Chapter One:
THE RED MAN ROAMS THE MOUNTAINS (continued)
The European invasion of North America drastically
altered Native American life, and particularly that of the Blackfeet.
The horse produced revolutionary changes. It was introduced to the
Blackfeet through warfare sometime after 1730 by their southern enemies,
the Shoshoni. The horse quickly became a necessity to every Blackfoot
hunter and it greatly aided his mobility. The "Big Dog" or "Elk Dog," as
horses were called, provided the essential transport necessary for
hunting buffalo, warring, and the nomadic life that we associate with
Plains Indian tribes.
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While Indian hunters might surround or
chase buffalo with their horses during hunting, a more ancient method
was to drive the animals over a cliff or cut-bank sometimes called a
piskun or buffalo jump. Ridges along the Two Medicine River, just
southeast of Glacier, were ideal for this hunting technique.
(Courtesy of Glacier National Park Historical Collections)
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Then, at about the same time, some Cree and
Assiniboine allies to the east provided them with their first fire-arms.
The guns meant the Blackfeet could easily defeat their western
enemiesparticularly the Shoshoni. Fire-arms also meant aggressive
expansion westward and eventually Blackfoot domination of the entire
upper Great Plains. Tribes living in that area were forced southward or
to the west of the Continental Divide.
As their influence and area expanded, the various
Blackfoot tribes separated. The Northern Blackfeet (or Siksika meaning
black-footed people) established dominance over the Northern
Saskatchewan River area and fought the Cree and Assiniboine to the east.
The Blood or Kainah, probably named for their facial paint, dominated
the southern plains of Alberta and Saskatchewan and fought Blackfoot
enemies in all directions. Farthest south, confronting the most hostile
enemies, were the Piegan or Pikuni, whose name referred to their buffalo
robe clothing. The Gros Ventre, living in the same region, allied
themselves with the Blackfeet and hunted with and fought beside them
until 1861 when some stolen horses resulted in their mutual hatred,
separation, and an ongoing conflict.
Thus, after 1750 and no later than 1800, the Piegan
became dominant on the plains east of the northern Rocky Mountains. But
their empire did not go unchallenged. Western tribes like the Kutenai,
Flathead, and Kalispel returned to hunt on the plains several times each
year. In well-armed hunting parties, they crossed the Rocky Mountain
passes anywhere from central Alberta to Montana's Hell's Gate (near
Missoula, Montana) in order to hunt buffalo. To the south, Crow and
Cheyenne proved hostile and to the east, Cree, Assiniboine and Sioux
confronted the Piegan.
Responding to these incursions, the Blackfeet struck
with effective raids upon these enemies. Blackfoot war parties, with
leaders like Running Rabbit, No Chief, Running Eagle, White Calf, and
Mad Wolf, crossed the mountains and raided their enemies' camps with a
devastating effect. Attacking the hunting parties proved to be another
effective technique in asserting their power. When negotiating with the
western tribes in the 1850s, Governor Isaac Stevens of Washington
Territory heard numerous complaints from Flathead, Kalispel, and Kutenai
leaders about the unrelenting Blackfoot raiding. The western tribes were
even described as having been "decimated" by these repeated attacks, and
they demanded that Stevens prevent the Blackfeet from raiding before an
effective settlement could be reached. Stevens assured the western
tribal leaders that he would provide a peaceful solution to the constant
Blackfeet threat, but in doing so he made them forego any claims to the
northern Rocky Mountain passes or plains.
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Fur trading meant that the Indian could
barter for items like tea, coffee, tobacco, or trinkets. It also meant
that whiskey, regardless of attempted government control, eventually
became a major trading item. (Courtesy of Glacier National Park
Historical Collections, Walter McClintock Album)
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Just as the buffalo attracted the Blackfeet to the
plains and the horse enabled them to exploit the buffalo and made them
dominant in the region, another animal promoted their decline. A
harmless rodent, the beaver, abundant in practically every mountain
stream on either side of the Continental Divide, drew Americans,
Canadians, and Europeans into this region. Beaver pelts, made into
fashionable beaver hats, could be obtained from Indians by trading a few
trinkets, some manufactured goods, or some whiskey. Fortunes in furs
were available to those willing to initiate and risk commerce with
hostile Indians in wilderness country.
French trappers advancing up the Saskatchewan River
brought a response from Hudson's Bay Company officials who feared an
infringement upon their monopoly granted by King Charles II late in the
1600s. In 1754, Anthony Hendy (or Henday), dispatched from York Factory
on Hudson Bay, made his way to the Blackfoot territory in Alberta to
encourage the Indians to trade. His observations of the Indians' skilled
horsemanship, their lifestyle, and their buffalo-hunting orientation
proved interestingbut he failed to open any trade.
Following the French and Indian War (1754-1763) and
the expulsion of the French from North America in 1763, the growing
pressure from free trappers and traders encouraged another Hudson's Bay
Company trader to seek the Blackfoot commerce. In 1772, Mathew Cocking
traveled to the Blackfeet and very accurately described the subdivisions
of the Confederation, but again failed to encourage any trading with the
Company. By 1780, the English established a trading post, named
Buckingham House, east of Edmonton, Alberta, on the North Saskatchewan
River, resulting in a permanent trading relationship with the
Blackfeet.
Several additional events within the next two decades
affected Indian domination of the plainsthe Blackfoot tribes
particularlyand set the stage for their nineteenth-century
decline. In 1781, after an attack upon a diseased Shoshoni camp, the
Piegan contracted smallpox. This devastating plague coupled with
recurrent strains of the disease, particularly in the 1830s and 1860s,
severely weakened Blackfoot resistance to the traders. While a peaceful
period followed the epidemic, a war against the Shoshoni and their
allies, the Flathead and Kutenai, soon broke out. The Blackfeet forced
the Shoshoni, Flathead, and Kutenai from the Bow River area of Alberta
southward into today's Montana and off the plains into the mountains. By
1800, Blackfoot raids continued to harass the tribes living west of the
Continental Divide.
In his book The Old North Trail, Walter
McClintock detailed an encounter between some Blackfeet and Kutenai near
Cut Bank Pass as recalled from the memory of some Blackfoot
participants. The Blackfoot party, returning from a raid upon the
Flathead Indians, had just entered a dense forest below the Pass:
Mad Wolf (Siyeh) was in the lead, while the others followed in two
separate columns along each side of the trail, as was the custom of war
parties in those days. They rode in silence because the trees were so
dense they could not see far in advance. Suddenly Mad Wolf stopped and
signed to the others that he heard someone ahead striking his horse with
a quirt (whip). The Blackfeet quickly ambushed themselves among the
trees. A war party of Kutenai (Mountain Indians) were returning from an
expedition into the Blackfeet country. They ran into the ambush and
there was a fierce battle. Mad Wolf, as chief of the expedition, was
entitled to the first shot. He singled out the leader, but the Kutenai
chief was very brave. Although badly wounded, he ran into the thick
woods where Mad Wolf killed him. While taking his scalp, Mad Wolf
recognised on his belt the scalps of his own two brothers.
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Blackfoot war parties were among the
most feared in the American West. War honors were given great
significance and could be gained by capturing an enemy's gun, bow,
shield, war clothing, or ceremonial items; scalping was considered of
less honor. Stolen horses were almost too common to he considered as
trophies. War was an important aspect of Blackfoot culture long before
the traders and explorers arrived. (Courtesy of Glacier National Park
Historical Collections, Walter McClintock Album)
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The story concluded that the Blackfeet killed every
Kutenai in that party except for one old woman whom they released. The
Blackfoot account did not explain why the Kutenai were classified as a
"war party," or why a "war party" would have an old woman with it, for
it was more than likely a returning springtime hunting expedition. Many
encounters of this type and at similar locations probably occurred, but
only a few oral traditions link these military adventures to Glacier's
mountains.
The mountains along the Continental Divide provided
the necessary strategic protection for the fleeing Kutenai, Kalispel,
and Flathead with their inferior numbers. But in addition, the mountains
provided numerous passes for their seasonal return to the plains for
buffalo hunting. Regardless of great speculation, probably only Cut Bank
Pass (also known as Upper Marias Pass) and Red Eagle Pass in the
southern part of Glacier and Kootenai and Brown Passes in the northern
section became routes of regular travel. Passes far to the north of
Glacier or far to the south were probably safer and less well guarded by
Blackfoot warriors. The mountains also provided animals for the appetite
of western Indian hunters. Mountain sheep, elk, deer, and other animals
became substitutes for the buffalo. But the mountain passes also became
the regular pathway for Blackfoot raiders. Lieutenant John Mullan, an
early explorer in the region and admirer of the Flatheads, referred to
the Blackfeet as "these hellhounds of the mountains."
While the Blackfeet were classified as "hellhounds,"
the impression of the western tribes as gained from the earliest
explorers is quite different. The Kalispel or Pend d'Oreille (meaning
"camas people" referring to their staple food, or "earring people,"
referring to their decorative ornaments), lived a more peaceable
existence in the mountain valleys. Centered along Flathead Lake, they
ranged westward to the Priest River country of Idaho and the present
State of Washington.
The Kalispel depended upon buffalo hunts east of the
mountains in a way similar to other tribes which had been forced off the
plains, but they also became skilled hunters of mountain sheep, elk, and
deer; they seined fish and generally varied their diet and way of life
as buffalo became less accessible. At the meeting with Governor Isaac
Stevens in 1855, one of their chiefs, Alexander, referred to his father
as having lived near the Three Buttes or Sweet Grass Hills, which are
located directly east of Glacier. Alexander expressed his bitterness
over the inability of the Kalispel to return to their former home lands
to hunt buffalo because of the Blackfoot expansion and aggressiveness.
Unquestionably, this group entered the park area with frequency when
heading east to hunt, crossing Marias, Cut Bank, Red Eagle, or other
passes. They probably also entered the area when pursuing Blackfeet who
had stolen their horses or while tracking elusive elk or deer.
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Glacier's mountain passes served as
routes of travel for hunting parties or raiders. Blackfeet occasionally
left the plains to raid their enemies' camps. At least once a year, if
not more, tribes of the western slope headed east to hunt buffalo.
Passes like Marias, Cut Bank, Red Eagle, and Brown probably served the
bulk of these infrequent visitors. (Courtesy of Glacier National Park
Historical Collections)
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Similarly, their southern neighbors, the Flathead or
Salish (meaning "The People"), expressed an affinity for the plains east
of the Continental Divide. Early explorers, settlers, missionaries, and
other observers consistently praised the Flathead (who were nevertheless
misnamed as they did not practice head flattening) for their friendly
attitude, peacefulness, industry, and other admirable qualities.
Blackfoot aggression drove the Flathead from the prairies, but they,
too, returned eastward through the mountains to hunt the tasty
buffalo.
The Flathead lived primarily in the Bitterroot Valley
of Montana and passed through Hell's Gate when heading to the plains.
But frequently they chose alternative routes to avoid Blackfoot war
parties. Occasionally they would pass through the mountains of Glacier
or even through more northern passes. Captain Thomas Blakiston, an early
explorer in the Waterton Lakes area during the 1850s, reported that
"The Flathead Pass enters the mountains at the 49th parallel of
latitude, follows the west shore of Lake Waterton, and gains Flathead
River, which it follows to the Flathead Mission on the Clark Fork of the
Columbia, about 80 miles south by east of the Kootenai Trading Post. It
is used by the Flathead Indians when crossing to the Saskatchewan Plains
for the purpose of obtaining buffalo meat." It is unknown to which
pass Blakiston referred, for it may have been Waterton Park's South
Kootenay Pass or its Akamina Pass; possibly Glacier's Kootenai but more
likely Brown Pass. The Flathead and Kalispel both passed through the
mountains of Glacier to return to their ancestral homes and to satisfy
their desire for buffalo. Their adaptability to life in the mountain
valleys served them well, however, for when the buffalo disappeared
during the nineteenth century, suffering among the Blackfeet, Gros
Ventre, and other plains tribes was severe. Alternative food sources had
already made the western tribes more flexible. Their trips across the
mountains simply stopped.
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Indian tribes, like the Kutenai,
Flathead, and Kalispel, also used horses, hunted buffalo, and lived both
east and west of Glacier's mountains. However, the more aggressive
Blackfeet forced them to hunt in well-organized groups when on the
plains, to direct their appetite to food other than buffalo meat, and to
gradually forego their claims upon the buffalo ranges east of Glacier.
(Courtesy of Western History Department, Denver Public
Library)
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