It was conducted by
Smith, Fitzpatrick, and Sublette. Rose enlisted with them as guide
and interpreter. When he got them among the Crows, he was exceedingly
generous with their goods; making presents to the braves of his adopted
tribe, as became a high-minded chief.
This, doubtless, helped to revive his popularity. In that expedition,
Smith and Fitzpatrick were robbed of their horses in Green River valley;
the place where the robbery took place still bears the name of Horse
Creek. We are not informed whether the horses were stolen through the
instigation and management of Rose; it is not improbable, for such was
the perfidy he had intended to practice on a former occasion toward Mr.
Hunt and his party.
The last anecdote we have of Rose is from an Indian trader. When General
Atkinson made his military expedition up the Missouri, in 1825, to
protect the fur trade, he held a conference with the Crow nation,
at which Rose figured as Indian dignitary and Crow interpreter. The
military were stationed at some little distance from the scene of the
"big talk"; while the general and the chiefs were smoking pipes and
making speeches, the officers, supposing all was friendly, left the
troops, and drew near the scene of ceremonial. Some of the more knowing
Crows, perceiving this, stole quietly to the camp, and, unobserved,
contrived to stop the touch-holes of the field-pieces with dirt. Shortly
after, a misunderstanding occurred in the conference: some of the
Indians, knowing the cannon to be useless, became insolent.
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