NO. 7 SOIION S PORTRAITS OF INDIANS — EWERS 57 



if circumstances permitted. Old Ignace and his sons returned home 

 tlie following spring. (Palladino, 1894, p. 19; Chittenden and Rich- 

 ardson, 1905, vol. I, pp. 28-29; Garraghan, 1938, vol. 2, p. 246.) 



In 1837 a third deputation consisting of three h'lathead, a Xez 

 Perce, and Old Ignace as leader started for St. Louis. At Fort 

 Laramie they joined a party of white men traveling eastward from 

 Oregon. At Ash Hollow on the North Platte they were attacked 

 by a party of Sioux. The whites were ordered to stand aside as the 

 Sioux did not intend to molest them. Old Ignace who was dressed 

 as a white man, was mistaken for one, and ordered to stand witii the 

 whites, but he refused to abandon his Indian companions. The Sioux 

 then attacked the five Indians and killed them. It is possible that 

 the Sioux mistook the Indians for Shoshoni, traditional enemies of 

 their tribe. Thus no member of this deputation lived to reach St. 

 Louis. (Palladino, 1894, p. 20; Chittenden and Richardson, 1905, 

 vol. I, p. 29; Garraghan, 1938, vol. 2, pp. 247-248.) 



In the summer of 1S39 two Iroquois, Pierre Gaucher and Young 

 Ignace, volunteered to make the long trip to St, Louis in quest of 

 a priest. Apparently they traveled down the Yellowstone and Missouri 

 Rivers by canoe. In St. Louis, Bishop Rosati gave them assurance 

 that a priest would be sent to their people the following spring. 

 Pierre Gaucher set out for home alone, while Young Ignace waited 

 at Westport to accompany Father De Smet westward in the spring. 

 (Palladino, 1894, pp. 21-24; Chittenden and Richardson, 1905, vol. i, 

 pp. 29-30; Garraghan, 1938, vol. 2, pp. 248-250.) 



Bishop Rosati was told by the Iroquois of this last deputation that 

 only 4 of the 24 Iroquois who formerly emigrated from Canada to the 

 IHathead country were still living in 1839. It is probable the Indians 

 meant that only that number remained among the Flathead, and 

 that in addition to others who had died since the migration, some 

 of the Iroquois had moved on to other locations. Father Garraghan 

 stated that a group of Catholic Iroquois emigrated from the Rocky 

 Mountain region to the site of Kansas City and that among the first 

 Catholic baptisms in the history of that city, February 23, 1834, two 

 were recorded as "Iroquois-Flatheads." (Palladino, 1894, p. 28; 

 Garraghan, 1938, vol. 2, p. 239, footnote.) 



GUSTAVUS SOHON'S PORTRAITS OF IROQUOIS LIVING 

 AMONG THE FLATHEAD 



Mr. Sohon's three portraits of Iroquois living among the Flathead 

 were drawn in the late spring of 1854, probably in the vicinity of 



