 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(May 2020) |
Edward Rose (b. circa 1780-1788, d. 1833) was an early American explorer, trapper, guide and interpreter. During his life, Rose alternated between residing with Native American tribes and working on behalf of commercial fur trapping expeditions funded by Eastern companies. His position at the intersection of these cultures made him a sought-after facilitator of communication and exchange of goods.
Much of Rose's early life is obscure, but it is known that "he was a half breed" [1] and "his color was not far from that of the savage; black hair, changeable eyes, and a fiendish expression of countenance, when he chose it, with a little paint, gave him the appearance of a natural born Indian." [2] [3] Historians believe that he worked along parts of the Mississippi River, ranging between Illinois and New Orleans, and that when he was young, he lived among the Crow Indians, adopting their heritage, language, religions, and customs. [4] He grew up near Louisville, Kentucky. [5]
As a young man, Rose travelled to the city of New Orleans while working as a keelboat deckhand. [6] By the time he reached the age of eighteen, he was known to have participated in robberies and fights in the city
The scars and visible signs of his brawling inspired the Crow to call him Nez Coupé, or "Cut Nose." [7]
Rose got his first job in the trapping industry in 1807. He was hired as an interpreter for an expedition to the Bighorn River in modern-day Wyoming under the command of American explorer Manuel Lisa. [6] Upon gaining his confidence, Rose was sent by Lisa, together with George Drouillard, to scout the area, build relationships with local Native American communities, and publicize Fort Raymond, the trading post Lisa's group had established. [7] Drouillard covered around 500 miles, while Rose made it to the local Crow village and set up camp for the winter.
During his time with the Crow, Rose was trading Lisa's goods for favours from the tribe. Upon his return to camp, likely in July 1808, Rose came into conflict with Lisa over the misuse of trade goods, [7] leading to a physical altercation between the two men. [8] Expedition member John Potts attempted to intervene, but it reportedly took ten or fifteen men to prevent Rose from firing on the fleeing Lisa with a swivel gun. Rose stayed at the camp only to procure more goods to trade, and then returned to the Crow village. [7]
During his brief stay at the Crow village, the tribe was involved in a small battle against the neighbouring Hidatsa tribe. The Crow were in disarray, with some among their ranks having abandoned the fight and others preparing to follow suit. Rose purportedly grabbed two shields, an axe, and a knife and charged at the Hidatsa fort. His shield was struck by three bullets, and Rose fell momentarily, but soon got up and resumed combat. He killed three men with his axe and wounded two others who died soon thereafter, for which he earned a new nickname, "The Five Scalps". [7] Rose was viewed as a fierce, brave, and fearless warrior by the Crow after this encounter.
In the years that followed, Rose was equally content to live among the Crow or among mountain men, meeting with both groups to work as an explorer and trapper. Later in 1809, Rose worked for Lisa's partner Andrew Henry at a trading post in present-day North Dakota. Henry employed Rose as an interpreter through the Crow territory for a few years during expeditions through Montana and into some parts of Idaho, with Rose's partnership becoming an important asset to him. After earning Henry's trust, Rose took a large number of supplies and goods to be traded, and headed back to the Crow people.
In 1811, Wilson Price Hunt hired Rose to join an expedition. Hunt was trying to expand John Jacob Astor's fur business. Hunt knew about Rose's history of theft and desertion on prior expeditions and took precautions to prevent Rose from derailing his mission. Hunt initially designated guards to protect their goods against theft, but eventually became more concerned with the risk of Rose involving other men in a plot to steal the goods. [9]
After a days-long trading negotiation with a group of Crows at Crazy Woman Creek ended without success, Hunt suspected Rose had been disloyal and blamed him for the failure. Hunt offered Rose half a year's pay, a horse, three beaver traps, and other goods to leave the expedition. [8] After Rose left, Hunt's party lost their course in the Bighorn mountains. Despite the tensions that had led to his departure, Rose reappeared in the following days and helped them reorient and find the proper path. [10]
In the following years, Rose lived in the Omaha village, where he married the chief's daughter. He enjoyed an elevated social standing within the tribe due to his prosperity following the expedition with Hunt. During these years in Omaha village, Rose fathered two children. He became an alcoholic, and, when intoxicated, was known to instigate fights. This eventually caused problems for both the Omaha and the traders, so he was arrested and sent to St. Louis. After his release, Rose travelled back to New Orleans, returned to the Crow, and stayed with them for close to ten years. [11]
In 1823, Rose was hired again as an interpreter for an expedition led by William Ashley to the Rocky Mountains. During the expedition, Ashley's group came into contact with the Arikara Indians. The year prior, two Arikara warriors had been murdered by members of another fur trading company, leading them to distrust Ashley's expedition. For two days, the groups maintained distance and avoided conflict, but when a few members of Ashley's expedition, including Rose, ventured into the Arikara village, a skirmish broke out and one of the trappers was killed. Rose returned to camp and delivered a report to Ashley. Although some among the expedition wanted vengeance, Ashley resolved to wait overnight in the camp. The next morning, Arikara warriors attacked the camp and opened fire on the trappers, killing 15 and wounding 9, forcing the expedition to flee downriver. With these losses, and facing insolvency, the expedition had to be abandoned. [11]
After this failure, Ashley decided to pursue a land route to find fur in the mountains, instead of a path along the Arikara-controlled Missouri River. He hired Jedidiah Smith to lead a party, in which Rose served as a guide and interpreter. They traveled northwest in 1823-1824 along a route that would become the Bozeman Trail, then crossed the Bighorns into the Wind River Valley. Rose facilitated horse trading along the way, and successfully negotiated with the Crows for passage through South Pass to the Green River beaver grounds. [8]
Rose died during the winter of 1832-1833. He was accompanying Hugh Glass and Hilain Menard on a journey on behalf of the American Fur Company that was intended to take them from Fort Cass, at the mouth of the Bighorn River, to Fort Union. [6] [7] [12] As the three men crossed the frozen Yellowstone River, they were attacked by a group of Arikara warriors and killed. [8]
The Crow, whose autonym is Apsáalooke, also spelled Absaroka, are Native Americans living primarily in southern Montana. Today, the Crow people have a federally recognized tribe, the Crow Tribe of Montana, with an Indian reservation located in the south-central part of the state.
A mountain man is an explorer who lives in the wilderness. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s. They were instrumental in opening up the various emigrant trails allowing Americans in the east to settle the new territories of the far west by organized wagon trains traveling over roads explored and in many cases, physically improved by the mountain men and the big fur companies originally to serve the mule train-based inland fur trade.
Manuel Lisa, also known as Manuel de Lisa, was a Spanish citizen and later, became an American citizen who, while living on the western frontier, became a land owner, merchant, fur trader, United States Indian agent, and explorer. Lisa was among the founders, in St. Louis, of the Missouri Fur Company, an early fur trading company. Manuel Lisa gained respect through his trading among Native American tribes of the upper Missouri River region, such as the Teton Sioux, Omaha and Ponca.
The Pacific Fur Company (PFC) was an American fur trade venture wholly owned and funded by John Jacob Astor that functioned from 1810 to 1813. It was based in the Pacific Northwest, an area contested over the decades among the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Spanish Empire, the United States of America and the Russian Empire.
Hugh Glass was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, trader, hunter and explorer. He is best known for his story of survival and forgiveness after being left for dead by companions when he was mauled by a grizzly bear.
The Arikara War was an armed conflict between the United States, their allies from the Sioux tribe and Arikara Native Americans that took place in the summer of 1823, along the Missouri River in present-day South Dakota. It was the first Indian war west of the Missouri fought by the U.S. Army and its only conflict ever with the Arikara. The war came as a response to an Arikara attack on trappers, called "the worst disaster in the history of the Western fur trade".
The Treaty of Fort Laramie is an agreement between the United States and the Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota, and Arapaho Nation, following the failure of the first Fort Laramie treaty, signed in 1851.
Peter M. Weiser was an American soldier and member of the Corps of Discovery on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The Hidatsa are a Siouan people. They are enrolled in the federally recognized Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Their language is related to that of the Crow, and they are sometimes considered a parent tribe to the modern Crow in Montana.
Arikara, also known as Sahnish, Arikaree, Ree, or Hundi, are a tribe of Native Americans in North Dakota. Today, they are enrolled with the Mandan and the Hidatsa as the federally recognized tribe known as the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.
The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still reside in the area of the reservation; the rest reside around the United States and in Canada.
George Drouillard (1773–1810) was a civilian interpreter, scout, hunter, and cartographer, hired for Lewis and Clark's Voyage of Discovery to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase in 1804–1806, in search of a water route to the Pacific Ocean. He later worked as a guide and trapper for Manuel Lisa on the upper Missouri River, joining his Missouri Fur Company in 1809. It is believed that Drouillard was killed in what is now the state of Montana while trapping beaver, in an attack by the Blackfeet or Gros Ventre tribes.
Bloody Knife was an American Indian who served as a scout and guide for the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment. He was the favorite scout of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and has been called "perhaps the most famous Native American scout to serve the U.S. Army."
Fort Raymond or alternatively Manuel's Fort or Fort Manuel, was an outpost established by fur trader Manuel Lisa and was named after his son. The post was located at the confluence of the Bighorn and the Yellowstone Rivers. Upon its foundation it was the first trading post maintained by European descendants in the modern state of Montana. It would be the first of several posts by Lisa over his time in the developing regional fur trade. Among those hired by Lisa for the expedition were several members of the Corps of Discovery at Fort Raymond, notably George Drouillard, John Colter and Peter M. Weiser, who were stationed at Fort Raymond.
The first Fort Lisa (1810-1812), also known as the Fort Manuel Lisa Trading Post, Fort Manuel or Fort Mandan, was started by the notable fur trader Manuel Lisa of the Missouri Fur Company in 1809. This fort was likely where Sacagawea died; she had been the guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Fort Lisa superseded Fort Raymond as the uppermost post of the Missouri Fur Company on the Missouri River. In 1812 Lisa built a replacement fort downriver near present-day North Omaha, Nebraska, which he also named Fort Lisa.
The Missouri Fur Company was one of the earliest fur trading companies in St. Louis, Missouri. Dissolved and reorganized several times, it operated under various names from 1809 until its final dissolution in 1830. It was created by a group of fur traders and merchants from St. Louis and Kaskaskia, Illinois, including Manuel Lisa and members of the Chouteau family. Its expeditions explored the upper Missouri River and traded with a variety of Native American tribes, and it acted as the prototype for fur trading companies along the Missouri River until the 1820s.
Pierre Dorion Jr. (1782–1814) was a Métis fur trapper and interpreter who worked across the modern Midwestern United States and later the Pacific Northwest.
Canadian fur trader François-Antoine Larocque’s expedition to Yellowstone River in 1805 is the first well-described journey from Upper Missouri River and westward to the Bighorn Mountains and the middle Yellowstone in present-day Montana.
Moses Harris, also known as Black Harris, was a trapper, scout, guide, and mountain man. He participated in expeditions across the Continental Divide and to the Pacific Ocean through the Rocky and Cascade Mountains. He rescued westward-bound pioneers. Harris spoke the Shoshoni language.
Joseph Bijeau, also known as Joseph Bijeau dit Bissonet and Joseph Bissonet, was among the earliest fur trappers of the Rocky Mountains. He was a guide for Stephen Harriman Long's expedition of the Great Plains in 1820. A fur trapper and hunter, he lived among the Pawnee people. He was able to communicate to a number of Native American tribes through his use of sign language as well as the Crow language, which was used among a number of western tribes. After Spain lost the Mexican territory, trappers like Bijeau moved to Taos where they could trap, trade, and travel east without the hostilities that they experienced in the western United States.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)↑ Jr, Donald Grinde (2007-01-18). "Edward Rose (c. 1780- c. 1833) •". Retrieved 2020-02-21.