|
Hugh Glass
|
|
Glass fashioned a crutch and was able to walk for increasingly long periods of time so that his rate of progress gradually improved. Late in September he made it back to the burned out Arikara village where he was able to find a cache of corn. While at the village, a party of Sioux discovered him and decided to take him back to their village. They were mounted and permitted Glass to ride during the three day trip to their village. Once at the village he was cared for and nursed back to health. With the assistance of the Sioux, Glass was able to return to Fort Kiowa on October 8, 1823. Because he was associated with Ashley's fur company he was able to reoutfit himself on credit. Three days after arriving at Fort Kiowa, Glass joined a small party led by Toussaint Charboneau that was headed north to trade with the Mandan Indians. A few days later the party was attacked by Arikara and all but Charboneau and Glass were killed. This time Mandan Indians helped Glass escape the Arikara.
|
|
Glass, alias Grizzly, was now famous throughout the Indian Nations for his adventures with giant grizzly bears and for the fact that the Arikara had repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to kill him. Because of his celebrity status, the Mandan insisted that he stay with them for a much longer time than he wanted. It was not until November that they assisted him in traveling to Fort Tilton which was on his way to Fort Henry where he hoped to catch up with and kill Fitzgerald and Bridger. Even though winter snows had already begun to fall he was unable to remain at Fort Tilton because of the fear that he would attract an all-out attack by the Arikara, however William Tilton (Columbia Fur Company) agreed to outfit him with the items that had been lost to the Arikara as long as he would immediately leave the fort. Once reequipped, Glass departed on foot for Fort Henry. During this month long trip Glass once again had to live off of the land, sleep in snow caves to keep warm, and travel on foot through deep snow without proper maps. He arrived during the second week in December but found the fort deserted. A note painted on a wall indicated that Henry and his party had moved upstream to the mouth of the Big Horn River.
|
|
Glass arrived at the new Fort Henry at the end of December. It was evening when he arrived. He announced himself as Hugh Glass and explained that he was there to kill two of the Henry party - Bridger and Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was not at Fort Henry but Bridger was. When Bridger first saw Glass he thought that he was seeing a ghost. After determining that Glass was indeed alive he offered profuse apologies and Glass relented saying that he knew that it was Fitzgerald that had convinced Bridger to abandon their charge. Once Henry was satisfied that Glass was not going to harm Bridger he invited him to participate in the New Year's celebration that was just getting started. Henry appears to have believed that although Fitzgerald and Bridger had done wrong to leave Glass while he still lived, Glass had brought his troubles on himself by remaining aloof from the rest of the party and was not particularly sympathetic. Nevertheless Henry accepted Glass back and on March 27, 1824, sent him and four others to St. Louis with a report for Ashley.
|
|
A few days after leaving Fort Henry, Glass and his party ran into Arikara Indians. Two of the party were killed and Glass was separated from the other two survivors. He was once again alone in the wilderness without any supplies or equipment except a knife and tomahawk. He headed overland for Fort Kiowa arriving in the middle of June. There he read a newspaper account of his death at the hands of the Arikara as told by the other two survivors. Once again he was outfitted on credit and learned that Fitzgerald had joined the army and was stationed in Fort Atkinson. Glass left at once and reached Fort Atkinson in late June. Captain Bennett Riley was the officer in charge at the time when Glass asked to see Fitzgerald and explained that he was going to kill him. Bennett told Glass that he would arrest him and see him hanged if he did that. Once reassured that Glass would not immediately harm Fitzgerald he permitted the meeting of the two men and demanded that Fitzgerald return the Hawken to Glass. Glass warned Fitzgerald never to leave the army and departed.
|
|
Following the events at Fort Atkinson, Glass returned to a life of trapping in the Rocky Mountains and was once again wounded in 1825, this time by a Shoshone arrow in the back. He was transported seven hundred miles via river before someone could be found who could remove the arrow head. In 1833 Glass, Ed Rose, and Menard were ambushed by Arikara Indians on the Yellowstone River. A few days after the incident Johnson Gardner, a friend of Glass, captured several Arikara Indians in possession of some of Glass's equipment. Glass himself was never seen again and is presumed to have died at the hands of his old enemy the Arikara.
|
|
Once again it must be noted that much of this story is based on heresay and is not well documented. Difficult as it is for a person living in the twenty first century to believe, most of the main elements of the story are probably true and even if Hugh Glass did not do some of the extraordinary things recounted here it should be remembered that it is known that other men living at the time did very similar things.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|