Hunting at High Altitudes 



Martinsdale at the Forks of the Musselshell, where 

 about that time a postoffice had been established. 



46. Crazy Woman Mountains now called usually 

 Crazy Mountains. At that time this was a great game 

 country. Thousands of elk, deer, white and blacktail 

 and antelope ranged the country, not to mention the 

 mountain sheep, which were abundant on the southern 

 slopes of these mountains and on to the broken banks 

 of the Yellowstone. This was a favorite hunting 

 ground for Bannocks, Shoshonis, Crows and some- 

 times war-traveling bands of more distant Indians, 

 who considered the aforementioned Indians as their 

 enemies, and to be attacked if this could be done with 

 prospect of success. 



A peculiar thing about these mountains is that there 

 is no pass through them ; the heads of all the streams 

 are very abrupt, with cliffs on both sides of the ridge. 

 White-tail deer were extremely abundant on all the 

 streams heading in these mountains. During the sum- 

 mer there was not much game around, as it went into 

 the higher country of the main range. Now scarcely 

 an animal can be found here. 



47. Many plains streams have the same name in 

 different tribes. Thus the Yellowstone River is called 

 Elk River by most of the northern plains tribes, from 

 the great abundance of elk formerly found in its 

 valley. What we call the Musselshell River is a 

 translation of the Cheyenne name Ihko worn' iyo' he, 

 from the abundance of the unios found in its bed. 

 Crazy Woman's River is from the Cheyenne word, 



286 



