Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1941-11-07
Malcolm Clark, interpreter Extraordinary, Gave
Whites, Blackfeet Indians Short-I Lived Peace

The war between the white race
and the Blackfeet Indians began when
Capt. William Clark. OF the Lewis and
clark expedition, in defending his
property on the Marias river. was COM
pelled TO shoot dead Piegan horse
Thief. Stealing horses among the In
dams OF Montana in those days was
not an offense-more, it was looked
upon IN the light of an achievement
The sporting thing to do was to pick
out some member of the tribe that
had helped himself to your horse, do
a little thievery in reprisal, and where
the offender had taken one horse
take two If possible, and in that way
get doubly even.
Now the Piegans were blood BROTH
ers Of the Blackfeet, and when Clark
sent his mllsket ball into the brain
of this adventurous horsethief of
close TO a century and a half ago he
started war that lasted, in season
and out, for nearly 70 years. race
of men who looked upon the stealing
of a horse as an offense justifying
the taking Of life was beyond the pale
OF Blackfeet consideration. So the
word went forth that the Blackfeet
and their allies were to kill white
men whenever and wherever they
could get away with it. They were to
use guile when in the face of superior
forces, but were to kill without mercy
the white straggler who happened to
be found alone in the wilderness. This
war against the whites, however, did
not apply as far as the Hudson's Bay
men were concerned. the HudSon's
Bay trappers saw to that, but Boston
men, as the American was called
among the redskin, were enemies.
So, a year or two after Lewis and
Clark had returned to civilization, and
a trading post had been established
at Three Forks, the Blackfeet decided
to wipe out the little post and its
defenders, and one day Captain Henry,
commandant at Three Forks. found
himself and his little band in a state
of siege. A few stragglers, going out
to bait their traps, were killed. The
Indians remained about the fort in
force for some time, killing white
man whenever the occasion offered
Finally Henry saw that an attempt
to hold the fort was out of the ques-
ton. He abandoned the fort and re-
treated over the mountains. The
Blackfeet did not attempt to follow
him, because he had gone into a ter
ritory over which they had no juris-
diction. But they burned the fort. and
with its burning the second habitation
to be built in the state went up in
smoke
How the Story Grew
This occurred about 100 years ago
and to this day is still told the legend.
based on Henry's abandonment of
Fort Three Forks, of the time when
the medicine of the Blackfeet nation
grown too, in the century of telling
until now the forces arrayed on either
side of this contest are supposed to
have been mighty and numerous, the
armies of two great nations who were
at war: when as matter OF fact
Henry did not have with him more
than Is men, while the Blackfeet who
drove him out Of the country might
have numbered several hundred war
riors. At any rate the proves of the
Blackfeet did not suffer any in this
story's narration, and the white race
was held as of small account as
fighters.
For so years thereafter the Black
feet took toll of the lonely trapper
and the too venturesome frontiersmen.
OF these many encounters there is no
record, because the Blackfeet kept no
records, and the dead whites could
tell no tales. Skeletons in lonely places
told the story.
Then came the gold strikes, which
brought thousands of white men to
Montana. The Blackfeet found that if
they killed all the whites they had
their bloody work cut out for them.