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Your very welcome T, fascinating stuff ennit?

For this next quote from Greggs second trip (1839), it helps to know that the North Canadian River meets the South Canadian River east of present-day Oklahoma City, in about the middle of the state.

http://www.kancoll.org/books/gregg/gr_ch01_2.htm

On the 2d of May we crossed the North Fork of the Canadian about a mile from its confluence with the main stream. A little westward of this there is a small village of Creek Indians, and a shop or two kept by American traders.

An Indian who had quarrelled with his wife, came out and proposed to join us, and, to our great surprise, carried his proposal into execution. The next morning his repentant consort came to our camp, and set up a most dismal weeping and howling after her truant husband, who, notwithstanding, was neither to be caught by tears nor softened by entreaties, but persisted in his determination to see foreign countries.

His name was Echu-eleh-hadjo (or Crazy-deer-foot), but, for brevity's sake, we always called him Chuly. He was industrious, and possessed many clever qualities, though somewhat disposed to commit excesses whenever he could procure liquor, which fortunately did not occur until our arrival at Santa Fe.

He proved to be a good and willing hand on the way, but as he spoke no English, our communication with him was somewhat troublesome.

I may as well add here, that, while in Santa Fe, he took another freak and joined a volunteer corps, chiefly of Americans, organized under one James Kirker to fight the Navajo and Apache Indians; the government of Chihuahua having guarantied to them all the spoils they should take.

With these our Creek found a few of his 'red brethren' Shawnees and Delawares, who had wandered thus far from the frontier of Missouri. After this little army was disbanded, Chuly returned home, as I have been informed, with a small
party who crossed the plains directly from Chihuahua.

Couple of observations here....

First off, Louis L'Amour is/was certainly the unchallenged master of formulaic Western fiction. To some extent, if you've read one Louis L'Amour book, you've read 'em all

I'm talking Sacketts, cousins brothers whatever, from the Clinch River country etc, who on occasion have odd dreams about falling while fighting unspecified enemies with sword and shield but who always prevail against the bad guys while winning the ranch, the pretty but virtuous girl, the gold, and the respect of the local good Indians (sorry if'n I spoiled 'em for anyone ).

One thing not mentioned above but basic to most all L'Amour works is the speed and ubiquity which news spread word-of-mouth across the Old West. Seen in reality in Gregg's account:

A Creek Indian "Chuly", splits off in Santa Fe to go and fight Apaches with James Kirker. A few years later Gregg hears that Chuly and a small party rode direct from Chihuahua back to Oklahoma. How Gregg came to hear that piece of news specific to one old and obscure aquaintance is a puzzle.

A word here though on James Kirker, notorious scalphunter, and his right hand man Killbuck, the Shawnee. Engaged in a thoroughly nasty business, or so I have always read. Didn't speak well of the Delawares and Shawnee either to e involved in that trade.

Suprisingly, none other than the University of Texas paints quite a different portrait of James Kirker,formerly of Belfast Ireland....

Whatever else he was, Kirker was apparently a remarkable man who really LIVED his intense life...




http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fki54

KIRKER, JAMES (1793�1853). James (Santiago) Kirker, merchant, Indian fighter, and frontiersman, was born near Belfast, Ireland, on December 2, 1793, the son of Gilbert and Rose (Anderson) Kirker. In his youth he received some formal education and learned the leather and merchandising trades. To escape the British draft he sailed for New York City, where he arrived on June 10, 1810.

During the War of 1812 he served on the privateer Black Joke. He was captured and later exchanged for British captives. He returned to New York City, where he married Catharine Dunigan, with whom he had a son, James B., who became a major in the Union Army.

In 1817 Kirker joined kinsmen from Ireland, left his family and store, and departed for the West. In December he reached St. Louis, where he worked for McKnight and Brady, the leading mercantile, mining, shipping, and trading firm of Missouri, and later opened his own mercantile business.

In 1822 he traveled up the Missouri River as a member of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company trapping expedition of Ashley and Henry. He spent the winter in an advance post on the Yellowstone River and in the spring of 1823 participated in the famous attack of trappers upon the Arickara Indian village.

In 1824 Kirker entered the Santa Fe trade. During the winters of the next decade he trapped in the southern Rockies and along the Gila River. In 1826 he began working at the Santa Rita Copper Mine for Robert McKnight. While conducting copper trains to the mint in Chihuahua City, Kirker and his guards fought several skirmishes with Apaches along the way. He gained a reputation as a skillful Indian fighter and subsequently developed an escort and security service.

In 1833, without divorcing his first wife, he married Rita Garc�a; they had a daughter and three sons. In 1835 Kirker acquired Mexican citizenship.

He combined trapping and mining with trading with the Apaches for livestock, causing the authorities to charge him with contraband in weapons and declare him an outlaw. But between 1839 and 1846 he entered into four contracts with governors of Chihuahua to fight Apache, Comanche, and Navajo Indians.

With his private company of Delaware and Shawnee Indians and border adventurers, he was very successful in killing hostile Indians. Under his first contract he was promised $100,000, and under the others he was promised pay according to the number of captives and scalps that he delivered.

Between contracts he operated in the Sierra Madre as a border lord, sustained by his personal followers as a law unto himself, fighting or trading alternately with the Apaches or the Mexicans. At one time he was called the "King of New Mexico."

In 1846 the Chihuahua government was no longer able to pay Kirker for Apache scalps and offered him instead the rank of colonel in the Mexican army. He refused, and, with a 10,000-peso price on his head as an enemy of the state, went north to join Col. Alexander Doniphan and his First Regiment of Missouri Mounted Volunteers. Doniphan made him forager, guide, interpreter, and scout for his campaign through northern Mexico.

His intimate knowledge of Mexican character, country, and resources made him very valuable to the invaders, and when he returned to the United States with the regiment he was received with much acclaim.

In 1848 Kirker served as guide, interpreter, and spy for the campaign of Maj. William W. Reynolds and the Third Regiment of Missouri Mounted Volunteers against the Apache and Utah Indians.

In 1849 he guided a train of Forty-niners across the plains to New Mexico. In 1850 he reached California, without his family, and settled in Contra Costa County near what is known now as Kirker Pass and Kirker Creek. He died in 1853 and was buried by his Delawares in Somersville Cemetery.

Don Santiago QuerQuer, as he is called in Mexican records, was a large, agile man, a superb horseman who dressed in fringed Mexican leather and carried an assortment of weapons. He spoke and wrote Spanish fluently and knew a number of Indian languages.

He was known throughout the West for his fearlessness. During his lifetime, Kirker was described as a man of great enterprise and vision.

Nary a mention of plugging helpless peons for their scalps, nor would UT shrink from mentioning that if it was supported by the evidence.

A pity we have no records of his campaigns, Shawnee and Delaware vs hostile Apaches fighting on their own turf might make for interesting reading, likewise when intercepting Comanche war parties, not merely to drive them away or to deter attack, but to hunt them down, kill them, and collect their scalps.

A tall order given the nature and abilities of the men they were hunting.

And $100,000 dollars would STILL be a fortune today,evidence of the seriousness of the problem Mexico was facing.

Birdwatcher