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Keywords

Blackfeet, Blackfoot, American Trappers

Abstract

More than twenty trappers had died within three months. The men had begun to cower in the fort, afraid to leave for fear of a Blackfoot attack. George Drouillard ventured out alone twice and brought back nearly twenty beaver pelts. He contended that he was too much Indian himself to be captured or killed. On the third day, he convinced two others to leave the fort as well-all three failed to return. Thomas James recorded that their search party found the first two bodies "pierced with lances, arrows, and bullets and lying near each other." One hundred and fifty yards farther, they discovered what remained of Drouillard and his horse. He had put up a good fight, "being a brave man and well armed with rifle, pistol, knife, and tomahawk." The pools of blood documented where Blackfeet had been killed or wounded. The famous scout and hunter's body was "mangled in a horrible manner; his head cut off, his entrails torn out, and his body hacked to pieces."

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