Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 



trapper from St. Louis, whose Christian name is for- 

 gotten. He was early in the western country, and 

 in 1859 was Government interpreter at Ft. Benton. 

 At certain points in the cut banks along the course 

 of this stream are seams of the red clay, which the 

 primitive Indians used for paint. An opportunity 

 to collect this clay was never neglected when it 

 offered. The Blackfoot name for Armell's Creek is 

 et tsis ki ots op, meaning, "It fell on them," from the 

 following circumstance : A long time ago, as a num- 

 ber of Blackfeet women were digging in a bank near 

 this stream, for the red clay, which they used for 

 paint, the bank gave way, and fell on them, burying 

 and killing them. (Blackfoot Lodge Tales, p. 61.) 







36. The peak climbed must have been either Black 

 Butte or Cone Butte. From either of these points 

 the view is extensive. Cone Butte is a trachyte hill 

 about 3,400 feet above the Missouri River. The 

 Little Rocky Mountains and the Bear Paw Moun- 

 tains, although distant, are very conspicuous, and the 

 prairie below, dotted as it was then with feeding game 

 and now with cattle and prosperous farm houses, 

 was and is a goodly sight. At that time this com- 

 manding position was well appreciated by the Indians, 

 who used it as a lookout. The Judith Basin was in 

 fact at that time a sort of debatable ground visited 

 by Crows, Bannocks, Snakes, Sioux, Gros Ventres of 

 the Prairie, Assiniboines, Blackfeet and Red River 

 halfbreeds. Many of these tribes were at war with 

 one another, and most of them, even though on friend- 

 ly terms, were distinctly suspicious of each other. 



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