LETTER OF SECRETARY OF WAR. 
449 
of horses and at least three hundred dogs, fell into line and trotted quietly until night, while the 
chiefs and braves rode in front, flank, or rear, ever ready for the chase or defence against a foe. 
The Blackfeet proper are divided into three distinct bands, as follows: The Blood band, 
400 lodges; the Piegan band, 430 lodges; and the Blackfeet band, 500 lodges—averaging ten 
to a lodge—amounting to 13,300 souls. 
The Piegan band are subdivided and governed by a head chief, as follows: Lame Bull’s band, 
100 lodges; Low Horn’s band, 100; Little Rogue’s, 30; North Wind’s, 100; and Big Snake’s 
band, 100. 
The Piegan and Blood bands hunt, trade, and winter on American soil, while the Blackfeet 
extend their hunts as far north as the Saskatchawan river, and trade as frequently with the British 
as with the American posts. 
Like other tribes in this region, the Piegans retain all their primitive customs, adhering with 
faithful pertinacity to the ceremonies of their forefathers. They are well clad in dressed skins, 
decorated with the scalps of their enemies. They are well-formed, little above the medium 
stature, brave, intelligent, and adventurous, roaming vast distances over mountains and plains, 
carrying war into their enemy’s country. During my sojourn among them I was treated with 
the greatest kindness and hospitality, my property guarded with vigilance, so that I did not lose 
the most trifling article. 
Retracing my trail, I reached Milk river the second day from their encampment on Bow river. 
Our mules and horses being much jaded, and having had but little grass for five days, the chief 
recommended we should halt for a day to recruit them. Here the main encampment remained to 
hunt; thirty of the chiefs with their families accompanying me to Fort Benton, where I arrived 
on the 20th of September, having been absent eleven days, during which time I made a number 
of sketches illustrative of their habits; also a partial vocabulary, which is herewith submitted. 
I have the honor to be, respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. M. STANLEY, 
Artist of the Exploration. 
I. I. Stevens, 
Governor of Washington Territory, 
in Charge of Northern Pacific Railroad Survey. 
The following papers, not enumerated in Chapter XVIII, have been received since the date of Governor 
Stevens's report. 
LETTER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR TO GOVERNOR I. I. STEVENS. 
War Department, 
Washington, July 25, 1854. 
Sir : You will, with as little delay as possible, furnish this department with a report of your 
operations, embracing— 
1st. A map exhibiting the actual line or lines surveyed by yourself, and your assistants, in your 
late exploration to ascertain the most practicable route for a railway to the Pacific ; and also a 
table, showing the astronomical points determined for checking the lineal surveys, and the data 
upon which these determinations are founded. 
2d. A profile of the route traversed, making each station where a height was ascertained, and 
a table of the results of the observations made, with the barometer or other instrument, by which 
the relative heights of different points were determined. 
3d. A condensed statement of the character of the soil, the timber, the supply of water, and, 
as tar as ascertained, the depth of snow in winter for every section of the line traversed. 
57/ 
