Tag Archives: Pierre's Hole

Monday Update » 6.25.12

Good After­noon! A lot has hap­pened over the last two weeks.…

Pier­re’s Hole in the Teton Val­ley, Ida­ho, the site of the 1832 Rocky Moun­tain Rendezvous.

Andy’s Back!
Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Andy made it back from his excur­sion to Robert’s old stomp­ing grounds in Wyoming and Ida­ho. We’ll do a full post of the Ren­dezvous and all the sites he vis­it­ed, but to give you a pre­view, here’s a shot of Pier­re’s Hole. Not only did Robert trade here dur­ing the ren­dezvous, but it was also the site of the famous Bat­tle of Pier­re’s Hole, in which Robert played a key role with his friend Bill Sub­lette. (Beau­ti­ful, huh?)

Camp­bell House class at Life­long Learn­ing Institute
We are pleased to announce that staff from Camp­bell House Muse­um will be teach­ing a class at Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty’s Life­long Learn­ing Insti­tute (LLI) this fall. The LLI is a col­lege-style cur­ricu­lum of cours­es for peo­ple age 55 and old­er, and they offer a range of class­es on his­to­ry (local and oth­er­wise), art, and lit­er­a­ture. This fall, Camp­bell House will be the top­ic of a four-week course. This is what we’ll be teach­ing each week:

  • Week 1: His­to­ry of the Camp­bells and the Lucas Place Neigh­bor­hood (Andy)
  • Week 2: Late 19th Cen­tu­ry Cul­ture (Shel­ley)
  • Week 3: Field trip to Camp­bell House (Andy and Shelley)
  • Week 4: Doc­u­ment work­shop (Andy and Shelley)

Inter­est­ed? Fall 2012 reg­is­tra­tion isn’t online yet,  but if you’re age 55 or old­er, send an email to shel­ley [dot] satke [at] gmail [dot] com, and we’ll send you a reminder when you can reg­is­ter. In the mean­time, learn all about the LLI here.

New Gar­den Volunteers
Have you seen how beau­ti­ful the gar­den looks? In addi­tion to the reg­u­lar bunch of vol­un­teers (par­ents of the staff!), we’ve been joined by Dan, Dan and Alex, three young men from St. Louis Arc. Dan works with Dan and Alex to teach them life skills while build­ing friend­ships in the local com­mu­ni­ty. Every Tues­day and Thurs­day they work out­side keep­ing the gar­den in tip-top shape for our guests and neigh­bors, and they’ve been doing a won­der­ful job. They’ve been a joy to work with — stop by to see their handiwork!

Do you have a green thumb? Could you lend a hand mow­ing, prun­ing and plant­i­ng? We’re always look­ing for help! Drop Andy a note at andy [at] camp­bell­house­mu­se­um [dot] org.

Jes­si­ca and Mark in front of Vir­gini­a’s gazebo.

Con­grat­u­la­tions to the Pierrons
Speak­ing of the gar­den, cheers to Jes­si­ca and Mark, who had their wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny in our gar­den on Fri­day night. The flow­ers were in full bloom, the weath­er coop­er­at­ed, and every­one had a won­der­ful evening on Jes­si­ca and Mark’s big day.

Camp­bell House is the per­fect out­door spot for a wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny. If you would like to check out the space in per­son, please email Shel­ley at shel­ley [dot] satke [at] gmail [dot] com.

Meet Kevin
Be sure to vis­it our blog tomor­row, where we’ll con­tin­ue with our pop­u­lar “Meet the Interns” series with Kevin. Talk about well-round­ed — he’s work­ing on a dou­ble major in his­to­ry and chem­istry. Tune in tomor­row to find out what he’s doing at Camp­bell House this summer!

This Week in History: July 19

In this let­ter Robert wrote to his broth­er Hugh short­ly after the Bat­tle of Pier­re’s Hole, he describes his role in bro­ker­ing a peace between the Snakes and Crows as “Ambas­sador Extra­or­di­nary and Min­is­ter Plenipo­ten­tiary.”  Robert reveals a respect for “The Iron Wrist­band’s” polit­i­cal acu­men and a grow­ing fond­ness for Native Amer­i­cans in general.

Note par­en­thet­i­cal () ref­er­ences are Robert’s; brack­ets [] are editorial.

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Green Riv­er in the Rocky Mountains

Green Riv­er

July 20th 1833

Dear Hugh,

…Yes­ter­day I met a part of the Shoshon­ee or Snake Indi­ans, with their prin­ci­pal chief “The Iron Wrist­band.”  We had a smoke and talk, as is usu­al on such occa­sions; in the course of which I dis­cov­ered that my new friend wished to employ me in the capac­i­ty of ambas­sador extra­or­di­nary and min­is­ter plenipo­ten­tiary, on a mis­sion to the Crow Indi­ans; through whose coun­try I intend to pass.  Much as I have been accus­tomed to the tact and shrewd­ness of Indi­an chiefs, I have sel­dom seen stronger proofs of polit­i­cal cun­ning, than on this occasion.

The Iron Wrist­band had late­ly suc­ceed­ed his father “Pet­ti­coat,” as chief of the nation.  It seems that a mis­un­der­stand­ing had arisen between the Snakes and Crows, not so seri­ous as to lead to imme­di­ate open hos­til­i­ties, yet suf­fi­cient to ren­der it doubt­ful whether they could meet as friends.  To ascer­tain the views of the Crows; and if hos­tile, to deliv­er a suit­able defi­ance, were to be the objects of my mission.

After some pre­lim­i­nary con­ver­sa­tion, the chief made me a speech, in which were con­densed his final instruc­tions.  I took notes of it at the time, and here­with give you the sub­stance.  The sen­ten­tious brevi­ty and emphat­ic point would have put some of your long-wind­ed ora­tors to the blush; and few of them could con­vey their mean­ing with more accuracy.

“Write a let­ter,” said he “to the Crows.  Let it be in two parts.  Tell them my peo­ple wish to know their inten­tions.  We are anx­ious to go to war with the Black Feet Indi­ans (com­mon ene­mies to the Crows and Snakes).  We do not wish to fight with our for­mer friends and allies, the Crows; nor to divide our strength by keep­ing some war par­ties at home to pro­tect our squaws.  No we wish to be friends with the Crows; we wish to join them, against the Black Feet; we wish to smoke, trade and inter­mar­ry with their peo­ple.  If they will agree to this, we will be hap­py; we will love them as neigh­bors, as friends and as allies.”

“Should the Crow Indi­ans reject these offers of peace, then the Snakes hurl defi­ance at them.  Let them come.  There are many heroes among us, who have nev­er known fear.  We will meet them with as much feroc­i­ty as ene­mies as we could have cor­dial­ly greet­ed them as friends.  We are not afraid.  We will nev­er call on our friends the Chiens, Ara­pa­hoes, Utaws and Nava­hos, before the snow comes, and this will grind them to death!”

“Let this be your let­ter.  Divide it into two parts.  If the offer of peace be accept­ed, then destroy the oth­er.  If not, then give them our defi­ance, and tell them to come on.”

“Eight years ago, when we first saw ‘the Long Knife’ [Gen­er­al Ash­ley], there had been war between us and the Crows.  We had killed many of them.  They were as chil­dren in our hands.  Your friend, the Long Knife, offered to make peace.  He gave us large presents.  We con­sent­ed; and since then, the tom­a­hawk has been buried.  Our wish is still for peace.  Let their answer be frank and can­did.  Peace or war, it is the same to us; only let them say which they prefer.”

I lis­tened with much atten­tion, and no small share of admi­ra­tion to this brief harangue.  Were you famil­iar with the posi­tion of the par­ties, you would see in every sen­tence, evi­dence of deep pol­i­cy, and con­sum­mate polit­i­cal skill.  The Snakes were deeply appre­hen­sive of the effects of a war with the Crows; for they could not wage war with that nation and the Black Feet [at the same time] yet an Indi­an well knows the dan­ger of admit­ting weak­ness; or ask­ing as a boon what he knows can only be held by his rifle.

On part­ing, I promised the chief to write and deliv­er the let­ter “in two parts” accord­ing to his wish­es; and hope to suc­ceed in estab­lish­ing peace between those nations.

Yours, etc.

Robert