NO. 7 SOHON S PORTRAITS OF INDIANS — EWERS I5 



intruders could not be repulsed by the bows and arrows, lances, and 

 war clubs of the Flathead and their neighbors. The Rlackfoot invasion 

 gained momentum after a disastrous smallj)ox epidemic in 1781 

 greatly reduced the numbers of their enemies. The establishment 

 of trading posts in their own country later in that decade also gave 

 them a more plentiful suj)ply of firearms and ammunition. By the 

 close of the century the Blackfoot tribes dominated the western plains 

 north of the Missouri. They forced the Kutenai, Fend d'Oreille, 

 and Flathead to seek safety west of the Rockies, and pushed the 

 Shoshoni southward and westward. The Blackfoot tried to deny the 

 western tribes access to the buffalo plains by guarding the eastern 

 exits from the most commonly used mountain passes. Occasionally 

 they sent strong war parties over the Rockies to steal horses from 

 the western tribes and to harass them in their own country. (Ferris, 

 1940, pp. 90-92; Thompson, 1916, pp. 304, 327-344; Teit, 1930, 

 pp. 316-321.) 



The Flathead and their neighbors insisted on their prior right to 

 hunt buffalo on the plains in the present Montana. These tribes 

 were too small to risk individual combat with the powerful Blackfoot. 

 So they joined forces and crossed the mountains cautiously farther 

 south on shorter hunting excursions. The expeditions of the period 

 included the Nez Perce as well as the Flathead and neighboring 

 Salishan tribes. In spite of their precautions these parties sometimes 

 suffered heavy losses from attacks by the better-armed Blackfoot. 



On these excursions the allied western tribes also met the Crow 

 Indians, who had advanced westward across the plains of the Yellow- 

 stone River valley and taken over much of the territory previously 

 held by the Shoshoni. Prior to 1805 the western allies traded horses 

 and horn bows to the Crows for materials which the latter had 

 obtained from the Mandan and Hidatsa villages farther cast. Through 

 these Crow middlemen the westerners obtained some articles of 

 European manufacture, including a few brass kettles, which they 

 cut into small pieces to ornament their hair and clothing. As yet 

 the F"lathcad received no firearms. (Larocque, 1910, pp. 71-72.) 



The first white men known to have met the Flathead were the 

 members of the party of American explorers under Captains Lewis 

 and Clark on their way overland to the Pacific. On September 4, 1805, 

 this expedition encountered a Flathead village in what later became 

 known as Ross's Hole, near the present town of Sula, Ravalli County, 

 Mont. The explorers found the Flathead dressed in animal skins, 

 living in skin-covered lodges, and subsisting at the time on roots 

 and berries. Although interchange of ideas was complicated by the 



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