10 'Cbe Conservative ;
SOME NOTES ON TRAILS.
Mr. E. A. Kiliau's article in THE CON-
SEKVATIVE of August 8th suggests a
good many different lines of specula
tion ; it would hardly seem as if any
thing save speculation were in place , as
lo the trails which may have been used
by the Indians of the plains before the
white men came. "What would be a
pre-historio trail ? The history of Ne
braska does not yet extend over an en
tire century ; if it were known that the
Pawnees had a fixed route across the
state in 1800 , would that be therefore
considered pre-historic ? Or must one ,
to be warranted in using that term , go
back of the Spanish conquest ?
In the latter case , the quest for a pre
historic trail would seem hopeless in
deed ; for it is held , is it not , that the In
dians did very little traveling before the
Spaniards brought them horses ? I be
lieve that the ancestors of the plains
tribes sire held to have been stationary ,
or practically so , so long as they were
obliged to peforin their journeys on
foot ; living in earthen villages along
the streams , principally in the East ; de
veloping slowly hi the direction of the
pueblos of the more highly civilized
tribes of the Southwest ; leaving , when
the exigencies of peace or war forced
them to migrate , the so-called "mounds"
after a long stay in one place , and such
remains as Mr. Blackman has been un
earthing in Eastern Nebraska , after a
shorter sojourn.
If this is the correct theory , there
would be no trails going back of the
Spanish invasion , because there was no
traveling prior to that epoch. None ,
that is , in the plains country ; but I
should imagine that the Mexican tribes
might have had highways , and that one
of them might veiy probably have
crossed the Rio Grande at El Paso. And
as fast as the more remote tribes be
came possessed of horses , and were
thereby enabled to make raids on distant
enemies , excursions to outlying regions
in search of buffalo , and periodical
changes of residence , to suit the seasons
or their vagrant fancy , one would ex
pect them to fall into certain habitual
lines of travel , and to form thereby in
time distinct roads or trails.
There is no room for doubt that , at
least in Eastern Nebraska , they did in
fact make such trails. There are too
many men living who have seen them.
There are in Nebraska City two of the
early surveyors of the territorial boun
dary and sub-divisional lines , in the
course of which labor they saw more
primitive , undisturbed country than
could possibly have been seen by men
engaged in any other pursuit ; these are
Charles W. Pierce , whom the town calls
Uncle Charley , and Judge M. S. Camp
bell ; both of whom have lived in Ne
braska uninterruptedly for well-nigh
half a century. They have both been
consulted afresh as to their recollection
ef Indian trails as they first found them ,
whether they had any appearance of an
tiquity or not ; and both are emphatic
in their reply , agreeing moreover to a
nicety in their accounts. They say that
there were many trails , hard-beaten
paths worn in the prairie sod ; they lay
always along the ridges , because an In
dian in traveling cared only for keeping
on a level ; a saving in distance was no
object to him ; and they invariably led
to the best ford over the nearest stream ,
so tliat in new country , when in search
of water , the surveying parties learned
to follow an Indian trail with implicit
confidence.
Now as to the ago of these trails ,
both these old gentlemen speak , as of
something so remarkable as to have im
pressed them at the time , of the fact
that they were frequently found worn
deep into the soil ; Mr. Pierce says he has
seen them as much as two or three feet
below the surface. Ho says in expla
nation that the Indians would use a
trail until it became so deep as to be im
practicable , when they would strike into
a new path alongside. Now , how long
a time must be assigned for the wearing
of a trail knee-deep in the prairie , with
no more travel than the semi-annual
buffalo hunt which we know to have
been practiced by the Indians of the
Platte ; even allowing for a good deal
of assistance from the rains ?
A very definite statement on this sub
ject has also been received from Gen
eral Grenville M. Dodge , who has re
sponded most obligingly to a request for
his opinion. He writes : "All over our
continent there were permanent Indian
trails ; especially was this the case west
of the Missouri river. There were regu
lar trails from village to village , to well-
known crossings of streams , up the val
leys of great streams , over the lowest
and most practicable divides , passing
through the country where water could
be obtained , and in the mountains the
Indian trails were always well defined
through all the practicable passes. I
traveled a great deal with the Indians
myself at one time , and when they
started for any given point they always
took a well established trail , unless they
divided off for hunting , fishing or some
thing of that kind ; and in my own
recounoissauces in the West , and in my
engineering parties , when we found In
dian trails that led in the right direct-
tion for our surveys , we always followed
them up and examined them , and al
ways found that they took us to the
best fords of streams , to the most
practicable crossings of divides , to the
lowest passes in the mountains ; and
they were of great benefit to us , es
pecially where wo had no maps of the
country , because wo could lay them
down and work from them as well-
defined features of the country. "
So they all say. Mrs. Carrington
speaks , in 1866 , of the hill-sides being
"seamed and scarred by countless
trails , where the Indian poneys have
dragged lodge poles in their periodical
or other changes of habitation and
hunting. " General Ouster describes
buffalo trails ( which must have been
identical with Indian trails in many in
stances ) in 1874 as "so regular in their
construction and course as to well ex
cite curiosity. They vary little from
eight to ten inches in width , and are
usually from two to four inches in
depth ; then * course is almost as unvary
ing as that of the needle , running north
and south. " Even old Lewis and Clark
testify. They noticed in one place "ap
pearances of old buffalo paths , " and
say that "as the animals evince wonder
ful sagacity in their choice of their
routes , the coincidence of a buffalo with
an Indian track affords the strongest
evidence that it is the best. "
Let me also quote some mention by
the Fathers of one particular trail ,
that of the Pawnees , crossing central
and western Nebraska.
Nathaniel Wyeth , on May 16 , 1884 ,
traveled " 12 miles to the Pawnee trail
to the head of the Arkansas. "
October 11 , 1841 , Bufns Sage "crossed
the regular Pawnee trails , leading to
and from then ? hunting grounds , which
bore the appearance of being much fre
quented. "
June 9 , 1842 , Medorem Crawford
"crossed the Pawnee Trail at 8 o'clock. "
Seventeen days later , John O. Fre
mont "crossed several Pawnee roads to
the Arkansas. "
Parkman , the historian , crossing Ne
braska in 1846 , "in the midst of a
gloomy and barren prairie , came sud
denly upon the great Pawnee trail , lead-
from their villages on the Platte to their
war and hunting grounds to the south
west. "
Do not these indicate that there was
a distinct track of some kind ?
What this trail may have been , which
was thus conspicuous somewhere be
tween Hastings and Kearney , I do not
exactly know. Possibly it was traveled
by the Pawnees to certain hunting
fields near the mountains.perhaps it was
their highway to the countiy of the
Kiowas and Arapahos , or used for that
commerce with the Mexicans , in horses
and blankets , mentioned by Pike in
1806.
There is another source of informa
tion in regard to these aboriginal ave
nues , which might yield some interest
ing knowledge if it were carefully fol
lowed out. This is the maps of the ter
ritorial survey of 1854 and subsequent
years , on which all such land-marks as
Indian trails ought , as General Dodge
intimated above , to be exactly noted
down. An inspection of these maps in
the Land Office at Lincoln , however ,
shows that the trails are platted on them
in only an irregular and fragmentary
way. For this there are three reasons :