UtiLL. 30] 



TRAILS AND TRADE ROUTES 



799 



employment of liquor to stimulate trade 

 began with the earliest venture and was 

 more and more used as trade increased. 

 The earnest protests of Indian chiefs and 

 leadersandof philanthropic persons of the 

 white race were of no avail, and not until 

 the United States Government prohibited 

 the sale of intoxicants was there any stay 

 to the demoralizing custom. Smuggling 

 of alcohol was resorted to, for the com- 

 panies declared that "without liquor we 

 can not compete in trade." To protect 

 the Indians from the evil effects of intoxi- 

 cants and to insure them a fair return for 

 their pelts, at the suggestion of President 

 Washington, the act of Apr. 18, 1796, au- 

 thorized the estal)lishment of trading 

 houses under the immediate direction of 

 the President. In 1806 the ofhce of Su- 

 perintendent of Indian Trade was created, 

 with headquarters at Georgetown, D. C. 

 In 1810 the following list of trading 

 houses was furnished the chairman of the 

 Senate committee on Indian Affairs: "At 

 Coleraine, on the river St Marys, Ga. ; at 

 Tellico blockhouse. Southwestern terri- 

 tory; at Ft St Stevens, on the Mobile, 

 Mississippi T. ; at Chickasaw Bluffs, on 

 the Mississippi, Mississippi T. ; at Ft 

 Wayne, on the ]\Iiami of the Lakes, In- 

 diana T. ; at Detroit, ^Michigan T. ; at 

 Akansas, on the river Akansas, Louisi- 

 ana T. ; at Nachitoches, on the Red r., 

 Orleans T. ; at Belle Fontaine, mouth of 

 the Missouri, Louisiana T. ; at Chicago, 

 on L. Michigan, Indiana T. ; at Sandusky, 

 L. Erie, Ohio; at the island of INIichiii- 

 mackinac, L. Huron, Michigan T. ; at Ft 

 Osage, on the Missouri, Louisiana T. ; 

 at Ft Madison, on the upper INIissis- 

 sippi, Louisiana T." At that time there 

 were few factories in the country where 

 goods required for the Indian trade could 

 be made, and as the Government houses 

 were restricted to articles of chjmestic 

 manufacture their trade was at a disad- 

 vantage, notwithstanding their goods 

 were offered at about cost price, for the 

 Indian preferred the better quality of 

 English cloth and the surreptitiously sup- 

 plied liquor. Finally the opposition of 

 private traders secured the passage of the 

 act of May 6, 1822, abolishing the Govern- 

 ment trading houses, and thus "a system 

 fraught with possibilities <if great good to 

 the Indian" came to an end. The offi- 

 cial records show that until near the close 

 of its career, in si)ite of the obstacles it had 

 tocontend with and the losses growing out 

 of the War of 181 2, the G( )vernment trade 

 was self-sustaining. From colonial days 

 and until the decline of the fur trade, near 

 the middle of the 19th century, wars, in 

 which both Indians and the white race 

 were im])licate(l, were fomented by the 

 rivalry of comj)eting traders. Posts were 

 scattered along the rivers from the Great 

 Lakes to the Pacific. ]Montreal and St 



Louis were the two great outfitting cen- 

 ters, as well as the distributing markets 

 for the furs. Where Kansas City now 

 stands the traders bound up the Missouri 

 by boat and those who were going over- 

 land jiarted company. Here the great 

 Oregon trail started and stretched, a brown 

 ribbon, across hundreds of miles of prai- 

 rie. Forty-one m. to the westward, near 

 the present town of Gardner, Kans., this 

 trail branched to Santa Fe, where trade 

 was maintained with the Pueblos and 

 other Indians of the S. W. A sign-board 

 set up at the parting of the trail indi- 

 cated the long western branch as the 

 "Road to Oregon." Along this historic 

 trail trading posts were located, to which 

 white and Indian trappers and hunters 

 from the surrounding region brought 

 their pelts. Fts Laramie, Bridger, Hall, 

 Boise, Wallawalla, Vancouver, and Astoria 

 have now become cities. So also have the 

 principal posts along the lakes and rivers, 

 Detroit, Prairie du Chien, Council Bluffs, 

 Pierre, Mandan, Spokane, Winnipeg, and 

 many others, all of wiiich are now cen- 

 ters of rich agricultural regions. In re- 

 cent years steps have been taken to mark 

 some of the old routes with suitable mon- 

 uments. See also Commerce, Fur trade, 

 Trails and Trade routes. 



Consult Adair, Am. Inds., 1775; II. H. 

 Bancroft, Works, i-xxxix, 1886-90; Bar- 

 tram, Travels, 1792; Bryce, Hist, of Great 

 Comnanv, 1900; Charlevoix, New France, 

 Shea' trans., 1866-72; Chittenden, Fur 

 Trade, 1902; Colden, Five Nations, 1755; 

 Coues, (1) Henry-Thompson Jour., 1897, 

 (2) Jour. Jacob Fowler, 1898, (3) Lar- 

 penteur's Pers. Narr., 1898; Dunn, Oregon 

 Terr., 1845; Farrand, Basis Am. Hist., 

 1904; Fletcher, Ind. Ed. and Civ., 1888; 

 Fry and Jefferson, Map, 1777; Gregg, 

 Commerce of the Prairies, 1844; Hul- 

 l)ert. Red Men's Roads, 1900; Irving, 

 Astoria, 1897; Jefferson, Notes, 1825; 

 Jesuit Relations, Thwaites ed., 1898-1901 ; 

 Lawson, Hist. Carolina, repr. I860; Les- 

 carbot, Hist. Nouv. France, 1866; Lewis 

 and Clark, Orig. Jour., 1904-05; Mac- 

 kenzie, Voy., 1801; Marcy, Explor. Red 

 River, 1854; Margry, Dccouvertes, 1875- 

 86; Mooney in 17th Rep. B. A. E., 1898; 

 Morgan, League of Iroquois, ed. 1904; 

 Parkman, (1) Oregon Trail, 1883, (2) Pio- 

 neers, 1883; Roosevelt, Winning of the 

 West, 1889; Sagard, Voy., 1865; John 

 Smith's Works, Arber ed., 1884; Speed, 

 Wilderness Road, 1886; Ternaux-Com- 

 pans, Voy., vii, 1837; Thwaites, Early 

 Western Trav., i-xxxii, 1904-07, and the 

 publications of thevarious State historical 

 societies. (a. c. f. ) 



Trails and Trade routes. All early ac- 

 counts indicate that from a period long 

 prior to the coming of the whites the In- 

 dian was familiar with places often hun- 

 dreds of miles distant one from another, 



