22/12/2025
Towards the end of November 1841, Sage, a member of a party employed by Lancaster P. Lupton, set out from the company’s Fort Lancaster on the South Fork of the Platte River in hopes of trading with the Brule Sioux. On Chadron Creek, a few miles from its confluence with the Upper White River (in present northwestern Nebraska), the men planned to build cabins for their winter quarters. From the newly constructed lodging, Sage wrote:
“Dec. 25th. Christmas finds us in our new residence, which, with the exception of a chimney, is now completed.
This great annual festival is observed with all the exhilarating hilarity and good cheer that circumstances will allow. Several little extras for the occasion have been procured from the Indians, which prove quite wholesome and pleasant-tasted. One of these, called washena, consists of dried meat pulverized and mixed with marrow; another is a preparation of cherries, preserved when first picked by pounding and sun-drying them, (they are served by mixing them with bouillie, or the liquor of fresh-boiled meat, thus giving to it an agreeable winish taste;) a third is marrow-fat, an article in many respects superior to butter; and, lastly, we obtained a kind of flour made from the pomme blanc, (white apple,) answering very well as a substitute for that of grain.
The above assortment, with a small supply of sugar and coffee, as well as several other dainties variously prepared, affords an excellent dinner, — and, though different in kind, by no means inferior in quality to the generality of dinners for which the day is noted in more civilized communities.”[Emphasis in original.]
Despite the isolation of winter camp, Sage and his companions found ways to make the day special. Their celebration blended “procured goods” and the skills of the diverse people around them. It was not the Christmas feast they might have known back home, but it was a feast nonetheless, and one made meaningful by the effort and cooperation involved.
“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
Philippians 4:12-13 NIV
From https://museumofthemountainman.com/tag/mountain-man/
Photo of Rear of the Crowell-Whitaker 1840 Log Cabin & Marker. Photographed by Mark Hilton, February 16, 2024
