NO. 7 SOHON S IHiRTKAlTS OF INDIANS — EWFRS 3 



lished Fort Owen, a trading post, on its site, ijccause of continued 

 hostile raids by Blackfool Indians from east of the nunnUains, they 

 had decided the location was no longer safe, and were on their way 

 to tlie Pacific Coast. Upon seeing Saxton's armed force, they were 

 encouraged to return to their abandoned post. .Saxton's party reached 

 l-'ort Owen on August 28. They found it surrounded by a considerable 

 village of log cabins. They were surprised to find cattle, chickens, 

 and growing crops of wheat and potatoes tended by Iroquois Indians. 

 The Flathead Indians were absent on a buffalo hunt across the 

 mountains. 



By fall (Jovernor Stevens was convinced that the critical problem 

 confronting his survey was that of determining the most practical and 

 economical route for the railway over the Rocky and Ritterroot 

 ranges of mountains. Although the mountain region had been known 

 to fur traders for several decades, the only mathematical data and 

 maps available were those compiled by the explorers Lewis and Clark 

 in their hasty travels through the area a half century earlier. There 

 was need for more detailed scientific information. Accordingly, 

 ."^tevens decided to leave a small party in the Bitterroot \'alley through 

 the winter of 1853-54 to make precise meteorological observations 

 and to explore and survey the country between the Rocky and Bitter- 

 root Mountains from Fort Hall northward to Flathead Lake and 

 beyond, with particular emphasis upon the examination of the en- 

 trances to the mountain passes. On October 3, 1853, Stevens ordered 

 Lt. John Mullan to take charge of these important investigations, 

 and assigned 15 men to Mullan's command. Custavus Sohon was one 

 of this little group. 



Mullan proceeded to erect a group of rude log huts 14 miles .south 

 of Fort Owen on the Bitterroot River. This little settlement, named 

 Cantonment Stevens, served as a weather station, winter quarters, 

 and headquarters for the jjarty's explorations of the intermountain 

 region. 



(justavus Sohon's services to Lieutenant Mullan in his explorations 

 of 1853-54 were invaluable. .\ gifted linguist. Sohon learned to speak 

 the Salishan languages of the b'lathead and Pend d'Oreillc Indians 

 with remarkable rapidity. He became Lieutenant Mullan's interpreter 

 and aided him in gathering important information from the Indians 

 on the trails, moimtain passes, and general geography of the region. 

 It was probably during this itcriod that Sohon began the compilation 

 if the Flathead-English vocabulary which is now in the manuscript 

 (.ollcctions of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Tt includes some 

 1.500 useful words and phrases. 



