The Spartans of the West 27 



I have seen scores of them. Clark says they were " common 

 to all tribes," (p. 365). Every old-timer knows that they 

 were in daily use by the Indians and scoffed at by the white 

 settlers who, indeed, were Httle given to bathing of any kind. 



r 



CHASTITY 



About one hundred years ago the notorious whiskey- 

 trader, Alexander Henry, already mentioned, went into 

 the Missouri region. He was a man of strange character, 

 of heroic frame and mind, but unscrupulous and sordid. 

 His only interest and business among the Indians was 

 beating them out of their furs with potations of cheap 

 alcohol. This fearless ruffian penetrated the far North- 

 west, was the first trader to meet certain Western tribes, 

 and strange to tell he wrote a full, straightforward and 

 shocking account of his wanderings and methods among the 

 red folk he despised for not being white. In spite of arro- 

 gance and assumed superiority, his narrative contains 

 much like the following: 



"The Flatheads on the Buffalo Plains, generally encounter the 

 Piegans and fight desperately when attacked. They never 

 attempt war themselves, and have the character of a brave and 

 virtuous people, not in the least addicted to those vices so 

 common among savages who have had long intercourse with 

 Europeans. Chastity is particularly esteemed, and no woman 

 will barter her favors, even with the whites, upon any mer- 

 cenary consideration. She may be easily prevailed upon 

 to reside with a white man as his wife, according to the custom 

 of the country, but prostitution is out of the question —she will 

 listen to no proposals of that nature. Their morals have not 

 yet been sufficiently debauched and corrupted by an intercourse 

 with people who call themselves Christians, but whose licentious 

 and lecherous manners are far worse than those of savages. A 

 striking example is to be seen throughout the N. W. country, of 

 the depravity and wretchedness of the natives; but as one 



