University of Virginia Library

LXXV. LXXV

LEWIS'S OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS ON
UPPER LOUISIANA, 1809

LXXV. [Appendix to Biddle version (1814), ii, pp. 435–461.]

Observations and reflections on the present and future state
of Upper Louisiana, in relation to the government of the Indian
nations inhabiting that country, and the trade and intercourse
with the same. By captain Lewis.

With a view to a more complete development of this subject, I have
deemed it expedient in the outset, to state the leading measures pursued
by the provincial government of Spain, in relation to this subject; the
evils which flowed from those measures, as well to the Indians as to
the whites, in order that we may profit by their errors, and be ourselves
the better enabled to apply the necessary correctives to the remnant of
evils which their practice introduced.

From the commencement of the Spanish provincial government in
Louisiana, whether by the permission of the crown, or originating in the
pecuniary rapacity of their governors general, this officer assumed to
himself exclusively the right of trading with all the Indian nations
in Louisiana; and therefore proceeded to dispose of this privilege to
individuals, for certain specific sums: his example was imitated by the
governors of Upper Louisiana, who made a further exaction. Those
exclusive permissions to individuals varied as to the extent of country
or nations they embraced, and the period for which granted; but in all
cases the exclusive licenses were offered to the highest bidder, and, consequently,
the sums paid by the individuals purchasing, were quite as
much as the profits of the trade would bear, and in many instances,
from a spirit of opposition between contending applicants, much more
was given than ever the profits of the traffic would justify. The individual,
of course, became bankrupt. This, however, was among the
least of the evils flowing from this system to the Indian; it produced
the evil of compelling him to pay such enormous sums for the articles he

purchased, that his greatest exertions would not enable him to obtain
as much as he had previously been in the habit of consuming, and which
he therefore conceived necessary to him; for as this system progressed
the demands of the governors became more exorbitant, and the trader, to
meet his engagements, exacted higher prices from the Indians, though
the game became scarcer in their country. The morals of the Indian
were corrupted by placing before him the articles which he viewed as
of the first necessity to him, at such prices, that he had it not in his
power to purchase; he was therefore induced, in many instances, to take
by force that which he had not the means of paying for; consoling himself
with the idea, that the trader was compelled of necessity to possess
himself of the peltries and furs, in order to meet his engagements
with those from whom he had purchased his merchandise, as well as
those who had assisted him in their transportation. He consequently
could not withdraw himself from their trade, without inevitable ruin.
The prevalence of this sentiment among the Indians, was strongly
impressed on my mind by an anecdote related to me by a gentleman,
who had for several years enjoyed, under the Spanish government, the
exclusive privilege of trading with the Little Osages. It happened,
that after he had bartered with them for all their peltries and furs which
they had on hand, that they seized forcibly on a number of guns and a
quantity of ammunition which he had still remaining; he remonstrated
with them against this act of violence, and finally concluded by declaring
that he would never return among them again, nor would he suffer any
person to bring them merchandise thereafter. They heard him out very
patiently, when one of their leaders pertly asked him; if he did not return
the next season to obtain their peltries and furs, how he intended to pay
the persons from; whom he had purchased the merchandise they had
then taken from him?

The Indians believed that these traders were the most powerful
persons in the nation; nor did they doubt their ability to withhold
merchandise from them; but the great thirst displayed by the traders
for the possession of their peltries and furs, added to the belief that they
were compelled to continue their traffic, was considered by the Indians
a sufficient guarantee for the continuance of their intercourse, and
therefore felt themselves at liberty to practise aggressions on the traders
with impunity: thus they governed the trader by what they conceived
his necessities to possess their furs and peltries, rather than governing
themselves by their own anxiety to obtain merchandise, as they may
most effectually be by a well regulated system. It is immaterial to the
Indians how they obtain merchandise; in possession of a supply they

feel independent. The Indians found by a few experiments of aggression
on the traders, that as it respected themselves, it had a salutary
effect; and although they had mistaken the legitimate cause of action
on the part of the trader, the result being favourable to themselves,
they continued their practice. The fact is, that the trader was compelled
to continue his trade under every disadvantage, in order to make
good his engagements to the governors; for having secured their protection,
they were safe, both in person and property from their other
creditors, who were, for the most part, the merchants of Montreal.

The first effect of these depredations of the Indians, was the introduction
of a ruinous custom among the traders, of extending
to them a credit. The traders, who visited the Indians on the
Missouri, arrived at their wintering stations from the latter end of
September to the middle of October: here they carried on their traffic
until the latter end of March or beginning of April. In the course
of the season they had possessed themselves of every skin the Indians
had procured, of course there was an end of trade; but previous to their
return, the Indians insist upon a credit being given on the faith of payment
when he returned the next season. The trader understands his
situation, and knowing this credit was nothing less than the price of his
passport, or the privilege of departing in safety to his home, of course
narrowed down the amount of this credit, by concealing, as far as he
could, to avoid the suspicions of the Indians, the remnant of his merchandise.
But the amount to be offered must always be such as they
had been accustomed to receive; and which, in every case, bore a considerable
proportion to their whole trade; say the full amount of their
summer or redskin hunt. The Indians well knew that the traders were
in their power, and the servile motives which induced them to extend
their liberality to them, and Were therefore the less solicitous to meet
their engagements on the day of payment; to this indifference they
were further urged by the traders distributing among them, on those
occasions, many articles of the last necessity to them. The consequence
was, that when the traders returned the ensuing fall, if they
obtained only one half of their credits they were well satisfied, as this
covered their real expenditure.

Again: if it so happen, in the course of the winter's traffic, that the
losses of the trader, growing out of the indolence of the Indians, and
their exorbitant exactions under the appellation of credit, should so
reduce his stock in trade that he could not pay the governor the price
stipulated for his license, and procure a further supply of goods in order
to prosecute his trade, the license was immediately granted to some

other individual, who, with an ample assortment of merchandise, visits
the place of rendezvous of his predecessor, without the interpolation of
a single season. It did not unfrequently happen, that the individuals
engaged in this commerce, finding one of their number failing from the
rapacity of the Indian nation, with which he had been permitted to trade,
were not so anxious to possess themselves of the privilege of trading
with that nation; the governor, of course, rather than lose all advantages,
would abate of his demands considerably. The new trader thus
relieved of a considerable proportion of the tax borne by his predecessor,
and being disposed to make a favourable impression on the minds of the
Indians, to whom he was about to introduce himself, would, for the first
season at least, dispose of his goods to those Indians on more moderate
terms than his predecessor had done. The Indians now find that the
aggressions they have practised on their former trader, so far from
proving detrimental to them, has procured not only their exoneration
from the payment of the last credit given them by their former trader,
but that the present trader furnished them goods on better terms than
they had been accustomed to receive them. Thus encouraged by the
effects of this rapacious policy, it was not to be expected that they would
alter their plan of operation as it respected their new trader; or that they
should appreciate the character of the whites in general in any other
manner, than as expressed in a prevailing sentiment on this subject, now
common among several nations on the Missouri, to wit: "that the white
man are like dogs, the more you beat them and plunder them, the more
goods they will bring you and the cheaper they will sell them." This
sentiment constitutes, at present, the rule of action among the Kanzas,
Sioux, and others; and if it be not broken down by the adoption of some
efficient measures, it needs not the aid of any deep calculation to determine
the sum of advantages which will result to the American people
from the trade of the Missouri. These aggressions on the part of the
Indians, were encouraged by the pusillanimity of the engagees, who
declared that they were not engaged to fight.

The evils which flowed from this system of exclusive trade, were
sensibly felt by the inhabitants of Louisiana. The governor, regardless
of the safety of the community, sold to an individual the right of vending
among the Indians every species of merchandise; thus bartering, in
effect, his only efficient check on the Indians. The trader, allured by
the hope of gain, neither shackled with discretion, nor consulting the
public good, proceeded to supply the Indians, on whom he was dependent,
with arms, ammunition, and all other articles they might require.
The Indian, thus independent, acknowledging no authority but his own,

will proceed without compunction of conscience or fear of punishment,
to wage war on the defenceless inhabitants of the frontier, whose lives
and property, in many instances, were thus sacrificed at the shrine of an
inordinate thirst for wealth in their governors, which in reality occasioned
all those evils. Although the governors could not have been ignorant
that the misfortunes of the people were caused by the independence
of the Indians, to which they were accessary, still they were the more
unwilling to apply the corrective; because the very system which gave
them wealth in the outset, in the course of its progress, afforded them
many plausible pretexts to put their hands into the treasury of the king
their master. For example; the Indians attack the frontier, kill some
of the inhabitants, plunder many others, and agreeably to their custom
of warfare, retire instantly to their villages with their booty. The
governor informed of this transaction, promptly calls on the inhabitants
to aid and assist in repelling the invasion. Accordingly a party assemble
under their officers, some three or four days after the mischief had been
done, and the Indians, one hundred, or one hundred and fifty miles from
them, they pursue them, as they usually did, at no rapid pace, three or
four days, and returned without overtaking the enemy, as they might
have well known before they set out. On their return the men were
dismissed, but ordered to hold themselves in readiness at a moment's
warning. When at the end of some two or three months, the governor
chose to consider the danger blown over, he causes receipts to be made
out for the full pay of two or three months service, to which the signatures
of the individuals are affixed; but as those persons were only
absent from their homes ten or twelve days, all that was really paid
them, did not amount to more than one fourth or one fifth of what they
receipted for, and the balance of course was taken by the governor, as
the reward for his faithful guardianship of the lives and property of his
majesty's subjects.

The Spaniards holding the entrance of the Missouri, could regulate
as they thought proper the intercourse with the Indians through that
channel; but from what has been said, it will be readily perceived, that
their traders, shackled with the pecuniary impositions of their governors,
could never become the successful rivals of the British merchants on the
west side of the Mississippi, which, from its proximity to the United
States, the latter could enter without the necessity of a Spanish passport,
or the fear of being detected by them. The consequence was that the
trade of the rivers Demoin, St. Peter's, and all the country west of
the Mississippi nearly to the Missouri, was exclusively enjoyed by the
British merchants. The Spanish governors, stimulated by their own

sordid views, declared that the honour of his majesty was grossly compromitted
by the liberty that those adventurers took in trading with the
natives within his territory, without their permission, and therefore took
the liberty of expending his majesty's money by equipping and manning
several galleys to cruise in the channels of the Mississippi in order to
intercept those traders of the St. Peter's and Demoin rivers, in their
passage to and from the entrance of the Oisconsing river; but after
several unsuccessful cruises, and finding the Indians so hostile to them
in this quarter, that they dare not land nor remain long in the channel
without being attacked, they therefore retired and gave over the project.
The Indians were friendly to the British merchants, and unfriendly to
the Spanish, for the plain reason that the former sold them goods at a
lower rate. The Ayaways, Sacks, Foxes, and Yanktons of the river
Demoin, who occasionally visited the Missouri, had it in their power
to compare the rates at which the Spanish merchant in that quarter, and
the British merchant on the Mississippi sold their goods; this was
always much in favour of the latter; it therefore availed the Spaniards
but little, when they inculcated the doctrine of their being their only
legitimate fathers and friends, and that the British merchants were mere
intruders, and had no other object in view but their own aggrandizement.
The Indians, deaf to this doctrine, estimated the friendship of
both by the rates at which they respectively sold their merchandise;
and of course remained the firm friends of the British. In this situation
it is not difficult for those to conceive who have felt the force of their
machinations, that the British merchants would, in order to extend their
own trade, endeavour to break down that of their neighbors on the
Missouri. The attachments of the Indians to them, afforded a formidable
weapon with which to effect their purposes, nor did they suffer it
to remain unemployed.

The merchants of the Dog prairie, rivers Demoin and Ayaway,
stimulated the nations just mentioned to the commission of acts of
rapacity on the merchants of the Missouri, nor was Mr. Cameron and
others, merchants of the river St. Peter's, less active with respect to the
Cissitons, Yanktons of the plains, Tetons, &c. who resort the Missouri
occasionally still higher up. War parties of those nations were consequently
found lying in wait on the Missouri, to intercept the boats of
the merchants of that river at the seasons they were expected to
pass, and depredations were frequently committed, particularly by the
Ayaways, who have been known in several instances to capture boats
on the Missouri, in their descent to St. Louis, and compelled the crews
to load themselves with heavy burdens of their best furs across the

country to their towns, where they disposed of them to the British
merchants. In those cases they always destroyed the periogues, and
such of the peltries and furs as they could not carry off. It may be
urged, that the British merchants knowing that the United States, at
present, through mere courtesy, permit them to extend their trade to
the west side of the Mississippi; or rather that they are mere tenants
at will, and that the United States possess the means of ejecting them
at pleasure; that they will, under these circumstances, be induced to act
differently towards us than they did in relation to the Spanish government;
but what assurance have we that this will be the effect of the
mere change of governments without change of measures in relation to
them. Suffer me to ask what solid grounds there are to hope that their
gratitude for our tolerance and liberality on this subject, will induce
them to hold a different policy towards us. None, in my opinion,
unless we stimulate their gratitude by placing before their eyes the
instruments of our power in the form of one or two garrisons on the
upper part of the Mississippi. Even admit that the people were
actuated by the most friendly regard towards the interests of the United
States, and at this moment made a common cause with us to induce the
Indians to demean themselves in an orderly manner towards our government,
and to treat our traders of the Missouri with respect and friendship,
yet, without some efficient check on the Indians, I should not
think our citizens nor our traders secure; because the Indians, who
have for ten years and upwards, derived advantages from practice on
lessons of rapacity taught them by those traders, cannot at a moment
be brought back to a state of primitive innocence, by the united persuasions
of all the British traders. I hold it an axiom, incontrovertible,
that it is more easy to introduce vice into all states of society than it is to
eradicate it; and that this is still more strictly true, when applied to
man in savage than in his civilized state. If, therefore, we wish, within
some short period, to devest ourselves of the evils which flowed from
the inculcation of those doctrines of vice, we must employ some more
active agent than the influence of the same teachers who first introduced
them. Such an agent, in my opinion, is the power of withholding their
merchandise from them at pleasure; and to accomplish this, we must
first provide the means of controlling the merchants. If we permit the
British merchants to supply the Indians in Louisiana as formerly, the
influence of our government over those Indians is lost. For the Indian
in possession of his merchandise, feels himself independent of every
government, and will proceed to commit the same depredations which
they did when rendered independent by the Spanish system.

The traders give themselves but little trouble at any time to inculcate
among the Indians a respect for governments; but are usually content
with proclaiming their own importance. When the British merchants
give themselves trouble to speak of governments, it is but fair to
presume that they will teach the natives to respect the power of their
own. And at all events, we know from experience that no regard for
the blood of our frontier inhabitants will influence them at any time to
withhold arms and ammunitions from the Indians, provided they are to
profit by furnishing them.

Having now stated, as they have occurred to my mind, the several
evils which flowed from that system of intercourse with the Indians,
pursued by the Spanish government, I shall next endeavour to point out
the defects of our own, and show its incompetency to produce the
wished for reform; then, with some remarks on the Indian character,
conclude by submitting for the consideration of our government, the
outlines of a plan which has been dictated as well by a sentiment of
philanthropy towards the aborigines of America, as a just regard to the
protection of the lives and property of our citizens; and with the
further view also of securing to the people of the United States, exclusively,
the advantages which ought of right to accrue to them from the
possession of Louisiana.

We now permit the British merchants of Canada, indiscriminately
with our own, to enter the Missouri, and trade with the nations in that
quarter. Although the government of the U. States has not yielded the
point that, as a matter of right, the British merchants have the privilege
of trading in this quarter; yet from what has been said to them, they
are now acting under a belief, that it will be some time before any
prohibitory measures will be taken with respect to them; and are therefore
making rapid strides to secure themselves in the affection of the
Indians, and to break down, as soon as possible, the American adventurers,
by underselling them, and thus monopolize that trade: this
they will effect to an absolute certainty in the course of a few years.
The old Northwest company of Canada have, within the last two
years, formed a union with the Newyork company, who had previously
been the only important rivals in the fur trade; this company, with the
great accession of capital brought them by the Newyork company,
have, with a view to the particular monopoly of the Missouri, formed
a connexion with a British house in Newyork, another at New
Orleans, and have sent their particular agent, by the name of Jacob
Mires, to take his station at St. Louis. It may be readily conceived
that the union of the Northwest and Newyork companies, who have

previously extended their trade in opposition to each other, and to the
exclusion of all unassociated merchants on the upper portion of the
Mississippi, the waters of lake Winnipec, and the Athebaskey country,
would, after their late union, have a surplus of capital and a surplus
of men, which they could readily employ in some other quarter: such
was the Missouri, which, from the lenity of our government, they saw
was opened to them; and I do believe, could the fact be ascertained
that the hope of future gain from the fur trade of that river, was one
of the principal causes of the union between those two great rivals in
the fur trade of North America. That this trade will be nurtured and
protected by the British government, I have no doubt, for many
reasons, which it strikes me could be offered, but which, not falling
immediately within the purview of these observations on the fur trade
of Louisiana, I shall forbear to mention.

As the Missouri forms only one of four large branches of the commerce
of this united, or as it is still called, the Northwest company, they
will have it in their power, not only to break down all single adventurers
on the Missouri, but in the course of a few years to effect the same
thing with a company of merchants of the United States, who might
enter into a competition with them in this single branch of their
trade. Nor is it probable that our merchants, knowing this fact, will
form a company for the purpose of carrying on this trade, while they
see the Northwest company permitted by our government to trade on
the Missouri, and on the west side of the Mississippi: therefore, the
Northwest company, on the present plan, having driven the adventurers
of small capitals from these portions of our territory, will most probably
never afterwards have a rival in any company of our own merchants.
By their continuance they will acquire strength, and having secured the
wished for monopoly, they will then trade with the Indians on their
own terms; and being possessed, of the trade, both on the Mississippi
and Missouri, they can make the price of their goods in both quarters
similar, and though they may be excessively high, yet being the same
they will run no risk of disaffecting the Indians by a comparison of the
prices at which they receive their goods at those places. If then
it appears, that the longer we extend the privilege to the Northwest
company of continuing their trade within our territory, the difficulty
of excluding them will increase: can we begin the work of exclusion
too soon ? For my own part I see not the necessity to admit, that our
own merchants are not at this moment competent to supply the Indians
of the Missouri with such quantities of goods as will, at least in the
acceptation of the Indians themselves, be deemed satisfactory and

sufficient for their necessities. All their ideas relative to their necessities
are only comparative, and may be tested by a scale of the quantities
they have been in the habit of receiving. Such a scale I transmitted to
the government from fort Mandan. From a regard to the happiness
of the Indians, it would give me much pleasure to see this scale liberally
increased; yet I am clearly of opinion, that this effect should be caused
by the regular progression of the trade of our own merchants, under the
patronage and protection of our own government. This will afford
additional security to the tranquillity of our much extended frontier,
while it will give wealth to our merchants. We know that the change
of government in Louisiana, from Spain to that of the United States,
has withdrawn no part of that capital formerly employed in the trade
of the Missouri; the same persons still remain, and continue to prosecute
their trade. To these there has been an accession of several
enterprising American merchants, and several others since my return
have signified their intention to embark in that trade, within the present
year; and the whole of those merchants are now unembarrassed by the
exactions of Spanish governors. Under those circumstances is it fair
for us to presume that the Indians are not now supplied by our own
merchants, with quite as large an amount in merchandise as they had
been formerly accustomed to receive? Should the quantity thus supplied
not fully meet our wishes on liberal views, towards the Indians, is
it not sounder policy to wait the certain progress of our own trade, than
in order to supply this momentary deficiency, to admit the aid of the
Northwest company, at the expense of the total loss of that trade;
thereby giving them a carte blanch on which to write in future their
own terms of traffic with the Indians, and thus throwing them into
their hands, permit them to be formed into a rod of iron, with which, for
Great Britain, to scourge our frontier at pleasure.

If the British merchants were prohibited from trading in upper Louisiana,
the American merchants, with the aid of the profits arising from
the trade of the lower portion of the Missouri, and the western branches
of the Mississippi, would be enabled most probably to become the
successful rivals of the Northwest company in the more distant parts
of the continent; to which we might look, in such case, with a well-founded
hope of enjoying great advantages from the fur trade; but if
this prohibition does not shortly take place, I will venture to predict
that no such attempts will ever be made, and, consequently, that we
shall for several generations be taxed with the defence of a country, which
to us would be no more than a barren waste.

About the beginning of August last, two of the wintering partners

of the Northwest company, visited the Mandan and Minnetarees villages
on the Missouri, and fixed on a scite for a fortified establishment. This
project once carried into effect, we have no right to hope for the trade
of the upper portion of the Missouri, until our government shall think
proper to dislodge them.

This season there has been sent up the Missouri, for the Indian trade,
more than treble the quantity of merchandise that has ever been previously
embarked in that trade at any one period. Of this quantity, as
far as I could judge from the best information I could collect, two-thirds
was the property of British merchants, and directly or indirectly that of
the Northwest company. Not any of this merchandise was destined for
a higher point on the Missouri than the mouth of the Vermillion river,
or the neighbourhood of the Yanktons of the river Demoin; of course,
there will be a greater excess of goods beyond what the Indians can purchase,
unless they sell at one-third their customary price, which the
American merchant certainly cannot do without sacrificing his capital.

On my return this fall, I met on the Missouri an American merchant
by the name of Robert M'Clellan, formerly a distinguished partisan in
the army under general Wayne: in a conversation with this gentleman,
I learned that during the last winter, in his trade with the Mahas, he had
a competitor by the name of Joseph La Croix (believed to be employed
by the Northwest company, but now is an avowed British merchant)—
that the prices at which La Croix sold his goods, compelled him to reduce
the rates of his own goods so much as to cause him to sink upwards of
two thousand dollars of his capital, in the course of his trade, that season;
but that as he had embarked in this trade for two years past, and
had formed a favourable acquaintance with the Mahas and others, he
should still continue it a few seasons more, even at a loss of his time and
capital, in the hope that government seeing the error would correct it,
and that he might then regain his losses, from the circumstance of his
general acquaintance with the Indians.

I also met in my way to St. Louis, another merchant, by the same
name, a captain M'Clellan, formerly of the United States' corps of artillerists.
This gentlemen informed me that he was connected with one
of the principal houses in Baltimore, which I do not how recollect, but
can readily ascertain the name and standing of the firm, if it is considered
of any importance; he said he had brought with him a small but well
assorted adventure, calculated for the Indian trade, by way of experiment;
that the majority of his goods were of the fine high-priced kind,
calculated for the trade with the Spanish province of New Mexico, which
he intended to carry on within the territory of the United States, near

the border of that province; that connected with this object, the house
with which he was concerned was ready to embark largely in the fur
trade of the Missouri, provided it should appear to him to offer advantages
to them. That since he had arrived in Louisiana, which was last
autumn, he had endeavoured to inform himself of the state of this trade,
and that from his inquiries, he had been so fully impressed with the disadvantages
it laboured under from the free admission of the British
merchants, he had written to his house in Baltimore, advising that they
should not embark in this trade, unless these merchants were prohibited
from entering the river.

I have mentioned these two as cases in point, and which have fallen
immediately under my own observation: the first shows the disadvantages
under which the trade of our own merchants is now actually labouring;
and the second, that no other merchants will probably engage
in this trade, while the British fur traders are permitted by our government
to continue their traffic in Upper Louisiana. With this view of
the subject, it is submitted to the government, with whom it alone rests
to decide whether the admission or non-admission of those merchants
is at this moment most expedient.

The custom of giving credits to the Indians, which grew out of the
Spanish system, still exists, and agreeably to our present plan of intercourse
with these people, is likely to produce more pernicious consequences
than it did formerly. The Indians of the Missouri, who have
been in the habit of considering these credits rather as a present, or
the price of their permission for the trader to depart in peace, still continue
to view it in the same light, and will therefore give up their expectations
on that point with some reluctance; nor can the merchants
well refuse to acquiesce, while they are compelled to be absent from the
nations with which they trade five or six months in the year. The
Indians are yet too vicious to permit them in safety to leave goods at
their trading houses, during their absence, in the care of one or two persons;
the merchant, therefore, would rather suffer the loss by giving the
credit, than incur the expense of a competent guard, or doubling the
quantity of his engagees, for it requires as many men to take the peltries
and furs to market as it does to bring the goods to the trading establishment,
and the number usually employed are not found at any time, more
than sufficient to give a tolerable security against the Indians.

I presume that it will not be denied, that it is our best policy, and will
be our practice to admit, under the restrictions of our laws on this subject,
a fair competition among all our merchants in the Indian trade.
This being the case then, it will happen, as it has already happened, that

one merchant having trade with any nation, at the usual season gives
them a credit and departs: a second knowing that such advance has
been made, hurries his outfit and arrives at that nation, perhaps a month
earlier in the fall than the merchant who had made this advance to the
Indians: he immediately assembles the nation and offers his goods in
exchange for their redskin hunt; the good faith of the Indians, with respect
to the absent merchant, will not bind them to refuse; an exchange,
of course, takes place; and when the merchant to whom they are
indebted arrives, they have no peltry, either to barter or to pay him for
the goods which they have already received: the consequences are, that
the merchant who has sustained the loss becomes frantic; he abuses the
Indians, bestows on them the epithets of liars and dogs, and says a
thousand things only calculated to sour their minds, and disaffect them to
the whites: the rival trader he accuses of having robbed him of his
credits (for they never give this species of artifice among themselves a
milder term) and calls him many opprobrious names; a combat frequently
ensues, in which the principals are not only the actors, for their
men will, of course, sympathise with their respective employers. The
Indians are the spectators of those riotous transactions, which are well
calculated to give them a contempt for the character of the whites, and
to inspire them with a belief of the importance of their peltries and furs.
The British traders have even gone further in the northwest, and
even offered bribes to induce the Indians to destroy each other; nor have
I any reason to doubt but what the same thing will happen on the Missouri,
unless some disinterested person, armed with authority by government,
be placed in such a situation as will enable him to prevent such
controversies. I look to this custom of extending credits to the Indians,
as one of the great causes of all those individual contentions, which will
most probably arise in the course of this trade, as well between the Indians
and whites, as between the whites themselves; and that our agents
and officers will be always harrassed with settling these disputes, which
they never can do in such a manner as to restore a perfect good understanding
between the parties. I think it would be best in the outset, for
the government to let it be understood by the merchants, that if they
think proper to extend credits to the Indians, it shall be at their own
risk, dependent on the good faith of the Indians for voluntary payment;
that the failure of the Indians to comply with their contracts, shall not
be considered any justification for their maltreatment of holding abusive
language to them, and that no assistance shall be given them in any
shape by the public functionaries to aid them in collecting their credits.
If the government interfere in behalf of the traders by any regulation,
then it will be the interest of every trader individually to get the Indians
indebted to him, and to keep them so in order to secure in future their peltries
and furs exclusively to himself. Thus, the Indians would be compelled
to exchange without choice of either goods or their prices, and the
government would have pledged itself to make the Indians pay for goods,
of which they cannot regulate the prices. I presume the government
will not undertake to regulate the merchant in this respect by law.

The difficulties which have arisen, and which must arise under existing
circumstances, may be readily corrected by establishing a few posts,
where there shall be a sufficient guard to protect the property of the
merchants in their absence, though it may be left with only a single
clerk: to those common marts, all traders and Indians should be compelled
to resort for the purposes of traffic.

The plan proposed guards against all difficulties, and provides for a fair
exchange, without the necessity of credit: when the Indian appears with
his peltry and fur, the competition between the merchants will always
insure him his goods on the lowest possible terms, and the exchange
taking place at once, there can be no cause of controversy between the
Indian and the merchant, and no fear of loss on the part of the latter,
unless he is disposed to make a voluntary sacrifice, through a spirit of
competition with others, by selling his goods at an under value.

Some of the stipulations contained in the licenses usually granted our
Indian traders, are totally incompatible with the local situations, and
existing customs and habits of almost all the Indian nations in Upper
Louisiana. I allude more particularly to that clause in the license,
which compels them to trade at Indian towns only. It will be seen
by referrence to my statistical view of the Indian nations of Upper
Louisiana, that the great body of those people are roving bands, who
have no villages, or stationary residence. The next principal division
of them, embracing the Panias, Ottoes, Kanzas, &c. have not their
villages on the Missouri, and they even pass the greater portion of
the year at a distance from their villages, in the same roving manner.
The third, and only portion of those Indians, who can with propriety
be considered as possessed of such stationary villages as seems to have
been contemplated by this clause of the license, is confined to the Ayaways,
Sioux, and Foxes of the Mississippi, and the Ricaras, Mandans,
Minnetarees, and Ahwahaways of the Missouri. The consequence is,
that until some further provision be made, that all the traders who have
intercourse with any nations except those of the last class, will form
their establishments at the several points on the Missouri, where it will
be most convenient to meet the several nations with whom they wish to

carry on commerce. This is their practice at the present moment, and
their houses are scattered on various parts of the Missouri. In this
detached situation, it cannot be expected that they will comply with any
of the stipulations of their licenses. The superintendant of St. Louis,
distant eight hundred or a thousand miles, cannot learn whether they
have forfeited the penalty of their licenses or not: they may, therefore,
vend ardent spirits, compromit the government, or the character of the
whites, in the estimation of the Indians, or practice any other crimes in
relation to those people, without the fear of detection or punishment.
The government cannot with propriety, say to those traders, that they
shall trade at villages, when in reality they do not exist; nor can they
for a moment, I presume, think of incurring the expense of sending
an Indian agent with each trader, to see that he commit no breach
the stipulations of his license. These traders must of course be brought
together, at some general points, where it will be convenient for several
nations to trade with them, and where they can be placed under the eye
of an Indian agent, whose duty it should be to see that they comply with
the regulations laid down for their government. There are crimes which
may be committed without a breach of our present laws, and which
make it necessary that some further restrictions than those contained in
the present licenses of our traders, should either be added under penalties
in those licenses, or punished by way of a discretionary power, lodged
in the superintendent, extending to the exclusion of such individuals from
the Indian trade. Of this description I shall here enumerate three:

First, That of holding conversation with the Indians, tending to bring
our government into disrepute among them, and to alienate their affections
from the same.

Second, That of practising any means to induce the Indians to
maltreat or plunder other merchants.

Third, That of stimulating or exciting by bribes or otherwise, any
nations or bands of Indians, to wage war against other nations or
bands; or against the citizens of the United States, or against citizens
or subjects of any power at peace with the same.

These appear to me to be crimes fraught with more real evil to the
community, and to the Indians themselves, than vending ardent spirits,
or visiting their hunting camps for the purpose of trade; yet there are
no powers vested in the superintendents, or agents of the United States,
to prevent their repeated commission; nor restrictions or fines imposed
by our laws, to punish such offences.

It is well known to me that we have several persons engaged in
the trade of the Missouri, who have, within the last three years, been

adopted as citizens of the United States, and who are now hostile
to our government. It is not reasonable to expect, that such persons
will act with good faith towards us. Hence, the necessity of assigning
metes and bounds to their transactions among the Indians. On my
way to St. Louis, last fall, I received satisfactory evidence that a
Mr. Robideau, an inhabitant of St. Louis, had, the preceding winter,
during his intercourse with the Ottoes and Missouris, been guilty of
the most flagrant breaches of the first of those misdemeanors above
mentioned. On my arrival at St. Louis, I reported the case to
Mr. Broom, the acting superintendent, and recommended his prohibiting
that person from the trade of the Missouri, unless he would give
satisfactory assurances of a disposition to hold a different language to
the Indians. Mr. Broom informed me, that the laws and regulations
of the United States on this subject, gave him no such powers; and
Mr. Robideau and sons still prosecute their trade.

The uncontrolled liberty which our citizens take of hunting on
Indian lands, has always been a source of serious difficulty, on every
part of our frontier, and is evidently destined to become quite as much
so in upper Louisiana, unless it be restrained and limited within consistent
bounds. When the Indians have been taught, by commerce,
duly to appreciate the furs and peltries of their country, they feel
excessive chagrin at seeing the whites, by their superior skill in
hunting, fast diminishing those productions, to which they have been
accustomed to look as the only means of acquiring merchandise; and
nine-tenths of the causes of war are attributable to this practice. The
Indians, although well disposed to maintain a peace on any other terms,
I am convinced will never yield this point; nor do I consider it as of
any importance to us that they should; for with what consistency of
precept and practice can we say to the Indians, whom we wish to
civilize, that agriculture and the arts are more productive of ease,
wealth, and comfort, than the occupation of hunting, while they see
distributed over their forests a number of white men, engaged in the very
occupation which our doctrine would teach them to abandon. Under such
circumstances, it cannot be considered irrational in the Indians, to conclude,
that our recommendations to agriculture are interested, and flow
from a wish on our part to derive the whole emolument arising from
the peltries and furs of their country, by taking them to ourselves.

These observations, however, are intended to apply only to such
Indian nations as have had, and still maintain a commercial intercourse
with the whites: such we may say are those inhabiting the western
branches of the Mississippi, the eastern branches of the Missouri, and

near the main body of the latter, as far up as the Mandans and Minnetarees.
Here it is, therefore, that it appears to me expedient we should
draw a line; and temporarily change our policy. I presume it is not
less the wish of our government, that the Indians on the extreme
branches of the Missouri to the west, and within the Rocky mountains,
should obtain supplies of merchandise equally with those more immediately
in their vicinity. To effect this, the government must either
become the merchant themselves, or present no obstacles to their
citizens, which may prevent their becoming so with those distant
nations; but as the former cannot be adopted (though I really think it
would be best for a time) then it becomes the more necessary to encourage
the latter. Policy further dictates such encouragement being
given, in order to contravene the machinations preparing by the Northwest
company for practice in that quarter.

If the hunters are not permitted in those distant regions, the merchants
will not be at the expense of transporting their merchandise
thither, when they know that the natives do not possess the art of
taking the furs of their country. The use of the trap, by which those
furs are taken, is an art which must be learned before it can be practised
to advantage. If the American merchant does not adventure, the
field is at once abandoned to the Northwest company, who will permit
the hunter to go, and the merchant will most probably be with him in
the outset; the abundance of rich furs in that country, hold out sufficient
inducement for them to lose no time in pressing forward their
adventures. Thus those distant Indians will soon be supplied with
merchandise; and while they are taught the art of taking the furs of
their country, they will learn the value, and until they have learnt its
value, we shall run no risk of displeasing them by taking it. When
the period shall arrive that the distant nations shall have learned the art
of taking their furs, and know how to appreciate its value, then the
hunter becomes no longer absolutely necessary to the merchant, and
may be withdrawn; but in the outset, he seems to form a very necessary
link in that chain which is to unite these nations and ourselves in a
state of commercial intercourse.

The liberty to our merchants of hunting, for the purpose of procuring
food, in ascending and descending the navigable water-courses, as well
as while stationary at their commercial posts, is a privilege which should
not be denied them; but as the unlimited extent of such a privilege
would produce much evil, it should certainly be looked on as a subject
of primary importance: it should, therefore, enter into all those compacts
which we may think proper to form with the Indians in that

country, and be so shaped as to leave them no solid grounds of discontent.

The time to which licenses shall extend.

A view of the Indian character, so far as it is necessary it should be
known, for the purposes of governing them, or maintaining a friendly
commercial intercourse with them, may be comprised within the limits
of a few general remarks.

The love of gain is the Indians' ruling passion, and the fear of punishment
must form the corrective; to this passion we are to ascribe
their inordinate thirst for the possession of merchandise, their unwillingness
to accede to any terms, or enter into any stipulations, except such
as appear to promise them commercial advantages, and the want of
good faith, which they always evince by not complying with any regulations,
which in practice do not produce to them those expected or
promised advantages. The native justice of the Indian mind, will
always give way to his impatience for the possession of the goods of the
defenceless merchant, and he will plunder him, unless prevented by the
fear of punishment; nor can punishment assume a more terrific shape
to them, than that of withholding every description of merchandise from
them. This species of punishment, while it is one of the most efficient
in governing the Indians, is certainly the most humane, as it enforces a
compliance with our will, without the necessity of bloodshed. But in
order to compass the exercise of this weapon, our government must
first provide the means of controlling their traders. No government
will be respected by the Indians, until they are made to feel the effects
of its power, or see it practised on others: and the surest guarantee of
savage fidelity to any government, is a thorough conviction in their
minds, that they do possess the power of punishing promptly, every
act of aggresion, which they may commit on the persons or property of
their citizens. If both traders and Indians throughout Upper Louisiana,
were compelled to resort to regulated commercial posts, then the trader
would be less liable to be pillaged, and the Indians deterred from practising
aggresion; for when the Indians once become convinced, that in
consequence of their having practised violence upon the persons or
property of the traders, that they have been cut off from all intercourse
with those posts, and that they cannot resort to any other places to
obtain merchandise, then they will make any sacrifice to regain the privilege
they had previously enjoyed; and I am confident, that in order to
regain our favour in such cases, they would sacrifice any individual who
may be the object of our displeasure, even should he be their favorite
chief; for their thirst of merchandise is paramount to every other consideration;

and the leading individuals among them, well knowing this
trait in the character of their own people, will not venture to encourage
or excite aggresions on the whites, when they know they are themselves
to become the victims of its consequences.

But if, on the other hand, these commercial establishments are not
general, and we suffer detached and insulated merchants, either British
or American, to exercise their own discretion, in setting down where
they may think proper, on the western branches of the Mississippi, for the
purposes of trading with the Indians; then, although these commercial
establishments may be so extended as to embrace the Missouri, quite to
the Mandans, still they will lose a great part of their effects; because
the roving bands of Tetons, and the most dissolute of the Siouxs being
denied the permission to trade on the Missouri at any rate, would resort
to those establishments on the Mississippi, and thus become independent
of the trade of the Missouri, as they have hitherto been. To correct
this, we have three alternatives: First, to establish two commercial
posts in this quarter. Secondly, to prohibit all intercourse with the
Sisitons, and other bands of Siouxs, on the river St. Peter's and the
Raven's-wing river, informing those Indians that such prohibition has
been the consequence of the malconduct of the Tetons, and thus leave
it to them to correct them; or, Thirdly, to make an appeal to arms in
order to correct the Tetons ourselves.

Impressed with a belief unalloyed with doubts, that the ardent wish
of our government has ever been to conciliate the esteem, and secure
the friendship of all the savage nations within their territory, by the
exercise of every consistent and pacific measure in their power, applying
those of coertion only in the last resort, I here proceed with a due deference
to their better judgment, to develop a scheme which has suggested
itself to my mind, as the most expedient that I can devise for the
successful consummation of their philanthropic views towards those
wretched people of America, as well as to secure to the citizens of the
United States, all those advantages, which ought of right exclusively to
accrue to them, from the possession of Upper Louisiana.

The situation of the Indian trade on the Missouri and its waters,
while under the Spanish government.

The exclusive permission to trade with nations.

The giving by those exclusions, the right to individuals to furnish
supplies, which rendered the Indians independent of the government.

The times of sending goods to the Indians, and of returning to
St. Louis—the necessity of giving credits; therefore the disadvantages
of.

The evils which grew out of the method pursued by the Spaniards, as
well to themselves as to the Indians.

The independence of individuals of their own government.

The dependence of the Indians on those individuals, and their consequent
contempt for the government, and for all other citizens whom
they plundered and murdered at pleasure.

The present rapacity of the Indians, owing to this cause, aided also
by the system of giving credits to the Indians, which caused contentions
among the traders, which terminated by giving the Indians a contempt
for the character of the whites.

The permission to persons to hunt on Indian lands, productive of
many evils, the most frequent causes of war, hostile to the views of
civilizing, and of governing the Indians.

The first principle of governing the Indians is to govern the whites—
the impossibility of doing this without establishments, and some guards
at those posts.

The Sisitons may be made a check on the Tetons by withholding
their trade on the Mississippi.

Having stated the several evils which flowed from the Spanish system,
I now state the Indian character, the evils which still exist, and what
they will probably terminate in, if not redressed—the plan recommended
to be pursued and the benefits which may be expected to result
therefrom, conclude thus, it may be pretty confidently believed that it
is not competent to produce the wished for reform among the Indians.
Hunters permitted in the Indian country pernicious—frequent cause
of war between us.

Some of the stipulations of the licenses granted the traders, in application
to the state of the Indians on the Missouri, of course not
attended to. The incompetency of the Indian agents to see that any
of the stipulations are complied with. Whiskey, or ardent spirits may,
therefore, be introduced, and other corruptions practised without our
knowledge. There is not at present allowed by law to the superintendant
of Indian affairs, any discretionary powers, by which he can pro
hibit our newly acquired citizens of Louisiana, who may be disaffected
to our government, from trading with the Indians: the law says, that
any citizen of the United States, who can give sufficient security for the
sum of five hundred dollars, for the faithful compliance with the stipulation
of his license, shall be permitted so trade. An instance has happened
in Mr. Robideau, &c.

[Article incomplete. Lewis lost his life October 11, 1809—
see vol. 1, pp. xxxvii, xxxviii, ante.—Ed.]