In the Spring of 1823, Glass joined up with an Ashley-Henry Brigade which was heading up the Missouri to trap beaver. This brigade never made it to the beaver fields as they were attacked and driven back down river by the Arikara (Rees) Indians, several men were lost and Glass was slightly wounded. A retaliatory raid against these Indians by General Ashley and Colonel Leavenworth was a disaster. Retreating to Ft. Kiowa the Brigade gathered enough horses to load supplies and try for a cross country trek to Ft. Henry at the mouth of the Yellowstone River. A small party of 13 men was sent out with the supplies in the fall to try and reach the Yellowstone, Glass went with this group.

At 40yrs. old Glass wasn't one to just mosey along with the crowd. He wasn't one of the leaders of the group, though he had been given many mountain craft skills in the training given him by the Pawnee, he was still new to the mountains and leadership was left to more seasoned members of the group. Glass was still not one to take orders very well and was as stubborn, independent and insubordinate as any of his companions. Traveling alone, and against orders, Glass was somewhere ahead of the group and sure enough as luck would have it he ran into a female grizzly with two cubs. The female attacked, but instead of running as a greenhorn would probably have done, Glass stood his ground and attempted to give a good account of himself. When others of the party got to the scene, finally killed the bear, and recovered Glass they were amazed to find him still alive. The group made camp and tended the injured man as well as they could and figured that his time was short. Night closed in around them and everyone thought Glass would be dead, he wasn't. When they turned in for the night they knew he would have "gone under" by morning.

The next morning they found to their surprise that Glass was still hanging on. Henry made the decision that it was too risky for the group to stay at the present location any longer, too dangerous to move Glass, and he wanted volunteers to stay back with Glass and bury him when he died. He got a 19yr.old kid, by the name of Jim Bridger and another of the party named John Fitzgerald who said they would stay. Henry ssid they would be paid for the job when it was over and they got to the Fort. With arrangements made the reduced party of 10 men left with the supplies and continued their trip to the Fort at the Yellowstone.

For five days the two men stayed with Glass while he remained more dead than alive, but never "going under." Though in that period of time he had brief moments when he appeared awake, but never really conscious; most of his time was spent feverish, delirious and incoherent. Of the other two men they spent most of their time in that 5 day period worrying over the situation and the worsening conditions and dangers of being discovered by the Rees or other hostiles in the area. After all, there was just so much a man was expected to do for $40 dollars and for a man who was going to "go under" anyway no matter what they did, for them to keep staying was crazy, they had already done more than Henry had intended. The kid was reluctant, but Fitzgerald kept after him and finally in the end told the boy that if he wasn't going with him then he could "stay and die with the o'l man."

So, on a September morning on the Plains of South Dakota, Hugh Glass found himself alone, severely injured, defenseless, and mad as hell! The following morning Glass struggled to water nearby and even managed to eat some berries that were close enough for him to reach. After a couple more days he decided that he couldn't remain were he was. Gathering his remaining resources Hugh began crawling. Staying close to the river he crawled for three days. The next day he came upon some wolves that had killed a buffalo calf. Knowing that a crawling man wouldn't pose sufficient threat to run the wolves off from their downed game, Glass gathered all his stubborn determination and with the assistance of a limb laying nearby he was able to run the animals off. For several days he stayed by the calf carcass, when at last he left the remains, Glass was walking. Seven weeks after the grizzly had attacked him Hugh Glass stumbled into Fort Kiowa after having traveled about 250 miles in hostile Indian country, wounded, defenseless, but alive.

I'm very much indebted to the works of Carl P. Russel and T.E. Mails for their works Firearms, Traps, & Tools of the Mountain Men and THE MYSTIC WARRIORS OF THE PLAINS provided the pictures that my images are modeled after. Both of these literary works are worth the "read" for anyone who is interested in the historic time period of the early American Fur Trade we we refer to as "The Mountain Man Era."

If you find the gifs. on this page are something you would like to have on your pages I would be quite flattered. I do ask though, that if you do use these gifs. please place the banner below somewhere on your page and link it back to my page. As well, don't be bashful-let me know where you have used these illustrations so that I can come by for a look and perhaps send others along to visit your pages also.

Thanks, Pitwe-owa

Where Buckskinning is a matter of "vision."

All these imags have a transparent frame and when used will allow the background to show wherever they are used. Be sure and send me an E-mail from the link below or go to my home page and sign my GuestBook; let me know what you think of my work.

Though Jim Bowie never got to the Rocky Mountains that I know of and he was killed in 1836 at the Alamo, the shape and size of his blade was not a stranger in the fields of the trapper. There were "Bowies" of every size and discription around. The material on the knife and the man are vast and interesting.

The knives of the mountains were many and as individualistic as the men who used them. This is a knife which is on display by the Colorado State Historical Society, Denver. It was said to have been made from a file and was the property of Jim Baker.

The Dadley was a knife made by the RUSSEL Green River Works sometime around 1830. However knives like them were used by Jedediah Smith as lance tips following a disasterous crossing of the Colorado River were the Mojave Indians attacked them, killing 10 of the 18 men in the Smith Party. Two shots from the five remaining rifles sent the Indians into a retreat and the remainder of the Smith Party was saved. The model was a favorite of the frontiersmen and has been imitated by manufactures who still make it today.

Certainly one of the most popular and famous of the "Green River" knives is the butcherknfe of the line. It was said, that a wound driven "up to the Green River" was a fatal blow to almost any opposition in a fight.

There could be no more usefull a tool for butchering the game harvested on the plains and in the mountains than a good "Green River Skinner." The blade as measured from the handle out is generally somewhere around 5" to 7" in length, but if measured along the cutting edge a measurement of 6" to 9" will be discovered.

Used as lance points or as spike blades on a war club, the blade in this dagger is reminiscent of the early knives used by the Indians as well as the trapper. This handle is of leather held in place with trade tacks. These blades were usually traded without grips and the style of the handle was up to the whim of the owner.

This dagger is another of the lance point type only with a wooden grip inplace of the leather used in the previous image. Both of these blades are very broad, with a slinder "tang" which usually followed the entire length of the handle, had a cross piece which was integeral and small notches at the end.

A somewhat less simple dagger than the previous examples were those which had grips or handles on them prior to sale. This model has a bolster and pommel of brass and the grip is of wood, with a brass rivet through the tang center which suggests a manufacturers installation.

This Spainish type dagger with the large brass rivet was a favorite trade item in the market at Taos and Santa Fe long before the mountain man was a factor in the region of the Rockies. As any knapper of flint will attest, the shapeness of the blade was never the selling point of the conversion to steel for the American Indian, but durability and resistence to breakage certainly were.

This is another example of the Europeon dagger of the time in question. Daggers were not new to the world by the time of the fur trade, they had been used by men ever since war was fought with swords and steel instead of rocks and clubs. The piont is that, knives of every shape and discription were in the mountains and were used on and by everyone.

This adaptable little piece of leather work can be made from a heavy piece of leather which is folded and either glued with an epoxy or contact cement then sewn or laced with any material of choice. For a large knife a "spacer" may be used at the edges to help separate the leather and add room to the pocket. A image of the method is shown lower down on the page. The model for this has brass tacks used for decoration and also these can be used instead of lacing.

This is another example of the same pattern as the above sheath. I personally prefer this model for very large knives or for knives with longer blades. Another pattern for this type of sheath is more rectangular than either example shown here.

This method of sheath making is certainly not new. The results are very satisfying when the leather and knife are molded for a tight fit and worn close to the body. This sheath can be worn either to the side or in back depending on the descression of the warer.

This is an example of a simple "folded" sheath which has been laced with rawhide and painted in a pattern of on of the Plains Tribes. A slot could either be cut through both layers of leather as in the previous examles or two separate slots can be made in the back.

This example is of a beaded Sioux sheath. Below there is a discription of how the bead or quill work may be attached to such a sheath. As with the image above, the belt slit may be made either in the back or through the entire article. If the cuts were made through the entire article then special allowances should be made within the bead works. For example, the top triangle just under the laced collar could be cut into a triangle to allow for a belt or sash to be used when wearing the sheath, somewhat like in the image shown with the horn handle knife below.

This quilled case is shown almost full size and was made for a small skinning knife. A leather lanyard was attached to the top of the sheath and was intended to be worn around the neck.

Quill and bead work was generally done on leather which was considered too thin for a simple "folded" type of sheath and for that reason another method of construction was employed. A piece of wood was carved to a desired shape, then split. After splitting the wood the center was cut out in the shape of the blade which was to be carried in it, the two pieces were then tied together with sinew or cord. After the wooden sheath was prepared then the leather containing the bead or quill work could either be laced to the wooden sheath directly or it could be sewn to a thicker piece of leather and then the entire piece laced to the inner core of wood. This makes a very durable article.

This is another example of the quill work done by the Sioux. This particular sheath has a hole cut through both folds to allow a belt to pass. When worn in the manner intended by the craftsman this allows for a comfortable and secure fit. The American Indian craftsmen and women who designed and made these types of sheaths were true artists who used their skills and knowledge to add to their creations a practical usefullness that todays artisans in the leather crafts are hard pressed to improve upon.

"The Missouri War Hatchet" was a type of trade tomahawk much prefered by the Plains Indians. It had a very large, broad blade when compared to other tomahawks of the day. Very long from helve to the cutting edge on the blade. Capt. Lewis made an observation in regards to this particular tomahawk, "The great length of the blade of this ax, added to the small size of the handle renders a stroke uncertain and easily avoided..." I wouldn't know.

A "French" type pipetomahawk this image is of a spontoon-type. A classic example of how deadly this type of weapon was is that this particular type was said to have been used by the Cayuse Indian named To-ma-has to kill Dr. Marcus Whitman at Waiilatpu, in what is now Walla Walla, Washington. History buffs will remember that Whitman was the Missionary Doctor who took the arrowhead out of Jim Bridger's back at the 1835 rondezvous.

An "English" type pipetomahawk was reportedly manufactured by Joseph Jourdain in his business in Green Bay around 1798. This was supposedly a favorite of the more Eastern Tribes and one of this type is said to have belonged to Tecumseh, the famous Shawnee Chief.

A "British" type pipetomahawk, this style came in a variety of materials as did most of the others, a trader had a choice of steel, brass, or iron, as well as pewter to offer in his business dealings. As with most other weapons of the time these hawks were as ornamental as they were deadly.

Another "British" pipetomahawk, this one is somewhat less ornate in it's appearance. Graceful in style and appearance the tomahawk was (and is) a deadly weapon. For those who prefered a mauling and cutting weapon in preference to a large knife the hawk was a logical choice.

If you liked these gifs., saved some of them and have decided to use them on your pages, that's GREAT. But for some, pictures aren't enough. Try the Muzzleloaders Links or the Traders Links, maybe you'll find the items you're looking for there.

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