As we celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday, we can also perhaps add another cake for the 200th birthday for Council Bluffs. There is a caveat to that date and location name. Prior to 1846 there were no geopolitical borders. Once Lewis and Clark came through in 1804 the entire area on both sides of the river between the mouth of the Platte and the site of the famous meeting with the Otoe-Missouria chiefs was called Council Bluff , Council Bluffs, or Council Bluffs. Thus, we are part of a larger region.
You also have to fudge a little bit more concerning the specific town. Council Bluffs became an official town on January 19, 1853. It was a town before that simple renaming since the Mormons got here and built Kanesville starting in 1846. Then before that it was a Native reservation starting in 1837 with a center of administration called “Caldwell’s Camp”. The time we are choosing, apropos to the 250th celebration is the date that America came to our area to stay.
It is a wonderful achievement to maintain residence for 200 years but important to remember that it is one part of our rich history. One chapter in the book of our history. One layer of our birthday cake.
Certainly, Lewis and Clark rowing upriver in 1804 after the Louisiana Purchase was the start of American influence in the area but 1826 is the start of permanent American habitation here.
The story of our area is one of semi-permanent human settlements for thousands of years. Native people inhabited this area and split into smaller groups in the fall and winter to follow game and ration resources. They would reunite as a tribe in the spring to reestablish ties, marry , and bury their dead. The people used the river as a source of food, water, and transportation. There were people at the Lewis Central Archaeological site in 1800BCE , the Glenwood Phase of the Nebraska Culture from 900-1200 AD. The arrival of the familiar historic tribes: Iowa, Pawnee, Omaha, Otoe and Missouri who arrived in the 1500-1600s. French, Spanish, and English were here competing for trade and influence over those historic tribes in the 1600-1700s. They followed much the same pattern: semi:permanent residence of the area. They would usually return to the same camp sites in the spring but would always leave in the fall to follow migrating game.
This is the historical context in which we find our first permanent American resident entering Council Bluffs with just a touch of mystery. It's easy not to realize that there was life here before Council Bluffs and the American settlement . In 1826, Francis or Francois Guittar got to Point Aux Poules. He stated that there were two cabins and a number of tents and teepees that made up the camp. So, someone was here already in 1826. He was an employee of the American Fur Company owned by John Jacob Astor since he was 14. Born in St. Louis in 1809 to French parents, Guittar was considered French-American, as he was born on American soil. He had been traveling up and down the Missouri as soon as steamboats began to creep along the Missouri. He worked as a cook and then became a trader employed to take over Point Aux Poules. He became the Indian Subagent working for a real person of influence in CB history, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, William Clark.
There are several questions about Guittar being at Point Aux Poules that we can't answer as of yet. Was there an agreement between Clark and the French that the US would take over the camp? Did Lewis and Clark see Point Aux Poules in 1804? How did the American Fur Company get involved?
Guittar aligned himself prominently and positively with area tribes, especially the Pawnee , whom he fought for and injured himself in. He even married into the tribe and garnered a lot of prestige with the Pawnee.
When the Mormons arrived in 1846, they visited Point Aux Poules. They wrote in their journals that the French started the camp about 125 years earlier. That would put them in this area around the same time that French courier de bois Etienne Bourgmont named the Platte River and that the French military attacked the Spanish near present-day Columbus, Nebraska.
This is how they described Point Aux Poules:
“There also were children of French, Spanish and American fur traders who spent most of the year in the Rocky Mountains, and their Indian mothers, living primarily at Traders Point or Point aux poules, east across the Missouri from Bellevue village. Point aux poules, where all Indians were obliged to do their buying, regardless of which side of the river they lived on, was substantially larger than Bellevue, with three stores and 'good looking' homes or residences. There was demonstration farming and raising of cattle by government farmers to help make the Indians independent of the traditional bison hunt. In addition to this, the Indians traditionally and historically raised corn in the moist lands near the rivers and creeks. The Mormons had to carefully herd their livestock during the day and keep them in 'high fence' corrals at night to keep them away from the sweet smelling plots of corn which are so tempting especially to cattle. Apparently the boys herding the cattle were not always as alert as they should have been, for at least one steer was given to the Indians to pay for damage done by livestock to the corn. “
Guittar was part of the fur-trading era of the Council Bluf region. After the 1804 Louisiana Purchase, the Spanish and French influence in our area decreased.Lewis and Clark made the journey up the Missouri that same year. This started the slow trickle of people entering Council Bluf. By the way, once Lewis and Clark came through the entire area on both sides of the river between the mouth of the Platte and the site of the famous meeting with the Otoe-Missouria chiefs was called Council Bluff, Council Bluffs, or Council Bluffs. So we are part of a larger region. After that the gates opened to continuous and permanent human settlement. A parade of fur-trappers opening trading posts on both sides of the river would bring more people to the area. They included Manuel Lisa, Pierre Cabanne’, Hard Heart, Francis Guittar, Joshua Pilcher, Lucien and Logan Fontanelle, and Peter Sarpy. William Clark remembered his stay at Council Bluf and helped convince the US government to open Fort Atkinson in 1819 in today's Fort Calhoun, on the Missouri River.
Guittar stayed at the camp , renamed “Trader’s Point” as an Indian subagent under Clark. Guittar was beloved by native tribes, married into the Pawnee tribe and even became injured in a battle fighting alongside them against the marauding Lakota. He had a few more wives and several more children. He was in charge of the camp until 1853 when the Mormons left for Salt Lake City and those remaining in Kanesville renamed it Council Bluffs. He moved to CB and set up a store on Broadway and Main Streets called “Indian Trading Store”. He died in Council Bluffs in 1896 and is buried in Fairview Cemetery.
Guittar was certainly a distinct personality as the first representative of the United States that led the wave to our bluffs. The coming wave of Americans created many changes. The natives so prevalent here were wiped out by disease and conflict with the incoming Americans. Each tribe signed agreements with the federal government to leave for reservations. Ironically, this area was home to a reservation for the Potawatomi between 1837-1846. The Mormons came and established over 90 communities here, creating the first permanent settlements and infrastructure . The last puzzle piece was the creation of Omaha by CB business leaders and securement of the transcontinental railroad.
1826 was just as important to the development of our area as 1776.
(Article by Troy Stolp, Historical Society of Pottawattamie County Board of DIrectors)