The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1925-11-20

The Blackfeet we're always at war
with the Crows, Sioux, Cheyennes,
AssinnibOines, Flatheads and Snake
Indians, and this wal finally drove
the Crows from their old and choice
hunting grounds along the eastern
slope of the Rocky Mountains, where
deer and other game abOunded. For
a time after the exodus of the Crows,
war parties would occasionally sally
into the lands from which they had
! been driven. and they were fortunate
indeed if they did not meet the pa
trolls of the Blackfeet who gave them
no quarter.
An Intelligent Race.
The best authorities are agreed
that the Blackfeet, Of all of the In
dian tribes of the Northwest, were a
superior race of redmen. Ninety
years age, Catlin wrote of them:
1.-The several Indian tribes inhab-
iting the upper Missouri, are un-
b. dOubtedly the finest looking, best
equipped and most beautifully cos
5 TUNED. They live in a country we'll
s stocked with buffalo and wild horses,
which furnish them with an excel
lent and easy living; their atmOs-
1 phere is pure, which produces good
% health and long life, and they are
the most independent and happiest
Indians I have met. They are all in
r. a state of primitive rudeness and
= wildness, and are picturesque and
i handsome beyond description. Moth
e ing in the world of it's kind can sur
pass their games, amusements and
- parades. In my travels l have more
than realized my former predictions
f that these Indians who could be
+ found almost entirely in a state of
T. nature, with the least knowledge of
e civilized society, would be found the
S most clearly in their persons, elegant
= in their dress and manners, and en-
S jOying life to the greatest perfec-
ton"
K Were Lords of Vast Area.
In search of the trophies of the
p chase, food and the loot of primitive
7 war, these former lords of Montana
i rOamed over a wide area. Their war
parties, composed of %vetreans, led by
s chiefs of proven valOr and ability,
led them as far south as New Mexico,
e across the plains into the big grass
country of southern Alberta, ready to
l. throw down the gage of battle to any
= who would fight them. They went
n about in mounted bands of from SO
to 500, and were eve ready to ride
for and strike hard whenever the Oc-
e casiOn presented itself. They fought
for the preservation of their hunting
domain, for furs with which they
IS could always purchase supplies from
# the factors of the Hudson's Bay COM
r pany, with whom they were ever on
IS friendly terms, for the young women
.e of enemy tribes whom they married
Out-Of-hand by tribal ceremony, no
% matter how many wives might be
Is waiting for them in their home te-
Tribal legends narrate that
If some of these Blackfeet expeditions
g would stay away from Montana for
as long as three years, usually com
ct ing back loaded with wars plumber.
e. The return of one of these expedi-
Of tiOns, that had been away for some
ID time and had been successful, bear
is ing the spOils of war and bringing
with them prisoners, chanting the
. song of victory, was a great event
and the celebration would sometimes
be prolonged for days, and be parti-
cipated in by thousands. The chiefs
and war heads encouraged these cele
. bratiOns of victrOy, as it stimulated
- the young men to go out and fight
for tribal glory and plumber.
% The Blackfeet nation was at its
zenith in the early part of the las
century, and up until in the earl!
sos, when the first disaster befel
ld the cO~nfederacy. It was about thil
ks time that the famous battle between
r. the Blackfeet and the Crows was
waged in the Sun River valley no.
far from the present city of Grea
{ Falls. This raj perhaps the bloOdi
IA-A --------A-A b T-1e.- Ls-A---
f and as a result thereof many thOus
a ands of both cOmbatants lay dead up
] on the scene of action. Although ser
l. iOusly depleted in warrior numbers
n the Blackfeet nation was still mos
= powerful, and remained so until earl.
I in the Cos. Just after the close o
the civil war, the epidemic of small
ar pOx hit the tribes, it being carried t
nd them by white traders and prOspeC
oh tors who had then started to max
flo their way in large numbers up tn
Missouri river. The disease swep
over the Blacfeet country with disas
&c trOus results. The Indian remedie
proved of no avail. During the winte
d. 1863 it was at it's worst, and thou
ne sands, the flower Of the Blackfee
'O- nation, died. When the scOurge ha
gu subsidized only a pitiful remnant G
OF the once great and powerful trib
was left, in a few scattering camp
oC' where natural conditions helpe
De- them to combat the disease. To TIL
Ie- day old men of the tribe will talk {
nc the year of ''the great sickness
is when three-fourths Of the BlackfeC
died. The slaughter OF the buffalo
he during the next ten years took muc
. a of their ~sustenance from them. The.
hunting grounds were taken frOl
ok them by the federal government. A
in a final result, there are now in th
the United States and Canada, less tina
try One-tenth as many Blackfeet IndiaI
as there were a half a century agl
rch Uncle Sam and the BIackfeet.
ote Had it not been for the ravages
ub- the smallpox, the United States go
AS eminent would have found a form
lib dable task in subduing the Blackfe0
ess nation, for this warlike tribe befol