Old periodicals: The most famous bear attack in the world

Illustration of the Huge Glass attack from an old newspaper - Public Domain.
Illustration of the Hugh Glass bear attack from an old newspaper - Public Domain. 

The most famous bear attack is not in YouTube but was portrayed in the movies The Revenant and Man in the Wilderness. The original tale comes from the short chronicle "The Missouri Trapper" published in 1825 in the section "Letters from the West" of The Port Folio magazine. This text recounts the return of Hugh Glass alive to Fort Atkinson after everybody assumed that he was killed by Arikara Indians.

(According to the Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, "Arikara" could mean "horns", "elk people", or "corn eaters" - "horns" for their custom to wearing two horns, probably in the way of this Crow Chief).

Working for Andrew Henry in an expedition to the Yellowstone River, Hugh Glass was attacked by a grizzly. The old chronicle says that a "white bear" came from nowhere and grabbed him by the throat taking a chunk of flesh that the animal shared with its cubs.
  
Rescued by his companions but almost dead, Glass was left with two guys that later abandoned him. He returned to Fort Kiowa, a painful crawl of 350 miles. After recovery, Hugh Glass went on a hunt for the men that left him behind. 

Catching up with them, he pardoned Jim Bridger because of his youth and couldn't touch John S. Fitzgerald because this man had signed up with the US Army. Glass only got back his old rifle.

But there was more in the adventurous life of Hugh Glass than the popular story of the bear attack.
  • He was captured by Jean Laffite off the coast of Texas and became a pirate for 2 years.  
  • He lived years with the Indians after being taken by the Pawnees.
  • Indians shot him in a leg in 1822.
  • He was part of the famous "Ashley's hundred" mountain men of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. 
  • He served as hunter for the US Army in Fort Union, North Dakota. 
The Arikara Indians eventually got Hugh Glass in 1833. He was killed with two fellow trappers.

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