Going to Buffalo: Indian Hunting Migrations Across the Rocky Mountains: Part 1, Making Meat and Taking Robes Author(S): William E

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Going to Buffalo: Indian Hunting Migrations across the Rocky Mountains: Part 1, Making Meat and Taking Robes Author(s): William E. Farr Source: Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Vol. 53, No. 4 (Winter, 2003), pp. 2-21 Published by: Montana Historical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4520559 Accessed: 22/03/2010 01:40

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Indian Hunting Migrations across the Rocky Mountains

Part 1, Making Meat and Taking Robes .

Forcenturies, Indian people fromwest of the: RockyMountains crossed the Continental.c Divide to hunt buffaloon the short-grass _ plainsnear the Missouri,Yellowstone, and > MusselshellRivers of present-dayMontana. This mid-nineteenth-centurywatercolor, paintedby an unknownartist and collected c byJesuit FatherPierre-Jean De Smet, depicts a buffalosurround into which bison arebeing driven.When trappedin . the pound, or corral,at the end, many animalscould be killed at one time.The z bison design shownat top rightis adapted froma Crowshield circa1850. < Al

. MONTANA THE MAGAZINE OF WESTERN HISTORY

ong before Lewis and Clark broughtatten- how frequently they traveled to the plains remain open tion to the Cokahlarishkit,"the river of the roadto questions; there was an enormous sweep of mountainous buffaloe"(now known as the Big Blackfoot River), and broken terrain to be negotiated; there were multiple in July 1806, mounted cavalcades of Indian people from thoroughfares, interconnected trails, pathways, and pas- west of the Rocky Mountains made their way eastward to sages; and, finally, these migrations into buffalo country hunt buffalo for food and hides on the short-grass plains were intrusions into territories occupied by other tribes. near the Missouri, Yellowstone, and Musselshell Rivers. These territories,however, were so familiarto the western Traveling over great distances, caravans of men, women, peoples through long experience as to establish their own and children, amid crowds of dogs, herds of horses, and claims to the plains herds. As a consequence, the buffalo the clatter of travois, crossed the high, windswept passes country was fought over or reluctantly shared as an estab- punctuating the Continental Divide. As they went, they lished buffalo commons. Set off against a backdrop of tele- frequently rendezvoused with other tribes or picked up scoping and overwhelming change in the nineteenth additional numbers of equestrian hunters.' century,this contested but common ground would become Coming from the distant reaches of the a focal point for a complicated and on-going Columbia Plateau and the tangle of moun- At stake was not "bison diplomacy." tain rangesin what would become Idaho and Montana, these western Indians competed only access to THE ENTERPRISE of going to buffalo gener- of written and oral for access to the immense herds of migrating buffalo... but ated some eighty years buffalo with a welter of plains people, espe- testimony. Most of this intriguing record, cially those belonging to Blackfoot-speaking also bootyin the however,is preserved from the perspective of white observerswho noted the Indian tribes and their allies, the Gros Ventres and horses, migra- Sarcees. They also encountered Crows and form of tions only casually.The experiences, inten- then, later, the Plains Crees, Gros Ventres, guns, and tions, and voices of Indian people seldom and, of course, the expansive Sioux.2 This women. appear. As with their trails, Indian voices, ferce competition did not deter the bison- even when translated and recorded, are too hunting Indians from the Pacific Slope. f^ often indirect, misunderstood, incomplete, They possessed an absolute passion for what or muted. Nonetheless, Indian experiences was called, in nineteenth-century hunting in going to buffalo were recognized by parlance,"going to buffalo."Not to be deterred,they would contemporaries as sophisticated and necessary.And while continue these hunts until the early 188os, when increased causation or agency may be difficult to assign in specific hunting had nearly exterminatedthe American bison, even instances, the general outlines of these undertakings are in its last sanctuaries on the northern plains.3 clear enough. Functioning as extended families, acting in It is not easy to generalize about any aspect of this epic concert as tribal entities with distinct tribal alliances, the history of going to buffalo or about the migrations of the western buffalo hunters, whom Gabriel Franchere de- Pend d'Oreilles, Flatheads, Kootenais, Nez Perces, Sho- scribed in 1814 as "almost always on horseback and ... as shones, Spokanes, Coeur d'Alenes, and the "infinitude of nomadic as Tartars,"went to buffalo because of tangled northwestern fragments" who so obsessively hunted the braids of personal choice or sometimes out of simple animals. Large numbers participated, but how large and necessity.4

1. Numerous sources confirn the long-standing tradition of buffalo hunting by western Indians. As early as 1800 David Thompson has the 2. Together, three Blackfoot-speaking tribes, namely the Pikanis (Pie- Flatheads hunting buffalo and stealing horses across the Rocky Moun- gans) northern and southern, the Kainais (Bloods), and the Siksikas tains; Charles LeRaye corroborated Flathead buffalo hunting east of the (Blackfoot), made up the Blackfoot Nation, though the relationship was as well. Rocky Mountains in 1801. In his "Yellowstone Journal" fur trader sometimes extended to include the Gros Ventres and the Sarcees Francois-Antoine Larocque observed: The Flatheads "come every fall to The commonalities of the three tribes-who shared a common ancestry, them- the fort [forks] of the Missouri and thereabouts to kill Buffaloes of which language, heritage, and kinship-are captured by their references to there are none across that range of Mountains, dress Robes, dry meat with selves as Nisitapi, meaning "the real people" or "the original people." As which the[y] return as soon as the Winter sets in." David Thompson, for the English terms Blackfeet and Blackfoot, the first is used in the Travels in WesternNorth America, 1784-1812, ed. Victor G. Hopwood United States to designate the Southern Piegans and sometimes is erro- The (Toronto, 1971), 224; "TheJournal of Charles LeRaye," in South Dakota neously extended to include the Blackfoot-speakingtribes of Canada. Historical Collections, vol. 4 (Pierre, S. Dak., 1908), 175; "Yellowstone second term is used by Canadians to describe the Bloods, Northern Pie- Journal," Early Fur Trade on the Northern Plains: Canadian Traders gans, and the Blackfoot. Blackfeet and Blackfoot have often been used among the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians, 1738-1818, ed. W. Raymond interchangeably, especially in historical sources. Wood and Thomas D. Thiessen (Norman, 1985), 218-29. See also Barry 3. U.S. Department of War,Annual Report of the General of the Army Head- M. Gough, ed., The Journal ofAlexander Henry the Younger,1799-1814, 1869, Report Oct. 20, 1869 by Major-General W. S. Hancock, vol. 2 (Toronto, 1992), 523-26; and, of course, Gary E. Moulton, ed., The quarters Department of Dakota, 41st Cong., 2d sess., H. Doc. 1, pt. 2, Tales: Narratives Journals of Lewis and Clark Expedition, 13 vols. (Lincoln, 1983-2001), serial 1412, 64. See also Elizabeth Vibert, Traders' of 8:85, especially the entry for Thursday,July 3, 1806, which tells of the Cultural Encounters in the Columbia Plateau, 1807-1846 (Norman, Cokahlarishkit. 1997), 221 and chap. 7.

4 .

WINTER 2003 V WILLIAM E. FARR

ColumbiaPlateau picto- graphsbear witness to the long traditionof "goingto buffalo"among the tribes x f fromthe PacificSlope. The spearedman in the center hk 5~ tE:m~~~t maybe a victimof the inter- ^ tribalwarfare associated with bison-huntingforays onto the plains. *C

The western buffalo a. hunters and their support- ing entourageswere subject O- to an amazing number of variables, some attracting 4. them to buffalo country, some pushing them out of their accustomed routines and home territories. Only portions of the tribal peoples built militaryforts within tribalterritories, and encouraged committed themselves to the distant and uncertain enter- and guided overland emigrant travel.Government author- prise-and for good reason. Tribal populations changed ities asked for or assigned arbitrarytribal boundaries where erraticallyfrom 18oo to 1885 due to the impact of disease, there had been none. Officials aspired to create a more warfare, fluctuating game populations, and even the dis- visible, coercive, and consolidated indigenous tribalpolit- covery of gold. Family,band, and tribal allegiances shifted ical leadership. These efforts, marked by the Fort Laramie and were reconfigured at home. On the other side of the Treaty of 1851,were the first federal attempts to organize Rocky Mountains,a differentset of affiliationsappeared as and structure what the U.S. government saw as western escalating numbers of plains peoples fought, negotiated, chaos. These factors, among others, increasingly came to traded, and, above all, hunted buffalo. Animal and fish complicate the highly calibrated calculus of decision as populations, too, dwindled or shifted in response to factors western Indians contemplated the attractions of hunting inchoate and mutating. Game was capricious and unreli- buffalo. able. Buffalo, in particular,exercised a bewildering ability Going to buffalo had always meant more than just to disappear, only to appear again in unfathomable num- another opportunity in the nomadic subsistence cycle. The bers, or they drifted seasonally in movements with little sheer volume of availableprotein, the labor-intensive task discernible pattern.Thus, at the end of their long pilgrim- of "making meat," as well as the great distances traveled ages, westem Indians frequentlydiscovered the bison were and the acquisition of necessary organizationalskills, ren- elsewhere-farther south or east or north-and that the dered buffalo hunting significantly different from other long trailwent on.5 pursuits. Bison hunting distinguished itself in two other By the middle of the nineteenth century, the U.S. gov- critical ways-it allowed the hunters to trade buffalo robes ernment had arrivedon the northern plains and was peri- for guns, ammunition, and manufactured goods. Most odically interveningin the more-or-less contested hunting importantly,however, because buffalo hunting was done grounds with their twisting and temporary diplomacies. under essentially martialcircumstances, it was tantamount These federal interventions took the form of exploratory to war.And while intertribalwar was not the motivation of expeditions,treaty negotiations, and militaryforce. The U.S. the hunters, they did not shy away from it. government licensed those who traded with the Indians, Once across the Rocky Mountains, the western bison hunters, who generally enjoyed a surprising degree of 4. GabrielFranchere, Journal of a Voyageon theNorth WestCoast of intertribal peace at home, especially on the Columbia NorthAmerica during the Years 1811, 1812, 1813 and 1814, ed. W.Kaye Plateau, engaged in bitter and bloody fights with plains Lamb(Toronto, 1969), 150. tribes. At stake was not only access to buffalo and conflict- 5. ElliottWest, "The Way to the West,"in Essayson the CentralPlains (Albuquerque,1995), 72-79; WilliamA. Dobak,"Killing the Canadian ing notions of territory, but also booty in the form of Buffalo,1821-1881," WesternHistorical Quarterly, 27 (Spring 1996), horses, guns, and women. It was a heroic world where 50-51. PieganelderJoe Bear Medicine related to me a traditionalstory, warriordeeds lived on in personal names-Strikes on Both whichalso appears in GeorgeBird Grinnell's Blackfoot Lodge Tales (New York,1892), 145-48, in whichNapi discovered how thebuffalo had mys- Sides, Takes Gun, Stabs Down, Comes at Night-a world teriouslydisappeared from the plains. that imparted status, wealth, and enduring fame. In Salish

5 MONTANA THE MAGAZINE OF WESTERN HISTORY

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Western tribes entered hostile territory when crossing the mountains to hunt buffalo, but they persisted in exchange for the opportunity to return home with plentiful meat and hides.Jesuit Father Nicholas Point portrayed a Flathead battle with the Blackfeet circa 1841-1846 in this drawing titled A Battle on the Plains with the Blackfeet (graphite on paper, 4X4"x 7").

the verb tcines-geilci, or "stealing horses," also meant the Nez Perces, asserted "that their forefathershad always "going to war."Justas the Salish speakersused these equiv- claimed and exercised the right of hunting on these 'debat- alents as they trooped across the Rocky Mountains to able lands,' and that while but even one of the Flathead buffalo and battles, so too did Blackfeetwar parties equate warriors remained alive, that right should not be relin- horses and war as they came west to raid. A Flathead chief, quished." The consequences of these "continued wars" whom noted Canadian explorer David Thompson nick- were evidently dreadful."Total annihilation," thought Cox, named Cartier, accurately described the situation at the would certainly have taken place shortly for the Salish, beginning of the nineteenth century.He informed Thomp- "but for our [the North West Company's] arrivalwith plen- son "[W]hen [we] go to hunt the Bison, we also preparefor tiful supply of 'villanous saltpeter'!"7 war with the Peeagans and their allies." This situation Captain BenjaminBonneville, in the Washington Irving would not change as the century progressed.6 rendition of his journals, also thought that although the Ross Cox, a clerk for the North West Company before Pend d'Oreilles in the i830s "continually [had] to wage he returned to Ireland in 1818, described this encompass- defensive warfare" on the headwaters of the Missouri, ing militancy in graphic terms "The Blackfeet,"he wrote, Snake, and Salmon Rivers, they could "never be driven to "lay claim to all that part of the country immediately at the abandon their hunting grounds." Though not as dramatic foot of the mountains, which is most frequented by the as Cox's account, the Hudson's Bay Company post jour- buffalo, and allege that the Flat-heads, by resorting thither nal, kept at Flathead Post along the Clark Fork River in to hunt, are intruders whom they are bound to oppose on all occasions." On the other hand, the Flatheads, and by 7. Ross Cox, TheColumbia River, or Scenesand Adventures,ed. E. I. StewartandJ. R. Stewart(Norman, 1957), 134-35. See alsoLawrence B. this term Cox included a number of Salish speakers and Palladino,Indian and Whitein theNorthwest (Lancaster, Pa., 1922), 2, concerningthe protectionof the huntingright as long as one warrior 6. JacquelinePeterson, Sacred Encounters: Father De Smet and the remainedalive. Indians of the RockyMountain West(Norman, 1993), 49; "Monthly 8. WashingtonIrving, The Adventures of CaptainBonneville, U.S.A., ed. Reports,"August 6, 1880, p. 80, entry 3A, vol. 2, BlackfeetAgency, EdgeleyW. Todd, rev.ed. (Norman,1986), 88; FlatheadPost journal, RecordGroup 75 (hereafterRG 75), Recordsof the Bureauof Indian 1824-1825, B 69/e/1l, Hudson's Bay CompanyArchives, Winnipeg, Affairs,National Archives, Rocky Mountain Region, Denver, Colorado; Saskatchewan. J. B. Tyrrell,ed., David Thompson'sNarrative of his Explorations in West- 9. AlexanderRoss, Adventuresof the First Settlerson the Oregonor ern America,1784-1812 (Toronto,1916), 533. See also Thompson, ColumbiaRiver, 1810-1813, ed. ReubenGold Thwaites,Early Western Travels,224; New YorkSun,January 8, 1899. Travels1748-1846, vol. 7 (Cleveland,1904), 215-16.

6 WINTER 2003 WILLIAM E. FARR

1824,explained how the Flatheads, i f: ;:? When Alexander Ross de- Pend d'Oreilles, Nez Perces, ;^f scribed the Nez Perces, allies of the 00 together with some Spokanes, " < Salish, he again spoke of this same traded there and then together . " priority,writing that their occupa- "roved" east of the mountains as x a tions were first war and only then they hunted buffalo. The journal's ! a buffalo hunting. Ross, a represen- author, Alexander Ross, also tative of the Hudson's Bay Com- related how these Pacific Slope 4'8 \ , pany,saw these as skewed priorities Indians, especially those from \ X and complained about Nez Perce within the Rocky Mountains, the I" self-reliance and their unwilling- more exposed Flatheads and Pend ," , ness to trap beaver for trade with · d'Oreilles, outnumbered and out- ;if --,~\ the whites. "I say independent, be- gunned, were often subject to cause their horses procured them Blackfeet attacks. Given this situ- and the buffaloes i guns ammunition; ation, Ross reported their usual provided them with food and priorities were not only upset but r clothing; and war gave them actually reversed, for "war is their ' ! renown." They needed nothing ' .1 trade, hunting their pastime only." " °"° more and were not about "to on this unfortunate Expanding ! submit to the drudgery of killing novelty, Ross pointedly remarked ) ^ beavers"and of "crawlingabout in K that "to such a height is war car- search of furs."9 ried on between them and their Going to buffalo,in other words, enemies, that their common safety will not admit of their required western Indians to transform themselves. They separating." Consequently, "while they generally tent were entering a new dispensation, a hostile geographical apart"now, even in their own territories, they coalesce as theater,where horse raiding,ambushes, organized warfare, one "againstthe common enemies of their country,namely and the need for military allies colored all decisions, priv- the Piegans and Blackfeet."8 ileged martial talents, and yet offered opportunities for

Many nineteenth-century observers questioned why western tribes did not content themselves with the abundance at home and avoid the clashes that occurred when they hunted buffalo on the plains. Above, Paul Kane's painting, Kettle Falls,

Fort Colville (no date, oil on paper, 8'/8" x 133/8"), illustrates one of the methods of trapping the salmon and other fish that were food staples of the Columbia River tribes. Camas, one of the primary plant food sources for the western tribes, is shown at top in a drawing by Gustavus Sohon.

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wealthunavailable at home. Given these altered conditions Hunger and want were not the sole motivations for andthe existence of whatwas termed "perpetual warfare," buffalo hunting. Some tribes viewed the buffalo plains as the westernIndians were "obliged," in FatherPierre-Jean "their"hunting grounds. After 1811,when the Salish and De Smet'swords, "to open theirway" into the territories Kootenais acquired guns from the traders of the North claimedby the Crowsand the Blackfeet,"arms in hand." West Company, these Indians resolutely attempted to The price of admissionto buffalocountry was high. Evi- recover the hunting grounds east of the mountains from dently not too high, however,for the western buffalo which they had been driven by various Blackfoot tribes. hunterspersisted in comingto the plainsseason after sea- With guns, as they related to David Thompson, "we no son to fight,hunt, trade, and socialize.'1 longer hide ourselves but have regained much of our This dogged determinationsurprised and puzzled country, hunt the Bisons for food and clothing, and have manyAnglo-European explorers and fur traders in thefirst good leather tents."2 Determined to "go to buffalo,"these half of the nineteenthcentury. Certainly the westernIndi- Indians expressed a righteous sense of entitlement, argu- ans huntedbuffalo for food and for the hides they then ing that "their fathers had always hunted on the buffalo tanned into sought-afterrobes; later they traded these grounds" and that they would as well.13 productsfor guns, tobacco, ammunition, and other manu- Less understandable was the allure of bison hunting facturedcommodities. Yet by accountafter account, such for the Salish and Shahaptin speakers farther away-on expeditionscost them dearlyin casualtiesand losses of the Columbia Plateau and as farwest as the eastern edge of horses and other possessions. To many of the whites the Cascade Mountains among the Yakamasand Sinkaieths reportingthese debilitating attacks, buffalo hunting seemed or Southern Okanagans. When had they become habitu- so unnecessary.If only the westernIndians would stayin ated to the sacred gift of the buffalo?Was it when the bison theirhome places,content with local abundance,be that were at home on the west side of the Continental Divide, salmonand otherfish, deer and elk, or berriesand roots, on the Snake Riverplains and the grasslandsof the Colum- theywould be betteroff. Yet eager contingents of far-flung bia River Plateau? Had they become so accustomed to tribesup and down the tributariesof the Columbiaand buffalo that later, as the marginal western buffalo ranges SnakeRivers were loath to entertaineven the ideaof stay- contracted in the mid-eighteenth century as a result of the ing home. introduction of the horse and more efficient hunting, they The LemhiShoshones demonstrated the cross-cultural simply followed the retreat east? Or was this interest in misunderstandinginherent in this explorer-furtrader buffalo a relativelynew development, sparked by an evolv- perspectiveregarding the easy availabilityof food. The ing horse and gun culture in the early nineteenth century? Lewisand Clark Expedition found the Shoshonesto be "in Father De Smet felt the first to be the case. He explained extreempoverty" in mid-Augustof 1805. Such a state how "now that the buffalo has disappeared from these existedbecause, although they subsisted on salmon,"this lands, the poor Indians are obliged to go and pass a portion firsheither perishes or returnsabout the 1stof September," of the year east of the Rocky Mountains in search of their andthe Shoshoneswere thus "compelled at this seasonin only means of subsistence."14 surchof subsistenceto resortto the Missouri,in thevallies If speculation abounded in regardto the distant Plateau of which thereis moregame even within the mountains." Indians, the case of the Kootenais,who lived near the forty- Movingslowly "in orderto collect andjoin otherbands 12. Thompson, Narrative, 463; Vibert, Trader Tales, 254. eitherof their own nation or the Flatheads,and having 13. Cox, Columbia River, 134-35. become sufficientlystrong," the Shoshones"venture on 14. De Smet, Life, Letters, and Travels,3:1187-88;James A. Teit, The the Easternside of the Mountainsinto the Salishan Tribesof the WesternPlateaus, ed. Franz Boas, Bureau of Ameri- Rockey plains can annual D.C., moved and Ethnology forty-fifth report (Washington, 1930), wherethe buffaloeabound." They cautiously 316-22; Anthony McGinnis, Counting Coup and Cutting Horses: Inter- needed such a criticalmass because of the presence of tribal Warfare on the Northern Plains, 1738-1889 (Evergreen, Colo., theirmore numerous enemies. we are once 1990), 9-10, 25. For buffalo ranges on the Plateau, especially in Spokane Still, told, they see Indian Tribes 33d of meatin the area, George Gibbs, of Washington Territory, have"acquired a good stock dryed plains," Cong., 2d sess., 1854, H. Doc. 91, reprinted as Indian Tribes of Wash- they alwaysreturned as soon as possible "to the moun- ington Territory(Fairfield, Wash, 1967), 21; and Francis D. Haines, "The Western Limits of the Buffalo Northwest 31 tainswhile theyconsume it." Range," Pacific Quarterly, (October 1940), 389-98. William C. Brown reported that there was the 10. Pierre-Jean De Smet, Life, Letters and Travels of Father Pierre- persistent opinion among Southern Okanagan elders that there were the Jean de Smet .. , ed. H. M. Chittenden and A. T. Richardson, 4 vols. buffalo in their country and that when Lewis and Clark came through (New York, 1905), 3:1187-88; Cox, Columbia River, 134-35; Frederick animals were to be found on the west side of the Rockies, in the region of A. Wislizenus, A Journey to the RockyMountains in the Year 1839 (St. the upper Snake River. GeneralJoel Palmer, a treaty commissioner at the Louis, 1912), 150; Lieutenant R. Saxton report, February 1854, in U.S. Walla Walla council, reminded the participants that "It is but a few years Department of War,Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the since there were a plenty [sic] of Buffalo at Fort Hall. William C. Brown, Most Practicable and Economical Routefor a Railroadfrom the Mississippi "Old Fort Okanogan and Okanogan Trail," OregonHistorical Quarterly, River to the Pacific Ocean, 33d Cong., 2d sess., S. Doc. 78, vol. 13, pt. 1, 15 (March 1914), 31; Darrell Scott, ed., Recordof the Official Proceedings serial 758, 259. at the Council in Walla Walla Valley by I. I. Stevens (Fairfield, Wash., 11. Moulton, ed., Journals of Lewis and Clark, 5:119-23. 1985), 52.

8 WINTER 2003 z WILLIAM E. FARR

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FatherPoint, who accompaniedSalish hunting parties in the 1840s,concluded that for the tribe"buffalo is ... somethingmore thanmanna in the dessert[sic]." He enumeratedthe multipleuses of the meat,hides, horns,hair, bones, and otherbison parts, documenting many of these in Women's Workafter the Hunt (circa 1841-1846, ink on paper, 4'/4" x 61/2").

ninth parallel,was clearer.Hudson's Bay Company trader more secure? It was particularly puzzling because, like Peter Fidler, writing as early as 1792, noted that there was Peter Fidler, the tradersdeemed the lands of the Columbia not a single buffalo on the west side of the Rocky Moun- Plateau and the mountain ranges and valleys west of the tains because they were "so steep and wide, that it appears Continental Divide to be abundant in fish, deer, elk, and like a high perpendicularWall across all these parts, which any number of roots and berries. Yet, however bountiful, infallibly prevents those useful animals to the Indians, it was not enough. which affords them both Food and Clothing, from going Francois-Antoine Larocque, the North West Company there."But if the buffalo could not get over the mountains fur trader who visited the Yellowstone River country in to the Kootenais, and never had, then the Kootenais would 1805, also puzzled over this contradiction. When describ- go to them-despite, as Fidler was quick to point out, the ing the Flatheads,Larocque wrote, they "inhabitethe West- greatnumbers of "JumpingDeer and the red Deer" and the ern side of the Rocky Mountains at the heads of Rivers that prevalence of rushing rivers "well stocked with fish of have a S. Western Course & flow in the Western Ocean." which these severalTribes who inhabit those parts are fond He went on to note that the Flatheads, possessing large of and eat a great deal of them."'15 numbers of horses and lacking buffalo, traveled long dis- As far as the early fur traderswere concerned, this his- tances to the forks of the Missouri River every fall to hunt. toricalspeculation as to the origins of bison hunting by the If successful, they dried or "made meat"there and dressed western Indians was of little interest.What interested them robes and then trekked back across the Rocky Mountains was why the outnumbered and outgunned participants as soon as winter arrived.They do this, said Larocque, in persisted so tenaciously in going to buffalo. Why did they spite of having fish as well as "deers of different kinds on not stay on the west side of the mountains where they were their lands and beaver with which they make themselves Robes, but they prefer Buffaloes."In other words, as far as 15. PeterFidler, Journal of a Journeyover Land from Buckingham Houseto theRocky Mountains in 1792 & 3, ed. BruceHaig (Lethbridge, Larocque was concerned, going to buffalo was a matter of Alberta,1990), 47. choice. The decision was not made out of necessity as the

9 MONTANA THE MAGAZINE OF WESTERN HISTORY next seasonal step in a subsistence cycle, but rather was Cox had similarcomments to make about the Flatheads' done out of simple preference. In all other respects, the neighbors to the north, the Kootenais. "Buffalois the cause Flatheads represented their country to the traders as in of all of their misfortunes,"he wrote, for although "their every way superior,"so very good thatwhat fruittrees groes lands abound in plenty of other animals, their hereditary here as shrubs are there tall trees."16 attachmentto the buffalo is so unconquerable, that it drives In 1814 Ross Cox, speculating as to why the Flatheads them every year to the plains, where they come in contact continued to go to buffalo, determined "The only cause with the Blackfeet."Unfortunately for the Kootenais and assigned by the natives of whom I write, for their perpet- the Flatheads, even after forging close alliances and stick- ual warfare,is their love of buffalo."Nor did this desire for ing together for mutual security, the Blackfeet still over- buffalo abate. As late as the 1870osFather Jerome D'Aste, whelmed them, killing many and stealing their horses and who worked for many years among the Salish at Kettle goods. In spite of this, the Salish and Kootenais "always Falls on the Columbia and among the Flatheads, Pend return"said Cox, but, as he also noted, ruefully,in "dimin- d'Oreilles, and the Nez Perces in the BitterrootValley, was ished numbers."'9 of the opinion that however inimical bison hunting may Some twenty years later, in the 1840os,Jesuit Father have been to his mission, he and his fellow Jesuits were Nicolas Point, who, hoping to continue teaching his spiri- powerless. "The passion for buffalo is a regular fever tual lessons, tagged along with Salish hunting parties on among them," he said, "and could not be stopped."'17 their distant winter and summer buffalo hunts, tried to Ross Cox too had trouble believing such migrations explain the attraction of buffalo hunting in another way. were necessary.Agreeing with the assessment of his North The Flathead determinationto go to buffalo had to do with West Company colleague Alexander Ross, Cox felt the pas- nutrition. Buffalo flesh, he wrote, can be the staff of life- sion for buffalo was one of choice. "The lands of the Flat- it can take the place of all other food, especially the flesh of heads are well stocked with deer, mountain sheep, bears, the cow, for, as with bread, "one never tires of it." Then, wild fowl, and fish,"he wrote, "but when we endeavored to after enumerating the multiple uses of the meat, hide, induce them to give up such dangerous expeditions, and horns, hair, bones, and even bladder, Father Point con- confine themselves to the produce of their own country, cluded: "The buffalo is for the Indian ... something more they replied that their fathers had always hunted on the than manna in the dessert [sic]. Hence, all his efforts are buffalo grounds; that they were accustomed to do the same bent towardsprocuring the buffalo.I almost said that all his thing from their infancy; and they would not now abandon desires are directed toward the buffalo. For there is no a practice which had existed for several generations among fatigue he will not endure, no enemy he will not defy, no their people."'18 form of death he will not face to get the great beasts."20

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Father Point recorded three methods of hunting buffalo in Tactics of the Hunt (circa 1841-1847, ink on paper, 43/4" x 38")- herding bison over a cliff or "jump," driving them into a pound, and stalking them on foot or horseback.

10 WINTER 2003 'c' WILLIAM E. FARR

!i~. >?.' Because the Blackfeet claimed the buffalo plains as their own, western tribes A 2 often formed military alliances before venturing |?9/ii, forth. In The First to Arrive (circa 1841-1847, ink on

paper, 4/4" x 6 1/4"), Father i-- , l. Point depicted five Salish soldiers charging into battle :~ 1p^~i.: against a much larger Black- feet force.

The western Indians, however passionate in their pur- to hunt the buffalo. In Washington Irving's Astoria, the suit of buffalo, were not as foolhardy as Father Point sug- Shoshones, now that they had "horse to ride and weapon gested. Hoping to equalize the Blackfeet advantage in to wear,"were also using this military tactic as they boldly numerical terms and, at least early on, in guns, various reentered the bison country. Consequently, in the late fall, tribal entities established elaborate military alliances with Irving wrote, "[W]hen salmon disappear from the rivers, each other before venturing forth.21 The Kootenais, for and hunger begins to pinch, they venture down into their example, who "like the Flat-heads, were perpetually ancient hunting grounds about the forks of the Missouri to engaged in war with the Black-feetfor the right of hunting make a forayamong the buffaloes."24As late as 1841,Father on the buffalo grounds," had long attached themselves to De Smet reported some Shoshones would have little food the Flatheads and Nez Perces in spite of their linguistic other than roots "if some hunting parties did not occa- differences.And once these allianceswere formed, Captain sionally pass beyond the mountains in pursuit of buffalo, Bonneville, as had Alexander Henry the Younger before while a part of the tribe proceeds along the banks of the him, reported thatjoining these alliances was preferableto Salmon River,to make provisions for the winter, at the sea- remainingwith the old people "alone at home, exposed to son when the fish come up from the sea."And more often the outragesof the Blackfeet"as they raided west across the than not, when the Shoshone bison hunters did so, as mountains.22Moreover, these peoples agreed that none of Lewis and Clarkhad reported some thirty-fiveyears earlier, them would make peace with the Blackfeet until the latter they were in the company of allies, such as the Flatheads.25 "shall permit them to hunt without molestation on the Such alliances notwithstanding, the western Indians buffalo plains."23The Flatheads told Cox that with guns still moved down from the passes into the upper Mis- and allies from among the Salish speakers and Nez Perces, souri region cautiously-it was, afterall, contested ground. they hoped to be able to cross the mountains each summer Irving described their excursions as brief and hurried,

16. Larocque,"YellowstoneJournal," 218-29. 23. Cox, ColumbiaRiver, 264. When describingthe Kootenais,Cox 17. Cox,Columbia River, 134;Jerome D'Aste, "Historical Notes on the wrote:"As with the Flatheads,buffalo is the cause of all their misfor- FlatheadMission," n.d., folder1: 10,Jerome D'Aste, S.J., PersonalPapers tunes;for although.... theirlands abound in plentyof otheranimals, their Collection,Jesuit Oregon Province Archives, Gonzaga University, hereditaryattachment to the buffalois so unconquerable,that it drives Spokane,Washington (hereafterJesuit Oregon Province Archives). them everyyear to the plains,where they come into contactwith the 18. Cox,Columbia River, 135. Also see Palladino,Indian and White,2. Blackfeet.... They havelatterly entered into a kindof alliance,offensive 19. Cox, ColumbiaRiver, 264. anddefensive, with the Flatheads,by whichthey have agreed that neither 20. NicolasPoint, Wilderness Kingdom: Indian Life in theRocky Moun- partyshall make peace with the Black-feet until the latter shall permit them tains: 1840-1847, TheJournals and Paintingsof FatherNicolas Point, to huntwithout molestation on the buffaloplains. As thisis a concession S. J., trans.JosephP. Donnelly (New York,1967), 120;JohnJ.Killoren, not likelyto be granted,it is probablethat the war will terminateonly with "Come,Blackrobe": De Smetand theIndian Tragedy(Norman, 1994), 35. the exterminationof one or otherof the parties."Ibid. 21. The furtraders favored the Flatheadswith guns-so muchso that 24. WashingtonIrving, Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprisebeyond the by 1824 the earlyBlackfeet advantage in gunsbegan to shift.At Flathead RockyMountains, ed. EdgeleyW. Todd (Norman,1964), 253. Post one bandin 1824 had "180 guns to 168 'men and lads.'"Vibert, 25. Pierre-JeanDe Smet, Lettersand Sketcheswith a Narrativeof a Trader'sTales, 215. Year'sResidence among the Indian Tribesof the RockyMountains, ed. 22. Cox, ColumbiaRiver, 263; Irving,Adventures of CaptainBonne- Reuben Gold Thwaites, EarlyWestern Travels, 1748-1846, vol. 27 ville, 144. (Cleveland,1905), 163.

11 The Salishwarrior Ambrose recorded his own storyin this drawing(above, circa 1840-1847, ink on paper,7'/2" x 9 1/2"). Afterbreaking his bow,Ambrose pretended to be a Blackfeet and trickedone of the enemyinto climbingonto his horse, whereuponAmbrose killed the manwith his own rifle.

accompanied by "fear and trembling."Even having exercised considerablewariness, "as soon as they have collected and jerked sufficient buffalo meat for winter provisions, they pack their horses, abandon the dangerous hunting grounds, and hasten back to the mountains, happy if they have not the terrible Blackfeet rattlingafter them."26 they can get no roots, and the fish leave the Jocko and go Commonly the western bison hunters traversed the into deep water for winter."29 mountains to hunt buffalo two or three times a year, once The Southern Okanagans, Spokanes, and Coeur "in April, for the bulls, from which they returninJune and d'Alenes, so reliant upon salmon, left in August, after the July,"according to George G. Gibbs in his 1853 report for "principal root and berry crops, and after the Salmon had Isaac I. Stevens, the head of the Northern Pacific Railroad been put up."30Then too, they had farther to travel and Survey, "and another, after about a month's recruit, to kill needed to start earlierif they were to coordinate with allies cows, which have by that time become fat."27The first closer to the plains. For those closer, as were the Kootenais, Flathead Indian agent installed after the 1855 Hell Gate who even went to buffalo on snowshoes in winter, they Treaty,R. H. Lansdale, concurred, adding that while the Salish started in August or September, they did not return 28. U.S. Departmentof the Interior,Annual Reportof the Commis- until December or even March, spending at least half the sionerofIndian Affairs, 1857, ReportNo. 154, Sept.22, 1857by Flathead AgentR. H. Lansdale,35th Cong., 1st sess., S. Doc.11, serial 919, year in buffalo country, only to return when the grass had 663-69. See alsoFather Michael Accolti to Roothaan,February 28,1850, greened up.28 Other observers, including Father Point, in Recollectionsof theFlathead Mission, by GregoryMengarini, trans. and described the Flathead winter hunts as beginning in ed. GloriaRicci Lothrop (Glendale, Calif., 1977), 208 n. 1. 29. U.S. Departmentof the Interior,Annual Report of the Commis- December. Still others had the Pend d'Oreilles and Flat- sionerof IndianAffairs, 1870, ReportNo. 62, August10, 1870, byFlat- heads departing as soon as "the ground becomes frozen so headAgentGeo. E. Ford,41st Cong.,3d sess.,H. Doc. 1, serial1449, 660. 30. WalterCline, "Religionand WorldView," in The Sinkaietkor SouthernOkanagon of Washington,ed. Leslie Spier,General Series in 26. Ibid.;Irving, Astoria, 253. AnthropologyNo. 6 (Menasha,Wisc., 1938), 155. See alsoTeit, Salishan 27. Gibbs,Indian Tribes,21. Tribes,61.

12 ~ Ci~ _ Iv:~' ' E

The gra7t tl tsedvad I S

i in Viewof the o e h o t ag

on theillusThe greatContinental trails tor inDivide. Viewbuffalofthe One such groundk's river,Fodescribe shownand above, bytheRidge was ofiMountaithe Clar oftenFork, followed depicted west-flowing byFirathead a Northernthe Lake, rivers Pacific Loohing to Railroad East.ers Survey illustrator in View of the Clark's Fork and the Ridge of Mountains, South of the Flathead Lake, Looking East.

were reported in 1859 by John "Scotty" Linklater, Hud- passage, eastward of the Saleesh or Flathead Lake."This son's Bay Company trader in the Tobacco Valley,to hunt must have been either Marias Pass, referred to by James buffaloacross the ContinentalDivide as frequentlyas every Doty as early as 1854 as a formerly well-traveled pass, or two months.31Clearly there were a great many differences Cut Bank Pass, which Doty indicated saw considerable as well as a good deal of improvisation as to when to leave, use during his time-"probably by the Pend d'Oreilles and when to return, and with whom. Kootenaies, who come through to hunt buffalo."The Sal- The routes and trails to the buffalo plains commonly ish and Kootenais also used a host of passes in what is followed the banks of the west-flowing rivers to their now Glacier National Park, including Logan Pass, which remote headwaters on the Continental Divide. Which of the Kootenais termed "Packs Pulled Up" because of the these riverside trails travelersselected depended upon the need to climb over a final steep rock step. North of the point of departure,the time of year,water levels, and food Canadian boundary, Kootenai and Salish people used availablealong the way. In the time of David Thompson, Kootenai Pass and South Kootenay Pass, accessed by the the Salish "crossed the Mountains by a wide defile of easy Grave Creek Trail that was the principal "buffalo trail" from the Tobacco Plains. As for the Coeur d'Alenes, 31. Thibodo, of Dr. Thibodo of the AugustusJ. "Diary AugustusJ. and Southern "went a short NorthwestExploring Expedition, 1859," Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Spokanes, Okanagans,they by 31 (July1940), 330. trail over the Bitterroots, returning in April by Kalispel

13 MONTANA THE MAGAZINE OF WESTERN HISTORY

River[Clark Fork River] where the snow goes off earlyin Fork River, angling south to enter the expansive plains of the spring,and grass for horses is abundant."Again, Flat- the Deer Lodge Valley.Once in the valley,there were more head agentLansdale remarked how "IndianTribes from choices to be made. The bison hunters could either exit fartherwest in greatnumbers crossed the Flathead territory south over the easy ramps of Deer Lodge Pass into the Big on theirway to buffalo."The sameIndians who went to Hole country and out onto the plains via "the Jefferson buffalo last March, he noted, were "arriving'from buffalo' fork of the Missouri,"a route known to Isaac Stevens as the and continuing to pour in a great stream through the Hell "main Flathead Trail,"or they could climb the rocky route gate pass westward till about April loth." They had spent to Pipestone Pass, before descending slowly into the grass- an entire year on the plains. Lansdale also noted that many lands on their way to the Three Forks of the Missouri.33 of the Nez Perces and others were in no particularhurry. It was also common to leave the bowl of the Hell Gate They stopped in the Bitterrootand Hell Gate [ClarkFork] Ronde, the large, circular valley on the west side of the Valleys to dig bitterroot before "returning to their own Hell Gate, by traveling directly south up the Bitterroot country over the BitterrootRange." The majorityof those Valley,following the river until reaching the crosshatched not belonging to the Flatheads or Nez Perces had come divides separating the Big Hole Valley from the Salmon earlier, crossing "the Flathead River at this agency [near River,and then, once in the Big Hole, descending the easy present-dayArlee]" and heading west down the ClarkFork grades and drainages east to the Three Forks. There were River towardhome. Yet, while many bands were returning many variations and shortcuts too. A favoritewas to head in April, others, such as the upper Pend d'Oreilles, up the Bitterroot Valley and then cut over the Sapphire reported Lansdale, were just starting out on their trek "to Range to the Clark Fork River via SkalkahoPass. In addi- pass to bulls" on the east side.32 tion, there were the Northern and Southern Nez Perce Whether they came up the Clark Fork River from Lake Trails and the Great Bannock Trail through the northern Pend d'Oreille or by routes, including the precursor of the part of what would become YellowstoneNational Parkand Mullan Military Road, that ran east from the Columbia any number of trails following the upper reaches of the River Plateau across the Bitterroot Mountains, the scat- Snake River plains. tered tribes collected in the corridors of the Bitterrootand These are "the great hunting trails" that Father Point Clark Fork Valleys. Again and again, these valleys func- described in the mid-184os. They were made and remade, tioned as great thoroughfares that hunting expeditions he said, by the almost continuous driving of hundreds, if used as assembly places, rest stops and supply depots not thousands of horses over them. Described as "roads" before setting off up the "the river of the road to buffaloe," by fur traders, these trailswere furtherrutted by the drag- the Big Blackfoot River, to Cadotte's Pass. ging of lodge poles and numerous travoisbehind laboring Lieutenant Rufus Saxton, leading one of the western horses. "Each wigwam counted usually seven or eight arms of the 1853 Stevens railroad survey, arrived at the persons, and these, togetherwith theirprovisions, required famous Hell Gate on the Clark Fork River in August. The the use of about twenty horses." Even relatively small Hell Gate, Saxton wrote, "is said by the Indians, to be the parties would create as many as "fifteen parallel trails"as best and almost only entrance to the pass through the they "wound between two chains of mountains which Rocky mountains north of Pierre's Hole." The lengthy sometimes drew together to offer a view at close range of Hell Gate Canyon cut by the ClarkFork or Hell Gate River what was most majestic about the wilderness, sometimes led eventuallyto thejuncture of the ClarkFork and its trib- separated to reveal a series of infinitely varied and distant utary,the Little Blackfoot River.From there the pack trains perspectives."34 of "the Nez Perce, Pend d'Oreilles, Flatheads and other Trapper Warren Ferris described such a parade of a tribes of the mountains ... with their families and proper- hundred-plus lodges of Pend d'Oreilles traveling up the ties "could follow the smaller stream due east and opt for Clark Fork River: Fancy to yourself, reader,"he asked, the Hell Gate, Medicine Rock, or French Woman's Passes three thousand horses of every variety of size and on the Continental Divide above Helena. Old- present-day colour,with trappingsalmost as variedas theirappear- timers sometimes called this trail the Vermillion Road ance, eitherpacked or riddenby a thousandsouls from because Indians gathered red paint along what was later squallinginfancy to decrepid [sic] age, their persons termed Tenmile Creek. Or, instead of following the Little fantasticallyornamented with scarletcoats, blankets of Blackfoot, the bison hunters could continue up the Clark all colors, buffalo robes painted with hideous little

33. Saxton report, in U.S. Department of War,Reports of Explorations, 32. Thompson, Narrative, 370-71;James Doty report, December 15, 260;John Owen,Journals and Letters ofMajorJohn Owen, ed. Seymour 1854, in U.S. Department of War,Reports of Explorations, 548; Teit, Sal- Dunbar and Paul C. Phillips, 2 vols. (New York, 1927), 1:30; DeerLodge ishan Tribes,61; "Report of June 30,1856 by Flathead Agent Dr. Richard (Mont. Territory)New North-West, October 14, 1871; Helena (Mont.) H. Lansdale," roll 22, microcopy M5 (hereafter M5), Washington Super- Daily Record, November 3, 1939; Isaac I. Stevens to A. W. Tinkham, intendency, 1853-1874, RG 75, National Archives, Washington D.C. October 3,1853, in U.S. Department of War,Reports of Explorations, 64. (hereafter NA). 34. Point, WildernessKingdom, 42-43.

14 WINTER 2003 'C' WILLIAM E. FARR

Huntersfollowing the ClarkFork River passed throughthe narrowHell GateCanyon, then had the choice of thre majorroutes to the buffaloplains, including one along the Big BlackfootRiver and over Cadotte'sPass. This NorthernPacific Railroad Survey illustration is called Hell Gate Entrance to Cadotte's Pass from the West.

figures, resemblinggrasshoppers ... and sheepskin serving up for themselves a rich repast; and around the dresses garnishedwith porcupine quills, beads, hawk high blazing fires were to be seen roasting the fat tender- bells, and humanhair.... Listen to the rattleof num- loin ribs, and all the choice pieces of the buffalo, in addi- berlesslodgepoles trailed by packhorses,to the various tion to the many ducks killed during the day."Enjoying noises of children women and screaming, scolding, such an abundance of wood and more meat than they dogs howling. Observe occasional frightenedhorses could eat, "they sat up half the night around the runningaway and scatteringtheir loads overthe prairie campfires,"cooking and telling each other stories of earlier ... and in every direction crowds of hungry dogs trips and formerdeeds. No wonder so many of the western chasingand worrying... smallanimals. Imagine these scenes with all theirbustle, vociferation and confusion, Indians opted to go to buffalo. For those that made the lightedby flashesof hundredof gleaminggun-barrells, long trek east, hunting buffalowas a fascinatingand addict- upon which the raysof a ferventsun areplaying... and ing experience.36 you havea faintidea of the characterand aspect of our Such expeditions continued into the late 187os. Wesley march.35 Merritt, a U.S. cavalry officer, reported after visiting the Missoula Valley that "Indians to the number of from two Descriptions of camp life on the plains in the summer thousand to three thousand are in the habit of passing of 1853 by Lieutenant John Mullan, a member of the through the settlements at least twice a year, on their way Stevens railroad survey, began with the declaration that to and from the hunting grounds to the southeast."These "this was a grand season for the Indians."Late in the warm were the Nez Perces and other tribes from the Lapwai summerevenings, almost arcticin length, there were scenes agency in Idaho and the Pend d'Oreilles and Kootenais of "of feasting and good cheer."Having killed an abundance the Flathead reservation,although of the "twenty-fivehun- of buffalo during the day, "the Indians had no difficulty in dred or three thousand," the Flatheads were only "about

35. WarrenAngus Ferris,Life in the RockyMountains, 1830-1835, ed. 36. John Mullanreport,January 20,1854, in U.S. Departmentof War, Leroy R. Hafen (Denver, 1983), 182. Reportsof Explorations,306.

15 MONTANA THE MAGAZINE OF WESTERN HISTORY

eNolhRocky Mountains, tyieWestnP P atu, and th;

five hundred strong."They alwayshave with them, Colonel a Yakamawoman and whose son was the great Yakama Merrittwrote, "fromthree thousand to four thousand head chief Kamiahkin, said that he did not "go to buffalo" of horses" and each time they passed through on their way because such excursions "were hazardous and seldom to buffalo, as on their way back, they spent "a month or brought the materialreturns commensuratewith the perils two" in the Hell Gate Ronde or adjacent valleys.37 involved and the time and effort spent." Instead, he stayed Yet not everyone went, or wanted to go. Missionary at home and concentratedon raisinghorses, throughwhich MarcusWhitman, in 1834,after relating how the Nez Perces he grew wealthy. He traded horses "to the returning and the Flatheads married and mingled, observed that hunters from the buffalo country for robes and pemmican, these people are divided into two classes, "one class hunt for dressed leather for tepees and cured buffalo tongues for buffalo in the mountains and on the headwaters of the the ceremonial feasts." T'si-yi-ak's three sons-Show-o- Columbia and Missouri. This class is constantly exposed way, Kamiahkin,and Skloom, all reared as Yakamas-were to the attacksof the Blackfeetand their numbers are greatly taught to do the same, devoting their attention to raising lessened by them." The other class, he said, "live in their horses at home ratherthan making forays to hunt buffalo.39 own country and are free from these wars." They stay at It is hard to determine what percentage of the popula- home, devote themselves to raising "many horses and live tion belonged to each of these categories. Captain George on deer, elk, and smaller game, together with fish, roots, B. McClellan later related in his journal that "Every win- berries, and moss from pine trees."38 ter half of each tribe-Spokanes, Nez Perces, Kalispels, The Walla Wallas, like the Nez Perces, also divided themselves into two distinct classes, the river fishermen 37. WesleyMerritt report, February 8,1876, box 2, LettersReceived, and the buffalo hunters, with the latter parading to the February1870-1880, Part5, Fort Logan,Montana Territory, Record plains, owning numerous horses, and "lording it over their Group393, Recordsof U.S. ArmyContinental Commands, 1821-1920, NA. nearby brethren who fished for a living on the Columbia." 38. "Journaland Report by Dr. MarcusWhitman of His Tour of Who went and who and for what reasons differed stayed Explorationwith Rev.Samuel Parker," Oregon Historical Quarterly, 28 dramatically.Palouse headman T'si-yi-ak,who had married (September1927), 247.

16 WINTER 2003 WILLIAM E. FARR

Yakamas,Saptins, etc. etc., go to the Blackfeetcountry to resourcesdwindled at midcenturyas a result of white huntthe buffalo;returning in the springwith robes,dried incursion,Walla Wallas, Spokanes, Cayuses, and others meat,etc. etc."Other numerical estimations of the buffalo compensatedfor the reducedhunting by goingto buffalo. huntersincluded all the able-bodied,the greaterpart, the Naturaldisasters that befell Indian communities also pro- majority,one-half, one-third, or just a few.Although they vided incentives.When high waterwashed out the fall areoften characterized as the adventurous,the domineer- salmonruns in 1857,the Spokanestried to avoidstarvation ing, and the warlike,the actualmotivations of the buffalo by going to buffalo.Earlier, even withoutfish shortages, hunterswere much richer.Some were entrepreneurial, FatherJoset of the Jesuit missionat KettleFalls, one of others were outlawson the run from either Indiansor the most importantIndian fisheries on the whole of the whites, and still others simply had sufficientwealth in ColumbiaRiver, estimated that the "greaterpart" of the the form of guns and horses and could competein the Schowyelpi,or KettleFalls Indians, had gone to buffalo.If demandingwarrior ethos of the plains.40 a droughtwiped out the crop,that too wouldoccasion an Evidentlybuffalo hunting generated a degreeof smug- exodusas Indianssought to solvetheir problems by head- ness. Those leftbehind in Nez Percesociety, for example, ing eastacross the mountains.42 werederided as "provincials"while the familieswho went Local grievances,animosities and familyfeuds, and to thebuffalo plains enjoyed the designation "sophisticated strugglesover politicalleadership occasioned much the people."Also called the Khoo-say-nu or theKhoo-say-naya- same reaction.Leaving for an extendedhunt that could poo, meaning the people who move or migrate,these lasta yearor twowas a good wayto easetensions, assuage buffalonomads constituted as manyas one-fourthof the hurts,and let thingssimmer down. Going to buffalo,there- Nez Perces.Other estimates, confirmed by Nez Percechiefs fore, was somethingof a safetyvalve in tribalsociety.43 LookingGlass and Three Feathers,had one thousandof Whenwar broke out in WashingtonTerritory in October theNez Perceson theYellowstone River hunting buffalo in 1855,Father De Smet revealedhow "almostall" of the December1855. Among the Cayusesand Walla Wallas, the Coeurd'Alenes, "in orderto shield themselvesfrom the buffalohunters, we are told, referredto themselvesas hostilitiesof the Indians,and to avoid all relationswith "PrairieIndians" and employed a newvocabulary reflective them,"had gone bison-hunting.44When A.J. Bolon,spe- of their distinctiveexperiences in buffalocountry. On cial Indianagent for the CentralDistrict of Washington the otherhand, those who stayedat homewere thought of Territory,was instructed to holdcouncils with the Yakamas as inferiorand became the butt of jokes and derisive andNez Perces,he repliedthat he wasunable to do so, for descriptions.41 many of the Yakamashad scattered,intentionally he As the glamoroushorse cultureof the plainsincreas- implied,and "gone to thebuffalo country to layup meatfor inglycame to prevailon the ColumbiaPlateau and even in two yearssupply." As for the Nez Perces,it was "useless," the mountainsof westernMontana, and as fur and game he was told, to travelto theircountry. "I wouldnot find a singlechief or manof note.All weregone after buffalo but the old and Bolon'sinformant, the Yakamachief 39. ThomasR. Nineteenth TribalRelations in poor." Garth,"Early Century saidthe same was the case with the "Indians of the the ColumbiaPlateau," Southwestern Journal ofAnthropology, 20 (Spring Skloom, 1964), 53; William Compton Brown, The Indian Side of the Story whole countryeast of the Columbia."45 (Spokane,Wash., 1961), 70. See alsoThomas J. Farnham,Travels in the GreatWestern Prairies, the Anahuac and Rocky Mountains and in theOre- gon Territory,ed. Reuben Gold Thwaites, Travelsin the Far West, 42. Gibbs, Indian Tribes,19; U.S. Departmentof Interior,Annual 1839-1846, vol. 29 (Cleveland,1906), 97, whereFarnham reports that Reportof theSecretary ofInterior, 33d Cong.,2d sess., 1854, S. Doc. 1, Indians in Oregon who raised cattle and planted crops later "will pt. 1, serial746,447. Referringto the 1857 flood,Governor Benjamin F. exchange[these] for buffalo meat with thosewho hunt." Pottsreported "Charlo and his people ... havelost theircrops through 40. P. H. Obermeyer,"George B. McClellanand the PacificNorth- hailstormsand must go to buffaloto survive."Later that year, Agent Yan- west,"Pacific Northwest Quarterly (January 1941), 40; De Smet,Letters tis "reportedthe Spokanes'plight as severe.High water had washed out and Sketches,163. the fallsalmon runs; to avoidstarvation, many Indians were preparing to 41. DewardWalker,Jr., Conflict and Schism in NezPerce Acculturation: 'go to buffalo."'B. F.Potts to CarlSchurz, Secretary of the Interior,Octo- A Studyin Religionand Politics(Moscow, Idaho, 1985), 14; Allen P. ber 1, 1877, frame21, roll 517, M234, MontanaSuperintendency, Slickpoo,Noon Nee-Me-Poo: Culture and Historyof theNez Perces (Lap- 1864-1880, RG 75, NA; Ben Yantisto CommissionerJ. W. Nesmith, wai, Idaho, 1973), 142;JamesDoty, Journal of Operationsof Governor December 7, 1857, roll 20, M5, Washington Superintendency, Isaac Ingalls Stevensof WashingtonTerritory in 1855, ed. EdwardJ. 1853-1874, RG 75, NA, as quoted in RobertH. Ruby andJohn A. Kowrach(Fairfield, Wash., 1978), 43. TheodoreStern, Chiefs and Chief Brown,The Spokane Indians: Children of theSun (Norman,1970), 106. Traders:Indian Relations at FortNez Perce, 1818-1855 (Corvallis,Oreg., 43. Forbuffalo hunting as a safetyvalve, see DuncanMcDonald in Deer 1993), 55. Frequentlythose who did not go to buffalowere too poor. Lodge(Mont. Territory) New North- West,June 14,1878. "Wereit not for FatherJosephJosetremarked, "Father Hoecken visited Calispels and in the 'trip[s]to Buffalo,'it is probablethat the Nez PerceWar had been of springand summer baptized a numberof themchiefly of suchas were too earlierdate and a muchbloodier one." poor to followbuffalo hunting." Likewise Joset noted that Loyola,the 44. De Smet,Western Missions and Missionaries, 309. Kalispelchief, was most religiousand for thatreason "gave up forever 45. U.S. Departmentof the Interior,"Report of the Commissionerof Buffalohunting: that was reducinghimself to poverty."Joseph Joset, IndianAffairs, Report to the WashingtonSuperintendency for 1854 by "Linguisticsof the RockyMountain Tribes," Pacific Northwest Tribes SpecialAgent A. J. Bolon,"Sept. 30, 1854, roll 20, M5, Washington MissionsCollection, OregonJesuit Province Archives. Superintendency,1853-1874, RG 75, NA.

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Whatever the reasons-fear, hunger, adventure,escape, dry in the sun ... which is their mode of drying when the trade, or theft-the numbers of western Indians heading weatherwill permit it."If it did not, the meat was dried over east multiplied substantially around midcentury. It is no smaflsl,ono ^es. Whe:the meat was dried, the women wonder that by the end of 1853, after meet- packed't way inu e thathadbeen ing with the Blackfeet at Fort Benton on the Warbecame : preparedby "takingall the flesh and hair Missouri, Washington Territory's governor off."These werecalled parfleches, and they Isaac Stevens could write that as he rode "notoy a -becamethewrappers forthe compressed west he was "much astonished at the num- of a.< .ed. at thatwa t upa balesweighig ber of Indians I met who were on their way business fi[m 'tt t forty-fiveand fiftypounds to the Buffalo hunt, not only the Pend pastime, but each"ready for traport on packiorses.48 d'Oreille, Colvilles, etc., but indeed all the ThomasFarnham, Oregon sojourner by Indians between the Rocky and Cascade theoccupatwon way of the SnakeRiver plains in 1839,was mountains go in surprising numbers to the : excelliencer only one of a number of observerswho: hunt."46 describedthe rich returnswestern Indians, Among :hese nuambers were Salish- Wfteir lives." eitheras individualfailies oras bands,were speaking SotiernOkanagans along fth able to load onto pack stringsand lead or the Priest Rapid or ock Islanpeoples who driveback from buffalo country. Curiously, lived alongthe mid-ColumbiaRiver.Thibl routes, in Farnham'scase, he encountereda ChristianCayuse dependedupothyear but familyin the Blue Mountainsof Oregon.They were on routefio Kettle alls, here they jolmed e theirway home, laden down after a successfuljourney."Of Coi:rd'Alene banls heading east. At-i t-ime the the seventeenhorses in his caravan,six wereloaded with Southern Okanagas traveled on horseback south:w; thebest fleshof thebuffao cow, cured in thebest manner"; hewest side of the Columbia, to Nez Perce cont" and two otherhorses carriedhis buffalolodge and an assort- then over the Bitterroot Mountains by one of the soutern ient of fine buffalorobes; the hunter,his wife, and two Nez Perce routes. Suszen Timentwa remembered thatiher childrenrode four horses, and the restwere kept to use for family would go to the Blackfeet country every year after:- rief.Yet, while Farnhamgave considerable detail about the fall salmon run. The horse-rich families with thirty:. .eirea p equipageand ackingmethods, he limitedhim- horses apiece would go to buffalo to hunt for meat and-i. i,: self to Whatil sawiand said nothing about how long they robes or to trade horses for buffalo robes or camas for 'hadbee gne, wheer theyhadjoined up withothers, or clothing. Frequently they engaged poor men, often young, how as a "smafamilithey had managed to keep theirfine to go along to take care of the horses. Women and children horses and themselesale in contested buffalo country.49 accompanied the men on these trips as well, which .-Later and muchfarther to the north,near the Tobacco Timentwa said took some three months each way, and the Pls hardon theCanadian border, Charles Wilson, while whole band would stay east of the Rockies with their allies, s. ying the forty-ninthparallel in 1861,reported that his drying meat, preparing buffalo robes, and trading, usually artymet a Kootenaiman and his wifereturning from "the women with other women, until the middle or end off, A:l"ltlo plains"with an immensequantity of jerkedmeat winter. Another Southern Okanagan woman, Margaret that somehow they had loaded on their horses. Wilson Sersepkin, described how differentthe buffaloplains were: proclaimedhimself astonished at the tremendousweight "The only food was buffalo meat. There was no wood, no h-ehorses carried."I should think,"he wrote,"that each rocks, no long grass; the grass was short and thick and the horsehad between2000 and 3000 lbs. of meatand skins ground so hard that horses left no tracks." People from hanging to his back, on top of which the riders were many differenttribes wintered there, she said, including the perched like monkies."While this had to have been an Yakamas,Spokanes, and Nespelems.47 exaggeration-surelyhe meant200 or 300 pounds-the Other Columbia River Plateau people followed these staggeringpackhorses indicated how bountifulthe hunt Salish-speaking bands, for buffalo hunting was richly hadieen. FatherDe Smetwasjust as astoundedwhen he rewarding. In 1846 William Gray described the aftermath descibed returningbuffalo hunters, Shoshones, near the of a successful buffalo hunt as the Indians preserved their BearRiver. The Indianswere drivingin frontof them a meat and readied it for transport. Their camps, he wrote, processionof "wretchedhorses, disproportionatein all looked "like an extensive meat market; every one has cut theiroutlines, loaded with bags and boxes to a heightequal their meat in thin slices and spread on sticks and poles to to their own, and these surmountedby rationalbeings -youngand old, maleand females, in a varietyof figuresand 46. Isaac I. Stevens to AlexanderCulbertson, December 25, 1853, frame74, roll 1, M5, WashingtonSuperintendency, 1853-1874, RG 75, 48. Donald R. Johnson, ed., WilliamH. Gray:The Journal of His NA. JourneyEast, 1836-1837 (Fairfield,Wash., 1980), 48. 47. Spier,Sinkaietk, 75, 155-56, 76. 49. Farnham,Travels in the GreatWestern Prairies, 329-31.

18 WINTER 2003 '' WILLIAM E. FARR costumes."On another occasion a Flathead pack trainhad Washington Territory,on the other side of the Rockies on arrivedat St. Mary's Mission in the Bitterroot Valley with the Missouri River. In each of these treaties Governor some seventy bales of dried buffalo, an estimated three Stevens, Congress, and the federal Office of Indian Affairs tons, to be given to theJesuits for their own use during the formally recognized-and guaranteed-the right of the long winter season.50 Plateau Indians who lived as far west as the Yakamas to John Mullanalso described an encounter with a portion continue to go to buffalo as they had always done. of a large Nez Perce camp and then, following them, a Flat The celetedt treaty touregan on rainy Puget Sound head camp, as the two dropped into the Bitterroot Valley in l,te1854. It resumed when Governor Stevens and Joel from the Big Hole on their return from buffalo hunting. ;Pamer,his counterpartin OregonTerritory, fully armed Mullanreported that they had severalhundred horeil- ith, ith.afederaLmandate.conrssional funding,and instruc- them, many of which were packhorses and "mots fithe tionsfromthee Office of India ffairs,set out in earlysum- were loaded with heavy bales of dried meat fin u-. mer 1855to purchaseIndian lands from the interiortribes Therewere also "innumerablechildren" in the vagu .eaofi:the Cascades.StvensJnew fromhis experiencesas All had been east of the mountains with about 'eig y .headof the rilroad survehat once in buffalocountry lodges, and it had been a "greathunting season, Indians, Indiansnotnly huntedir meatand robes, but that,in the "both east and west of the continental divide.had killed wordsof 'Faer De Smet,warbecame"not only a business "hundreds of thousands" of buffalo.51 ': P"st-a e but the occupation par excellence of their Mullan's colleague on the Stevens expedition, Lieu lits. E53; ding and killing were not confined to the tenant Rufus Saxton, witnessed a similar scene much f-: bu0lo groundsort certaintribes but spilledback over ther west.Just above Lake Pend d'Oreille in August i8, the ContinentalDivide into the westernvalleys. There- Saxton's met a of at least one hundred -.ii' Steve,- followingthe lead establishedin the group party ::;' 1851 d'Oreilles on their way back from a buffalo hunt on t-e Fort La.eL Treaty,'reasoned that an intertribalpeace Missouri River. Every one of the men, women, and chil- treatywvasabsolutely necessary if anykind of orderwere to dren was well mounted, with "atleast 300 horses ... loaded prevailon the west side of the mountains.Not only did with buffalorobes and dried meat"that they hoped to trade Stevens'sIndian policy of small,discrete reservations with with the tribes nearer the coast. No wonder that Saxton continued off-reservationuse rights require peace for found these Pend d'Oreilles "perfectlycivil and seemed to implementation,so did the successof his transcontinental feel proud, rich, and independent."52They were. railroadproject and its goal of territorialsettlement and economicdevelopment. Intertribalpeace was more likely to occurif reservation ALTHOUGH THE DECISION to go to buffalo remained and tribalboundaries between the Cascadeand Rocky essentially an Indian decision, by the mid-185os this Mountainswere already in place,or at leastagreed upon, decision-making was tempered by changes taking place in prior to the constructionof a transcontinentalrailroad. newly createdWashington Territory, whose easternbound- Fullybelieving that the westernIndians in Oregonand ary reached to the Continental Divide. Many of the these Washingtonwere willing to sell theirland, Stevens plunged were directly traceableto Isaac I. Stevens. In 1853 Stevens ahead,assembling a majorcouncil at WallaWalla for the became governor of WashingtonTerritory-and ex-officio Nez Perces,Cayuses, Walla Wallas, Yakamas, and others at the territory'ssuperintendent of Indian affairs-as well as the end of May 1855,On the council groundsat Walla commander of the Northern Pacific Railroad Survey, Walla,Stevens urged,the assembled Indians to acceptthe which was charged with the task of exploring and survey- proposedtreaty, arguing that they would receivegovern- ing a transcontinentalroute across the northern plains and mentprotection and fundsfor theirlands. With this gov- Washington Territory. Interested in paving the way for ernmentsupport,tey thencould build permanent homes, white settlement and railroadconstruction in the territory, establishfarms, purchase agricultural implements, build Stevens negotiatedthree treatiesthat changed the dynamics schools,and have mills, blacksmith shops, and a hospital. of going to buffalo: in 1855 at Walla Walla, then at Hell To makethe land sales more palatable, Stevens and Palmer Gate on the Clark Fork River, and finally even outside promisedthat not only would the Indiansreceive these federalbenefits, but, as in the Puget Sound treaties,the tribeswould be able to continuehunting, gathering, and 50. CharlesW. Wilson, Mapping the Frontier: Charles Wilson's Diary outsideof the in the lands the the 49th ed. fishing proposedreservations, of Survey of Parallel, 1858-1862, George Stanley were askedto cedeor sell.General in his (Toronto,1970), 153-54; Mengarini,Recollections, 97. they being Palmer, 51. Mullanreport, in U.S. Departmentof War,Reports of Explorations, own attemptto describewhat he thoughtof as a generous and in U.S. of Annual the 325; Department Interior, Reportof Secretary policy, explained the offer this way: "[W]e buy your ofInterior(1854), 426. 52. Saxtonreport, in U.S. Departmentof War,Reports of Explorations, 257. 53. De Smet,Life, Letters, and Travels,3:827.

19 By the mid-1850osplanning for railroadconstruction and white settlementrequired treaty agreements with tribeson both sides of the mountains.In negotiatingthe LameBull Treaty,in which the Blackfeetterritory became a commonhunting ground for all the tribes,Washington Territory governor Isaac I. Stevensbrought together members of the BlackfootNation, Gros Ventres, Nez Perces,Kootenais, Pend d'Oreilles,Flatheads, and one Cree.Gustavus Sohon recordedthe event,which occurredat the confluenceof theJudith and MissouriRivers, in BlackfootCouncil-i855. countryand pay you for it and give the most of it backto disturbingthem on theirway to buffalo;who hadintruded you again."54 into theirhome territories,stolen theirhorses, and mur- As attractiveas theseproposals were, Stevens held out deredtheir men, women, and children? Was it thewhites? theadditional promise that hunting, fishing, gathering, and Of coursenot. The answerwas clearto all-the Blackfeet. morecould be done in peace,without the constantfear of "Wewant thatto cease forever,"Stevens said. "If we can raids,war parties, and reprisals.And not only would this agreehere, this you will be ableto sayto the Blackfeetand new dispensationprevail on the ColumbiaRiver Plateau, the Blackfeetwill say'We will be friends,we will chasethe buton thebuffalo plains as well. "We want you to haveyour buffalotogether on theplain, we willbe friendsforever.' 56 roots and to get your berries,and to kill your game.We Havinga bitterlycontested common Indianhunting wantyou, if you wish, to mountyour horses and to go to groundsacross the ContinentalDivide impeded both the the Buffaloplains, and we wantmore; we wantyou to have grandioseterritorial vision of GovernorStevens and the peacethere," Stevens said.55 perceivednational needs of the United States.Neither, Contraryto conventionalwisdom, a treatywith the U.S. however,was interestedat the time in acquiringtide or governmentwould not dismantletraditional subsistence occupyingthe land of theupper Missouri drainages. Peace patterns.Quite the opposite.A governmenttreaty would in the regionwas the priority,and the cessationof tribal liberatewestern Indians, allowing them to practicethe tra- hostilities on the northernplains became the focus of ditionalcycles of gathering,fishing, and huntingat the Stevens'streaty efforts. The Blackfeetpeace with the west- accustomedtimes and placeswithout interference. More- ern Indians,scheduled for the summerof 1854,however, over,an implementedpeace would open up additional had to be put off. What had been scheduledas the first opportunitiesthat essentiallyhad been closed to a large treaty,the one with the plains tribes, in fact,became the last. percentageof thepopulation because of theirvery tangible Consequently,although now out of orderand, as a treaty militarycosts and dangers. of cession,of a differentcharacter, the WallaWalla Treaty With a pronounced oratoricalflourish, Governor becamethe firstlegal step in addressingand alteringthis Stevenstrotted out his rhetoricalquestion: Who hadbeen situation.OnJune 9,1855, it formallyrecognized the right of the ColumbiaRiver tribes to go to buffaloeast of the 54. Isaac A True theRecord the Pro- IngallsStevens, Copyof of Official Rockies.Buffalo hunting now, in yet anotherform of bison ceedingsat the Councilin the Wala WaUaValley, 1855, ed. DarrellScott (Fairfield,Wash., 1985), 103. 55. Ibid.,44. 56. Ibid.,46.

20 WINTER 2003 WILLIAM E. FARR diplomacy,became a tribalentitlement, one securedand fruit,grazing animals, curing meat and dressingrobes" guaranteedby the U.S. government. would be enjoyed. Furtherinstructions included the Federalsupport actually expanded at Stevens'snext designationof routes by which western Indiansmight diplomacyeffort, the Hell Gate Treatywith the Pend enterand leaveand underwhat conditionsthese routes d'Oreilles,Flatheads, and Kootenais.Conducted July 9, couldbe traversed.59 1855,at the confluenceof the Bitterrootand ClarkFork Althoughrestrictive, these provisionsalso increased Rivers, the treaty,Stevens told Victor, whom he had incentivesfor westernIndians to hunt buffaloacross the selectedas head chief, would "keep the Blackfeet out of this mountains.So too did the rapidlygrowing white popula- valley,and if thatwill not do it we will thenhave soldiers tions,the increasing number of landclaims, the destruction who will."Stevens added that he hadbeen directedby the of largegame on the westernside of the Rockies,and presidentto make this treatyand that "we hope it will greaterIndian participation in therobe trade. All magnified foreversettle your troubleswith the Blackfeet."Even the theneed and the opportunity to go to buffalo.But it wasthe decisionabout which valley was the best choice for the site prospectof peace-bison andpeace-that wasparticularly of a consolidatedreservation was affectedby the consid- alluring.There had neverbeen such a thing. erationof whichwas moreconvenient to go to buffalo.57 And, at first,peace prevailed,as MargaretSersepkin Later,in mid-October,out on theMissouri beyond Fort attested,for afterthe treatieswhen the WashingtonTerri- Benton,amid the bare cottonwoods clustered at themouth toryIndians met with the Blackfeet,they no longerfought of theJudithRiver, Stevens pulled together representatives as theyhad. "'We talk different,' the Blackfeet said," remem- of theextended Blackfoot Nation, including the GrosVen- beredSersepkin, "and we cannotunderstand one another; tres,as well as the Nez Perces,Kootenais, Pend d'Oreilles, but we have the same ways and the same kind of skin; andFlatheads-and one Creechief, Broken Arm. He pro- thereforewe shouldnot fightamong ourselves. So when- posed that"they should all live in peace,stay home when everpeople come overhere to huntbuffalo, they can have not huntingor tradingand thatthe Blackfeetcollectively our huntinggrounds. We will be like brothers."It was all should agreeand consentthat what had been definedas very enticingand furtherencouraged the bison hunters Blackfeetterritory in the LaramieTreaty of 1851should fromwest of the RockyMountains. It also seemedto vali- becomea commonhunting ground for 99 yearswhere all dateGovernor Stevens's self-important boast made to the the signers,east and west, shall enjoy equal privileges."58 Spokanesand Coeur d'Alenes in December1855 that while Called Lame Bull's Treaty,this agreementformally manyof the Plateautribes had rejected the treatiesat Walla includedthe westernIndians in a new federallybrokered Wallaand had gone to war with the Americans,he had dispensationthat divided up the small universeof the been"among the Blackfeet in thePlains beyond the moun- short-grassplains. Essentially the federalgovernment said tains,getting the buffalo ranges for you-making Peace that to the westernIndians, "You get to go to buffaloas you you mighthunt the Buffalo."60 alwayshave. There is only one caveat:hunting will be Guaranteed,if limited,hunting rights and the promised restrictedto one area,and even thatwill be sharedwith pan-Indianpeace, however, proved meaningless in theface others."And to the morenumerous Blackfeet, the govern- of diminishinggame, the subsequenthide trade,the dis- mentsaid, "When they come, you will leavethem alone- coveryof gold, and commercialopportunities that sent in factyou will sharewith themthe buffalocountry south whites flooding across the region. Increasingly,settlers of theMissouri River assigned to you atFort Laramie. Now demandedterritorial status. They wantedas well a federal thatland will be designatedas a commonhunting ground." governmentthat would keep the Indians tractableand The WallaWalla and Hell GateTreaties held signature confinedto reservationsaway from white settlements. Yet provisionsfor off-reservation access to buffalo.The Lame the Stevenstreaties gave Indians from west of the Conti- Bull's Treaty created a precisely delineated common nentalDivide a rightto "goto buffalo.How was this right huntingground for ninety-nineyears where "equaland to be squaredwith settlementand territorialaspiration? uninterruptedprivileges of hunting,fishing and gathering These demands-alongwith the rapid decline in thenum- bers of bison-would eventuallyforce the U.S. Armyto intervene,somewhat on behalfof theIndians. 57. "Official of the Hell Gate Councilwith notes surprisingly, Proceedings Treaty Lookfor Part of to Buffalo"in the by AlbertJ.Partoll," in In theName of theSalish and Kootenai Nation, ed. 2 "Going Spring2004 RobertBigart and ClarenceWoodcock (Pablo, Mont., 1996), 22, 42. issue. 58. John Fahey,The Flathead Indians (Norman, 1974), 101; KentD. Richards,Isaac I. Stevens: in a Wash., YoungMan Hurry(Pullman, 1993), WILLIAM E. FARR is of and associate 230-34; CharlesJ. Kappler,ed., Indian Affairs:Laws and Treaties,2 professor history vols. (Washington,D.C., 1904),2:736-40, esp. article3. director of the Center for the Rocky Mountain West at the 59. WilliamE. "'WhenWe Were First Paid': The Blackfoot Farr, Treaty, Universityof Montanain Missoula. His work last appeared the WesternTribes, and the Creationof the CommonHunting Ground, in these in summer2001 with 1855,"Great Plains Quarterly,21 (Spring2001), 131-54. pages "JuliusSeyler, Painting 60. Spier,Sinkaietk, 76; Doty,Journal of Operations,43. the Blackfeet, Painting Glacier National Park, 1913-1914."