Fatal Love Triangle in Idaho’s Fur-trapping Days
Thomas Jefferson Farnham, an adventurer who helped blaze the Oregon Trail, recorded in his 1839 diary the tragic story of a mountain man who fatally shot his Indian love after discovering her betrayal. The editor of the Idaho Statesman (Boise, Idaho), which printed excerpts from Farnham’s diary in its May 18, 1919, issue, prefaced Farnham’s description of the deadly love triangle with this remark: “In connection with the account of his visit to Fort Hall, Mr. Farnham gives a little story of how white men treat their faithless Indian brides.”
Fur Trader Days in Solitudes of Western Empire
Thomas J. Farnham, One of the Pathfinders of Snake River Basin, Gives Interesting Reminiscences of Old Times
Love in Early Days
As we left the fort we passed over the ground of an affray which originated in love and terminated in death. Yes, love on the western declivity of the Rocky mountains! And love of a white man for a murky Indian dame! It appeared, from the relation I had of it, that a certain white trapper had taken to himself a certain bronze damsel of the wilderness to be his slave-wife, with all the solemn ceremonies of purchase and payment for the same in sundry horses, dogs, and loads of ammunition, as required by the custom in such affairs governing, and that by his business of trapping for beaver, etc., he was, soon after the banns were proclaimed, separated from his beloved one for the term of three months and upwards, much against his tender inclination and interest, as the following showeth:
That Deadly Triangle
For during the term of his said absence another white man, with intent to injure, etc., spoke certain tender words unto the said trapper’s slave-wife, which had the affect to alienate from him the purchased and rightfully possessed affections of his slave-spouse, in favor of her seducer. In this said condition did the beaver-catcher find his bride when he came in from the hunt. He loaded his rifle, and killed the robber of his heart. The grave of the victim is there, a warning to all who would trifle with the vested rights of an American trapper in the love of an Indian beauty.
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I understand that when writing a blog, it’s necessary to show a picture and say a few words about yourself, so that people don’t think a nameless, faceless committee or advisory board is running the show. Here I am, a real person. My name is Tony Pettinato, and I live in Deerfield, Mass. I did my undergraduate studies in English at Oberlin College, my graduate work in Journalism at UC Berkeley, and have been a reporter for six newspapers. For the past fourteen years I have worked at NewsBank, six of those as a managing editor for the U.S. Congressional Serial Set project – NewsBank’s acclaimed effort that digitized and indexed twelve million pages of primary source documents – that gratified my lifelong interest in American history. And that led me to editing this history blog!
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