INDIAN TRIBES OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 
437 
40. Report of lieut. john mullan, u. s. a., on the Indian tribes in the eastern portion 
OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 
Camp Stevens, Bitter Root Valley, 
Washington Territory, November 18, 1853. 
Sir : I have the honor to state that your instructions with reference to the council of Indians 
to be held at Fort Benton during the coming season have been duly carried out, and information 
has been given to all Indians visiting this place concerning the same. The objects and results 
to be obtained have been fully set before them and explained in detail, and now especially do the 
Flalheads await particularly for the expected change that will be wrought, through the agency 
of the government, in their relations with the Blackfeet Indians. 
The Flatheads, as a nation, have more reason to complain of a want of attention and care, on 
the part of the government, than any other tribe of Indians, probably, in North America. 
Their numbers have been so greatly diminished during the last few years, by being murdered 
by the Blackfeet, that at present there remains but a handful of the noblest of the Indian tribes 
of North America to tell the tale of woe, misery, and misfortune, that they have suffered at the 
hands of the Blackfeet, these hell-hounds of the mountains. 
For years now has their country been the theatre where have been committed murders the 
most brutal, and robberies the most bold and daring, until there is not left a spot but that is 
pointed out to the traveller where some innocent and unsuspecting Flathead was put to the knife 
in cold blood, or where were shot down scores of friendly Indians, by these devils of the mount¬ 
ains. So long has this state of things existed, the word “ Blackfoot” has become the by-word of 
terror and-fear among all the tribes of Indians west of the Rocky mountains ; and now it is that 
the young Flathead child is taught, as soon as it can comprehend the words of its father, to 
watch and guard his nation against the inroads of these devilish fiends. 
Thus are the seeds of enmity and hate thus early sown; and when the child becomes the full- 
grown man, he deems it his duty, a duty he owes not only to his family but to his tribe, to ward 
off the encroachments of these their enemies. Thus it is that deadly feuds have ever existed 
among these Indians, and so will they ever exist until our government shall take such measures 
as shall put an end to the same. 
When you passed through the country of the Blackfoot nation, they promised to live on terms 
of friendship with their neighbors the Flatheads, and now I have to communicate that since that 
time they have kept their promise most faithlessly. News has just reached me, by the Pend 
d’Oreille Indians, that while the chief, Victor, was on his way to the buffalo hunt, east of the 
Missouri, he encamped on a prairie after having crossed the dividing ridge, and while there a 
part of his horses were stolen by a war party of Blackfeet. There were Pend d’Oreilles with 
him also at the time. The Flatheads started in pursuit of the Blackfeet, and succeeded in killing 
one and wounding a second. The dead body of the Blackfoot was seen by Mr. Tinkbam’s party 
on their route from Fort Benton to this place. The Pend d’Oreilles being highly incensed at this 
want of faith on the part of the Blackfeet, they having been told by Victor that they had promised 
you most faithfully to abstain from all further depredations, followed the Blackfeet into Fort 
Benton, and there seeing a band of horses and mules, they chose from this band a number of 
Indian horses. These they thought belonged to the American Fur Company. They reason 
thus : “Here are these whites, the employes of the American Fur Company, who have bought, 
and who do still buy, from the Blackfeet the horses that they steal from us, thus giving encour¬ 
agement to their thieving propensities ; and here are some of our horses; we will take them off - ;” 
and so they did. On arriving at the camp of Victor they narrated what had taken place, when 
the chief Victor told the Pend d’Oreille chief to take the horses back to Fort Benton, and turn 
them over to the chief at the fort; and this they did. The horses were turned over to Mr. Clark 
at Fort Benton. These same Pend d’Oreilles joined Mr. Tinkham on their return, on his fifth 
day out from Fort Benton, and accompanied him to the village of St. Mary’s. 
