84 BOOK OF A HUNDRED BEARS 



spoil he met, at the mouth of the Platte, one, Manuel 

 Lisa, who had started to establish a fort and 

 trading post somewhere on the headwaters of the 

 Missouri. 



Two things happened that influenced widely 

 the American conquest of this region. Captain 

 Lewis had been compelled to kill a thieving 

 Blackfeet and Coulter, as a messenger of Lisa to 

 the Crows, was involved on their behalf in a 

 battle with the Blackfeet. From that on, the 

 Blackfeet, a tribe of the Algonquin nation, were 

 implacably hostile to the whites, and did much to 

 hold back the exploration and development of 

 the country; while the Crows, on the other hand, 

 were almost uniformly friendly. 



Coulter, returning from his expedition to the 

 Crows, descended by the pass through the three 

 Tetons and crossed the Yellowstone Park some- 

 where near the Lower Basin. A tar spring is still 

 known as Coulter's Hell, from his description. He 

 saw a few of the geysers and is, undoubtedly, the 

 first white man who ever had a glimpse of any of 

 these wonders. 



