butter and fresh homemade bread, courtesy of McKenzie’s personal Chinese baker. That supper was then topped off with a fresh blackberry pie baked in a wood-fired oven and all the first class rum the men could hold. As McKenzie figured, based on her earlier demeanor in the courtyard of the fort, Sinopa was as ‘quiet as a mouse pissing on a ball of cotton’ during the whole meal. Additionally, she seemed amazed over what she was seeing and the things she ate, especially surprised with the use of all the fine china and silverware. Lastly, it was readily apparent that she really loved the freshly baked homemade bread and blackberry pie...
After supper, several cups of first class rum and some fine cigars that came all the way from New Orleans, Old Potts shared the Hudson Bay Company story with McKenzie. Throughout the telling, McKenzie never said a word, just listened intently with a more than serious look on his face. When Old Potts had finished, McKenzie said straight away, “Served those bastards right!” Then he indicated that just a week earlier, a Hudson Bay Company representative had come to Fort Union with a story about a number of their missing Hudson Bay Company fur trappers, along with their best Bourgeois from the Wolf River trading post. According to the Hudson Bay Company representative, the group of trappers and their Bourgeois were long overdue their arrival at their new trapping grounds on the upper end of the Porcupine River... McKenzie told the Hudson Bay Company man to try talking to some of the surrounding bands of Indians around the fort to see if they had any information on the disappearance of his men. Following that, McKenzie rather ingloriously sent him on his way. McKenzie indicated he had done so because his company represented serious and direct competition with the American Fur Company for the rapidly dwindling stocks of available furs. Then if outside competition was not enough of a problem, McKenzie had come to learn that a quarter of his Company Trappers that he sent forth the year before had disappeared and were never heard from again! In that, McKenzie suspected accidents, horse wrecks, problems with the Indians, bad weather and grizzly bear attacks as the main culprits involved in the disappearance of so many of his trappers in just their first year out on the frontier.
(Author’s Note: Historically speaking, around a quarter of all trappers who ventured forth on the western frontier annually from 1807 until around 1845 as fur trappers, were never heard from ever again because of fatal horse w
recks, being killed by Indians, killed by wild animals, accidents, freezing to death, starving to death, drownings, and the like!)
After supper that evening, McKenzie suggested the men sleep in one of the empty Clerks’ cabins inside the walls of the fort that evening, as well as Sinopa doing the same, knowing that would preclude any trouble being caused by Pierre and his men, who were sleeping just outside the fort’s walls after they had traded in their furs several days earlier.
The next morning, the men initially settled up with McKenzie over their haul of furs, robes and hides. Then taking Sinopa along with them, they visited one of McKenzie’s warehouses and spent the day procuring most of the provisions they figured they needed for the coming trapping season. When they did, Tom saw to it that Sinopa was treated to a bolt of red and blue cloth, several packages of vermillion, and all the blue and red beads and metal cookware that she wanted. Once again, her eyes grew as big as dinner plates once she saw all the wealth of the white man’s goods that were contained in the fort’s warehouses! That evening, the Free Trappers (the highest class of frontiersman other than the Factor or Bourgeoisanother name for the one in charge of the trading post) and Sinopa were treated to supper as honored guests once again with McKenzie at his home within the walls of the fort.
(Author’s Note: Supper with the Factor or Bourgeois was an honor that was only accorded to the highest ranking visitors, company leadership, and some very successful Free Trappers in the tradition of the more established fur trading posts.)
It was during that meal that McKenzie announced the coming arrival of a great Blackfoot Indian chief named Gray Wolf or in the name of the Blackfoot, “Chief Mingan”. When McKenzie made the announcement in a rather offhanded fashion, Sinopa bolted upright in her chair like she had just been shot and her countenance froze. Seeing the immediate change in her demeanor upon hearing that coming arrival announcement of the fierce Blackfoot Chief Mingan from the Medicine Lake Band, McKenzie asked her if everything was alright. The look in her eyes showed pure amazement over McKenzie’s announcement, then she caught herself and went almost blank as she silently sat there during the rest of the meal... As it was, Sinopa did not finish her supper and when she and the trappers went to bed that evening, she was as quiet as an Indian burial site... The trappers and McKenzie thought that behavior strange, but not totally understanding of her kind, they collectively backed off and let her have her space.
The next morning, Old Potts, Big Foot, Crooked Hand and Tom finally settled up with McKenzie on what he still owed them for selling him their 50 packs of assorted furs, hides, buffalo, and bear robes. As it turned out, the American Fur Company owed the men just a bit over $40,000! To be sure, that amount of money was a fortune in those days and an amount that was not readily held in the fort’s safe. Realizing that, the men agreed to being issued a note of credit from the American Fur Company that would be good upon demand in St. Louis for that amount, whenever they decided to return to what they called “The Civilized World”. With that, the four trappers realized they were now very wealthy men if they chose to return to the civilized portion of the United States. Plus, that figure did not include what they were yet to receive when they sold off their extra mule and horse herd to McKenzie for use by his Company Trappers as well! That evening, the men sat down over a jug of first class rum, while Sinopa sat quietly and watched the four men, still in wide-eyed wonder over the events swirling around her, and in anticipation of those moments in time yet to come...
It was during that evening’s session over those cups of rum that the men finally decided they would go back to their original trapping grounds in the Medicine Lake area as planned earlier and continue trapping there for at least another year. Then more rum was had by all except Sinopa, who just quietly sat on her bed and watched what was going on around her, still in ‘wide-eyed’ wonder over what she had been observing in the white man’s ‘civilized’ world.
Then her darkest memories flashed back over her and in so doing, she was also quietly thankful she was not being sexually mauled by John Pierre or some of his drunken fur trappers that evening... Then the full shame of what had happened to her, from her original capture by a trapper to the beating she had recently taken at the hands of John Pierre, flooded over her once again. With that, as if to hide that shame, she crawled into her bed, pulled the covers over her head and suffered in silence, full well knowing what was yet to come on the morrow...
Around noon the next day, there was great excitement and commotion in and around the grounds of Fort Union. The great Blackfoot Chief Mingan or Gray Wolf, from the Medicine Lake Band was coming into the fort to do his annual trading of furs and robes for the white man’s goods that his people coveted. Goods such as guns, powder, salt, vermillion, colored glass beads, metal cookware and most of all, the fiery liquid that made many of them ‘crazy in the head’, namely rum and especially whiskey! Soon the men inside the fort could hear the numerous excited noises made among the fort’s surrounding and almost resident Indian population. Then into view from those watching in the fort came a dust cloud of loosely organized, streaming masses of horses, barking dogs and Indian humanity, all of which were representative of Gray Wolf’s Medicine Lake Band of proud Blackfeet.
Standing up on the walkways located along the inner walls overseeing the fort’s grounds below, Old Potts’s crew of Free Trappers watched in awe at the mass of Indian humanity slowly moving their way. Bypassing the fort, Gray Wolf’s band of Blackfeet moved into the bottoms along the Missouri and noisily made their camp. Surprisingly, Sinopa did not accompany the men but stayed in her bedroom when the men went out to observe the oncoming spectacle of Indians, huge horse herds and barking dogs as they moved around the fort into the Missouri River bottoms.
Then the inside of the fort erupted into all kinds of activity. Numerous men scurried about setting up a huge fire in the fort’s center firepit, as another number of men dressed for roasting over an open fire a young, in preparation for the great event, freshly killed cow buffalo. Other company men hurriedly set up long tables in the fort’s courtyard for the meal to soon be served to the important chief and numerous sub-chiefs from the Blackfoot Indian encampment. As McKenzie’s preparation for a great feast was unfolding around them in the fort’s courtyard in honor of the great Blackfoot Chief, Old Potts and his fellow trappers sat on McKenzie’s front porch drinking rum and watched the activities swirling around them with a keen interest as they waiting for the great evening meal to get underway. Soon great smells of roasting buffalo meat and beans cooking in huge cast-iron pots began filling the air, as McKenzie’s three Chinese cooks scurried around the outdoor firepit with their helpers, making in addition to many other things, small mountains of the great smelling sourdough Dutch oven biscuits in the coals of the firepit.
About three hours later, numerous excited noises could be heard once again outside the fort’s front gates and soon in streamed dozens of magnificently dressed and obviously very proud, Blackfeet Indian men. Many were obviously dressed in their finest dress, all decked out with double train eagle feather headdresses, war shields, gaily decorated coup sticks and rifles. At the head of that stream of primitive humanity proudly strode Gray Wolf. He stood at least six feet in height and was a physical specimen to behold. He was strikingly handsome, deeply bronzed, extremely muscular, wearing red-dyed leggings showing that he walked “The Red Road” (the road of goodness), blue-beaded moccasins and a magnificent double train, spotted eagle headdress that almost dragged on the ground! There were no two ways about it, Gray Wolf was the chief of the Medicine Lake Band of the mighty Blackfoot Nation!
As the Indians streamed into the courtyard, out came McKenzie dressed in his finest suit of black clothing and wearing a beaver skin top hat obviously meant to impress. Once all were gathered in the courtyard in silence, McKenzie made a long speech in the Blackfoot language welcoming Chief Mingan, his sub-chiefs and other important warriors. Then Chief Mingan gave a short speech about the brotherhood
of the Blackfeet Nation and the great American trader, McKenzie. It was then that Tom noticed the main event of the day, at least to the Indians, was now being set into motion. Six company men brought out three wooden kegs of whiskey, set them up on their stands and began dispensing the fiery liquid from wooden taps into eagerly held out tin cups for the now very happy Indians.
(Author’s Note: Such whiskey-fueled events were soon to be prohibited by the U.S. Government in all frontier forts and trading posts because of the adverse effects it had on the Indians. Additionally, that prohibition was mandated because the whiskey and its adverse effects on the Indians allowed them to be more easily cheated in their subsequent trades of furs and robes by many of the unscrupulous white traders scattered throughout those numerous trading posts on the frontier.)
With cups full of the much anticipated liquid, McKenzie and Chief Mingan sat down at the head of the long table and soon were followed by the ranking Company Clerks, Engagés and a number of Free Trappers of note, including Free Trappers Old Potts, Crooked Hand, Big Foot and Tom. Soon much happiness could be heard emanating from the interior of the fort, as the hungry men were served huge bowls of baked beans loaded with chunks of bacon and onions, fresh biscuits and slabs of still cooking, steaming hot buffalo meat. Then even more happiness was heard among the celebrants, as the whiskey began taking effect as did the good food being served by McKenzie’s company men.