218 NARRATIVE OF 1855. 
EXPLORATIONS AND INCIDENTS IN CONNEXION WITH THE BLACKFOOT COUNCIL. 
My party were camped on the Teton, where Mr. Sohon was busily occupied in working at the 
sketches of the route, and where he took regular barometrical observations through the day; 
and on the 11th of August, having received three days previously a letter from Colonel Cum- 
ming, who was at the Porcupine river, informing me that he should move along as rapidly as 
possible, I concluded to go on to Milk river to meet him, more especially as I was anxious to 
avail myself of the opportunity of reviewing this portion of my route again. So, accompanied 
by Mr. Doty, Mr. Sohon, and a small party, we reached Milk river on the 13th of August, 
camped the first night at the springs, and the second night at the Box Elder creek, eighteen 
miles from Hammell’s Houses on Milk river. It is probable that this portion of the country 
has been sufficiently described, and the results of this little trip will appear simply in the 
details which I shall furnish of the railroad line along this portion of the route. It would 
encumber this narrative to go outside of the subject which I propose to present, but I will 
observe that the use of our numerous expresses, indispensable to keeping in hand and bringing 
together the Indians, enabled us considerably to extend our knowledge of the country. Without 
referring particularly to dates, we obtained valuable information from Mr. Doty, from Sub-Agent 
Tappan, Special Agent Adams, Mr. Burr, and especially Dr. R. H. Lansdale, Indian agent, as 
well as from A. H. Robie, who had charge of our hunting parties, making at one time a trip to the 
Judith for buffalo meat, at another time nearly to the Three Buttes, and making several trips 
down the Missouri either to the boats to get provisions at the mouth of the Muscle Shell, or to 
the Citadel rock to kill bighorn. | 
MR. DOTY’S TRIP TO THE SASKATCHAWAN, AND RECOVERY OF THE FOUR FLATHEAD HORSES. 
A most remarkable incident occurred at Fort Benton, which I will give, because it ` 
illustrates somewhat how voyaging may be done in this country. In the arrangements 
which I made in the Bitter Root valley with the Indians to attend the contemplated council 
on the Missouri, I was met by the objection that there being no escort to protect them, 
their old enemies, the Blackfeet, would steal all their horses. 1 reminded them of the 
message which I had brought them from the Blackfeet in 1853, and assured them of my belief 
that they would be received in good faith, and treated with kindness and hospitality by the 
Blackfeet, using this expression, “I will guarantee that when you pull in your lariat in the 
morning you will find a horse at the end of it." On the 29th of August, about sundown, four 
Pend а Oreille boys came to my camp, which a few days before had been removed from the 
Teton to the Missouri, a quarter of a mile above Fort Benton, with a message from their chief, 
Alexander. Very much against their own judgment they placed their horses, by my direction, 
with those of my own band; but before midnight two Blackfeet boys, of the northern tribe, 
picked them out from a hundred horses and ran off with them, we could not discover where; 
for although I put the Little Dog to search for their trail, thirty hours’ work and a hundred 
and odd miles hard riding did not enable him to find a single foot mark of the missing animals. 
To get these animals back, therefore, was necessary to inspire our western Indians with 
confidence, and was, indeed, indispensable to making the treaty. Accordingly, without 
waiting the return of the Little Dog, we sent Mr. Doty, with a single white man, north to the 
camp of the Blackfeet, on the Saskatchawan, to recover these animals. We thought the 
Blackfeet would expect us to search for them among their bands down and south of the 
Missouri, and that they felt perfectly secure from being followed up so far north. Mr. Doty 
