#Clark Fork River

[rabbitcruiser]

World Rivers Day

They carve their way through the earth, providing a playground for adventure seekers and a peaceful refuge for nature lovers.

Almost every country around the world will have at least one river flowing through it. There are probably a number of other important waterways as well. To ensure that these important bodies of water are celebrated and appreciated as they should be, World Rivers Day aims to remind people about just how important all of the waterways around the globe are to us.

The very first World Rivers Day was celebrated in 2005 and since then it has been gaining in popularity with many events being organized around the world. In this same year, the United Nations also launched its Water for Life Decade, with the aim of increasing the awareness of the need for taking better care of the world’s waters.

World Rivers Day was launched alongside this new initiative, all thanks to a proposal that was put forward by Mark Angelo, who was already an international river advocate.

Learn about World Rivers Day

Rivers are the arteries of our planet; they are lifelines in the truest sense.

World Rivers Day is all about celebrating the waterways of the world. It is a day that highlights the importance of rivers, aiming to heighten awareness and encourage people to preserve our important and beautiful rivers.

There are a number of different things that we can all do in order to protect our rivers. This includes using earth-friendly body products and biodegradable cleaning products. After all, these chemicals all get washed down the drain, which means they end up going back into our rivers. Making a change like this can make a massive difference. Other tips include turning your tap off while you are brushing your teeth, timing your showers, and keeping a full load when you are using your dishwasher or your washing machine. Small changes like this can go a very long way.

History of World Rivers Day

You might be wondering why we need a World Rivers Day as everyone is already aware of numerous rivers around the world. That’s true; but what some people aren’t aware of is just how under threat some of them are.

There is a lot of human activity that causes pollution and damage to a number of the world’s important waterways, and this is dangerous for the people who regularly use the rivers as a source of water and transport, as well as the ecosystems that could be living in them.

The main aim of World Rivers Day is to ensure that everyone is aware of the importance of river stewardship and that we all do what we can to limit the threats that could potentially endanger our rivers.

So, you are probably wondering how this all started. Well, it began with the Water for Life Decade, which was launched by the United Nations in 2005. This was created in order to improve awareness regarding the need to make sure that we better care for our water resources. This ultimately led to World Rivers Day being created. This happened in response to a proposal that was initiated by Mark Angelo, a worldwide renowned river advocate.

How to celebrate World Rivers Day

There are so many ways we can all get involved with World Rivers Day. You might be able to find a local event, such as a litter clean or a beach litter pick. There are loads of different events that aim to get people out and about being active in helping to improve local rivers.

Some events even focus on the wildlife that lives in our rivers. One example is to take part in a fish enhancement program that some local river organizations might be running near you.

It’s also a really good excuse to celebrate your local river as well. For instance, some people decide to take to the water to go sailing, kayaking, or canoeing. No matter how you want to enjoy the rivers, there is really no better day to enjoy them than on World Rivers Day! You will be able to really appreciate what needs to go into keeping them clean and helping the local wildlife enjoy healthy habitats.

One of the ways that you can celebrate River Day is by planning an event. It is a good idea to select an event that is going to use local resources and expertise, and which will address local issues, customs, and interest. Events on these days can range from a single event, such as a clean-up of a creek section or a paddle down a creek to a big local festival with a number of different features and events going on.

It is a good idea to look to involve different organizations and groups from the community so that you gain participation and local support. Get in touch with local businesses, hospital foundations, the government, and local schools.

You can also contact local interest groups as well, including the likes of environmental groups, recycling societies, heritage societies, music societies, art societies, daycares, paddlers, and birders.

By getting help from a number of different groups of people, you are going to be able to diversify your event. This means that it is going to turn into a celebration of your local environment and the connections your community has with its rivers.

You can also head to the World Rivers Day website and sign-up for updates and alerts regarding the different events that are going on around the world. You never know, there may be something that is planned for your local area on this date.

No matter how you choose to spend the next World Rivers Day, we are sure that it will help you appreciate your local waterway a lot more than what you might do right now. If everyone did, imagine how clean our rivers could be!

Source

[kenjed]

Jordan in the Clark Fork River, Missoula, Montana summer 2023

[hisbeautysurroundsus]

Who am I to God? While searchable, this question is as unknowable as the bellows of a Western Meadowlark. Who is God to me? He has been my closeness since childhood, my ever-present friend. My security and comfort; my guard and peace. My guide and conscience, my path layer. The only father I have left. My joy giver. My surety; my promise keeper. My advice giver. My protector. My listener, He hears my cries. My giver of miraculous coincidence. My provider of needs and supplier of abundant blessings. He calms my fears and gives me rest. My everything—I am part of His everything.

I snapped this pic of the Clark’s Fork Canyon passing through Sunlight Basin in Shoshone National Forest just outside Clark, Wyoming. The ageless canyon provides life in the basin beyond.

[riverwindphotography]

Pilot Peak and Index Peak tower over the Clark's Fork River

(c) riverwindphotography, June 2024

[todaysdocument]

Treaty Between the United States and the Quapaw Indians Signed at St. Louis, August 24, 1818.

Record Group 11: General Records of the United States Government

Series: Indian Treaties

File Unit: Ratified Indian Treaty 96: Quapaw - St. Louis, August 24, 1818

Image description: Detailed map of the area of Arkansas River and Mississippi River, with boundaries of red and blue;  with an eagle on top left carrying olive branch in its beak; a Native American with a peace pipe on the left, presumably of the Quapaw tribe, pointing to the inscription:

Map of the Territorial Limits of the Quapaw cession

Compiled & Laid down by Rene Paul

August. 1818

Transcription:

[image: Detailed map of the area of Arkansas River and Mississippi River, with boundaries of red and blue;  with an eagle on top left carrying olive branch in its beak; a Native American with a peace pipe on the left, presumably of the Quapaw tribe, pointing to the inscription:

Map of the Territorial Limits of the Quapaw cession

Compiled & Laid down by Rene Paul

August. 1818]

A treaty of Friendship, Cession and Limits made and entered into this twenty fourth day of August Eighteen hundred & Eighteen, by and be-

tween  [between] William Clark and Auguste Chouteau, Commissioners on the part and behalf of the United States of the one part, and the Undersigned Chiefs,

and Warriors of the Quawpaw Tribe or Nation, on the part and behalf of this said Tribe or Nation of the other part. -

 Art: I: The Undersigned Chiefs and Warriors for themselves and their s'd [said] Tribe or Nation do hereby acknowledge themselves to be under the protection of the United States, and

of no other State, Power, or Sovereignty whatsoever.

 Art: II: The Undersigned chiefs and Warriors, for themselves and their said Tribe or Nation do hereby, for an in consideration of the promises and stipulations herein after named, Cede

and relinquish to the United States forever, all the Lands within the following boundaries, viz: Beginning at the mouth of the Arkansas River, thence extending up the Arkan-

saw  [Arkansaw] to the Canadian fork and up the Canadian fork [to its source, thence south to Big Red river and down] that river to the Big raft, Thence a direct line so as

to strike the Mississippi River, thirty Leagues in a straight line below the mouth of Arkansaw, together with all their claims to land East of the Mississippi, and north of the Ar-

kansaw river, included within the couloured lines, 1, 2, and 3 on the above map: - with the exception and reservation following: that is to say, the tract of country bounded as follows;

Beginning at a point on the Arkansaw river opposite the present post of Arkansaw, and running thence a due South West course to the Washita river, thence up that river to the

[in pencil, faint] mouth of the Saline [/] Saline fork, and up the Saline fork to a point from whence a due North East course would strike the Arkansaw river [insert] at the little rock [/] and thence down the right bank of the Arkan-

[in margin, circled] 2-9 [/] saw to the place of beginning, which S'd [said] tract of land, last above designated and reserved, shall be surveyed and marked off, at the Expense of the United States, as

any State or Nation, without the approbation of the United States, first had and obtained.

 Art III; It is agreed between the United States, and the said Tribe, or Nation, that the individuals of the S'd [said]Tribe or Nation shall be at liberty to hunt within the Territory by them

ceded to the United States, without hindrance or molestation so long as they demean themselves peacefully and offer no injury or annoyance to any of the citizens of the United

States, and until the S'd [said] United States may think proper to assign the Same, or any same or any portion thereof, as hunting grounds to other friendly indians.

 Art IV; No Citizen of the United States, or any other person shall be permitted to settle on any of the lands hereby allotted to and reserved for the S'd [said] Quawpaw Tribe, or Nation, to live and

hunt on; Yet, it is expressly understood and agreed on by and between the parties aforesaid, that at all times the citizens of the United States, shall have the right to travel

and pass freely without toll or exaction through the Quawpaw reservation, by such roads or routes as now are, or hereafter may be, established.

 Art V; In consideration of the cession and stipulations aforesaid the United States do hereby promise, and bind themselves to pay and deliver to the s'd [said] Quawpaw Tribe, or Nation, immediately

upon the execution of this Treaty, Goods and Merchandise to the value of Four Thousand Dollars, and to deliver, or cause to be delivered to them yearly, and every year, Goods and Mer-

chandise [merchandise] to the value of One Thousand Dollars to be estimated in the city, or place in the United States, where the same are procured, or purchased.

 Art VI; Least the friendship which now exists between the United States, and the Said Tribe, or Nation should be interrupted by the misconduct of individuals, it is hereby agreed, that

for injuries done by individuals, no private  revenge, or retaliation shall take place, but instead thereof, complaints shall be made by the party injured to the other. - By the Tribe, or

nation aforesaid, to the Governor, Superintendant of Indian Affairs, or some other person, authorized or appointed for that purpose, and by the Governor, Superintendent, or other person authorized

to the [crossed out] said [/] Chiefs of the S'd [said] Tribe, or Nation. And it shall be the duty of the Said Tribe or Nation, upon complaint being made as aforesaid, to deliver up the person or persons against whom the complaint is made, to the end that he or they may be punished agreeably to the Laws of the State or Territory where thee offence may have been committed; And in like manner, if any robbery,

violence, or murder, shall be committed on any indian, or Indians belonging to the Said Tribe, or Nation, the person, or persons so offending shall be tried, and if found guilty,

punished in like manner as if the injury had been done to a white man._ And it is further agreed that the chiefs of the said Tribe or Nation shall to the utmost of their power

exert themselves to recover horses or other property which may be Stolen from any citizen or citizens of the United States, by any individual or individuals of the Said Tribe, or

Nation, and the property  so recovered shall be forthwith delivered to the Governor, Superintendent, or other person authorized to receive the same, that it may be restored

to the proper owner. And in cases where the exertions of the Chiefs shall be ineffectual in recovering the property stolen, as aforesaid, if sufficient proof can be obtain-

ed [obtained], that such property was actually stolen by an indian, or indians belonging to the Said Tribe, or Nation, a sum equal to the value of the property which has been stolen, may

be deducted by the United States from the Annuity of S'd [said] Tribe or Nation. And the United States hereby guarantee to the individuals of the Said Tribe, or Nation

a full indemnification for any horse, or horses, or other property which may be taken from [insert] them [/] by any of their citizens; Provided, the property so stolen cannot be recovered, and

that sufficient proof is produced that it may actually stolen by a citizen or citizens of the United States.

 Art VII; This Treaty shall take effect and be obligatory on the contracting parties, as soon as the same shall have been ratified by the President of the United States,

by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

[left column]

Done at St Louis in the presence of

[signed] R. Wash   Secretary to the Commission

[signed] R. Paul  Col. M. M.

    C. I.

[signed] Jn Ruland  Sub Agent & c

[signed] R Graham Ind Agt

[signed] M  Lewis Clark

[signed] J. T. Honore   Ind Intpr

[signed] Joseph Bonne   Interpreter

[signed] Julius Pescay

[signed] Stephen Julian, U.S. indn interpt.

[signed] James Loper

[signed] William P Clark

[middle column]

[signed] Wm Clark

[signed] Aug. Chouteau [seal]

Kra-ka-ton, or  }

the dry man  }  his + mark [seal]

Hra-da-paa, or   }

the Eagles Bill }  his + mark [seal]

Ma-hra-ka,          }

or Buck Wheat   }  his + mark [seal]

Hon-ka-daq-ni   his + mark [seal]

Wa-gon-ka-datton   his + mark [seal]

Hra-das-ka-mon-mini, }

or the Pipe Bird              }  his + mark [seal]

Pa  tonq  di, or the         }

approaching Summer  }  his + mark [seal]

Te hon ka, or the   }

 Tame Buffaloe   }  his + mark [seal]

[right column]

Ha-mon-mini              }

or the night walker   }  his + mark [seal]

Washing-tete-ton       }

or mocking bird bill  }  his + mark [seal]

Hon-te-ka-ni   his + mark [seal]

Ta-ta-on-sa  or          }

the whistling wind  }  his + mark [seal]

Mozate te   }  his + mark [seal]

[onenicebugperday]

@dawnsiren​ submitted: Absolutely massive slug (probably the size of an adult human’s thumb) found on a night hike while camping near Flathead Lake in Montana. There were probably 4-5 of them in the same area, just vibing and going about their sluggy business. I think someone I was with called them banana slugs but the all-black color is making me question because I’m not familiar with those being black.

Does this guy count as a bug? An absolute unit of a crayfish found in the Clark Fork River in Montana

You’re right, it’s not a banana slug. As far as I know, banana slugs aren’t found in Montana. Your friend is a black slug, Arion ater. I don’t generally count crayfish as bugs but I think this dude can be an honorary bug because I love him :)

[mtfishtales]

FLY FISHING IN MONTANA: EXPLORE TOP SPOTS FOR YOUR NEXT TRIP

Want to explore Montana’s untouched wilderness surrounded by pristine waters and breathtaking mountains? The fly fisher’s paradise has the best fishing spots in the country. Whether you want to hunt the biggest trout or discover hidden gems in the fabled waterways, this is the perfect place to be. In this blog, we will explore the best spots for Montana fly fishing trips to set the seal on a remarkable voyage.

BIG HOLE RIVER:

If you are a first-time explorer, you will be in awe of the Big Hole River’s lush greenery, mountainous horizons, and wide open fields. The river is well-known for its slow-moving pools and blue-ribbon trout streams. It offers trophy browns, rainbows, and Fluvial Artic Grayling. As the 160-mile river enters the canyon, it changes dramatically, with over 1500-2000 browns and rainbows per mile hiding under house-sized boulders. 

MISSOURI RIVER:

Well-known for its tailwater fishery, the Missouri River is home to large rainbows and browns. Mostly famous for frequent hatches, makeing it a popular destination for fishermen. Dry Fly Fishing and Steamer Fishing can give you a satisfying experience yielding spectacular specimens. The average trout size ranges from 15-18 inches and can grow up to 22 inches.

CLARK FORK RIVER

The Clark Fork River is the largest river by volume in Montana. The upper part of the river is a small stream mostly holding Brown Trout and Westslope Cutthroat. As it heads west it becomes a large freestone river, including rainbow, Cutthroat, and hybrid cut-bows.

BEAVERHEAD RIVER

With over 3800 wild rainbows, cutbows, and brown trout per mile, the Beaverhead River is one of the most productive wild trout fisheries in the state. The river has narrow channels and powerful currents, so with short, accurate shots and good line management, you can catch aggressive trout. Drift from the boat and fish along the corners to navigate the river effectively.

JEFFERSON RIVER

This river provides fantastic trophy brown trout fishing with colorful and vibrant rainbows. Bordered by the Mountains and Tobacco Roots, the river offers excellent fly fishing without crowds.  Summer stones or hoppers are the greatest dry fly pattern. However, it mostly attracts predatory animals.

BITTERROOT RIVER

Located between the Sapphire and Bitterroot mountains, Bitterroot Valley is one of Montana’s top fly fishing spots. Experience the finest experience by flowing down the river and increase the chances of capturing brown trouts, rainbow trouts, and cutthroat trouts.

YELLOWSTONE RIVER

The Yellowstone River is one of the world’s largest trout streams. Rainbow trouts, Brown trouts, Cutthroat trouts, and huge whitefish are found in different areas of the river. Moreover, fly fishing in this spot depends upon the season, water condition, and level of the river.

If you want to explore these top spots for a thrilling fly-fishing adventure, visit https://mtfishtales.com/. Create your own personalized experience with MT Fish Tales today!

[guerrerense]

Saint Regis MT Saturday June 16th 1973 0935MDT por bill hooper Por Flickr: Eastbound double Joe with dead box cabs in tow along the Clark Fork River between St. Regis and Superior

[bellshazes]

man I don't know does anybody care about how the cave from 17776 is also the last remaining home of the Oxmoor beetle, whose other significant habitat on earth is now the bougiest of three malls in the city, and both of them lie near forks of Beargrass Creek, crossing things like the ruins of the Clark family (as in, lewis-and) and the Louisville Zoo, and therefore the MegaCavern which boasts the like longest underground zip line or something but also, allegedly, massive stores of chocolate candy and the original film reel of casablanca because of the highly stable climate control natural to such a large cave, which of course is due to the limestone content in our ground that a) is the foundation of Kentucky many cave systems including the largest of them all, Mammoth Cave and also why the Zoo had that absolutely insane sinkhole collapse a few years ago that damaged several exhibits ad limestone erodes and is not the most stable, and that same year there were sinkholes all over including downtown near whiskey row which is funny because Kentucky bourbon is not only distinguished from mere whiskey by the techniques but by the limestone content of our water that contributes to its unique flavor profile, although the issue of water in Louisville is complicated as we have one of the highest rated drinking water in the country but our sewer system is aging so poorly 200 years in and every time it rains the sewage overflows into the Ohio River, already famously disgusting, and is representative of our collective failure to care for our natural environment and infrastructure, something fought against by small dedicated contingents of both the local urbanist movement best exemplified in Brandon Klayko of Broken Sidewalk (RIP) and the ecological advocates of Beargrass Thunder, who named themselves after Beargrass Creek where the mall and Eleven Jones Cave sit. and I'm supposed to just be normal about any of it? when even the best depictions of KY caves of course cannot capture the many ways the Kentucky underground matter to daily life and its people? and I haven't even tied in LUMA and the legends of Al Capone!!!

[aryburn-trains]

MRL Santa Claus Special train by Brian Lee Via Flickr: This is on Montana Rail Link's Hamilton Branch near the Missoula Yard, crossing the Clark Fork River in Missoula, MT, on a December day in 2001.

[kenjed]

Maya in the Clark Fork River in Missoula, summer 2023

[hisbeautysurroundsus]

I observed a rainbow today, so exceptionally brilliant and vibrant in color, that it left rainbow-colored imprints in my eyes when I looked away.

I snapped this pic of a rainbow near the Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone River in Clark, Wyoming.

[riverwindphotography]

The sun peeks out between pines along the Clark’s Fork River

(c) riverwindphotography, April 2023

[revolutionarywarhistory]

From the Revolutionary War to the 1790s: the Creek Nation in the Southern Gulf Region

A map of indigenous nations before the 'Trail of Tears' courtesy of Pinterest.

Where we last left off, I wrote about how Gaither, a veteran of the Maryland 400, had served "seven years on the Georgian frontier, and two years in the Mississippi Territory as a U.S. Army officer" in which he was involved in numerous incidents on the frontier of Georgia, with disputes between the Creek Nation (Muskogee), other indigenous nations, and Georgian inhabitants. Specifically I told the stories of an incident in 1793 at the fork of the Tallahatchie River, reports of  robbery and murder of two Whites on the St. Mary’s River later that year and anger among the Creek Nation after James Seagrove, US Ambassador to the Creek Nation, called for retribution. Beyond this, I told the story of Major General Elijah Clarke's failed expedition to invade Spanish territory in Louisiana in mid-1794, alarming even George Washington's government, and Gaither at the end of his life, serving on the Mississippi River, and dying in 1811, at age 61 on a Washington D.C. plantation. A relatively new book by Early American/"North American borderlands" historian Kathleen DuVal titled Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution sheds light on the Creek Nation, which is even reviewed positively in the New York Times by Woody Holton and the post-war environment on the new frontier.

Reprinted from my History Hermann WordPress blog.

Before the revolutionary war, the Creek, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Nations spread from the Gulf Coast into the interior of the North American continent. [1] While these nations dominated the Southern Gulf (of Mexico) Coast region, the Choctaws likely had the biggest population, numbering, likely, twenty thousand by the early 1700s, in contrast to the five thousand Chickasaw and ten thousand Creek at the same time. [2] By the 1770s, Payamataha, chief of the Chickasaw, had made peace with the Choctaws, Cherokees, Catawbas, Creeks, and Quapaws, other nearby indigenous nations, while Creek-Chickasaw peace, starting in 1760s, continued to flourish. [3] As for the Creeks, the main focus of this story, they had a unique form of government. Living in the river valleys in a region that would become the present-day states of Alabama and Georgia, the Creeks, divided into the Lower Creeks and Upper Creeks comprised a loose confederation of 60 towns which had their own farms and lesser towns in their jurisdiction, with limited consultation on foreign policy and defense. [4] While this meant that each town or clan had the decision to go to war, engage in diplomacy, or create new towns,with a broad spread of governance, most of those in the towns spoke "related languages" and had "similar cultural practices and beliefs" to fellow members of the society. [5]

One man, named Alexander McGillivray, tried to change this. McGillivray, born into a matrilineal Creek society, with his mother, Sehoy Marchand, and maternal uncle, Red Shoes, was multi-racial because his father was a Scottish highlander and trader named Lachlan McGillivray. [6] He soon tried to gain an important role in the world of Creek politics and society. However, he had trouble persuading the Creek people as a whole to succeed against the British not only because "no one could dictate foreign policy to even one Creek town of clan, much less the loose Creek Confederacy" but he was not a Creek headman and proven warrior. [7] Additionally, the British, seemed be fighting against the Continental Army and pro-revolutionary individuals, but not against settlers, leading certain US individuals to try and sway the Creeks, complicating McGillivray's attempts at diplomacy and persuasion of the Creek people. Apart from this changing aim, the Creek-British alliance seemed to go forward despite failed efforts at British-indigenous coordination, especially in 1778, leading to tension among the indigenous nations such as the Creeks and Chickasaws who fought alongside the British. [8] Additionally, the minds of the Creek people were taken off the war for a number of reasons. For one, the spread of smallpox across the continent limited the ability of the Creeks to contribute especially since they quarantined fellow indigenous (and British) towns infected by smallpox, and the involvement of the French and Spanish in the revolutionary war led to less inclination to be involved in an inter-empire conflict. [9]

By 1781, as the siege of Pensacola, then a town within colonial British Florida, seemed imminent, with the approach of a Spanish fleet, people's hopes were scattered, depending on the groups of people affected. For McGillivray, who "hoped for personal glory and Creek victory," he had trouble getting the Creeks to fight the Spaniards but succeeded by stressing stressed Creek interests in the war and "opportunities for glory on the Gulf coast." [10] Not everyone was convinced, however, as some Creeks went to the Spanish as a show of strength and attempt an alliance, but this failed not only because of the unification on foreign policy, like the Chickasaws, and because the two parties (Spanish and Creek) could not come to an agreement. [11] In a united front, January 8, 1781, Maryland and Pennsylvania loyalists fought alongside hundreds of Lower Creeks and Choctaws on an attack on a Spanish post at the "Village, which was on the other side of bay from Mobile. [12] In the attack, ending in a clear Spanish victory, Daniel Higgins of Maryland Loyalist Regiment, could have been among those who fought, along with many other loyalists from Maryland and Pennsylvania. [13] There were two other complicating factors. For one, despite the fact that about 1,700 soldiers under the command of General John Campbell, who had been in British West Florida since 1778, the city's defense depended on warriors from the Chickasaw, Creek, and Choctaw nations since reinforcements had not arrived. [14] The other factor was that many Creeks were tired of the British treating them poorly, with some questioning McGillivray's motives, since he was paid as a British agent, but he was successful yet again in countering them by saying that "cultivating interdependence with the British would facilitate Creek protection of their eastern border, where the British were fighting the Creeks' most hated enemies, Georgians and Virginians" as DuVal notes. [15]

On May 8, the Spanish, helped by the French, were victorious in their siege, as the city of Pensacola surrendered. Generally this meant that "the British had lost a colony that had not rebelled" and it would lead to a British decision to  "recognize American independence before things got any worse." [16] As Ray Raphael has pointed out, even after the Battle of Yorktown, resulting in the British surrender of Lord Cornwallis's almost 7,000 troops, on October 17, the war was far from over despite what "conventional wisdom" says. Not only was King George III not ready to capitulate, but Washington was worried of future British advances, and peace was not even proposed by British military commanders until August 1782, with a preliminary peace treaty signed on November 30 of the same year. [17] Compounding this was a total of 47,000 British soldiers stationed in New York, Canada, South Carolina, Georgia, and the West Indies, "four times as many as those serving in the Continental Army." [18] It is worth also noting that Washington was worried about a separate peace treaty between British and France, dooming the colonies, that over 300 revolutionary soldiers dying after Yorktown, the global nature of the American Revolutionary War, the "strategic retreat" rather than surrender by the British, which tells more of the story than acting like the battle at Yorktown was the end of the war. [19]

For the Creeks the was also not over. As the Creeks left Pensacola before Spanish victory, they instructed Alexander Cameron to describe Creek commitment and bravery during the siege, especially the "details of Creek and Choctaw participation," in a letter to the British in Georgia. [20] Apart from this, the Creeks and their allies fought even harder. Hundreds of Continental soldiers were killed until the final peace agreement in 1783 and the fight against US settlers moving westward intensified as the British were pulling out of their colonies. [21] While the British, Spanish, French, Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, had seemed like bigger players in the war in the Southern Gulf region than the revolutionaries/"rebels," the postwar arrangement would change all that. [22]

The Treaty of Paris, actually negotiated, in part, in the Versailles Palace, was signed by the US and Britain, with France and Spain begrudgingly accepting it. Angriest of all were the Creeks, Chickasaws, and Cherokees. In a letter to the Spanish King,these indigenous chiefs, brought together by McGillivray, said that the Treaty was not valid. They argued that the British ceded land they never possessed and that the Creek, Chickasaw, and Cherokee were nations of indigenous people who had independence and natural rights. [23] To complete this insult, the US government under the Articles of Confederation, made a broad assertion. They declared that indigenous nations between the Appalachians and Mississippi were not sovereign nations but aggressors in the war. [24] Essentially, this denied "independent sovereignty" of indigenous nations, which had been accepted by the British and Spanish in their negotiations with such nations, especially during the Revolutionary War.

In the years after the war, there were a number of changes. For one, McGillivray  went back to the town his mother was living, staying there with his family as his   British connections had become irrelevant. [25] Around the same time, Hoboithle Miko, also called the Tame King, Tallassee King, and Halfway-House King, the latter which recognized his role in negotiating good terms for those on both sides, of Great Tallassee, an Upper Creek town, and Niko Miko of Cussita, a Lower Creek town, led the negotiations with North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia since the British gave St. Augustine to the Spanish, along with broadly removing themselves from the region. [26] In terms of diplomacy, McGillivray led the way, helping push forward an alliance and trade with the Spanish, at a time that large numbers of Americans settling in lands claimed by Spanish and indigenous people. [27] The Creeks also experienced the unfriendly nature of the new United States first hand. When Hoboithle Miko and Niko Miko attended a meeting of the Georgia legislature, in 1783, to try to maintain good relations with the United States, a treaty was quickly negotiated. [28] While Georgians thought it was valid, Creeks from only a few towns out of the 60 were there, meaning that it held no weight, but the Georgians did not realize this, possibly because of their ignorance of Creek customs, leading to tension. On the same token, while the idea of "advantageous independence," which DuVal defines as people trying to "establish a balance in which they might have more control over dependent relationships," expressed itself most strongly in the postwar period, just like during the war, a planter culture developed. [29] This culture, in which Creeks were slaveowners, created a disparity in the Creek Nation which hadn't been seen before despite its existence in the nation for many years before.

In the following years, McGillivray tried to steer the Creek Nation in a more nationalist direction. First off, an alliance between the Creek and Spanish  recognized sovereignty on both sides and "mutually beneficial trade," giving the Creeks a "European ally." [30] Secondly, McGillivray tried to centralize the foreign policy of the Creek Nation, recognizing that  it would be more effective if this was implemented in "conjunction with other southeastern nations and even Indians to the north," trying to create a Southern Confederacy, even as this proved exceedingly difficult. [31] Thirdly, McGillivray presented to the world, but especially to the Europeans and Americans, a strong nationalist statement. While he didn't want the Creek Nation to become a U.S. state, he did develop "a language of independent nationhood that carried particular weight with late-eighteenth century Europeans and Americans" with his explicit claims that the Creeks governed their "own independent nation." [32] This went beyond the arrangement in the past were issues of Creek governance were debated internally instead of projected to other governments.

As Western expansion continued, Creeks began to be nervous. With Georgians encroaching on Creek hunting lands, and they were harder to remove, the Creek National Council took up arms in their defense, along with beginning to engage in small-scale raids into Georgia starting in 1785. [33] Not only did this lead to tension, but the Georgians seemed aloof by the attacks, not understanding their role and they attempted to negotiate. Adding to this was the complications that Spain faced in white US settlers entering disputed lands in Creek Country since it was not technically Spanish land, and Georgians had major claims, even as they secretly funded the actions of the Creeks. [34]

Tension between the Spanish and Creek Nation began to grow. When the Spanish welcomed immigration from the newly created United States of America, with the Creeks seeing no value in this. [35] McGillivray was hurt by these developments as he worked on gaining connections in the United States, gaining a truce with Georgia, along with other diplomacy to force the hand of Spain. Due to these strained relations, the Creeks were glad to hear that the British were involved in the region again. As a result, they tried to gain British connections, with supplies to the Creek nation, but this faltered due to the false promises by William Augustus Bowles, a former member of the Maryland Loyalist Regiment. [36] By 1788, the situation had changed as the Spanish had reversed their previous decision. They had begun to supply the Creeks with weapons. They sent  weapons, which helped them wage "wars against the United States through the War of 1812 and beyond." [37] It is worth noting that the Creek Nation was by no stretch a colony of the Spanish or the British, but engaged in their own independent foreign policy, like the other indigenous nations at the time.

By the 1790s, the McGillivray's influence in the Creek Nation seemed to waning. While the Creeks continued truce with US [38], until a new government was inaugurated in 1791 with the end of ratification, McGillivray signed a Congressional treaty. The document set the border between the Creek Nation and Georgia at the Oconee River which many Creeks thought was too much of a compromise, as did Georgians about the terms put forward by the administration of George Washington. [39] There was additional tension. In 1791, a Creek and Cherokee delegation to London said that the Creeks and Cherokees were united into one with the Chickasaws and Choctaws also swayed by the Council's measures. [40] However, the Choctaws and Chickasaws did not agree, leading to increased friction among the indigenous nations. On February 17, 1793, he died  in Pensacola, with his first and second wives mourning him and his plantations distributed among his children. [41]

DuVal's book, in terms of historical narrative, basically ends there, with some exceptions. She notes that by 1814, few Creeks came to defend Pensacola because "a few months earlier Jackson's forces had fought alongside one Creek faction to defeat another in a disastrous civil war." [42] She also adds that in 1834, which may have seemed unthinkable in 1793, the US "forcibly removed most Creeks across the Mississippi" with the Chickasaws only held out a few years longer. [43] Near the end, she says that the remove of Creeks and Chickasaws from their homelands "in the 1830s took their county but not their nationhood" but that Native American sovereignty has had a resurgence in recent years. [44]

Some readers may be wondering how this all ties to Henry Chew Gaither, a revolutionary war veteran and Marylander who was a major of the First Regiment of the U.S. Army from 1791 to 1792 and Lieutenant Colonel Commandant of the Third Sub-Legion from 1793 to 1802. The truth is that he likely never met McGillivray, since he died in the sixth month of Gaither's deployment. Even so, the history of this article is directly relevant to the experience of Gaither while spent time on the Georgian frontier, until he went to Fort Adams, which sat alongside the Mississippi River in 1800, staying until 1802, when he finally retired from the military for good. In the end, even though Gaither is not part of this story, the connections to the Maryland Loyalist Regiment and expansion of the history of the Southern Gulf Region makes DuVal's book valuable for understanding the Early American period while informing the happenings of the present.

© 2016-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution (New York: Random House, 2015), xvii.

[2] Ibid, 9, 13.

[3] Ibid, 17, 19.

[4] Ibid, xviii,  xxii, 9, 25-26. The Upper Creeks lived "along the Alabama, Coosa, and Tallapoosa rivers in present-day Alabama" and the Lower Creeks  near "the Chattahoochee River, the present-day border between Alabama and Georgia" as DuVal notes.

[5] Ibid, 25-27.

[6] Ibid, xviii, 24-25.

[7] Ibid, 77-81.

[8] Ibid, 85-87, 99, 115.

[9] Ibid, 165-166, 176.

[10] Ibid, xxv-xxvi, 177-178.

[11] Ibid, 181, 185-186. DuVal writes that among the Choctaws there was broad disagreement with some joining the Spanish and others the British.

[12] Ibid, 167, 182.

[13] Higgins was related to Peter Higgins of the Fourth Independent Company, which had Archibald Anderson as its First Lieutenant and James Hindman as its Captain. While it is possible that Barnet Turner, a veteran of the Maryland 400, was part of the Maryland Loyalist Regiment, he had deserted in 1778, three years before the fighting near Pensacola. Looking this up more in-depth, the Maryland Historical Society seems to have the muster rolls of the Maryland Loyalist Regiment in 1782, the Canadian Archives seems to have some records, there's a 1778 Orderly Book of the Maryland Loyalists (along with other Ancestry databases here and here), relevant documents on the regiment transcribed here, this muster list, parts of this book, this orderly book, bits and pieces noted here, some results in the Journal of the American Revolution, and so on.

[14] Ibid, 194, 196, 205; George C. Osborn, "Major-General John Campbell in British West Florida," The Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 4, p. 318, 332, 339.

[15] Ibid, 206-208.

[16] Ibid, 218.

[17] Ray Raphael, Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past (New York: The New Press, 2004), 211-214.

[18] Ibid, 214.

[19] Ibid, 215-225.

[20] DuVal, 217.

[21] Ibid, 228-229.

[22] Ibid, 128.

[23] Ibid, 236.

[24] Ibid, 236-237.

[25] Ibid, 246-247.

[26] Ibid, 247, 251.

[27] Ibid, xv, 248.

[28] Ibid, 250-253.

[29] Ibid, xxi, 249.

[30] Ibid, 257-258, 260.

[31] Ibid, 295-296.

[32] Ibid, 254-255.

[33] Ibid, 298-301.

[34] Ibid, 310-311.

[35] Ibid, 323, 326-327.

[36] Ibid, 327-329.

[37] Ibid, 341.

[38] Ibid, 332.

[39] Ibid, 342.

[40] Ibid, 304.

[41] Ibid, 343.

[42] Ibid, 340.

[43] Ibid, 343-344.

[44] Ibid, 350.

[theseventhoffrostfall]

(Fallout Anon)

The End Times had come in the time of the Last Century, or as the textbooks of times refer to the 21st Century, during one of the final months of the liturgical year 2077. The fires- known now in secular texts as the Deluge of Flame, or the Second End in the Original Scriptures- had started from the East Lands at a place known as the Capital and rolled towards the Western Lands consuming all the Lands Between. Only when the Great Fire touched the sea did it finally die, its many-tongued mouths still full of the charred remains of all of God’s creations, be they man, animal, or tree.  

It was recorded by the few survivors that had found dwellings in the great structures those before had called the Vaults or in the caves in the once prosperous mountains of Medicine Bow, Beartooth and St. Helens (now known to us as the colonies of Medicine Men, the Bearteeth Tribes, and the Confederation of the Helenian Tribes respectively) that the flames and the explosions were so great that several new faults had opened in the Earth, in which the rivers that had not been boiled by the great heat had now flowed through. Several of these faults have also created miniature ranges along the Southwestern territory. One such range bisects what was once the Pre-End state of Montana and now runs into the territories of Washington, forming what is now called the William-Cascadian Shift (named after the first explorer of the range Davis Williams and the city of Cascadia in Washington). It is here that many survivors of the End Times settled here, and established mining towns along the fault, establishing a mining empire of coal and clay materials which is sent out along the USW (United Southwest) Railroad to places in the West, and to some places in the Southeastern cities. Although it seems there may be a large human presence in the mountains, it had been estimated that roughly seventy-five percent of the area has not been explored or settled for a variety of reasons- either poor yield of materials or general inaccessibility.  

That was what we had previously thought, until the liturgical year 2249 following the Great Tremors of 2248, in which a new pathway had been opened into the deepest parts of the range. It was believed, by rough estimates of the New Billings Expedition Company, roughly fifty miles long, passed away from what is known as the Clark Fork River, and connected at the state of Idaho (or more accurately, thirty miles away from the Boise Confederacy).  

Man, this is good stuff. I like the sort of folkloric/mythical start that captures the lost-in-time aspects of the death of the old world and birth of the new, that stuff is written nicely. I also like the details with the survivors building nations, exploring, building railroads and extracting resources. Particularly considering Interplay and Bethesda seem to consider anything away from the coasts to be flyover country and not really care about what's happened to them post-war (and consider the notion that they could've built their own nations and governments independent of the much-more-heavily-targeted coasts to be ridiculous)

I'd love a game or even book series that follows this frontier/explorer theme in a hostile but rich mountain Wasteland