Adventures of a Mountain Man by Zenas Leonard

We found the country here beautiful indeed, abounding with the most delightful prairies, with here and there a small brook, winding its way to the river, the margins of which are adorned with the lofty pine and cedar tree. The nation is supposed to contain eight hundred warriors.įrom thence, we proceeded on our journey upriver. The principal chief is called White Ploom. They cultivate the soil quite extensively, and raise very good corn, pumpkins, beans and other vegetables.

THIS TRIBE OF INDIANS lives in small huts, built of poles, covered with straw and dirt, and in shape are similar to a potato hole. Following image: c.1940s engraving of a Kaw Village by Pierre-Jean De Smet (1801-1873). *Kanza or Kansas Indians, of the Kaw Nation. From thence we proceeded up the Missouri until we arrived at the mouth of the Kansas River, where we again tarried two or three days, for the purpose of trading some goods to the Kanza* Indians for corn, moccasins, etc.

Here we remained several days and purchased and packed up a sufficiency of provision, as we then thought, for our subsistence through the wilderness to what is called the Buffalo Country a distance of about 200 miles. For many years, Fort Osage was the westernmost outpost of the United States. Many Old West legends visited the location: Sacagawea, William Clark, and Daniel Boone on his last hunting in 1814, at the age of 81. The military fort contained a factory and was built as a defense against the Osage Indians one of three constructed to police the newly acquired terrain of the Louisiana Purchase. We continued our journey in a westerly direction, in the state of Missouri, on the south side of the Missouri River, through a country thinly inhabited by the whites and friendly Indians, until we arrived at Fort Osage,* the extreme point of the white settlement. Each man was furnished with the necessary equipment for the expedition, such as traps, guns, horses and goods of various descriptions, to trade with the Indians for furs and buffalo robes.

The Company under the command of Captains Gant and Blackwell, left St. Zenas Leonard, of Clearfield county, Pa.-comprising a minute description of the incidents of the adventure, and a valuable history of this immense territory-not from maps and charts, but from personal observation. Louis in the Spring of 1831 on an expedition to the Rocky Mountains, for the purpose of trapping for Furs, and trading with the Indians, by one of the company, Mr. O f the Adventures of a Company of 70 men who left St. Hardin Narrative of the Adventures of Zenas Leonard

Adventures of a Mountain Man by Zenas Leonard