Day 35 — Glasgow to Culbertson

July 17, 2021. No time for detours today. I had 115 miles get to Culbertson, MT. I got up at 4:00 and was on the road by 4:30 to cover as much ground as I could while it was cool.

I did pass a site along the Missouri River below the Fort Peck Dam that stuck with me for the rest of the ride. In the summer of 1837 an American Fur Trading Company (owned by John Jacob Astor) steamboat made its way from St. Louis to Fort Union. Smallpox broke out broke out among the crew, but the boat continued to its destination. contact with the crew exposed the Wichiyabina or Little Girls’ Band of the Assiniboine, starting a terrible epidemic which eventually affected all the tribes of the region. The tribes had not been exposed to this virulent European disease and were extremely susceptible. It struck hardest among the young and able-bodied, with such swiftness that burial was often not possible. Ninety-four percent of the Wichiyabina died. By the winter of 1838 when the disease finally ran it’s course, the Wichiyabina were no more. the 80 remaining band members joined with other small pox survivors and formed the Redbottom Band (Hudesabina) of Assiniboines. The Assiniboine people still mourn this unthinkable event and the innocent victims of European settlement.

I thought about this in throughout the ride in relation to our current pandemic — how little we’ve learned and how limited is our capacity for empathy.

Most of the ride followed the north bank of the Missouri below the Fort Peck Reservoir.