Distinctly Montana Magazine

87 w w w. d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m by historian Keith Algier, who observed that the outbreak of war with Great Britain was followed by "eight years during which no beaver pelts from Crow country were received in St. Louis." Therefore, one can reasonably conclude that "few, if any, Ameri- cans were in Crow [or Blackfoot territories] during these years." By the early 1820s, improved economic conditions spurred re- newed interest to expand the American fur trade into the upper Missouri. Predictably, the onset of trapping operations in 1823 triggered another cycle of bloodshed. On or about May 30, several hundred Kainai (Blood) warriors attacked a party of 29 MFC trap- pers on the Yellowstone. Seven Americans, including expedition leaders Michael Jones and Robert Immel, were killed in action. Andrew Henry, a founder of the Rocky Mountain Fur Compa- ny, led a party of trappers to the Great Falls of the Missouri. An engagement with Piikánis, fought in April 1823, resulted in the deaths of four trappers. The Ashley-Henry expedition suffered a more devastating defeat on the morning of June 2, when they were ambushed by Arikara warriors from the palisades of their village. In the brief skirmish that ensued, 13 of Ashley's men succumbed to musket fire, and 11 more were wounded. Collec- tively, these events convinced Ashley and Henry to abandon the upper Missouri as a supply line and adopt the overland route and logistical system that became hallmarks of the rendezvous period (1825-1840). How many mountain men forfeited their lives to the Blackfeet and/or their Gros Ventre allies? Data on this topic is incomplete, especially when independent trappers are factored into the equation. Nevertheless, Hiram Martin Chittenden, a pioneering Kenneth Mckenzie Mehkskeme, Blackfoot-Chief. Tatsicki-Stomick/ Piëkann Chief by Karl Bodmer, 1833. Kit Carson When The Land Belonged To God by Charles M. Russell, 1914

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