John "Liver-Eating" Johnson (
c.Circa , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date...
1824 – January 21, 1900) was a mountain man of the
American Old WestThe American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...
.
Biography
Johnson is said to have been born near Little York, New Jersey, with the last name
Garrison. Some accounts say that he joined the
United States NavyThe United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
in 1846. Research into his genealogy, however, has discovered that he would have been too young during the Mexican-American War. At some point, though, he did go to sea, and since at that time the Navy was commandeering vessels, this may have happened to Johnson. He did say he had been in the Navy when he joined the Union Army during the Civil War. After striking an officer, he deserted, changed his name to
John Johnston, and traveled west to try his hand at the gold diggings in
Alder GulchAlder Gulch is a place in the U.S. state of Montana, where gold was discovered on May 26, 1863 by William Fairweather and a group of men, including Barney Hughes, Thomas Cover, Henry Rodgers, Henry Edgar and Bill Sweeney who were returning to the gold fields of Bannack, Montana...
, Montana Territory. He also became a "woodhawk," supplying cord wood to steamboats. He was described as a large man, standing around six feet tall and weighing over two hundred pounds.
Rumors, legends, and campfire tales abound about Johnson. Perhaps chief among them is this one: In 1847, his Native American wife was killed by the
CrowThe Crow, also called the Absaroka or Apsáalooke, are a Siouan people of Native Americans who historically lived in the Yellowstone River valley, which extends from present-day Wyoming, through Montana and into North Dakota. They now live on a reservation south of Billings, Montana and in several...
people, which prompted Johnson to embark on an almost 12-year vendetta against the tribe. The legend says that he would cut out and eat the
liverThe liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...
of each man killed. This was an insult to Crow being that the Crow Indians used to eat the raw livers from their game because they believed it gave them the vitality of the animal that they ate. In any case, he eventually became known as "Liver-Eating Johnson". The story of how he got his name was written down by a diarist at the time. There were three Johnsons, nicknames were commonplace, and with Johnson's show of eating the liver, he received his name.
One tale ascribed to Johnson (while other sources ascribe it to
Boone HelmBoone Helm was a mountain man and gunfighter of the American West known as the Kentucky Cannibal. Helm was also a serial killer who gained his nickname for his opportunistic and unrepentant proclivity for the consumption of human flesh taken from the bodies of enemies and traveling companions...
) was of being ambushed by a group of
BlackfootThe Blackfoot Confederacy or Niitsítapi is the collective name of three First Nations in Alberta and one Native American tribe in Montana....
warriors in the dead of winter on a foray to visit his Flathead kin, a trip that would have been over five hundred miles (620 Kilometers). The Blackfoot planned to sell him to the Crow, his mortal enemies, for a handsome price. He was stripped to the waist, tied with leather thongs and put in a
teepeeA tipi is a Lakota name for a conical tent traditionally made of animal skins and wooden poles used by the nomadic tribes and sedentary tribal dwellers of the Great Plains...
with an inexperienced guard outside. Johnson managed to chew through the straps, then knocked out his young guard with a punch to the face, took his knife and
scalpedScalping is the act of removing another person's scalp or a portion of their scalp, either from a dead body or from a living person. The initial purpose of scalping was to provide a trophy of battle or portable proof of a combatant's prowess in war...
him, then quickly cut off one of his legs. He made his escape into the woods, surviving by eating the Blackfoot's leg, until he reached the cabin of Del Que, his trapping partner, a journey of about two hundred miles.
Eventually, Johnson made peace with the Crow, who became "his brothers", and his personal vendetta against them finally ended after twenty-five years and scores of Crow warriors had fallen. The West, however, was still a very violent and territorial place, particularly during the Plains Indian Wars of the mid-19th century. Many more Indians of different tribes, especially but not limited to, the
SiouxThe Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
and Blackfoot, would know the wrath of "Dapiek Absaroka" Crow killer and his fellow mountain men.
The above information is based upon the yarns and tales told over and over through the years. The novel
Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher is a good fiction source. The accurate story is told in the diaries of Lee and Kaiser who were on the Missouri River in 1868 when Johnston was given his moniker, after a rainy fight with the Sioux.
He joined the
Union ArmyThe Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
in
St. LouisSt. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
in 1864 (Company H,
2nd Colorado CavalryThe 2nd Regiment Colorado Volunteer Cavalry was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.-Service:The 2nd Colorado Cavalry was organized at St...
) as a private, and was honorably discharged the following year. During the 1880s he was appointed deputy sheriff in Coulson, Montana, and a town
marshalMarshal , is a word used in several official titles of various branches of society. The word is an ancient loan word from Old French, cf...
in
Red Lodge, MontanaRed Lodge is a city in and the county seat of Carbon County, Montana, United States. It is part of the Billings, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. He was listed as five foot, eleven and three-quarter inches (1.82 meters) tall according to government records.
In his time, he was a sailor, scout, soldier, gold seeker, hunter, trapper, whiskey peddler, guide, deputy, constable, builder of log cabins, and any other source of income producing labor he could find.
His last residence was just outside Red Lodge, Montana where he lived in the side of a hill while building his cabin. The cabin is still in Red Lodge although it has been moved many times.
In media
- Crow Killer: the Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson by Raymond W. Thorp and Robert Bunker (1958) Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Library of Congress catalog card number: 58-8120 (a possible later version/printing (1969) ISBN 0-253-20312-0) The annotated biography, compiled from interviews with people who had actually known Johnson, with footnotes
- Jeremiah Johnson, a 1972 film by Sydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
starring Robert RedfordCharles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
- John Johnston (spelled with a "t"), Felton & Fowler's Famous Americans You Never Knew Existed, By Bruce Felton and Mark Fowler, Stein and Day, 1979 ISBN 978-0-8128-2511-4
- Johnston is referred to as a character in 'Riverworld
Riverworld is a fictional planet and the setting for a series of science fiction books written by Philip José Farmer . Riverworld is an artificial environment where all humans are reconstructed. The books explore interactions of individuals from many different cultures and time periods...
', a fictional universeA fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with elements that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm ....
and the setting for a series of science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
bookA book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
s written by Philip José FarmerPhilip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....
.
Further reading
- Jon Axline, "In League with the Devil: Boone Helm and 'Liver-Eatin' Johnston'," in, Still Speaking Ill of the Dead: More Jerks in Montana History, edited by Jon Axline and Jodie Foley. Guilford, Connecticut and Helena, Montana: Two Dot,Globe Pequot Press, 2005.
- Nathan E. Bender, “Perceptions of a Mountain Man: John “Jeremiah Liver-Eating” Johnston at Old Trail Town, Cody, Wyoming.” The Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal v.1 (2007): 93-106. Published by Museum of the Mountain Man, Pinedale, Wyoming.
- Nathan E. Bender, “The Abandoned Scout’s Revenge: Origins of the Crow Killer Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson,” Annals of Wyoming v. 78 n. 4 (Autumn 2006): 2-17. Published by the Wyoming State Historical Society.
- Nathan E. Bender, “A Hawken Rifle and Bowie Knife of John ‘Liver-Eating’ Johnson,” Arms & Armour: Journal of the Royal Armouries, v. 3 n. 2 (October 2006): 159-170.
External links
- http://www.johnlivereatingjohnston.com/