Take a load off, Fanny

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Leaving the little town of Winifred, we headed for Great Falls. There we planned to see what could be seen of the multiple falls, and visit the C.M. Russell Museum. The drive was a little over two and a half hours through unremarkable Montana countryside. We were not traveling along the Missouri River at this point, because the landscape of the area does not allow that very easily. Part of this area is Métis country, particularly around Lewistown. The Métis are a distinct ethnic group, mostly located in Canada, whose roots are in the union of white settlers (principally Scottish, French, and English) with indigenous peoples. Most commonly this was between a male trapper or trader and an indigenous woman. Over time, these formed a distinct ethnic group, although some Métis decided to identify as indigenous. Today the Métis are recognized as one of the major indigenous groups by Canada, the others being the First Nations and the Inuit. Great Falls, our destination, is home to another Métis group, the federally recognized Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana.

The present day course of the Missouri River approximately marks the southern boundary of one of the great ice sheets that covered the upper part of North America during the last ice age. The river had previously flowed northward, but the glaciation pushed it southward. About 13,000 BCE a glacial dam broke with a resultant glacial lake outburst flood, forming the present path of the river. Where the flood crossed the rocky ground of an intercontinental tectonic zone it created a series of falls that were incorporated into the final river course. These amounted to a serious obstacle for Lewis and Clark.

Meriwether: "I decided to go up the river to find the falls. We knew they were there, but had little real information about them. I found two magnificent falls on June 13, then 3 more the next day. I tried to draw them but could not get it right. I wished I had a camera obscura to allow me to get the proportions right, but did not. A camera like that thing you carry would have been great. Anyway, by the time I got to the last fall and started back, it was already nearly 6 PM. I kept stepping on prickly pear cactus on my way back to my camp on account of the gathering darkness. The next morning when I woke I discovered I was sleeping almost under a large rattlesnake on a branch above me, and I killed it with my gun. That day I shot a buffalo and was watching it to see when it would fall when I heard a noise behind me. A big brown bear had snuck up to within 20 feet of me. I had not yet recharged my gun, so I started walking backward as he came toward me. Finally, I was forced to run and ran into the river in water up to my waist, thinking that I could stand there while he would be at a disadvantage by having to swim. He reached the bank, then suddenly turned around and started running away. Never did figure out why. I eventually made it back to camp with Capt. Clark, who was bringing the whole party up the river. We had been told at the Mandan that we would have to make a short portage around the falls, but discovered that it would take a long portage of 18 miles, much of it uphill, transporting 4 1000^# canoes and all our goods. When the ground was wet the buffalo had created deep footprints and pushed up ridges of mud, and these had hardened to almost rocklike firmness. There were prickly pear everywhere. The men took some time sewing and extra sole layer on their moccasins, but despite this their feet were cut and bruised for much of the time. We built carriages for the canoes, but because the wood was soft cottonwood they kept breaking down. Sometimes we were able to put up the sails of the canoes and let the wind assist us, but it usually blew in the wrong direction. Capt. Clark stayed behind at the start of the portage preparing a cache of the pirogues and some of our goods, then rejoined us. After a month of much toil, we had everything at the upper portage camp. We had expended considerable effort transporting my iron boat invention. It was a frame of iron so had great strength, and we covered it with 28 elk hides and 4 buffalo hides, but I had counted on pitch from local pine trees to seal the seams, and there were no local pine trees, so I was mortified to have to declare it a waste of time and abandon it. Instead, we constructed 2 more dugout canoes from cottonwood. Altogether, it took us a month to make a portage we had reckoned as a few days only. During the course of this a tremendous rainstorm with much hail came, and Capt. Clark and the Indian woman and Charbonneau took refuge in a ravine. They got caught in a flash flood and nearly perished. Capt. Clark lost his surveying compass, but we recovered it in the ravine the next day."

The falls are barely visible today, with multiple dams built right on the falls and at least one of the falls completely covered with impounded water. We took a look at what could be seen, and visited the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center at one of the falls. There they had a full-size replica of a dugout canoe made from cottonwood. We then visited the C.M. Russell Museum in town. Russell, originally from Missouri, came to Montana at age 16 to work on a sheep farm. He later became a ranch hand, and then beginning about 1892 he began to be a full-time artist. He was prolific, and was well-off from the sale of his paintings. The larger works now sell for prices in the millions. Russell was one of a number of prominent artists who documented the old West, including Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, Frank Tenney Johnson and others. He is particularly known for his realistic depiction of Native Americans, for whom he became an advocate. He lived with the Blood Indians for a time. He deplored the arrival of large numbers of settlers. "In my book a pioneer is a man who turned all the grass upside down, strung bob-wire over the dust that was left, poisoned the water, cut down the trees, killed the Indian who owned the land and called it progress."

The museum contains about 2000 artistic works and memorabilia, plus a gallery of serious modern western artists.

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