NO. 7 SOHON S PORTRAITS OF INDIANS — EWERS 49 



the Cut Bank and Marias passes). Although Little Dog, a prominent 

 Piegan chief, was impressed by Alexander's argument, the Commis- 

 sioners remained firm in their decision that the country north of the 

 Musselshell should be reserved for the Blackfoot tribes. The Treaty 

 as written and signed by Alexander as well as the other Pend d'Oreille 

 chiefs, gave the western Indians no right to hunt in the area reserved 

 for the Blackfoot. (Partoll, 1937, pp. 7-10.) 



Nevertheless, Alexander continued to hunt there. In 1860 he led 

 his people on their winter hunt over the Rockies and across the plains 

 of the Blackfoot country until they discovered buffalo on Milk River. 

 After the people had thanked God for the prospect of a successful 

 hunt, and secured their best horses for the morrow's chase, they re- 

 tired for the night. While they slept, a large war party of Assiniboine 

 and Cree Indians on foot surrounded the camp. An hour before 

 dawn they launched a surprise attack, killed 20 of the Pend d'Oreille 

 and wounded 25 more (5 of whom later died of their wounds). The 

 enemy stole 290 Pend d'Oreille horses and forced the defeated camp 

 to abandon most of their equipment, provisions, and clothing on the 

 battlefield. Alexander led his beaten people on the 400-mile retreat 

 homeward across the plains. Women with their children on their 

 backs were forced to make the entire journey on foot. Major Owen 

 met the party on its return to the Jocko Reservation. He found 

 Alexander thirsting for revenge. Not only had his people suffered a 

 humiliating defeat, but Alexander's son, a promising young man of 

 20 years of age, had been among those killed. Alexander had seen 

 liis son's scalped and multilatcd body. He longed to return to the 

 sleeping place of his son and people and to avenge their loss. (Owen, 

 1927, vol. 2, pp. 234-235, 239, 262.) 



Alexander was deeply concerned with the problem of disciplining 

 liis people. In his first recorded speech at the Flathead Treaty Council 

 he spoke frankly of his difficulties in managing his unruly young people. 

 He believed that good example alone would not "make them go 

 straight." Yet he feared the severity of the white man's laws. (Par- 

 toll, 1938a, pp. 289-290.) When Alexander accompanied Father De 

 Smet to Fort Vancouver in the spring of 1859, ^^ showed little inter- 

 est in the white man's mechanical inventions and industrial plants he 

 saw in the principal towns of Oregon and Washington. He was much 

 interested in the Portland prison and the severe methods of punish- 

 ment of criminals he observed there. Immediately on his return to 

 the reservation, Alexander assembled his people. He told them of the 

 wonders of the white man's civilization, placing particular emphasis 



