August 2014 - Overnighter with an AMM Brother

Badger had called me the week before saying he was going to have some time off and was wondering if I was available to camp. It was agreed and I would bring the ribs to roast. We would portray fort hunters at Fort Union and interact with visitors there, camp that evening and do the same thing the next day.

AMM - Fort Henry Party Camp – Fort Union
Wednesday, August 6, 2014

I rode with Ranger Sanden this morning to the Fort. When we arrived I donned my shoot bag, horn , manty pack, grabbed my rifle and then hiked up the hill to the fort.

I arrived before Badger. He had anticipated arriving mid-morning. I had an abridged copy of Kurz’s journal with me that covered just his time spent on the upper Missouri that I read from for a while and then talked with the day’s fort staff.

After Badger arrived I filled my canteen and we opened up and set up the Fort’s hunter shack. It looked as though it had been some time since it had been utilized last. It’s a shame really as there is some nice gear inside that can be seen. If a four and a half foot length of forged chain were made it could be strung across the door so the visitors could see in during the day. I found a matching gourd canteen hanging on the wall. Today, my surplussed 1790s contract rifle never left my side.

Badger and I discussed the use of Indian Sign Language and he worked on it some with me. If we don’t get a chance to take care of it tomorrow we will finish working on the sign language requirement Labor Day weekend. Badger does Indian Sign Language with kids for several days each summer at a different event. It will be good to have this requirement done and I look forward to continue using it. Kim and I have learned some together. We use the words we know and always end sentences with “BAG-BAD-BACON”

We made our way into the trade house and talked with Ranger Stenberg who was portraying a

trader. People began to make their way in. I sat back initially and watched and listened to Badger interact with the visitors. Most of the interaction I have done to this point has been as a fort trader, trapper and camp keeper. It was good to watch a fellow brother and learn from him. Yukon had been here all week as well and would frequent the trade house. We had great conversations again. It was good to see the way the visitors interacted with him and asked him questions. He wasn’t overly happy whenever someone wanted to take a picture with him, but he’d kindly relent.

It got very warm today. Lots of visitors. Ranger Stenberg said there was a 30% chance of rain for us this evening, however, there seems to be an anomaly at Fort Union where any chance of weather turns into 100% chance of weather. I guess we’ll see.

There were some open canvas awnings set up for the Indian Arts Showcase that is going to be held this weekend and we decided to just pitch our bedrolls under one of them. I built a fire using coals from a different fire started earlier today and set to roasting our ribs. Some spirits materialized and were enjoyed. Mike Casler stopped out for a while. He shared with us about some current research he had been working on.  He also suggested to me a list of books and a couple that would be good to read over the winter. It’s good to see that his health is getting better.  After a couple of hours Mike said farewell and headed out.

We both made some char cloth. I had some cotton duck scraps leftover from a project that I used. I’m interested to see how well it will work. Badger and I talked about what got him interested in this hobby, the people he’d met along the way, the ones who’d made a difference and so forth.  We also talked about keeping things trimmed down and keeping things simple.  This is something I’ve been trying to work on myself.

We noticed what seemed like flashes of light so we went up to bastion and wall to see to the north. It was an amazing lightning display far to the north. We watched and talked about a number of things until it was time to turn in for the evening.

At one point during the night I woke up to the sound of rain. Looks like 30% chance became 100%. My beading consisted of a blanket and my usual 10x10 ground cloth wrapped around me. Some light splatter was landing on my face so I pulled the ground cloth over far enough to cover all of my rifle, shooting bag and horn, blanket and the top of my head and went back to sleep.

I woke up some time later to thunder and lightning. I rolled back the covers to look around and noticed Badger was up and pushing up on the canvas awning. Different parts were sagging down from gallons of water that was pooling above us! I quickly hopped to my feet to help him push up the canvas, dumping the water off to the side. We had to do this in four or so places. With the rate of rain coming down we decided to just stay up for a while. I moved my bedding another four feet or so under the awning and checked my rifle and other gear. While my ground cloth had gotten wet my gear was dry. I wondered how Yukon was doing in his tipi outside of the walls.

We sat on the timbers that outlined where one of the hearths had been in the dwelling range which had not been rebuilt during the reconstruction of the fort. Badger shared with me about several treks and camps that stuck out in his mind in regards to rain. We laughed a lot and periodically would have to lift the canvas awning up in different places again to disperse the water. The first one we pushed back must have had close to fifteen gallons of water. After the rain died down to a slow drizzle we went back to sleep.

Thursday, August 7^th, 2014

We woke up just before the large green gates were opened. Seeing that we had blue skies above and draped my blanket and ground cloth to dry over one of the gates that was built into the wall crossbeams to be used as a small corral. I decided that I would check on the other awning on the east side of the fort. There was so much water sagging the canvas down that it took me several attempts to get all of the water out. Hopefully the canvas would tighten back up some with a breeze and the sun.

I helped Ranger Stenberg uncover the cannon and Red River Cart.

While I was sitting on the dwelling range timbers cutting up the leftover ribs and tossing them into my lidded copper kettle to make a stew for lunch several groups of visitors were curious as to what I “was doing with that large scalping knife.” That large scalping knife was actually my six pin Sheffeld butcher knife that I keep in a sheath tucked in between my back and my belt. I explained how I was preparing to make lunch and we talked about the job of being a hunter for

the fort. One of the groups in particular, probably just trying to be a part of what was going on, talked about making sure that I’d keep those pesky Indians in check and several other misnomers. I tried to politely address the issue and talked about the culture of the fort, how the Assiniboine were essentially the protectors and how for the most part there weren’t many major incidences. The tribes for the most part did a good job of keeping things in check. As Ranger Stenberg puts it, the tribes who traded here, and some of them were enemies, understood that “a time for trade is a time for truce”.  Some of them didn’t seem to have much to say after that and they thanked me for my time, commented out how cool a place Fort Union was and went on their way, out the North gate, and straight to Yukon’s tipi. It made me smile I saw them throw back the door and walk on in.

I brought my kettle into the trade house and set my stew to cooking over the fire. I talked to some visitors and went inside the Borgeois house to grab a book. While I was gone a few visitors had gone into the trade house where Ranger Stenberg, Yukon and Badger were. Badger asked one of the men where they were from. When the fellow said they were from Texas, Badger, who is a man with a sense of humor,  said “I’m sorry.” The fellow says, “I said I’m from Texas.” Badger said, “I know, I said I’m sorry.” The Texan responds with a stern tone saying,” Them there’s fighting words.” Badger slowly pulls out the large knife that is on his waist, grabs it by the blade so that the handle is pointed towards the visitor and says,” Can you hold this for me?” The Texan takes the knife and Badger pulls out a small folding pocketknife. Badger opens the small blade and says, ”This is how we make it a fair fight with Texans.” Fortunately everyone had a good chuckle with that and the people stayed and talked for a while.

Yukon entered the fort later on grinning and sat down in the trade house. He proceeded to tell us about a group of people who just entered his tipi without knocking or asking if anyone was inside. Yukon was dressed in a loin cloth with a sash with some simple paint on his face, arms, chest and legs. He explained how he was resting on his blanket and just lay perfectly still staring at the tipi poles above as they entered his dwellling. The people commented how cool it was that there was a fully decorated tipi complete with an Indian dummy laying down. When they were very close examining the "dummy" Yukon sat up fast and shouted. Apparently the people were very surpised and ran out of Yukon's tipi. I guess this is something that he's done before.

In the late afternoon it was time for Badger to pack up and head out. I helped him hike his gear down the hill and out to his vehicle. I would stay until Ranger Sanden was done for the day and ride back to town with her. Though it was a short camp, and not a usual one, I enjoyed doing some interp with a fellow brother in a place that means a lot to me.


-- Leifer