158 ASSINNIBOIKE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



The Bloods and Blackfeet occupy the country between 

 Milk and Marias Eivers, to the 50 th parallel of latitude. 



The Piegans occupy the country between the Milk 

 and Marias Eivers, and between the Teton and the 

 Missouri. 



The Gros Ventres occupy the country bordering upon 

 Milk Eiver from its mouth to the territory of the Piegans. 

 The Bloods, Piegans, and Blackfeet speak the same lan- 

 guage, the Gros Ventres the Arapahoe language ; they 

 were adopted by the Blackfeet about thirty years since, 

 having seceded from their own nation. On the Upper 

 Missouri, near the great bend, the Gros Ventres have a 

 large village of mud houses. Some of the lodges are 

 capable of supporting 100 persons ; one part is appropri- 

 ated to their horses, dogs, cattle, and chickens, another to 

 their sleeping apartments ; the lodges are built entirely 

 by women. The Gros Ventres formerly hunted on the 

 Assinniboine. Mr. J. M. Stanley, the artist of Governor 

 Stevens' Exploration, states that the Blackfeet proper are 

 divided into three distinct bands : the Blood band, 400 

 lodges ; the Piegan band, 430 lodges ; and the Blackfeet 

 band, 500 lodges, averaging ten to a lodge, and amount- 

 ing in all to 13,300 souls. The Piegans and Bloods hunt, 

 trade, and winter on American soil, while the Blackfeet 

 extend their hunt as far north as the Saskatchewan, and 

 trade as frequently with the British as with the American 

 Posts.* 



The following census of the Indian tribes of the United 

 States, inhabiting the states and territories adjoining the 

 49th parallel, is abstracted from the statistics of the tribes 

 as reported to the Bureau of Indian Affairs f : — 



* Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad to the Pacific, p. 449. 

 t See the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian tribes of the 

 United States, by H. R. Schoolcraft, LL.D. 



