ETHNOLOGY OF THE BLACKFOOT TRIBES. 205 



guage, and is said to be spoken only by those two tribes. None of 

 the Atsinas are now found on Canadian territory, and no recent infor- 

 mation has been obtained concerning them except from the map which 

 accompanies the United States Indian Report for 1884, in which their 

 name appears on the American Blackfoot Reservation. 



The five tribes were reckoned, fifty years ago, to comprise not less 

 than thirty thousand souls. Their numbers, union, and warlike spirit, 

 made them the terror of all the Western Indians. It was not uncom- 

 mon for thirty or forty war-parties to be out at once against the hos- 

 tile tribes of Oregon and of the eastern plains, from the Shoshonees 

 of the south to the Crees of the far north. The country which the 

 Blackfoot tribes claimed properly as their own comprised the valleys 

 and plains along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, from the 

 Missouri to the Saskatchewan. This region was the favorite resort of 

 the buffalo, whose vast herds afforded the Indians their principal 

 means of subsistence. In the year 1836 a terrible visitation of the 

 small-pox swept off two thirds of the people ; and five years later they 

 were supposed to count not more than fifteen hundred tents, or about 

 ten thousand souls. Their enemies were then recovering their spirits 

 and retaliating upon the weakened tribes the ravages which they had 

 formerly committed. 



In 1855 the United States Government humanely interfered to 

 bring about a complete cessation of hostilities between the Blackfoot 

 tribes and the other Indians. The commissioners appointed for the 

 purpose summoned the hostile tribes together and framed a treaty for 

 them, accompanying the act with a liberal distribution of presents to 

 bring the tribes into good-humor. This judicious proceeding proved 

 effectual. Dr. F. V. Hayden, in his account of the Indian tribes of 

 the Missouri Valley, states that from the period of the treaty the 

 Blackfoot tribes had become more and more peaceful in their habits, 

 and were considered, when he wrote, the best disposed Indians in the 

 Northwest. He remarks that their earlier reputation for ferocity was 

 doubtless derived from their enemies, who always gave them ample 

 cause for attacking them. "In an intellectual and moral point of 

 view," he adds, " they take the highest rank among the wild tribes of 

 the West." The recent reports of the Indian agents and other officials 

 of the Canadian Northwest confirm this favorable opinion of the supe- 

 rior honesty and intelligence of the Blackfoot tribes. While con- 

 stantly harassed on their reserves by the incursions of thievish Crees 

 and other Indians, who rob them of their horses, they forbear to re- 

 taliate, and honorably abide by the terms of their late treaty, which 

 binds them to leave the redress of such grievances to the Canadian 

 authorities. 



Since the general peace was established by the American Govern- 

 ment, the numbers of the Blackfeet have apparently been on the in- 

 crease. Dr. Hayden reports the three proper Blackfoot tribes as num- 



