Indian Tribres and Treaties relative to Joshua Pilcher & the Missouri Fur Co.

Please Note: The term Indian or American Indian used on this site in no way is meant to be offensive. It is simply the term used during the time Joshua Pilcher was fur trader, sub-agent, and later "Superintendent of Indian Affairs." My own research has been that the term Native American is that which is now sometimes deemed offensive, and that the term American Indian is preferred. It is my understanding that the term Native American was thrust upon those who were served by the Bureau of Indian Affairs which during the 1960s when it was used, included: American Indians and Alaska Native (Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts of Alaska), and later the Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.

I use the term Indian or American Indian with respect to their culture and history, and the dignity to which they are due. Although the information for the following tribes is very brief, it is my intention to also include information regarding the many treaties which were made, and so often broken, by the United States government.

If you have more information to contribute or comments of use of the term Native American, please feel free to contact Patti.

Assiniboine - one of the most important of tribes were the Assiniboine (pronounced Uh-sin-uh-boin). In fact, they were so important to the American Fur Company that Fort Union Trading Post was built specifically for them at their request. The land that Fort Union sat on was Assiniboine territory and the Assiniboine people looked on Fort Union with protective eyes, helping keep it safe from the occasional hostilities that would erupt with other groups.

The Assiniboine people are a Siouan-speaking people. That means their language is related to the language of the Sioux. It is widely held that the Assiniboine are a splinter group of the Yankton Sioux that split off sometime in the mid-1600s. Even though they spoke a language similar to the Sioux, and were closely related to them, the Assiniboine and Sioux were bitter enemies. The Assiniboine were allied with and culturally similar to the Plains Cree and Plains Chippewa, whom they often traveled and camped with.

Arikara - also known as the Sahnish, Arikaree, Ree, were semi-nomadic and lived along the Missouri River in the modern-day area of South Dakota. Their name meaning "horn" refers to their custom of wearing the hair with two pieces of bone standing up like horns on each side of their heads They were enemies of the Mandan, Hidtsa and had also attacked some of the fur traders. They had, according to Joshua Pilcher's experience, a dispotion for being blood-thirsty had planned a surprise attack on him in the fall of 1822 in which they hid a war party along the river. Although their plan to attack Joshua failed, the succeeded in the spring of 1823 when the Jones and Immell's party were ambushed and they along with five others killed, four others wounded and traps, pack horses and pelts stolen. They had also attacked Ashley & Henry's party, but after the U.S. Army retaliated that attack, the tribe became more nomadic. The smallpox epedemic of 1837 was especially devastating to them as well as the Mandan and Hidatsa, and because of their reduced numbers, they became allied and are now known as the "Three Affilliated Tribes." Later, during the Black Hills war, they served as scouts for Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer on the Little Bighorn campaign.

Mandan - A Siouan tribe of the northwest whose heritiage dates as far back as 900 A.D., they were originally from the east coast and southeastern regions of the North American continent, but over the years began to move northward following a path that generally paralleled the Missouri River where they built their villages near the fertile flood plains of the river. Aside from growing Aside from growing corn, beans, squash, sunflowers, and tobacco, they also hunted bear, buffalo, elk, deer, beaver, turtles and game birds. Their villages became the central meeting place of other tribes such as the Crows, Arikara, Assiniboins, Cheyennes, Atsinas, and Sioux; and by the 1700s they were also trading with the French traders for European goods.

During Lewis & Clark's expedition, they had met with the Mandan Chief, Big White, and had persuaded him to leave his village and go east to visit with President Jefferson. In the spring of 1809, the St. Louis Missouri Fur Company was given a contract to return Big White to his village, and in 1822, Joshua Pilcher of the Missouri Fur Company, supervised the construction of Fort Vanderburgh, located twelve miles above the Knife, to begin trades with the Mandan-Hidatsa.

In 1837, the Mandan tribe was nearly destroyed by the smallpox. According to Joshua Pilcher's account only thirty-one had survived out of 1,600, while another account states 125 to 145 had survived the epidemic. Nonetheless, the numbers of Mandan were greatly reduced and they afterwards began to occupy a single village. In 1845, when the Hidatsa removed front Knife river, some the Mandan went with them, and others flowed at intervals.

Omaha - inhabitated a large territory to the west of the Missouri river, between the Platte and the Niabrara Rivers, and their name meaning "those who go upstream" or "against the current." Having originally lived on the Atlantic coast, they were driven from there by the Dakotas in the mid 1700s and were dwelling in modern day Nebraska when they encountered the whites. In December of 1819, Joshua Pilcher had bartered with the Omaha for 130 beaver pelts plus deer and racoon skins.

By 1833, Bellvue (which was Joshua's old trading site), had grown into a small community of white men who had married women of the Otos and Omahas, and over half a dozen families lived in huts on the riverbanks or in the agency's buildings located on higher ground. Joshua also took a wife who was the daughter of an Omaha woman and French Trader, Michel Barada and in 1834 she gave birth to their son, John Pilcher. Joshua's wife died not long after and their son John was raised by Big Elk who was an Omaha chief. John would grow up on the Omaha reservation in eastern Nebraska and marry Harriet Arlington.

With the dwindling supply of buffalo and encroachment of whites, in 1836 they joined with the Otoe, Missouri, Yankton and Santee tribes and ceded to the U.S. government the land which was known as the Platte Purchase. In 1854 they ceded more land west of the Missouri, and in 1865 they sold part of their reservation to the United States for the use of the Winnebago Indians.

Big Elk, who raised John Pilcher, was the last full-blooded Omaha Chief. He died in 1846 and was laid to rest at Bellevue Cemetery in Bellevue, Nebraska.

Otoe - belonging to the Dakota family and originally a part of the Missouris, they held council with Lewis and Clarke in the summer of 1804, and by 1833 Joshua was trading regularly with them at Cabanne's Post. Platte PurchaseThey were among those represented at Bellevue in the Platte Purchase, and in 1837 were included in the delegation sent to Washington to meet the President.

Pawnee - lived along the Platte River in modern day Nebraska farming maize, beans, pumpkins and squash and with the coming of the horse, hunted buffalo. When the Pawnee territory passed under U. S. control through the Louisiana Purchase, they came in close touch with the trading center at St Louis and although they warred with other tribes, they remained friendly to the U.S. Government. Joshua Pilcher often traded with them and Messrs Dunbar and Allis of the Presbyterian church established a mission among them about the same time in 1834.

Ponca - originally a branch of the Maha or Omaha, they resided on the Red River of the North where they had been attacked by the Sioux, and thereafter removed to the opposite side of the Missouri. There they built a village on the Ponca River. In 1835 while Joshua Pilcher was sub-agent for a portion of the Sioux on the Upper Missouri, a small band of Poncas (who had formerly lived under John Dougherty's agency on the mouth of the Niobrara River) were transferred to Joshua's jurisdiction, which at this time they were being attacked and killed by the Pawnees. In 1837 Joshua Pilcher was nominated by Presiden VanBuren as Indian agent to the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Ponca Indians.

Sac & Fox - originally from the St. Lawrence Seaway in north eastern Canada, the tribe was forced to moved to modern day Wisconsin on account of invasions from the Huron and other tribes, as well as the white men. They settled in the village of Saukenak (River of the Rock) and farmed corn, beans, squash and pumpkins as well as hunted bison, deer, beaver, other smaller game and also fished. After warfare with the French dimished the Fox tribes, they joined the Sauk or Sac tribe. They held regular tribal councils and the chiefs were divided into three categories – civil, war and ceremonial. The position of civil chief was the only one that was hereditary. The other two were attained to by skill.

In May of 1832, George W. Davenport, trader with the American Fur Company, wrote to William Clark - then Superintendent of Indian Affairs - that Felix St. Brain, the agent to the Sauk and Fox Indians, along with three other men, were killed by Indians between Dixon's Ferry and Galena. Clark immediately called upon Joshua to fill the vacancy with a temporary appointment although Joshua was not familiar with these tribes and Clark had wrongly accused the Sacs and Foxes of the attack which had been made by the Winnebagos. Complicating the matter, the Sacs and Foxes had divided into several bands - some friendly and some hostile, and had scattered along the western side of the Misssissippi River after the militia had forced them into exile the year before.

Black Hawk had then led a large band of the Sacs and Foxes to reoccupy their land in the lower Rick River valley, but General Atkinson had driven them up near Dixon's Ferry and had fired upon them when black Hawk had tried to make peace. Black Hawk simply wanted his straving people to return peacefully their fertile lands, and when he met up with some of the peaceful bands of Sacs and Foxes, he was often able to talk them into joining him in war ... it was Joshua's intention to find as many of the peaceful Sac and Foxes and persuade them to remain neutral, but not long after a bitter war with the U.S. Government was fought in which the U.S. Army killed many of the men, women and children of the Sac and Fox tribes.

Sioux - in relation to the Upper Missouri, the Lakota, or Western Sioux (also known as the Teton Sioux), were the largest Sioux tribal group. In March of 1835, Joshua was appointed sub-agent for a portion of the Sioux and his agency was located at Fort Lookout, just below the Big (Great) Bend on the Missouri River near the site of Old Fort Recovery. His agency served mostly Sioux who lived in a rectangluar section bounded on the east by the Missouri River, west by the Black Hills, north by the Moreau River, and south by the Niobrara River and the North Fork of the Platte.

When the smallpox epidemic broke out in 1839, Joshua Pilcher realized most of the Indians within his agency might be swept away with the disease. He wrote unsolicited letters to Clark recommending that the government send agents to the Indian country to vaccinate the tribes and he and Dr. De Prefontaine administered the vaccine to the Sioux. The doctor estimated that he had inoculated at least 3,000 Indians along the Missouri River on the way to Fort Pierre. Still, Joshua believed that at least 17,000 Indians had died from smallpox on the northern plains but that the epidemic had subsided north of the Sioux country.

External Links:

Kansas State Historical Society

Missouri Historical Society

A Long History of Treaties by Nebraska Studies

Additonal Helpful Links for Early St. Louis