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Thompson credited the western Indians with being deadlier marks- 

 men with their new weap^jns than were the Piegan. He believed this 

 was due to the fact that they had learned to fire at smaller game from a 

 distance, while the Blackfoot were accustomed to shoot buffalo at 

 short range. Clbid., p. 411.) 



Next year the Piegan, chastened by this defeat at the hands of their 

 formerly impotent foes, sued for peace with the Flathead. It was a 

 tempting offer to this small tribe that had suffered severe losses 

 through decades of warfare with the Blackfoot. However, after long 

 deliberation, the courageous Flathead leaders refused the peace offer, 

 'llicy knew tliat the Piegan could not speak for their Blood, North 

 Blackfoot, and Gros \'entres allies, who remained hostile. (Ibid., pp. 



547-55 1;) 



Within a few years the Flathead became well armed. The 168 

 Flathead men and boys who came to trade at the Hudson's Bay 

 Gjmpany post at Horse Prairie in the fall of 1824 possessed 180 

 guns. CRoss, 191 3, p. 387.) The Flathead were grateful to the traders 

 whose guns and ammunition they believed had saved their little tribe 

 from possible extermination at the hands of the merciless Blackfoot. 



On the other hand, the traders were very much impressed with the 

 character and integrity of the Flathead as compared with the Indian 

 tribes they had known east of the Rockies and on the Pacific Qjast. 

 In the accounts of hard-boiled traders, the Flathead were extrava- 

 gantly praised for their friendliness, frankness, honesty, truthfulness, 

 industry, courage, obedience to their chiefs, cleanliness, and chastity 

 of their women. (Cox, 1832, pp. 102, 122; Ferris, 1940, pp. 88, 

 325-326; Henry and Thompson, 1897, vol. 2, p. 710.) Yet the traders 

 recognized that the Flathead had one serious failing, they were bold 

 and inveterate gamblers. (Ferris, 1940, pp. 94-96; Thompson, 1916, 

 pp. 411, 551 ; Wyeth, 1899, p. 193.) 



Because of their admiration for the Flathead, many of the traders 

 offered to aid them in their unequal struggle with the more numerous 

 Blackfoot. Some traders, like Finan McDonald, accompanied the Flat- 

 head to the buffalo plains and fought beside them against their Indian 

 enemies. (G)x, 1832, pp. 167-168.) Others sought to effect a peace 

 between the warring tribes. Ross Cox, in 18 13, tried to induce the 

 Flathead to abandon their dangerous expeditions to the plains. He 

 argued that their lands west of the mountains were well supplied 

 with smaller game which could support them. But "they replied 

 that their fathers had always hunted on the buffalo grounds; that 

 they were accustomed to do the same thing from their infancy ; and 

 they would not now abandon a practice which had existed for several 



