32 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I ID 



In 1872, after Victor's death, James A. Garfield stated that Victor 

 had permitted, even invited, the first white settlers to live in the valley. 

 (Ann. Rep. Comm. Ind. Aff., 1872, p. no.) But by 1868 Victor 

 complained to Major Owen of the white men who had located in the 

 valley in defiance of the 1855 Treaty, which Victor said had set the 

 area aside for the Flathead tribe. (Owen, 1927, vol. 2, p. 121.) 

 The Flathead Agent's report of 1869 describes the Flathead as : 



. . . the wealthiest, most industrious and frugal of these confederated tribes. 

 Many of them rely wholly on the products of their farms for subsistence, but 

 the majority live and subsist in the fall and winter in the buffalo country. [Ann. 

 Rep. Comm. Ind. Aff., 1869, p. 297.] 



Victor himself was unable to adjust to the life of a sedentary farmer. 

 In the years following the treaty he continued to lead his people to 

 the plains for buflfalo in the tradition of prewhite contact days. Scat- 

 tered references in Major Owen's Journal refer to Victor's leader- 

 ship of the summer hunt of 1856; the winter hunt of 1860-61, which 

 occupied 7 months; the winter hunt of 1861-62, during which the 

 tribe was absent from the valley for 9 months and many horses and 

 some men were lost (presumably as a result of enemy action) ; and 

 the summer hunts of 1865, 1867, and 1869. (Owen, 1927, vol. i, 

 pp. 136, 234, 253, 330; vol. 2, pp. 67, 138.) 



In 1858 Victor was too ill to accompany the winter hunting party. 

 He remained behind with three lodges of his people and was fed at 

 Government expense. In mid-August, 1859, he was still an invalid, 

 and Owen feared he would never recover his health. But he did. 

 In the winter of 1867 Owen remarked at the amazing vitality of the 

 old chief, whose hair was still black as coal and who could jump on 

 a horse with as much agility as the youngest of his people. (Ibid., 

 vol. I, pp. 184-185, 193 ; vol. 2, p. 42.) 



Victor died of sickness while on the summer hunt near the Three 

 Buttes in 1870. He is said to be buried in the cemetery of St. Mary's 

 Mission at Stevensville, in the Bitterroot Valley. 



George E. Ford, the Flathead Agent, paid tribute to Victor in his 

 report of September i, 1870: 



Affairs are particularly critical just now, as the confederated nation is with- 

 out a chief. The Indians had full confidence in Victor and would cheerfully act 

 according to his advice, but I know of no one in the nation that is capable of 

 filling his place with equal ability. [Ann. Rep. Comm. Ind. Aff., 1870, p. 195.] 



Father De Smet's tribute to Victor stressed his piety. Captain 

 Mullan remembered Victor's mildness and gentleness, bravery, gen- 

 erosity, and his many kindnesses to the members of his exploring 



