Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 



uary 22, 1^76, and served in that capacity until June 

 22, 1877. 



13. This black paint of course meant that the war- 

 rior had been one of a war party which had killed 

 enemies. 



14. Red River Half breeds. In 1910 I wrote a 

 brief account of these people, from which the follow- 

 ing paragraphs are taken: 



Scattered about as individuals or families, the Red 

 River halfbreeds were inconspicuous and of no im- 

 portance. By the more staid and methodical people 

 of Anglo-Saxon blood, they were thought of with 

 more or less contempt by reason of their volatile 

 nature and their disinclination for settled habits. But, 

 gathered together in a great camp moving toward the 

 buffalo, or in the buffalo country, they were impres- 

 sive because as a community they were unlike any 

 of the great camps of the people whose blood flowed 

 in their veins. In some degree they possessed the 

 caution and foresightedness of their Caucasian ances- 

 tors, but with this was united the keenness of obser- 

 vation, the knowledge of the habits of animals and 

 generally of the processes of nature which they in- 

 herited from their savage mothers. 



Little more than half a century witnessed the be- 

 ginning and the ending of the great halfbreed camp, 

 but during the short time that they were, or seemed 

 to be, a people or tribe by themselves, they were well 

 worth studying. They were friendly and kindly in 

 their nature, usually on good terms with white 



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