l6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IIO 



fact that all conversation had to pass through six different languages, 

 the Flathead managed to impress the explorers with their friendliness 

 and hospitality by exchanging presents, willingly sharing their food, 

 and trading horses to the whites. The expedition spent 2 days with 

 the Indians, at the conclusion of which the Flathead set out for the 

 Three Forks of the Missouri to join their western allies on the 

 winter buffalo hunt. Lewis and Clark estimated the size of the Indian 

 village at 33 lodges (Sergeant Ordway reckoned 40), in which lived 

 about 400 persons, of whom 80 were men. Capt. Clark said these 

 Indians called themselves "Eoote-lash-Schute." Later Indian accounts 

 of the meeting leave no doubt that they were the Flathead. (Thwaites, 

 1904-5, vol. 3, pp. 52-55 ; Ordway, 1916, pp. 281-282; Wheeler, 1904, 

 vol. 2, p. 65; Ronan, 1890, p. 41 ; Report of Explorations, etc., i860, 

 vol. I, p. 325.) 



Lewis and Clark estimated that the people of this village possessed 

 over 500 horses of fine quaUty, an average of more than 15 horses 

 to the lodge. Later accounts substantiate the fact that the Flathead 

 were richer in horses than were the Indians of the Plains. (Irving, 

 1851, p. 117; Bradley, 1923, p. 256.) Flathead horses were sturdy, 

 long-winded animals. A Blackfoot brave told Governor Stevens in 

 1853 that he "stole the first Flathead horse he came across — it was 

 sure to be a good one." (Report of Explorations, etc., i860, vol. i, 

 p. 148.) The theft of horses furnished a primary motive for Blackfoot 

 raids on Flathead camps throughout the greater part of the nineteenth 

 century. 



When David Thompson of the Northwest Company crossed the 

 Rockies and opened direct trade with the Flathead and Pend d'Oreille 

 tribes in the fall of 1809, he found these Indians armed only with 

 stone-pointed lances and arrows which broke harmlessly against the 

 thick buffalo-hide shields of their Blackfoot enemies. These Indians 

 clamored for firearms, ammunition, and iron arrowheads in exchange 

 for beaver pelts. Little else interested them. (Thompson, 1916, 

 p. 411.) During the following winter Thompson traded the Flathead 

 more than 20 guns and several hundred iron arrowheads. Next 

 summer the Indians were eager to try their new weapons against 

 their old enemies. In July a party of about 150 Flathead and allied 

 tribesmen crossed the Rockies by way of Marias Pass, determined 

 to hunt boldly. The Piegan did attack them shortly after they reached 

 the plains. The hardy Flathead successfully repulsed the attackers, 

 with heavy losses to the Piegan. With the improved weapons the 

 Flathead scored their first victory over the stronger Blackfoot. 



