BUSHNELL] VILLAGES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI aL 
in front, flank, or rear, ever ready for the chase or defence against a 
foe . . . Like other tribes in this region, the Piegans retain all their 
primitive customs, adhering with faithful pertinacity to the cere- 
monies of their forefathers.” (Stanley, (1), pp. 448-449.) At that 
time the Piegan were estimated to have had 430 lodges, the average 
number of persons occupying each being 10. 
During this brief but interesting journey Stanley made many 
sketches of the Indians with whom he came in contact, but not one of 
the drawings is known to exist at the present time. His beautiful 
painting of a buffalo hunt, shown in plate 2, is one of his five pictures 
now in the National Museum at Washington. 
The Blackfeet allies often moved in great numbers from place to 
place when searching for the herds of buffalo or tracking some enemy 
tribe. Such a war party was encountered on the banks of the River 
Saskatchewan, two days’ journey below Fort Pitt, about the present 
town of Battleford, Saskatchewan, on June 1, 1848. Among the 
party then going from Fort Pitt to Norway House, the Hudson’s Bay 
Company’s post on the northeast shore of Lake Winnipeg, was the 
Canadian artist Kane, who entered in his journal: “ We saw a large 
party of mounted Indians, riding furiously towards us. On their 
nearer approach they proved to be a large war party, consisting of 
Blackfoot Indians, Blood Indians, Sur-cees, Gros Ventres, and Pay- 
gans ... We instantly put ashore to meet them... They told 
us they were a party of 1,500 warriors, from 1,200 lodges, who were | 
then ‘ pitching on’ towards Fort Edmonton; that is, they were mak- 
ing short journeys, and pitching their tents on towards Edmonton, 
leaving few behind capable of bearing arms. They were in pursuit 
of the Crees and Assiniboines, whom they threatened totally to an- 
nihilate, boasting that they themselves were as numerous as the grass 
on the plains. They were the best mounted, the best looking, the 
most warlike in appearance, and the best accoutred of any tribe I 
had ever seen on the continent during my route... After our 
smoke several of the young Braves engaged in a horse race, to which 
sport they are very partial, and at which they bet heavily; they gen- 
erally ride on those occasions stark naked, without a saddle, and with 
only a lasso fastened to the lower jaw of the horse as represented in 
Sketch No. 16.” (Kane, (1), pp. 417-420.) The “sketch No. 16” is 
here reproduced in plate 16, a. It shows, in addition to the horses, 
several conical skin-covered lodges, the one on the right being highly 
decorated. 
The valley of the Saskatchewan and southward to the waters of 
the Missouri was a region frequented by many tribes, rich in game, 
and one from which the Hudson’s Bay Company derived quantities 
of furs. The Blackfeet, who, as already mentioned, occupied in recent 
