The Revenant (movie) Fact vs. Fiction
The Revenant is a major New Regency and 20th Century Fox movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, as Hugh Glass, and directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, the Academy Award winning director of Birdman in 2015. The movie has won 2016 Golden Globe awards for Best Picture, Best Actor (DiCaprio) and Best Director (Iñárritu). It is a fictionalized account “inspired by” the story of the Hugh Glass grizzly attack, his survival, and search for revenge. It is not intended to tell the real story of Hugh Glass. The storylines are significantly different than the real story of Hugh Glass, but the movie touches on many aspects of the real history of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade and Hugh Glass and raises questions that are interesting to explore.
Was Hugh Glass real and did he get mauled by a grizzly bear?
Did Hugh Glass have an Indian wife and son?
Was Hugh Glass running from killing a Lieutenant?
Was Hugh Glass the expedition guide?
What happened to Hugh Glass? How did he die?
Who was Fitzgerald and did Hugh Glass kill him?
Who was Andrew Henry and was he killed by Fitzgerald?
Who was Jim Bridger, how young was he, and what happened to him?
Did Jim Bridger abandon Hugh Glass?
What was the Rocky Mountain Fur Company?
Did the real events of the Revenant take place in the mountains during the winter?
What was the fort in the Revenant and where was it located?
Was there a fight with the Arikara and who were the Ree?
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Was Hugh Glass real and did he get mauled by a grizzly bear?
Yes. Hugh Glass was a mountain man and beaver fur trapper in the American West in the 1820s and 1830s. On his first trip up the Missouri River in 1823 he was severely mauled by a grizzly bear, left for dead by his companions, survived, and struggled on his own for about six weeks and 200 miles back to Fort Kiowa. This feat was legendary among his peers almost immediately and the story has been retold (and elaborated on) ever since. See Grizzly Attack page for the detailed story. Also, see Jedediah Smith Grizzly Attack page for similar grizzly attack on a parallel expedition just a few weeks after Glass was attacked.
Did Hugh Glass have an Indian wife and son?
No. The major story line of the Revenant movie is Hugh Glass’ quest for revenge on John Fitzgerald for killing his half Pawnee son Hawk. There is no evidence Glass had an Indian wife or mixed-race son. According to one contemporary (George Yount), Glass lived with the Pawnee before his fur trade career. While this cannot be verified it is at least plausible. If Glass did live with the Pawnee, it is possible he had a Pawnee wife and child. However, that is pure speculation. He certainly had no son on the Henry expedition, and at most Glass lived for 3-4 years with the Pawnee, so would not have had a son of Hawk’s age by 1823. See Pirate & Pawnee page for details of Glass’ early life.
Was Hugh Glass running from killing a Lieutenant?
No. The Revenant movie suggests a military force attacked and destroyed the Pawnee village of his wife. In the attack, Glass’ wife is killed and he might have killed an officer who was “trying to kill my son”. There is no evidence that any of this ever happened. See Pirate & Pawnee page for details of Glass’ early life.
Was Hugh Glass the expedition guide?
No. Hugh Glass was probably one of the older men in Andrew Henry’s 1823 expedition, but he was one of the rookies on the expedition. Andrew Henry and several other men including young Jim Bridger had been up the Missouri River a year earlier. Henry was older than Glass and had been up and down the Missouri River many time starting 14 years earlier in 1809. If Glass lived for a few years with the Pawnee, he likely had a great wilderness experience, but it is unlikely he would have known anything about the route they were taking to the Yellowstone River.
What happened to Hugh Glass? How did he die?
It is amazing that during a one year period from the summer of 1823 to the summer of 1824, in addition to the grizzly attack, Hugh Glass was involved in at least four separate Indian skirmishes where some of his companions were killed, but he survived them all. See Arikara Battle page, Grizzly Attack page and Quest for Revenge page for more details. Glass continued in the fur trade for the next ten years and was eventually killed by Arikara Indians in 1833 on the Yellowstone River. See Later Life page for more details on his fur trade career.
Who was Fitzgerald and did Hugh Glass kill him?
Glass did not kill or fight Fitzgerald. Very little is known about John Fitzgerald. However, he was a real person, was on the Henry expedition, and was probably one of two men who abandoned Glass after the grizzly attack in the summer of 1823. After leaving Glass, Fitzgerald and a second man (maybe Jim Bridger) caught up with Andrew Henry on the Yellowstone River in what is now North Dakota. Later in the fall of 1823, Fitzgerald accompanied Mosses Harris down river to Fort Atkinson near what is now Omaha, Nebraska. Interestingly, they probably unknowingly passed Hugh Glass on his way up river on a quest to find Fitzgerald. On April 19, 1824, John Fitzgerald enlisted in the army at Fort Atkinson and served until his commission expired five years later. Hugh Glass eventually caught up with Fitzgerald at Fort Atkinson in June of 1824, but did not kill him, likely because Fitzgerald was now a soldier. But Glass did get his gun back which Fitzgerald had taken when he abandoned Glass. See Timeline, Map and Quest for Revenge pages for more details.
Who was Andrew Henry and was he killed by Fitzgerald?
Fitzgerald did not kill Andrew Henry. Shortly after Lewis & Clark returned sparking interest in the fur trade of the west, Henry led a brigade from 1809-1811 through unknown parts of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. In 1822, Andrew Henry and William Ashley formed a company to trap and trade for beaver on the upper Missouri River. At the time Henry was one of the most experienced mountain men and field leaders especially on the upper Missouri River. Henry was leading a brigade from Fort Kiowa to Fort Henry on the Yellowstone River overland in 1823 when Hugh Glass was attacked by the grizzly. Henry spent two years in the field leading the partnership on the upper Missouri River from 1822-1824, before retiring from the fur trade. See “Traders to Trappers: Andrew Henry and the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade,” Montana: The Magazine of Western History, V. 43, No. 1, and No. 3 Winter/Summer 1993.
Who was Jim Bridger, how young was he, and what happened to him?
Jim Bridger was one of the original 100 enterprising young men that William Ashley and Andrew Henry assembled in 1822 to fur trap and trade on the upper Missouri River. This was the start of what would become the Rocky Mountains fur trade, mountain men, rendezvous era that lasted until 1840 and opened the American west. At 18, Bridger was probably the youngest of that initial group, although most of the others were just in their early twenties. By the time Hugh Glass came up river in 1823, Bridger already had a year experience in the wilderness. He would go on to become one of the most famous mountain men and is thought to be the only one to attend all 16 annual mountain rendezvous. He stayed in the mountains almost his entire life and died in Missouri in 1881 at age 77. See Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal – Volume 11 and Jim Bridger by Cecil Alter for more information.
Did Jim Bridger abandon Hugh Glass?
Maybe. Jim Bridger was on the Henry expedition when Glass was mauled by the grizzly and he could have been one of the two men left to take care of Glass. However, the two men left with Glass are not named until Edmund Flagg identified them as Fitzgerald and Bridges in 1839. Jim Bridger is not identified with the incident until Hiram Chittenden names him is 1902, 79 years after the attack. See Jim Bridger page for a recent in-depth analysis.
What was the Rocky Mountain Fur Company?
In the Revenant movie, Henry and his brigade are employed by the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Company. In reality, the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Company did not form until 1830, seven years later. In 1823, the company was named the Henry & Ashley Company and there is a direct chain to the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Company. Henry quit the fur trade in 1824. In 1825, William Ashley took Jedediah Smith on as a partner to creating the Ashley & Smith Company. In 1826, the company was sold to Jedediah Smith, David Jackson and William Sublette forming the Smith Jackson & Sublette Company. And in 1830, the company was sold to Thomas Fitzpatrick, Milton Sublette, Jim Bridger, Henry Fraeb, & Jean Baptiste Gervais forming the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Company. That company dissolved in 1834. See the Fur Trade and Rendezvous of the Green River Valley.
Did the real events of the Revenant take place in the mountains during the winter?
Hugh Glass was attacked by the grizzly bear on the Grand River in what is now South Dakota. The brigade continued on to Fort Henry on the Yellowstone River in what is now North Dakota and then on to the Big Horn River in what is now Montana by September. Hugh Glass went down river to Fort Kiowa in what is now South Dakota arriving in early October. So most of the events took place in the summer and along the river in the open planes not in high mountains. However, Glass did go back up river to find Fitzgerald and arrived at Fort Henry on the Big Horn on January 1, 1824 so he would have travelled in the winter and possibly through snow, but not over high mountains. At Fort Henry, Glass was told Fitzgerald had already returned to Fort Atkinson, so Glass left Fort Henry on February 29, 1824 traveling up the Powder River and down the Platte River to Fort Atkinson in what is now Nebraska. The early part of this trip would have been over some rugged country in winter, but nothing like shown in the Revenant. See Timeline page and Map page for more detail.
What was the fort in the Revenant and where was it located?
The Fort in the Revenant movie is probably a combination of Fort Kiowa and Fort Henry. The film implies the brigade is based out of Fort Kiowa and is returning down river to Fort Kiowa when the grizzly attack occurred. However, near the end the Frenchman arrives and says the man with the canteen was about 15 miles away on the Yellowstone River which better fits Fort Henry. The first Fort Henry was located on the Missouri River at the mouth of the Yellowstone River. The second Fort Henry was located on the Big Horn River at the mouth of the Little Big Horn. Both are at least 400 miles up river from Fort Kiowa which was located near the mouth of the White River. In the real story, the Henry brigade had left Fort Kiowa and was heading up the Grand River and overland to Fort Henry on the Yellowstone to avoid the Arikara village, located a few miles upriver from the mouth of the Grand River. See Map page and Timeline page.
Was there a fight with the Arikara and who were the Ree?
Yes. In 1823, the Arikara Indians, often called Ree by the mountain men, had earth lodge villages on the banks of the Missouri River a few miles up river from the mouth of the Grand River. From their location on a big bend the Arikara could control up river travel. In June, 1823 William Ashely camped near the Arikara villages to trade for horses. Before Ashley could leave, a fight ensued with 14 Ashley men killed and 11 wounded. Arikara losses are thought to be 5 to 8. Hugh Glass was wounded in the leg. Once the survivors got to the boats, they drifted down stream to the Grand River and eventually back tracked to Fort Kiowa. They did not abandon the boats as shown in the movie. When Henry arrived from up river, Ashley and Henry decided to send Henry back up the Grand River and over land to Fort Henry to avoid the Arikara. See Arikara Battle for more details.