The Powder River County examiner and the Broadus independent. [volume] (Broadus, Mont.) 1919-1935, 1922-11-17

Father Lawrence Palladfno, one of |
the few remaining links binding to
the present the pioneer days of west |
ern Montana, before the days of the |
discovery Of placer gold in Grass |
hopper ana Alder Clutches. has writ |
ten history which will attract wide |
attention in Montana.
Father Palladino begins his work |
with q compliment to the Flathead |
Indians - the Selfish pronounced |
Sale-ish) Of within he says no Indian |
tribe Is more renowned in history. |
The name "Flathead" is, he says, a |
misnomer. "These Indians are
shapely and the barbarous custom,
head flattening, implied by the APP |
pellation, and practised by some of
the Indians on the Sound and on the
Pacific coast, was unknown among
these people," To the Flatheads be-
longs the distinction of having
brought the missionaries to Mon
tana.
The country of the Flatheads, he
says. was that part Lying west and
at the base of the main range Of the
Rocky mountains" It was called in
their language Spetleman, which
means place of the bitter root"
whence the name, "Bitter Root val
ley"
When the Flatheads became known
to the white man, he says, they num-
bered about 1000 souls and prob
ably were never much more numer-
Gus.
"But If inferior in numerical
strength to many of the other tribes
in the Rocky mountains. they SEEM
ed to surpass them all in prowess and
daring; and as a warlike people they
were considered even by their ene-
mics as the bravest of the brave"
Their most deadly foes. from time
immemorial, says the author, were
the Blackfeet, living in what is now
northern Montana. The Blackfeet
claimed the range lying east of the
Rockies as their hunting ground.
This was the main range of the buf-
falo. They looked on Flathead buff
falo hunters as intruders. In addi-
ton to larger number of warriors,
the Blackfeet, he says, had the ad-
vantage OF firearms obtained from
prairie trading posts. This was long
before such posts were located within
visiting distance of Flathead terri
tory.
The first white men seen by any
of the Flatheads were the members
of the La Verendrye expedition and
these were met only by those Flat
heads who visited the east side to
hunt buffalo. The first white men
to pass through Flathead territory
was the Lewis and Clark expedition,
in 1905. At the time the first work
was published by Father Palladino
there was still living, at the St. Igna-
thus mission, an old Indian woman,
Eugene, who distinctly remembered
the visit of Lewis and Clark when
she was about IA years of age.
The author quotes from the Jour-
nal of Sergeant Patrick Glass, of the
Lewis and Clark expedition, who
wrote that the Flatheads were the
"only nation on the whole route
where anything like chastity is re-
garded."
While they were honest, brave,
obedient to authority, clearly and
virtuous they were "barbarous, cruel
and brutal as any savages could be"
In their treatment of prisoners, "whe-
Their male or female
Birthday Suits
The adults of the tribe dressed in
skins but the children went absolute
~ naked, 'even in winter, plodding
through slush and snow"
Five of the consonants, b, d, f, r
and v, are wanting in their language.
The places are supplied by p, t,
and m.
In the Flathead tongue Mary be-
comes Malice, Rosalie becomes Usalee
and Victor, Mitto. The same Ian
guage is spoken by nine other tribes:
the Upper and Lower Kalispells, the
Spokanes. the Occur d'Alenes and the
families in the vicinity of Colville.
They believed in good spirit, and
a bad spirit, in future reward, and
a punishment. The good Indian
went to a place of perpetual sum-