178 



AUDUBON 



Extracts from Mr. Culbertson's Journal, kept at Fort 

 McKenzie, Blackfeet Indian Country in 1834.^ 



"Friday, June 13. Blood Indians started this morning 

 to go to war against the Crows. They had not left long, 

 when the * Old Bull's Backfat's* son, with his sister, 

 brother, and brother-in-law, returned to the fort, saying 

 they must go back to the camp. After I had given them 

 tobacco and ammunition they all started, but did not get 

 more than two miles from the fort before they were all 

 killed by the Crows, except one, who by some means 

 leaped on one of the Crow horses and fled to the fort. 

 The squaw no doubt was taken prisoner, as in the even- 

 ing I went out and found the bodies of her husband and 

 brother, but she was not there. On Saturday, the 14th, I 

 went out and brought in the bodies, and had them de- 

 cently interred. The young man who had escaped was 

 only slightly wounded, and started again for the camp 

 with three Gros Ventres. 



" Tuesday, 24-tk. We were all surprised this evening 

 at the arrival of the squaw who had been taken prisoner, 

 and who had been carried to the Crow village where she 

 was kept tied every night until the one in which she made 

 her escape. During the previous day having it in con- 

 templation to escape, she took the precaution of hiding a 

 knife under her garment of skins, but most unfortunately 

 she went out with one of the Crow squaws, and in stoop- 

 ing, the knife fell out ; this was reported, and as a punish- 

 ment she was stripped of every particle of clothing, and 

 when night came was not tied, as it was not imagined she 

 would leave the cover of the tent. However, she decided 

 nothing should keep her from availing herself of the only 



* These extracts, as well as the descriptions by Mr. Denig and Mr. Cul- 

 bertscn. of Forts Union and McKenzie, which follow, are in Audubon's 

 writing, at the end of one of the Missouri River journals, and are given as 

 descriptions of the life and habitations of those early western pioneers and 

 fur-traders. 



