an had been thinking of a try at Boone's latest
hunting-grounds; they remembered that he had made a good choice when he
picked Kentucky: and now that the country yonder was being opened by
Americans for Americans they pressed after Lewis and Clark--their own
kind. There were furs to be found, under American protection, and sold
at St. Louis, an American city.

So when in the summer of 1806 the Lewis and Clark men were on the
down-river trail, bound for St. Louis again, on the Missouri below the
mouth of the Yellowstone River away up in North Dakota they met two
American trappers, Forest Hancock and Joseph Dickson, hailing last from
Illinois.

John Colter, of the nine Kentuckians, thought that this was a good
chance for him. The two free-trappers had been in here for two
years--had set out right on the heels of the exploring party; they had
caught many beaver and were doing well. They turned back, for fifty
miles, with the company. On the way down John Colter arranged to
become their partner. Captain Lewis gave him his discharge; and
instead of going home he stayed, to be a trapper.

This land of high bare plains and snow-tipped, rock-ribbed, pine-clad
mountains was very different from the forests of the Ohio region; but
he had learned a great deal during his two years' trip. He was no
greenhorn. He could take care of himself--he had been farther than
Hancock and Dickson, felt no more fear of the Western Indians than he
did of the Eastern Indians. After all, an Indian was an Indian,
although these plains Indians like the Sioux and Blackfeet numbered
thousands and seemed to think themselves much better than the white man.

In the fall his partners went "out," to take their furs to St. Louis.
He remained in, and spent the winter alone, up the Yellowstone River of
Montana, which was Blackfoot country. Captain Lewis had had trouble
with the Blackfeet. They had tried to rob him, and two had been
killed. But the Blackfoot head chief announced that this had served
his young men right, and that the other Blackfeet bore the Americans no
ill will.

Therefore Trapper Colter passed the winter in peace. The Crows, who
also claimed the Yellowstone, did not molest him, either. In the
spring he was taking the lone trail for St. Louis, when he met a
company of American and French fur-hunters under Manuel Lisa, a swarthy
Spaniard. They were coming in to build a trading post among the
Blackfeet or Crows.

Trapper Colt