Bitterroot Valley, gathered at the “Dancing Place” just north of 
the present town of Hamilton, Montana. The ceremony was a 
prayer for the abundance of the two most important economic 
plants, camas and bitterroot. When all of the participants were 
assembled, the High Chief appointed 2 mature women to act as 
leaders and a number of other women as assistants. The group 
then went to a site where bitterroot was found. The senior woman 
raised her arm to the sun and prayed for success, security, good 
health, etc. Then the same prayer was made to the earth. Next the 
digging began, and when enough bitterroot had been dug, the 
women took the roots to the Chief's lodge where it was cooked. 
When the meal was ready the Chief prayed to the sun, then to the 
earth, and finally the food was distributed to the assembled 
people. Afterwards the Thanksgiving Dance started. With this 
sacred ceremony completed, anybody was free to collect bitter- 
root (Turney-High, 1937). 
The camas dance was part of the Midwinter Festival which 
began at the New Year. It had a magical-religious motivation, 
being primarily a prayer in the dead of winter for an adequate 
supply of vegetable food in the spring. It was followed by the Blue 
Jay Dance. They were a favorite time for marrying and consisted 
of riotous joking and playing (Turney-High, 1937). 
Medicine and religion were inseparable. This was certainly true 
with a Flathead method of discovering new medicines by means 
of dreams, though it it not denied that many medicines were 
borrowed and traded from other groups. Beaverhead (1973) 
stated that when a person was known to be sick a certain medicine 
man was called to doctor the patient. If the medicine did not seem 
to work then another medicine person was called in to cure the 
patient. During the night the medicine person would dream and 
be told to use a certain kind of plant. Then the next day he would 
find that plant and take it to the patient to use as a remedy. Asa 
result the medicine would become well known to all members of 
the tribe. 
Flathead Indians were required to placate certain spirits when 
they collected plants. Vanderburg (1973) claimed that when the 
huckleberry was collected for its medicinal use as a heart medicine 
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