John Potts
Private John Potts was a German-born soldier from Pennsylvania who served in the Corps of Discovery. A capable and reliable member of the expedition, he was frequently assigned to hunting and scouting parties. Potts became a fur trapper after the expedition, partnering with fellow Corps veteran John Colter in the upper Missouri country. In 1808, while trapping on the Jefferson River near Three Forks, Potts and Colter were ambushed by Blackfeet warriors. Potts was killed in the confrontation, while Colter was stripped naked and forced to run for his life in the famous "Colter's Run."
Biography
John Potts (1776-c. 1808) was a German immigrant who served as a private in the Corps of Discovery. A skilled miller by trade, Potts was a steady, reliable member of the expedition.
Potts is best known for his tragic death after the expedition. In 1808, while trapping with John Colter on the Jefferson River near Three Forks, Montana, they were ambushed by a party of Blackfeet. Potts, wounded by arrows, shot and killed one warrior before being killed himself — his body was dragged ashore and “hacked to pieces,” according to Colter, who narrowly escaped with his life in his famous naked run.
Potts’s death underscored the dangerous legacy of the Lewis and Clark Expedition for the Blackfeet, who remained hostile to American trappers for decades after Lewis’s violent encounter with their people in July 1806.
