150 
INDIANS ON THE ROUTE. 
and do all the duties incident to a farm. They are, some of them, expert wood-cutters; and I 
saw at work, getting in the harvest, some thirty or forty Indians. They are thinking of cutting 
out a good trail to the St. Mary’s valley, over the Coeur d’Alene mountains, on the route passed 
over by me. They need agricultural implements and seeds. 
The country, generally, on both sides of the Cceur d’Alene river and lake, is rolling and 
beautiful. It is interspersed with many small prairies, all affording excellent grazing, and most 
of them adapted to crops. The rolling country could be easily cleared, and would yield excel¬ 
lent wheat and vegetables. I have no question that all the country from the falls of the Coeur 
d’Alene to the lower end of the Pend d'Oreille lake, and from the mission for some distance 
above the lake, a region of three or four thousand square miles, is adapted to grazing and culture. 
A small portion will be overflowed b} r the melting of the mountain snows, and another portion 
will be occupied by mountain spurs or isolated peaks, capable simply of furnishing timber and fuel. 
The fathers state that a better site for the mission is furnished by a river flowing from the 
southeast into the western end of the Coeur d’Alene lake, and called by them the St. Joseph’s 
river. It is said to be larger than the Coeur d’Alene river, to have many prairies along its banks, 
and that the country generally abounds in wood, grass, and water. 
The Peluse number 100 lodges and about 500 people, and are in three bands: One at the 
mouth of the Peluse river, of forty lodges, under Que-lap-tip, head chief, and Stow-yalt-se, 
second chief; the second band, of twelve lodges, under So-ie, on the north bank of Snake river, 
thirty miles below the mouth of the Peluse; and the third band at the mouth of Snake river, of 
fifty lodges, under Til-ka-icks. 
The Flatheads number about sixty lodges, but many of them are only inhabited by old women 
and their daughters. The tribe has been almost exterminated by the Blackfeet, and the mass 
of the nation consist of Pend d’Oreilles, Spokanes, Nez Perces, and Iroquois. I estimated their 
number at 350. Their country is admirably adapted to grazing; they own many cattle, which 
they corral at night; have at their village sixteen log-houses, and many have small patches of 
wheat and vegetables. Much greater advances would have been made by them in agriculture, 
had it not been for their entire insecurity from the incursions of the Blagkfeet, and for the great 
diminution of their able-bodied men. Even Victor, during the last season, cached the remnant 
of his tribe, and a fine band of horses reserved for the winter hunt, while the bulk of his tribe 
were on the Missouri plains. At a council held at Fort Owen the Flatheads pointed out to me 
six or seven orphan boys whose Others had been, within two or three years, killed by the Black- 
feet. 
In a general meeting of the tribe, held by Lieutenant Mullan, they expressed a strong desire 
that an agent should live among them, that they should be furnished with agricultural tools, and 
that they should be protected against the Blackfeet. 
The necessity of an agent is very apparent. The agency should be established near Hell Gate. 
The St. Mary’s valley is not simply the home of the Flatheads; it is the thoroughfare of all 
the Indians of Washington who hunt the buffalo on the Missouri plains. 
Lieutenant Mullan’s reports of November 18, 1853, December 14, 1853, and January 25, 
1854, are referred to for more full information. The report of Dr. Suckley will also be found to 
contain much valuable information in regard to these interesting Indians. 
The Nez Perces were met on the plains between the Muscle Shell and Yellowstone by Lieu¬ 
tenant Mullan, by myself-at the St. Mary’s village, by m} 7 self on the Coeur d’Alene trail, and 
by Lieutenant Donelson on that by Clark’s fork, in October, on their way to the plains of the 
Missouri, by Mr. Tinkham on his return from Fort Benton in November, and again by him in 
their own country on the Kooskooskia river in December. They are on excellent terms with 
the Flatheads, Coeur d’Alenes, Spokanes, Pend d’Oreilles, and the other Indians of the Territory; 
travel and hunt together, and are more or less intermarried with them. They undoubtedly live in 
a rich and inviting country. 
