448 
INDIAN TRIBES OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 
water found in pools was strongly impregnated with saltpetre, and unfit for use. After spending 
some time in digging for fresh water for our famishing mules, we discovered a good spring on the 
east side of the ravine, near the fort. During our halt the voyageurs killed several wild pigeons. 
Continue our march twelve miles, and encamp on a small tributary of Milk river. The soil 
gravelly and sterile, affording scanty pasturage for our animals. 
Scjitember 14.—The first rays of the sun found us in the saddle, prepared for a long march. 
But one day more remained for me to find the Piegan camp. The night had been clear and 
cold, silvering the scanty herbage with a light frost; and while packing up, the men would 
stop to warm their fingers over a feeble fire of buffalo-chips and skulls. After a short march 
of twelve miles, we reached the divide between Milk and Bow rivers. 
From this divide I had a view of the Bull’s Head, forming the base of Cypress mountain, bear¬ 
ing north 65° west, around the southeastern base of which I could trace a large valley, making a 
bend to the northeast, carrying its water into Bow river. 
From this point I discovered, with my glass, a band of horses, five miles to the westward, 
which directed me to the Indians 1 was in pursuit of. 
At 1 o’clock I descended to a deep valley, in which flows an affluent of Beaver river. Here 
was the Piegan camp, of ninety lodges, under their chief Low Horn, one hundred and sixty-three 
miles north, 20° west, of Fort Benton. 
Little Dog conducted me, with my party, to his lodge, and immediately the chiefs and braves 
collected in the “Council Lodge,” to receive my message. The arrival of a “ pale face” was an 
unlooked for event, and hundreds followed me to the council, consisting of sixty of their principal 
men. 
The usual ceremony of smoking being concluded, I delivered my “talk,” which was re¬ 
sponded to by their chief saying, “ the whole camp would move at an early hour the following 
morning to council with the chief sent by their Great Father.” 
The day was spent in feasting with the several chiefs, all seeming anxious to extend their 
hospitality; and while feasting with one chief, another had his messenger at the door of the lodge 
to conduct me to another. They live chiefly upon the buffalo-meat, preferring it to smaller 
game. Subsequently, while riding with an old man, he pointed to the numerous herds of buffalo 
feeding in the distance, and said, “ I am an old man, and there you see what I have been living 
upon all my life; I have never enjoyed the good things of the whites.” One of their favorite 
dishes is composed of boiled buffalo-blood and dried berries, and is served as a dessert after 
the more solid food. I being a guest whom they wished to honor, had this Indian delicacy served 
in profuse quantities. 
September 15.—At an early hour a town crier announced the intention of the chief to move 
camp. The horses were immediately brought in and secured around their respective lodges, and 
in less than one hour the whole encampment was drawn out in two parallel lines on the plains, 
forming one of the most picturesque scenes I have ever witnessed. 
Preparation for their transportation is made in the following manner: 
The poles of the lodges, which are from twenty to thirty-five feet in length, are divided, the 
small ends being lashed together and secured to the shoulders of the horse, allowing the butt- 
ends to drag upon the ground on either side; just behind the horse are secured two cross-pieces, 
to keep the poles in their respective places, and upon which are placed the lodge and domestic 
furniture. This also serves for the safe transportation of the children and infirm unable to ride 
on horseback—the lodge being folded so as to allow two or more to ride securely. The horses 
dragging this burden—often of three hundred pounds—are also ridden by the squaws, with a 
child astride behind, and one in her arms, embracing a favorite young pup. 
Their dogs (of which they have a large number) are also used in transporting their effects 
in the same manner as the horses, making, with ease, twenty miles a day, dragging forty pounds. 
In this way this heterogeneous caravan, comprised of a thousand souls, with twice that number 
