ar gain of
more than fifty thousand dollars has been made this year on the
sale of whisky to the Indians on the river Missouri; the _prices
are from $25 to $50 a gallon_. Major Morgan, United States sutler
at Cantonment Leavenworth, says that thousands of gallons of
alcohol has passed that post during the present year, destined for
the Indian country.[81]

These official reports were supplemented by another on the same subject
from William M. Gordon to General William Clark, at that time
Superintendent of Indian Affairs. In his report, Gordon, writing from
St. Louis, pointed out that, "whisky, though not an authorized article,
has been a principal, and I believe a very lucrative one for the last
several years."[82]

What a climax of trading methods, first to debauch the Indians
systematically in order to swindle them, and then make a large revenue
on the rum that enabled the company to do it! Undoubtedly it was by
these means that Astor became possessed of large tracts of land in
Wisconsin and elsewhere in the West. But the methods thus far enumerated
were but the precursors of others. When the Indians were made maudlin
drunk and bargained with for their furs were they paid in money? By no
means. The American Fur Company had another trick in reserve. Astor
employed the cunning expedient of exchanging merchandise for furs. Large
quantities of goods, especially woolens, made by underpaid adult and
child labor in England and America, and representing the sweat and
suffering of the labor of the workers, were regularly shipped by him to
the West. For these goods the Indians were charged one-half again or
more what each article cost after paying all expenses of
transportation.[83] Reporting from St. Louis, Oct. 24, 1831, in a
communication to the Secretary of War, Thomas Forsyth gave a description
of this phase of the American Fur Company's dealings. He said:

In the autumn of every year [when the hunting season began] the
trader carefully avoids giving credit to the Indians on many
costly articles such as silver works, wampum, scarlet cloth, fine
bridles, etc., etc., as also a few woolens, such as blankets,
strouds, etc., unless it be to an Indian whom he knows will pay
all his debts. In that case he will allow the Indian, on credit,
everything he wishes.

Traders always prefer giving credit on gunpowder, flints, lead,
knives, tomahawks, hoes, do