In 1808, Finan McDonald, a member of Thompson’s party, built a post at the southern end of the loop in the Kootenay River, in the north-west corner of the present state of Montana, five miles south of the boundary line. This became an important North West fort. McDonald remained until late in 1811, when Montour was placed in charge.
Nicholas Montour was in 1804 a clerk in the employ of the North West Company at Fort de Prairie. From 1811 to 1816 he was active on the Columbia, moving about between Fort Kootenay, Spokane, and Okanagan, with headquarters at Spokane after 1814. See Coues, Henry-Thompson Journals, ii, pp. 606, 672–675, 757.—Ed.
[73]. For a description of the Salishan Indians, see Franchère, note 145.—Ed.
[74]. The Kootenai or Flatbows wandered between the northern forks of the Columbia and the Rocky Mountains. Possibly they were the Tushepaws of Lewis and Clark. They were unrelated to any of the surrounding peoples, and resembled more the Indians east of the Rocky Mountains.—Ed.
[75]. The Blackfeet Indians are treated in Bradbury’s Travels, note 120.—Ed.
[76]. Lake Cœur d’Alêne (Pointed Heart) is at the head of Spokane River, about twenty-five miles south-east of Spokane Falls. It is a small lake fed by the Cœur d’Alêne and St. Joseph rivers, flowing from the Bitter Root Mountains. There are two theories regarding the origin of the name—one, that the Indians living there were so sharp at bargaining that the fur traders named them Cœur d’Alênes, “Awl-Hearts,” or “Pointed Hearts;” the other, that among the first traders was a Canadian of so close and niggardly a disposition that the Indians applied an epithet to him which the interpreter translated “Cœur d’Alêne,” and the name became fixed upon the Indians.—Ed.
[77]. On his map, Ross located McKenzie’s post on the Snake at the mouth of Reed’s River, the present Boisé River. Fort Boisé, a Hudson’s Bay post, was afterwards established there.—Ed.
[78]. A biography of M‘Tavish will be found in Franchère, note 90.—Ed.
[79]. Concerning Seton, see Franchère, note 81.—Ed.
[80]. For notes on the following persons and places mentioned in this chapter, see Bradbury’s Travels, volume v of our series: Hoback, Rezner, and Robinson, note 65; Crow Indians, note 121; Arapaho Indians, note 120; Oto Indians, note 42.—Ed.