500 INDIAN TRIBES OF 



hand to them as they passed, as if desiring to be friends with all 

 before he died. He died the same night. 



The two next days it rained almost constantly, but they found the 

 road much less diflScult to travel than before, and the streams were 

 fordable, which enabled them to make more rapid progress. 



On the 13th, they passed the Smalocho, and on the 15th reached 

 Nisqually, all well ; having performed a journey of about one thou- 

 sand miles without any material accident, except those that have 

 been related as having occurred to the instruments. They traversed 

 a route which white men had never before taken, thus enabling us to 

 become acquainted with a portion of the country about which all had 

 before been conjecture. They had also made a large addition to our 

 collection of plants. 



Besides the iuformation obtained by the party, several old trappers 

 were met with, who communicated many interesting particulars in 

 relation to the eastern tribes of Oregon. These do not come within 

 the direct object of my narrative, but they possess a sufficient degree 

 of interest, and have reference to regions so little known, that I do 

 not hesitate to give them a place, particularly as the facts are con- 

 sistent with each other, and so well borne out by information collated 

 from other quarters. 



The principal tribe of Indians inhabiting the Rocky Mountains, 

 are the Blackfeet. They are properly a collection of five tribes, that 

 have become one nation, rather from the force of circumstances than 

 by any premeditated plan, or natural bond of union. These five 

 tribes are, the Gros Ventres of the prairie, who, however, are not to 

 be confounded with the Gros Ventres of the Missouri, who speak 

 the Crow language; the Pilgans, or Pikani; the Blood Indians; the 

 Surcees ; and the Blackfeet proper. The Pilgans, Blackfeet, and 

 Blood Indians, speak the same language ; while the Surcees and the 

 Gros Ventres have one of their own. Their union took place within 

 the memory of the oldest living members of the tribe. 



The Gros Ventres are the most numerous, the Blood Indians next, 

 then the Pilgans, and last the Blackfeet, who, however, in the year 

 1840, numbered nearly six hundred and fifty lodges. The whole 

 number of the five tribes is supposed to be no less than twenty 

 thousand ; but this is doubtless much exaggerated. These tribes are 

 constantly at war with their Indian neighbours, as well as with the 

 whites ; and although an impression has been entertained that the 



