“To enterprising young men. The subscriber wishes to engage one hundred young men to ascend the Missouri to its source, there to be employed for one, two, or three years. For particulars enquire of Major Andrew Henry, near the lead mines in the county of Washington, who will ascend with, and command, the party; or of the subscriber near St. Louis.”
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the start of the Ashley-Henry expedition, a venture that started with this advertisement in St. Louis newspapers in the late winter/early spring of 1822. Hugh Glass would join this expedition and survive being mauled by a bear the next year, a story popularized in the 2015 award-winning movie “The Revenant” – but first told in Neihardt’s book “Cycle of the West.”
The exhilarating stories of the early frontier that were captured in “Cycle of the West” (for which he was named Nebraska’s Poet Laureate), along with lesser-known stories, will be the focus of the Neihardt Foundation’s 41st Annual Spring Conference.
Experts will lead us in discussions about the major players of the fur trade, such as Jedediah Smith and Hugh Glass, along with others we don’t hear about as often: women and Native Americans. We will also have fur trade re-enactors and artifacts from the fur trade! Re-enactors Denny Leonard and Sterling Fichter will set up a working trapper's camp circa 1822-1831. With a hide-covered shelter, traps, horse gear, etc., they will explain the trappers' daily life, the skills necessary for survival, and bring a two-buffalo hide canoe. They will demonstrate the Plains Indian sign language used by the traders and trappers to communicate with Native tribes.
SPEAKERS (registration required):
The Henry & Ashley Fur Company and Its Impact on the American West - Jerry Enzler
Neihardt's Splendid Wayfaring: Jedediah Smith - Joe Green
"The Song of Hugh Glass" in Public Schools - Mark Metcalf
Mountain Men and Indians: Cultural Transformations During the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade - Jim Hardee
Woven into the Fabric: Women and the Western Fur Trade - Nancy Gillis
TRAPPERS’ CAMP (free and open to the public):
Re-enactors Denny Leonard and Sterling Fichter will set up a working trapper's camp circa 1822-1831. With a hide-covered shelter, traps, horse gear, etc., they will explain the trappers' daily life, the skills necessary for survival, and bring a two-buffalo hide canoe. They will demonstrate the Plains Indian sign language used by the traders and trappers to communicate with Native tribes