The Powder River County examiner and the Broadus independent., 1921-10-14
when CR0WF00T, Chief OF POWERFUL BLACKFEET NATION HELD
FATE OF NORTHWEST IN H0 0 OF HIS HAND AND CHOSE PEACE

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But conditions were far different
in Alberta, north Of the Montana line,
for the Canadian Blackfeet confeder-
ated tribes were still in the flower of
their strength and pride, and any
treaty between them and the Cana
dian government had to be consider
ed and acted upon under conditions
dictated by them, and not by the
whites. It was critical time In
northwestern history, for had they
chosen war instead of peace, the
small and scattered white population
Of Alberta. as we'll as that of north
ern Montana, would undoubtedly
have been wiped out by a series of
massacres that the few white soldiers
available would have been powerless
to check. Word that the Northern
Blackfeet had decided on war against
the whites would without doubt have
resulted in thousands of discomfort
ed. sullen agency Indians in Montana
fl0cking to join them in final effort
to rid their former hunting grounds
of white invaders. The result, in
time, must have been the eventual
subjugation of the reds, but there
probably would have been a couple
of years Of bloody plains warfare be-
fore this could have been brought
about.
The reason that the Blackfeet were
willing to parley with the whites was
not because of any fear of the out
come of war with them. Most of
the chiefs of the allied tribes despised
the whites and their power, and held
their fighting strength in contempt.
What did lead their head chiefs to
consider a treaty was an instructive
knowledge and dread of some unde-
fined change that was coming over
their country, which was evidenced
principally by the rapid melting away
of the vast herds of buffalo on the
northern plains. Each spring the
size of the herds that came back
north across the line from Montana
diminished, and the food and robes
that the buffalo had furnished them
and their fathers became more diff
cult to obtain.
Arranging for the Treaty
This, their head chief, Crow-foot,
realized, was the result of an ever
increasing horde of white men in
vading the territory south of them,
between the Missouri river and the
Mexican line. Wiser and more fore
sighted than his people, he saw that
this invasion of whites northward
into their own hunting grounds was
but matter of time. He sensed the
advantages of treaty with the white
men, made when his people we're at
the height of their power, over a
long-drawn-out warfare that must
sooner or later reduce them to pow
erty and weakness. He therefore per-
suaded the various tribal chiefs to
consider a treaty which would leave
them with a certain amount of their
land and would also assure them of
payments in food, money and sup
plies in return for concessions they
made. The council of chiefs demand
ed unanimously, however, that they
be allowed to name the spot and die
tate the conditions under which the
treaty-making should be carried on.
Governor Laird and Colonel Mac
leod, the latter head of the Northwest
Mounted Police, were the principals
for the Dominion government, and
they took with them to the treaty |
grounds on Bow river, at the spot
near the ford which was called by
the Indians Ridge of Rock" three
troops of the Mounted Police. in
cluding Troops C, D and F.. Troop |
F was from Fort Calgary and the |
other two troops from Fort Macleod.
Crow.foot Leads Indians
The chief of all the Blackfeet was
Crow-foot, naughty old warrior,
who. with the other chiefs of the va
rious tribes, signed the treaty.
The Indians, sensible of their /
strength and power, were not in any
too amiable a mood. They forbade
the raising of any permanent struct-
ure by the whites, so that the coun-
Gil lodge was unroofed. The great
store of supplies, brought as food
and presents for the Indians, was
placed under direction of Colonel
Stanford in a stockade on the river
bottom, with merely canvas stretch
ed over the goods to protect them
from the weather. The Mounted
Police, with the exception Of Colonel
Stanford, were not permitted on the
river bottom within the limits of the
camps of the Blackfeet. except dur
ing the day, when he had a detach-
ment of troops to aid him in distrib-
uting the supplies. Being in charge
of the supplies and acting Indian
agent, he was allowed to be within
the vast circle of lodges of the In
dams.
Near the huge camp were trading
corrals conducted by two white men
who both were prominent in Mon-
tana. These were John Power of +.
C. Power & Brother of Fort Benton;
and Charles e. Conrad, of Conrad
Brothers, who died at Kalispell some
years ago and was q brother-in-law
Of Colonel Stanford.
The mounted policemen were en-.