"Edward-Rose" (1780-1833"?)

Also known by the names Five Scalps,Nez Coupe "Cut Nose,"was the son of a white fur trader daddy and a Cherokee and African American mama.Little else is known about his early life including where he was born.Edward may have spent some years working on the Mississippi River between Southern Illinois and New Orleans,Louisiana.As a youth,he lived with the crow people in what is now Southern Montana and northern Wyoming.He quickly acquired their customs as well as their language.As a result of  that early encounter he seemed equally confortable among Native peoples among the Euro-American traders and trappers.His first known association with the fur trade came in 1807 when Manuel Lisa,head  of the Missouri Fur Company,hired him as an interpreterfor Manuel's fur-trader expedition to Bighorn River in what is now Montana.In 1809 Edward worked for Manuel and his partner,Andrew Henry at their Knife River Post in what is now North Dakota.The following year Edward traveled  with Andrew and other trappers as the explored the Madison River in southeastern Montana and the Snake River in Eastern Idaho.


In 1811 Wilson Price Hunt,a prominent fur trader for John Jacob Astor,employed Edward  as a guide through Crow Territory;Edward was dismissed when he was suspected of leading the traders into an ambush. The following year at the beginning of the War of 1812,Edward helped Manual in keeping the upper Missouri tribes from siding with the British.


By the early 1820's Edward had also learned the Arikara language and was residing with them in North Dakota.In 1823,while serving as a guide and interpreter for William Henry Ashley's expedition up the Missiouri River,William disregarded Edward's warning about an impending Arikara attack.As a result of Arikara depredations,Colonel Henry Leavenworth mounted his 1823 campaign against the Arikara,and Edward Rose served under Henry as interpreter and envoy to the Native Americans in the region.By September 1823,Edward had joined  Jedidiah Smith's expedition journeying from the Black Hills  (South Dakota) to the Rocky Mountains (Colorado).In 1825,Edward was Colonel Henry Atkinson's interpreter during his Yellowstone expedition.


Shortly after this expedition,Edward resumed residency among the Crows and became a famous war chief.The crows named him "Nez Coupe," meaning "Cut Nose"because his nose was scarred.Edward  sometimes called "Five Scalps" because he killed Blackfoot  single-handedly in battle .The exact date of Edward's is unclear,some say that he died on the Yellowstone River,below the mouth of the Bighorn River along with mountain man Hugh Glass as a result of an Arikara in 1832 or 1833.