28 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 7 
Missouri as the Mussel-shell River, and up that stream to the borders 
of the Crow country. The three divisions .. . constitute the Black- 
foot nation proper, whose name has become notorious for their fierce 
and deadly struggles with all the neighboring tribes, and in former 
times struck terror to all white men whg travelled in any district 
from the Saskatchewan to the Yellowstone, and from the Yellow- 
stone to the Columbia. . . These bands all live in skin tents, like 
the rest of the prairie tribes, follow the chase for a subsistence, and 
in former years were famous for their war excursions against neigh- 
boring tribes.” (Hayden, (1), pp. 249-250.) 
The region mentioned would have included the central portion of 
the present State of Montana and northward. Marias River flows 
into the Missouri just below Fort Benton. 
Maximilian, who visited the Blackfeet during the summer of 1833, 
has left a very concise and interesting account of the appearance of 
their camps: ; 
“The leather tents of the Blackfeet, their internal arrangement, 
and the manner of loading their dogs and horses, agree, in every 
respect, with those of the Sioux and Assiniboins, and all the wander- 
ing tribes of hunters of the upper Missouri. The tents, made of 
tanned buffalo skin, last only for one year; they are, at first, neat and 
white, afterwards brownish, and at the top, where the smoke issues, 
black, and, at last, transparent, like parchment, and very light inside. 
Painted tents, adorned with figures, are very seldom seen, and only a 
few chiefs possess them. When these tents are taken down, they leave 
a circle of sods, exactly as in the dwellings of the Esquimaux. They 
are often surrounded by fifteen or twenty dogs, which serve, not for 
food, but only for drawing and carrying their baggage. Some Black- 
feet, who have visited the Sioux, have imitated them in eating dogs, 
but this is rare. Near the tents they keep their dog sledges, with 
which they form conical piles resembling the tents themselves, but 
differing from them in not being covered with leather. On these they 
hang their shields, travelling bags, saddles and bridles; and at some 
height, out of the reach of the hungry dogs, they hang the meat, which 
is cut into long strips, their skins, &c. The medicine bag or bundle, 
the conjuring apparatus, is often hung and fastened to a separate 
pole, or over the door of the tent. Their household goods consist 
of buffalo robes and blankets, many kinds of painted parchment bags, 
some of them in a semicircular form, with leather strings and fringes; 
wooden dishes, large spoons made of the horn of the mountain sheep, 
which are very wide and deep ... In the center of the tent there 
is a small fire in a circle composed of stones, over which the kettle 
for cooking is suspended.” (Maximilian, (1), pp. 250-251.) 
