OCTOBER 9:

1874  Fort Macleod Alberta - James Farquharson Macleod 1836-1894 arrives at Fort Whoop-Up with the first North West Mounted Police troop, guided by Metis scout Jerry Potts. They find the whisky trading post empty, but build a fort on an island in the Oldman River. The first arrest comes with the capture of five whiskey traders with two wagon loads of fire water (a concoction of brandy and pepper), buffalo robes and rifles.

October 9, 1855: Tecumton (Elk Killer) and other Rogue River Indians retaliate for yesterday's attack. They destroy farms near Evan's Ferry. They attack, and kill 18 people at Jewett's Ferry, Evan's Ferry, and Wagoner's ranch. The whites will call it the "Wagoner Massacre."

October 9, 1823:  In June Arikara warriors attack an American expedition. A force of 500 Sioux warriors finds the Arikaras and a battle takes place. Colonel Henry Leavenworth soon arrives with his force of 200 soldiers. He reports his men kill fifty Arikaras and the Sioux kill fifteen. The Sioux lose two warriors.

1668 Quebec Quebec - Opening of first Franco-Huron college at Quebec.

1615 Syracuse, New York - Samuel de Champlain c1570-1635 and his party of 500 Huron warriors capture 11 Iroquois; intending to attack Onondaga and Seneca strongholds.
 
 
 

BACKGROUND:
 

From the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation website at http://www.mhanation.com/history/early_conflicts.shtml
 

EARLY CONFLICTS

WAR OF 1823

A part of a national policy to show Indian nations the strength of the United States, the government requested that tribal people be brought to the east as representatives of their nations.  In some cases, it was an effort on the part of the explorers and traders to show case their discoveries.

The result of this policy can be seen with the incident at Leavenworth.  The incident began when explorers Lewis and Clark negotiated the trip that sent the Sahnish village chief, Ankedoucharo (Eagle Feather) to Washington, D.C. where he died.  There was no explanation of how and why he died.  Lewis and Clark, fearing the wrath of the Sahnish, did not tell them until a year later.  When the Sahnish found out about his death, they became rightfully angry.  President Thomas Jefferson tried to appease the Sahnish with the following eulogy:

He (Chief Ankedoucharo) consented to go towards the sea as far as Baltimore and Philadelphia.  He said the chief found nothing but kindness and good will wherever he went, but on his return to Washington he became ill. Everything we could do to help him was done but it pleased the Great Spirit to take him from among us.  We buried him among our own deceased friends and relations.  We shed many tears over his grave.  (Delegates in Buckskins).

The President's explanation did not impress the Sahnish.  For the next twenty years they were hostile to white people. The inexplicable death of their chief was the major reason for their so-called belligerence.

The most notable of these hostilities was in the 1823 battle where the Sahnish took revenge for the death of their chief on General Ashley and his men who were coming up the river from St. Louis.  The Sahnish killed several men, took some of their goods, and set their boats adrift in the river.  The attack angered the white military forces and they set out with soldiers, artillery, cannons and 800 to 900 Sioux for Leavenworth to "teach the Arikara (Sahnish) a lesson." (Leavenworth Journal).

The Sahnish had fortified their villages well.  The Sioux were first into the battle, and when they met the Sahnish, they both lost lives. The Sioux, fearing Leavenworth was losing the battle met with the Sahnish.  It was presumed they wanted to join the Sahnish. They then left the battle taking with them corn and other crops of the Sahnish leaving Leavenworth's forces to their own tactics.  The Sahnish were surrounded by the United States military who lobbed cannonballs and other artillery into the village of men, women, and children.  The Sahnish, realizing they were outnumbered and at risk, began negotiating for surrender. Before the battle could be settled, every man, woman, child, horse, and dog disappeared during the night. According to a traditional story told among the people, a sacred dog led the people under the river and to safety.

This time in history was a turning point in the relations between the Sahnish and whites. Prior to this battle, traders and travelers had described the disposition of the Sahnish towards the whites as "friendly."

After this war, there were reports of hostilities and murders on both sides. The result of the Leavenworth battle infuriated the traders who further antagonized the Sahnish worsening the already deteriorating relationship between the Sahnish and the whites.
 

*****
 

>From http://www.unitedtribespowwow.com/powtribe.htm
 

ARIKARA

The Arikara are of Caddoan stock and are closely related to the Skidi Pawnee of Nebraska.  This group originated in the South and gradually worked their way northward up the Missouri River.  The French fur traders found the Arikara located on the Cheyenne River, in South Dakota, in 1770, but Lewis and Clark found them living in the vicinity of the Grand River, also in South Dakota, in 1804.

The Arikara were, on the whole, friendly with the white people, but after an engagement with a group of fur traders under the leadership of Ashley in 1822, they were driven from their village on Cottonwood Creek, by General Leavenworth in 1823.   They were not settled in a permanent village for some time after this date, but later moved up to the Fort Clark village in 1838, and finally to the Fort Berthold village in 1862, where they became allied with the Mandan and the Hidatsa.  They are presently living on the Fort Berthold Reservation.
 

*****
 

>From http://www.humboldt.edu/~wrd1/legacybe.htm
 

The Arikara are thought to have migrated to the Missouri River Basin centuries ago. They came from the south and were closely associated with the Skidi Pawnee. They took up agriculture and were particularly noted for their corn and melons. They had not directly contacted many Europeans when they met Lewis and Clark. They usually traded for European goods through other tribes. They had, however, come into direct contact with one European product, smallpox.

In 1780 an estimated eight to ten thousand Arikara lived in eighteen villages along the Missouri between the White and Cheyenne Rivers. Then, sometime in the late 1780s a smallpox epidemic ravaged them. By the summer of 1804 there were less than two thousand Arikara, living in two villages. The epidemic had not killed evenly. For some reason each of the eighteen village chiefs, and most of their families had survived.

The Arikara were never able to create a stable political structure; literally, there were "too many chiefs and not enough Indians." Internal power struggles affected their relations with other tribes and eventually "whites" who came to the area. They were sometimes friends, sometimes enemies with their Mandan and Hidatsa neighbors; but their great nemesis was Sioux domination. The Sioux looked down on them (farming was women's work), often using force as a trading tactic. The Arikara thought European trade would greatly improve their lot, but the Sioux sought to keep them away from Europeans. Thus the Arikara rejoiced when they heard that some white men had broken a Sioux blockade and were headed their way. They were happy to treat with Lewis and Clark. They hoped to trade for guns and ammunition to help fend off the Sioux. Though the Lewis and Clark goods were meager they thought they had a promise of better days to come. Those days never came.

The Arikara agreed to send a Chief, Ankedouchera, to confer with this "White Father" in Washington. He arrived in Washington in the summer of 1806, but almost immediately died. It took the government more than a year to inform the Arikara about what had happened. In the meantime a St. Louis trader, Manuel Lisa and a party of trappers came to the villages after having conducted business with the Sioux. The Arikara were suspicious and angry thinking "whites" had killed Ankedouchera. The Indians fired a few shots at the party, but Lisa and his men escaped without a fight. Soon thereafter Ensign Nathaniel Pryor blundered into the villages, unaware the Arikara were angry. His small party was attempting to return a Mandan Chief, Shahaka, who had gone with the delegation to Washington, to his home. The Arikara did not yet know their chief had died peacefully, and the Americans did not know the Arikara and Mandan were at war that summer. A large group of warriors confronted Pryor's party. Shots were fired and the whites retreated. The Arikara thus gained the reputation of being violent, unpredictable, untrustworthy - not the kind of people to establish permanent trade agreements with. Besides, there was more profit to be gained by trading with the Sioux and Mandan.

The Arikara desperately wanted a permanent trading post. Several promises were made but not kept. In 1822 a fur trader, William Ashley, led a party up the Missouri.  He conducted business with the Arikara, and falsely promised to establish a post. In the spring of 1823, following a Sioux raid, seeking revenge, some Arikara conducted an unsuccessful attack on a Missouri Fur Company trading post. The Company traded with the Sioux. Lives were lost and the Arikara humiliated. Then in late May Ashley returned. He had hoped to avoid the Arikara, but needed horses. According to the Indians he offered insulting prices for the horses. One morning Chief Gray Eyes, grieving for the loss of his only son in the Missouri Fur assault, led an attack on the portion of Ashley's group who had not remained on boats. Almost all were killed or wounded.

When news of the attack reached Fort Atkinson, near present day Omaha, Col. Henry Leavenworth led six companies of soldiers up the Missouri. He was joined by a trader, Joshua Pilcher and about sixty trappers. Along the way he recruited nearly 700 Sioux allies. The ensuing battle was inconclusive. During "peace negotiations" most of the Arikara escaped. When the soldiers left, the trappers burned both villages to the ground, destroying grain reserves and killing livestock. Thus a pattern was established, events to be repeated time and time again. First would come a surprise attack and a small victory for Indians, to be followed by indiscriminate retaliation by a much larger white force, sometimes aided by "enemy" Tribes.

The "Arikara War" left the Tribe homeless and scattered. They tried to reunite in 1837, only to be ravaged by another small pox epidemic. The remnants of the tribe moved north, settling among the Mandan and Hidatsa in 1845. In 1862 they would enter into a formal agreement with their neighbors, eventually becoming one of the Three Affiliated Tribes.

Today only eleven Arikara-speaking are living.