Accounts of John
Colter's Escape from the Blackfeet
From: Bradbury, John. Travels in the
Interior of America. London: Sherwood,
Neely, and Jones. 1819.
(reprinted
in Chittendon, H.M. The American Fur Trade of the Far West.)
This man came to
St. Louis in May, 1810, in a small canoe, from the headwaters
of the
Missouri, a distance of three thousand miles, which he traversed in
thirty
days. I saw him on his arrival, and received from him an account of his
adventures after he had separated from Lewis and Clark's party; one of
these,
from its singularity, I shall relate. On the arrival of the party at
the
headwaters of the Missouri, Colter, observing an appearance of abundance
of
beaver there, got permission to remain and hunt for some time, which he
did in
company with a man by the name of Dixon, who had traversed the
immense tract
of country from St. Louis to the headwaters of the Missouri
alone.
Soon after he separated from Dixon, and in company with a hunter
named Potts;
and aware of the hostility of the Blackfeet Indians, one of
whom had been
killed by Lewis, they set their traps at night, and took them
up early in the
morning, remaining concealed during the day. They were
examining their traps
early one morning, in a creek about six miles from
that branch of the Missouri
called Jefferson's Fork, and were ascending in a
canoe, when they suddenly
heard a great noise, resembling the trampling of
animals; but they could not
ascertain the fact, as the high, perpendicular
banks on each side of the river
impeded their view. Colter immediately
pronounced it to be occasioned by
Indians, and advised an instant retreat;
but was accused of cowardice by
Potts, who insisted that the noise was
caused by buffaloes, and they proceeded
on. In a few minutes afterwards
their doubts were removed by a party of
Indians making their appearance on
both sides of the creek, to the amount of
five or six hundred, who beckoned
them to come ashore. As retreat was now
impossible, Colter turned the head
of the canoe to the shore; and at the
moment of its touching, an Indian
seized the rifle belonging to Potts; but
Colter, who is a remarkably strong
man, immediately retook it, and handed it
to Potts, who remained in the
canoe, and on receiving it pushed off into the
river. He had scarcely
quitted the shore when an arrow was shot at him, and he
cried out, "Colter,
I am wounded." Colter remonstrated with him on the folly
of attempting to
escape, and urged him to come ashore. Instead of complying,
he instantly
leveled his rifle at an Indian, and shot him dead on the spot.
This conduct,
situated as he was, may appear to have been an act of madness;
but it was
doubtless the effect of sudden and sound reasoning; for if taken
alive, he
must have expected to be tortured to death, according to their
custom. He
was instantly pierced with arrows so numerous that, to use the
language of
Colter, "he was made a riddle of."
They now seized Colter, stripped him
entirely naked, and began to consult on
the manner in which he should be put
to death. They were first inclined to set
him up as a mark to shoot at; but
the chief interfered, and seizing him by the
shoulder, asked him if he could
run fast. Colter, who had been some time
amongst the kee-kat-sa, or Crow
Indians, had in a considerable degree acquired
the Blackfoot language, and
was also well acquainted with Indian customs. He
knew that had now to run
for his life, with the dreadful odds of five or six
hundred against him, and
those armed Indians; therefo he cunningly replied
that he was a very bad
runner, although he was considered by the hunters as
remarkably swift. The
chief now commanded the party to remain stationary, and
led Colter out on
the prairie three or four hundred yards, and released him,
bidding him to
save himself if be could . At that instant the horrid war whoop
sounded in
the ears of poor Colter, who, urged with the hope of preserving
life, ran
with a speed at which he was himself surprised. He proceeded towards
the
Jefferson Fork, having to traverse a plain six miles in breadth, abounding
with prickly pear, on which he was every instant treading with his naked
feet.
He ran nearly halfway across the plain before he ventured to look over
his
shoulder, when he perceived that the Indians were very much scattered,
and
that he had gained ground to a considerable distance from the main body;
but
one Indian, who carried a spear, was much before all the rest, and not
more
than a hundred yards from him. A faint gleam of hope now cheered the
heart of
Colter; he derived confidence from the belief that escape was
within the
bounds of possibility; but that confidence was nearly fatal to
him, for he
exerted himself to such a degree that the blood gushed from his
nostrils, and
soon almost covered the forepart of his body.
He had now
arrived within a mile of the river, when he distinctly heard the
appalling
sound of footsteps behind him, and every instant expected to feel
the spear
of his pursuer. Again he turned his head, and saw the savage not
twenty
yards from him. Determined if possible to avoid the expected blow, he
suddenly stopped, turned round, and spread out his arms. The Indian,
surprised
by the suddenness of the action and perhaps of the bloody
appearance of
Colter, also attempted to stop; but exhausted with running, he
fell whilst
endeavoring to throw his spear, which stuck in the ground and
broke in his
hand. Colter instantly snatched up the pointed part, with which
he pinned him
to the earth, and then continued his flight. The foremost of
the Indians, on
arriving at the place, stopped till others came up to join
them, when they set
up a hideous yell. Every moment of this time was
improved by Colter, who,
although fainting and exhausted, succeeded in
gaining the skirting of the
cottonwood trees, on the borders of the fork,
through which he ran and plunged
into the river. Fortunately for him, a
little below this place there was an
island, against the upper point of
which a raft of drift timber, had lodged.
He dived under the raft, and after
several efforts, got his head above the
water amongst the trunks of trees,
covered over with smaller wood to the depth
of several feet. Scarcely had he
secured himself when the Indians arrived on
the river, screeching and
yelling, as Colter expressed it, "like so many
devils." They were frequently
on the raft during the day, and were seen
through the chinks by Colter, who
was congratulating himself on his escape,
until the idea arose that they
might set the raft on fire.
In horrible suspense he remained until night,
when hearing no more of the
Indians, he dived under the raft, and swam
silently down the river to a
considerable distance, when he landed and
traveled all night. Although happy
in having escaped from the Indians, his
situation was still dreadful; he was
completely naked, under a burning sun;
the soles of his feet were entirely
filled with the thorns of the prickly
pear; he was hungry, and had no means of
killing game, although he saw
abundance around him, and was at least seven
days journey from Lisa's Fort,
on the Bighorn branch of the Roche Jaune River.
These were circumstances
under which almost any man but an American hunter
would have despaired. He
arrived at the fort in seven days, having subsisted
on a root much esteemed
by the Indians of the Missouri, now known by
naturalists as psoralea
esculenta.
From: James, Thomas. Three Years Among the Indians and Mexicans.
1846.
When Colter was returning in 1807 with Lewis & Clark, from Oregon,
he met a
company of hunters ascending the Missouri, by whom he was persuaded
to return
to the trapping region, to hunt and trap with them. Here he was
found by Liza
in the following year, whom he assisted in building the Fort
at the Big Horn.
In one of his many excursions from this post to the Forks
of the Missouri, for
beaver, he made the wonderful escape adverted to in the
last chapter and which
I give precisely as he related it to me. His veracity
was never questioned
among us and his character was that of a true American
backwoodsman. He was
about thirty- five years of age, five feet ten inches
in height and wore an
open, ingenious, and pleasing countenance of the
Daniel Boone stamp. Nature
had formed him, like Boone, for hardy endurance
of fatigue, privations and
perils. He had gone with a companion named Potts
to the Jefferson river, which
is the most western of the three Forks, and
runs near the base of the
mountains.
They were both proceeding up the
river in search of beaver, each in his own
canoe, when a war party of about
eight hundred Black-Feet Indians suddenly
appeared on the east bank of the
river. The Chiefs ordered them to come
ashore, and apprehending robbery
only, and knowing the utter hopelessness of
flight and having dropped his
traps over the side of the canoe from the
Indians, into the water, which was
quite shallow, he hastened to obey their
mandate. On reaching shore, he was
seized, disarmed and stripped entirely
naked. Potts was still in his canoe
in them middle of the stream, where he
remained stationary, watching the
result. Colter requested him to come ashore,
which he refused to do, saying
he might as well lose his life at once, as be
stripped and robbed in the
manner Colter had been. An Indian immediately fired
and shot him about the
hip; he dropped down in the canoe, but instantly rose
with his rifle in his
hands. "Are you hurt," said Colter. "Yes, said he, too
much hurt to escape;
if you can get away do so. I will kill at least one of
them." He leveled his
rifle and shot an Indian dead. In an instant, at least a
hundred bullets
pierced his body, and as many savages rushed into the stream
and pulled the
canoe, containing his riddled corpse, ashore. They dragged the
body up onto
the bank, and with their hatchets and knives cut and hacked it
all to
pieces, and limb from limb. The entrails, heart, lungs, &c, they threw
into Colter's face. The relations of the Indian were furious with rage and
struggled, with tomahawk in hand, to reach Colter, while others held them
back. He was every moment expecting the death blow or the fatal shot that
should lay him beside his companion. A council was hastily held over him and
his fate quickly decided upon. He expected to die by tomahawk, slow,
lingering
and horrible. But they had magnanimously determined to give him a
chance,
though a slight one, for his life. After the council, a Chief
pointed to the
prairie and motioned him away with his hand, saying in the
Crow language, "go
- --go away." He supposed they intended to shoot him as
soon as he was out of
the crowd and presented a fair mark to their guns. He
started in a walk, and
an old Indian with impatient signs and exclamations,
told him to go faster,
and as he still kept a walk, the same Indian
manifested his wishes by still
more violent gestures and adjurations. When
he had gone a distance of eighty
or a hundred yards from the army of his
enemies, he saw the younger Indians
throwing off their blankets, leggings,
and other incumbrances, as if for a
race. Now he knew their object. He was
to run a race, of which the prize was
to be his own life and scalp. Off he
started with the speed of the wind. The
war whoop and yell immediately arose
behind him; and looking back, he saw a
large company of young warriors, with
spears, in rapid pursuit. He ran with
all the strength that nature, excited
to the utmost, could give; fear and hope
lent a supernatural vigor to his
limbs and the rapidity of his flight
astonished himself. The Madison Fork
lay directly before him, five miles from
his starting place. He had run half
the distance when his strength began to
fail and the blood to gush from his
nostrils. At every leap the red stream
spurted before him, and his limbs
were growing rapidly weaker and weaker. He
stopped and looked back; he had
far outstripped all his pursuers and could get
off if strength would only
hold out. One solitary Indian, far ahead of the
others, was rapidly
approaching, with a spear in his right hand, and a blanket
streaming behind
from his left hand and shoulder. Despairing of escape, Colter
awaited his
pursuer and called to him in the Crow language, to save his life.
The savage
did not seem to hear him, but letting go his blanket, and seizing
his spear
with both hands, he rushed at Colter, naked and defenseless as he
stood
before him and made a desperate lunge to transfix him. Colter seized the
spear, near the head, with his right hand, and exerting his whole strength,
aided by the weight of the falling Indian, who had lost his balance in the
fury of the onset, he broke off the iron head or blade which remained in his
hand, while the savage fell to the ground and lay prostrate and disarmed
before him. Now was his turn to beg for his life, which he did in the Crow
language, and held up his hands imploringly, but Colter was not in a mood to
remember the golden rule, and pinned his adversary through the body to the
earth one stab with the spear head. He quickly drew the weapon from the body
of the now dying Indian, and seizing his blanket as lawful spoil, he again
set
out with renewed strength, feeling, he said to me, as if he had not run
a
mile. A shout and yell arose from the pursuing army in his rear as from a
legion of devils, and he saw the prairie behind him covered with Indians in
full and rapid chase. Before him, if any where was life and safety; behind
him
certain death; and running as never man before sped the foot, except,
perhaps,
at the Olympic Games, he reached his goal, the Madison river and
the end of
his five mile heat. Dashing through the willows on the bank he
plunged into
the stream and saw close beside him a beaver house, standing
like a coal-pit
about ten feet above the surface of the water, which was
here of about the
same depth. This presented to him a refuge from his
ferocious enemies of which
he immediately availed himself. Diving under the
water he arose into the
beaver house, where he found a dry and comfortable
resting place on the upper
floor or story of this singular structure. The
Indians soon came up, and in
their search for him they stood upon the roof
of his house of refuge, which he
expected every moment to hear them breaking
open. He also feared that they
would set it on fire. After a diligent search
on that side of the river, they
crossed over, and in about two hours
returned again to his temporary
habitation in which he was enjoying bodily
rest, though with much anxious
foreboding. The beaver houses are divided
into two stories and will generally
accommodate several men in a dry and
comfortable lodging. In this asylum
Colter kept fast till night. The cries
of his terrible enemies had gradually
died away, and all was still around
him, when he ventured out of his hiding
place, by the same opening under the
water by which he entered and which
admits the beavers to their building. He
swam the river and hastened towards
the mountain gap or ravine, about miles
above on the river, through which our
company passed in the snow with so
much difficulty. Fearing that the Indians
might have guarded this pass,
which was the only outlet from the valley, and
to avoid the danger of a
surprise, Colter ascended the almost perpendicular
mountain before him, the
tops and sides of which a great way down, were
covered with perpetual snow.
He clambered up this fearful ascent about four
miles below the gap, holding
on by the rocks, shrubs and branches of trees,
and by morning had reached
the top. He lay there concealed all that day, and
at night proceeded on in
the descent of the mountain, which he accomplished by
dawn. He now hastened
on in the open plain towards Manuel's Fort on the Big
Horn, about three
hundred miles a headin the north-east. He travelled day and
night, stopping
only for necessary repose, and eating roots and the bark of
trees for eleven
days. He reached the Fort, nearly exhausted by hunger,
fatigue and
excitement. His only clothing was the Indian's blanket, whom he
had killed
in the race, and his only weapon, the same Indian's spear which he
brought
to the Fort as a trophy. His beard was long, his face and whole body
were
thin and emaciated by hunger, and his limbs and feet swollen and sore.
The
company at the Fort did not recognize him in this dismal plight until he
had
made himself known. Colter now with me passed over the scene of his
capture
and wonderful escape, and described his emotions during the whole
adventure
with great minuteness. Not the least of his exploits was the scaling
of the
mountain, which seemed to me impossible even by the mountain goat. As I
looked at its rugged and perpendicular sides I wondered how he ever reached
the top -- a feat probably never performed before by mortal man. The whole
affair is a fine example of the quick and ready thoughtfulness and presence
of
mind in a desperate situation, and the power of endurance, which
characterize
the western pioneer. As we over the ground where Colter ran his
race, and
listened to his story an undefinable fear crept over all. We felt
awe-struck
by the nameless and numerous dangers that evidently beset us on
every side...
From: Journal of Dr. Thomas, Portion from September,
1809
Part 1 of Dr. Thomas's Journal is taken from the Louisiana Gazette,
Thursday,
November 30, 1809. Part 2 was located by Donald Jackson in the
Pittsburgh
Gazette of July 13,1810, reprinted from the Louisiana Gazette.
The two parts
were published in the Missouri Historical Society Bulletin,
20, no. 3 (April
1964): 182-92.
Information was received here [Three
Forks], that the Blackfoot Indians, who
reside at the foot of the mountains,
were hostile; that the British had
factories all over the country, and had
impelled them to cut off Mr. Manuel
Lisa's party. One of the survivors, of
the name of Coulter, who had
accompanied Lewis and Clark, says, that he, in
company with another was fired
on by these Indians; that his companion, who
made resistance, was killed; that
his canoe, cloathing, furs, traps and arms
were taken from him, and when
expecting to receive the same fate of his
comrade, he was ordered to run off
as fast as possible; which he coldly
complied with. Observing one of their
young men following at full speed,
armed with a spear, he pushed on to some
distance, endeavouring to save his
life. In a few minutes the savage was near
enough to pitch his spear, which
he [had] poisoned, and threw with such
violence as to break the handle and
miss the object. Coulter became the
assailant, turned on the Indian and put
him to death with the broken spear.
Naked and tired he crept to the river,
where he hid in a beaver dam from the
band who had followed to revenge the
death of their companion. Having observed
the departure of the enemy, he
left the river and came to the Gros Ventres, a
tribe of the Mandans, a
journey of nine days, without even mowkasons to
protect him from the prickly
pear, which covered the country, subsisting on
such berries as providence
threw in his way.