The Kevin review. [volume] (Kevin, Mont.) 1922-1929, 1922-11-09
COMING OF THE BLACK ROBES INTO MONTANA BEFORE GOLD
WAS DISCOVERED; FATHER PAllADlN0 WRITES OF EARLY DAYS

Father Lawrence Palladino, 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 and Alder Clutches, has writ
ten a history which will attract wide
attention in Montana.
Father Palladino begins his work
with a compliment to the F1athead
Indians - the Selfish pronounced
Sa1e-ish) of within he says nc 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 ap-
%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" 1t 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 1900 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
i~mmemorial, 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 buff
falo. They looked on Flathead buff
falo hunters as intruders. In addi-
ton to a 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 seer by any
of the F1atheads were the members
of the La Verendrye expedition and
these we're 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 s
there was still living, at the st. Igna-
thus mission, an old Indian woman, t
Eugene, who distinctly remembered {
the visit of Lewis and Clark when
she was about IA years of age. s
The author quotes from the Jour- :
nal of Sergeant Patrick Glass, of the I
and Clark expedition, who t
wrote that the Flatheads were the
only nation ON the whole route q
where anything like chastity is re- !
garded."
While they were honest, brave, I
obedient to authority, Clearly and |
y%irtuous they were ~"barbarous, cruel t
Ind brutal as any savages could be- '
n their treatment of prisoners, "whe- '
her male or female" c
Birthday Suits b
The adults of the tribe dressed in
'kins but the children went absolute n
y naked, "even in winter, plodding "
through slush and snow Il
Five of the consonants, b, d, f, r
nd v, are wanting in their language. t
places are supplied by ., t, h
nd N. t;
In the Flathead tongue Mary be- f,
Malice, Rosalie becomes Usalee W
nd Victor, MittO. The same Ian tt
uage is spoken by nine other tribes: q
be Upper and Lower Kalispells, the m
pokanes, the Occur d'Alenes and the tt
in the vicinity of Colville. a,
They believed in a good spirit, and
bad spirit, in a future reward, and m
punishment. The good Indian tt
'ent to a place of perpetual sum- q