Glacier County chief., 1939-12-15
By GLADYS RoBINsON coRTELL<

BY GLADYS ROBINSON CORTELLO
THERE is a story told among
the old ones of the eros
Ventres and Assinniboine
tribes of the scamp of the discard
ed moccasins" where the aged and
crippled members of the tribe were
cared for, not only by members of
their own tribe but aided by all
who passed that way whether
friend or enemy. About half way
between the Fort Belknap agency
and the subagency at Hays and
located some two miles west of the
new graveled highway which con-
meets the scenic Little. Rocky
mountain district and the federal
highway through northern Montana
are three buttes, outposts Of the Bears
Paw range to the west. These three
buttes, known as the Three Sisters or
the Three Buttes. are isolated, barren
and rocky hills rising perhaps 5000
feet above the ascending prairie.
At one time, so the story goes. these
buttes were ttmbered to q greater ex-
tent than they are today. Prairie fires
many years ago scorched their rocky
cliffs and killed the scrub pine growth
that chung to the precipitous slopes.
One OF the buttes, less forbidding
growth Of vegetation near its base
where a spring Of clear, cold water
emerges. A sign on the highway points
to the spring, the only one for many
miles across the reservation.
1t was at the base Of this butte that
the camp of the discarded moccasins"
was located many, many years before
the white man came to northern Mon
tana. Here was located one of the few
temperament Indian villages perhaps
In the entire state and here in patched
and worn, but warm and comfortable
lodges lived the old men and women
too feeble or too Ill to travel with their
nomadic tribes.
As parties of Indians travelled through
the country, whether on their regular
hunting route, or on the warpath, con-
tributions of pemmican, castoff cloth
ing and moccasins too good to throw
away but hardly fit for the hard wear
OF travel were left at the camp. So
came the name discarded moccasins."
A literal translation Of the Indian
phrase is impossible, but its meaning
is best translated as discarded or cast
off moccasins or clothing.
Towards winter special care was
taken to see that supplies of fresh
meat were as plentiful as the hunt
afforded. The old men and women
often faced dire necessity, but the
suffering was never so intense as it
would have been on the trail or at
some less comfortable camping place
Here was warmth at least for many
of the old people were able to gather
and store winters supply of wood
and the supply of castoff clothing was
always sufficient to clothe the little
colony. Food was the biggest problem,
but except in the most severe winter,
occasional hunting parties passed by
the camp from the hunting grounds in
the Bears Paw and Little Rocky noun
tainS where deer and elk abounded or
to the winter feeding grounds Of the
buffalo along Milk river, the Missouri
river and the Marias and always a
generous portion of the kill was left for
the old ones.
winter the population of the camp in
creased greatly. Nearly every party of
Indians travelling through northern
Montana left one or more old men or
women and great was the mourning
among the relatives who must go on,
leaving an aged father or mother and
knowing almost for a certainty they
would never see them again. Often the
mourning relatives would cut off a
middle finger or otherwise mutilate
their bodies as an evidence Of grief and
loss.
Sometimes an old man or woman, too
i'll to go with the village, would recover
to such an extent that he or she could
rejoin the tribe for the summer.
The old people left at the discarded