"While resting in this attitude, the other division of the trappers came
in sight, but the Indians, showing no fear, posted themselves among the
rocks at some distance from the scene of the last skirmish, and coolly
waited for their adversaries. Exhausted ammunition had been the cause of
the retreat of Carson and his force, but now, with a renewed supply, and
an addition of fresh men to the force, they advanced on foot to drive
the Indians from their hiding places. The contest was desperate and
severe, but powder and ball eventually conquered, and the Indians, once
dislodged, scattered in every direction. The trappers considered this a
complete victory over the Blackfeet, for a large number of their
warriors were killed, and many more were wounded, while they had but
three men killed and a few severely wounded.
"Fontenelle and his party now camped at the scene of the engagement, to
recruit their men and here bury their dead. Afterward they trapped
through the whole Blackfeet country, and with great success, going where
they pleased without fear or molestation. The Indians kept off their
route, evidently having acquaintance with Carson and his company enough
to last them their lifetime.
"With the smallpox and the white man's rifles the warriors were much
reduced, and the tribe, which had formerly numbered 30,000, was already
decimated, and a few more blows like the one dealt by this dauntless
band would suffice to break its spirit and destroy its power for future
and evil.
"During the battle with the trappers the women and children of the
Blackfeet village were sent on in advance, and when the engagement was
over and the braves returned to them so much reduced in numbers, and
without a single scalp, the big lodge that had been erected for the war
dance was given up for the wounded, and in hundreds of Indian hearts
grew a bitter hatred for the white man.
"An express, dispatched for the purpose, announced the place of the
rendezvous to Fontenelle and Carson, who were now on Green River, and
with their whole party and a large stock of furs, they at once set out
for the place upon Mud River, to find the sales commenced before their
arrival, so that in twenty days they were ready to break up camp.
"Carson now organized a party of seven and proceeded to a trading post
called Brown's Hole, where he joined a company of traders to go to the
Navajo Indians. He found this tribe more assimilated to the white man
than any Indians he had yet seen, having many fine horses and large
flocks of sheep and cattle. They also possessed the art of weaving, and
their blankets were in great demand through Mexico, bringing high prices
on account of their great beauty, being woven in flowers with much
taste. They were evidently a remnant of the Aztec race.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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