ZM Pike’s journals so far confirm that he hated the “British traders from Canada” whose flag we still wave today – and wished to deal with them more forcefully- and that they they were still a pain in America’s ass as late as 1805.
At the same time… I guess the whole story that he was sent up the Mississippi River to “find its source waters” was not entirely true either.
He went about documenting Indians trade practices.. quality of their furs.. and established trading posts near military bases.
Great, so. Part Indian and part colonialist, fuck me. I keep saying that my family was here when it was still territorial and that’s true – one of Pikes tasks was to negotiate with Spain and determine where the boundaries of the then-recent Louisiana Purchase even *were* – but we were here before the colonialists in the 1700s as well. I don’t know which side Pike (either of them) comes from or to what degree – if it’s from my maternal grandmother , her mother came from money and property and whatnot but was disowned for interracially marrying an Indian and had zero fucks to give about their money or land.
So … I could see there being a link to a possibly racist and possibly confederate war veteran family but, I dunno, my great grandma told them where to shove it over 100 years ago and that’s all I know about them other than .. what anyone else would know ..
Although about the only thing anyone in my family knows about is “pikes peak” and *possibly* the “river expedition.” It is more interesting to me that he is the person who purchased present-day St Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota for the United States , lots of questions here- I have no idea how they ended up owning the restaurant on the bluff or half the town or whatever but here’s a motherfucker just casually buying the entire MSP Metropolitan Area and I can’t even afford a condo there.
What I do know is that my great grandmother was disinherited for interracial marriage with.. an Indian.. kek. Spicy. 🌶️ 🥵
But yeah sure, challenge me on the whole East India Trading Company thing. It’s very nearly exactly as I relate it .. although the business about them coming in from Canada is news to me.
I like old books. They’re impervious to revisionism . Until a bunch of people with blue hair and nineteen cats get mad and burn those, too.