The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1937-04-02
STUDY REVEALS
INDIAN HABITS
LEGEND OF HOW RIVERS WERE
STOCKED WITH SALMON
NARRATED
HUNTED FOR BUFFALO
DURING LATE AUTUMN
In May Each Year Redskins gathered
Bitter Root; June, Slokem, the Wild
Carrot, Garnered; in August, Etwa,
the Priced Camas Taken; Late Sum-
mer and Early Fall for Berries.

When Old Man Coyote of Indian
e sought to aid the Selfish
Indians by bringing them a salmon
from the Columbia river so they,
might begin the stocking of their
valley streams, he reached the ton
of the Bitter Root mountains and
was headed EAST when his old
enemy, Mountain Sheep gave him
a mighty butt: In the fight which
ensued, the salmon slipped into the
stream and glided westward.
And that's how the Selfish explain
their annual migration into Idaho to
stock up on salmon. Anthropologists
today point out that that annual mi
grafton was one of the strongest links
between the Selfish and the tribes of
the west. In other customs-for ex-
ample, the use of the horse in the
buffalo hunt-the Selfish were like the
Indians of the plains.
st DR.; Harry Turney;High, Montana
recently completed a study Of the eco
nomic life of the Selfish.
During each of these migrations
into Idaho, the. people split into small
bands" he says. "Some pains were
taken to construct a weir across each
creek. Sticks were cut with which we'll
stayed crotches were erected on the
banks, then across the stream in a
crescent shape, the stream flowing into
the concave slide. Into this weir was
inserted or two large conical-
shaped bags Of withes, the number
depending on the width of the stream.
Then on the downstream side the
framework was covered with mats of
awaited. The salmon run is quite weak
in any streams the F1athead's visited"
During the late autumn or early
winter, the Selfish chiefs organized the
migration into the great plains for
bison.
"A small home guard always re-
manned in the valley-the elderly, those
too Door to ride eastward, and the
ne, er-do-wells of all bands. These eked
watching flights Of crows and magpies
winging towards the carrion scraps
abandoned by some predatory beast.
n can imagine the joy with which
the bison expedition was greeted when
it returned about Easter with full
The bison hunt itself was precisely
like that of the plains tribes"
But it was not upon the salmon and
bison alone that the Selfish depended
for food. The vegetable phase Of their
true economic endeavor began with the
gathering of spetlem, the bitter root,
OF which they hoped to store enough
W pAOVl0e I1le SIdrCu elemeQC OF the
diet throughout the winter months.
The bitter root was gathered in early
KEN, the wild carrot, was garnered,
By August, etwa, the priced camas,
was considered ripe for harvest. To
use as a condiment in camas cooking
there was gathered a parasitic pine
moss, shautemkan. The white root,
pstchelu, was also gathered at one
time in July.
Late summer and early autumn were
devoted to gathering the many edible
berries whose shrubs cover the noun
tain slopes of the home valleys. The
most prolific and in many ways the
most priced of these is the service
berry. Berries are still gathered in as
great quantities as possible and dried
for winter use.
The only mineral which mattered
in Flathead life was the cosmetic YER
million, On. Turney-High says. A cave
near Helena provided most Of this red
paint, but intertribal trade with the
Crow Indians provided the best YER
million. whenever the two peoples ha6
n Of their rare intervals OF peace